Saturday was Mer’s day, and she started us out by heading north to the Holden Arboretum. We are members there, so we get in free, and Mer wanted to see if we could make a good attempt at walking all the trails there before our membership runs out in October.

It was a sunny and slightly hot day, but pretty in the shade. Happily, most of the trails were in the shade. We got a trail map, and Mer took us on the 1.5-mile-long Bole Woods Trail. The woods trail was pretty, but I was surprised at how quickly the trail looped back on itself. I guess I am used to the longer trails in the park system around our house. We followed that walk by about two miles through the fenced-in Rhododendron Garden (it is fenced to keep deer out). The rhododendrons were mostly past bloom, but it is a serene and beautiful garden to walk in, with small ponds and lots of bushes and trees. We spent quite a lot of time wandering the maze of trails in the garden.

We headed back to the parking lot using a circuitous route of trails, stopping off at an observation tower meant for kids. It overlooked a marshy area that was fairly dry, as we have had little rain of late. We had the tower and environs to ourselves, and although not jaw-dropping scenery, it was pleasant. We finished off our trail walk and got back to the car, where we headed southwest, where we eventually stopped off at a Panera for supper. Panera is not the most romantic of places, but we had a gift card, and the food is very good.

The ultimate destination of the evening, though, was Chagrin Falls. Chagrin Falls is a very cute town with a walking path, a river, a dramatic set of falls, cute shops and good restaurants, and a small but very good community theater. We found a parking spot in a lot on the far side of the falls, which forced us to walk past them. As such, we discovered that there were stairs down to the foot of the falls, which we checked out. I was mad that I had forgotten my camera; it was quite lovely in the evening light.

We wandered over to the theater, where Mer picked up tickets to the sold-out evening’s performance of the musical Hairspray. We still had time before we had to be in our seats, so we used it to wander along the river above the falls along a beautiful walking path. We swung through a couple of blocks of the town on the way back to the theater, just to check out the town. Since the two main ice cream places are right around the falls, the area was pretty busy.

We got back to the theater in time and found our seats. Mer had found out about the show through one of her students. The student, Abby, had a part in the chorus. Normally, the chorus seems like a minor role, but they were on stage a lot of the time. Hairspray has lots of big song-and-dance numbers, so there were lots of times where ten or more people were on stage at the same time.

Briefly, Hairspray is a musical that takes place in Baltimore in the early 1960s and is about a chunky girl with big hair who loves the pop music of the day. She follows her music and her dreams and lands a spot on a whites-only TV music show, and she shows off dance moves she learned from black friends. The musical manages to stay fluffy and tongue-in-cheek while having a plot line of integrating the TV program. There is a lot of humor and the music is catchy.

The Chagrin Valley Little Theater did a marvelous job with the show. They had a ten-piece (or so) orchestra on the stage at the back of the stage, and they really did have a huge cast. All of the main players were excellent, and there were only one or two bit roles where the acting seemed a bit forced at times. The music was top-notch. I was really impressed that a small community theater could put on such a large musical. The only issue they had was with the sound system – the microphone on the lead was acting up and buzzing at times. Happily, it only happened a few times, so it did not take away from the overall show.

Mer and I had been to the Chagrin Valley Little Theater last winter, and it was nice to come back when it was not snowing and when we could wander around the town some. I’m looking forward to going back this upcoming season.