Erin's dancing day in Chicago

Hello Everyone,

Today was Erin’s solo dancing day.  For those of you that have read my blog before, you know that dancing days, can be totally crazy days.  This day was pretty good. 

It started early, with all of us getting Erin ready for her big day.  Between hair, make-up and warm-up, we usually start all of this around six in the morning.  Erin’s first round, which was her hard shoe round, started at 8:00 a.m.; her second round, her soft shoe round, went off around 10:30 a.m.  After that, we wait for the recalls to be called.  That’s when the judges call back half of the competition to dance another solo hard shoe dance.  Erin got the recall and danced again around 1:00 p.m. 

When the dancing was done, we decided to fit in a little bit of sightseeing.  We went to Grant Park.  It is a beautiful park in the middle of Chicago and it has a fabulous water fountain.  Every hour on the hour, there is a water show.  From there we walked to Millennium Park.  We saw beautiful sculptures of art.  I loved the ‘Bean’ That’s the nickname for the ‘Cloud Gate’.  It is a wonderful mirrored sculpture in the shape of a gigantic bean. 

For dinner, we went to RPM Chicago.  It is a fabulous restaurant owner by Giuliana and Bill Rancic.  It was delicious. 

We ended our night at the awards ceremony.  Erin danced very well today and got 5^th place at the 2012 Irish Dance Nationals.  She is ranked fifth in the country in her age category.  We are over the moon thrilled and so is she. 

We will get ready for the rest of the week.  Teams on Thursday and Shannon’s solo on Saturday.

Sharon