The Surprise...OMG

For weeks now, my husband has been telling me to save the weekend at the end of Spring Break for something.  He refused any and all details, except for the fact that we would be going sans kids.  Since it was only a few days, I was fairly certain we were heading to KC.

And I was right.  Friday afternoon, we had lunch with the kids and headed out.  We stopped at:

We are so cheap - even with money to spend (Rick saved all his birthday money) we left empty-handed.  Well, actually, I spent $13 on two shirts at LOFT, so I guess we weren't completely empty-handed.

Then we headed to the Intercontinental Hotel in KC.  You had to use your key card to get the elevator to go up to our floor where we had access to an exclusive "lounge" complete with all the food and drinks we wanted and a great view of the plaza.  And, a HUGE TV perfect for watching basketball!

I really thought this was the extent of the surprise - a nice, fancy hotel, just the two of us...but no.  It turns out, there was more.

Saturday evening Rick said we needed to eat early.  On the advice of the concierge and a conversation we overheard in the lounge, we chose:

I had never heard of this restaurant, but the description said "southern food," so Rick was sold already.  It was a nice little place with a casual atmosphere.  When got the menus, Rick was like, "I want to eat everything on this menu."  We ordered Asian Pig Wings:

I ate two bites of one.  He ate the rest.  Enough for a meal.

He ordered Mac & Cheese with burnt ends.  I ordered Chicken & Waffles, mainly because I was curious.  I wish I had gotten pics.  I ate a plain waffle and called it good.  Rick ate one of my enormous pieces of chicken wings and all of his burnt end mac & cheese.  When they brought the check, they brought it out in a book, and inside the book where the check was, people had written comments about their meals.  Here is what my husband wrote:

I told him I hoped he still felt that way in a few hours.

From there, we took a cab we walked back to the hotel because Rick forgot his wallet.  Then we took a cab to the Midland Theater where THEY WERE HOSTING THE SING OFF: LIVE!

O.
M.
G.

I didn't even know this was a thing.  I knew I loved the show, but I never imagined there would be a touring show.  I was so. stinking. excited.

Us outside the theater, before the show

I'm going to try to outline the show without getting too nerdy.  There were four groups: The Cat's Pajamas, the Filharmonic, Voice Play and Home Free.  They were all awesome.  My personal favorite was Voice Play, which was the only group with a chick (and a chick with pipes, y'all).  The show opened with everyone onstage singing together, and then they took turns on stage.  I think my least favorite group was the one everyone seemed to be most excited about, and that was Home Free.  Not being a fan of country music myself, it follows that I wasn't a huge fan of their country style.  But they were entertaining, and obviously ridiculously talented.

But the best part of the show, hands down, was the encore.  They came back out, all of them, without mics.  That was a first for the show, but if you really want to get technical, THAT is true a capella - nothing but naked voices.

And they sang "Hallelujah."

Which happens to be one of my most favorite goose-bump songs.

I tried in vain to find a Youtube version worthy of mentioning in the same breath.  It doesn't exist.  So I will try to describe it with words: first, the audience had to shut up to hear.  Instead of whoo-hooing at every stinking solo (SO irritating), they kept quiet in order to hear what was happening on stage.  And oh, what was happening on stage.  They started singing, and it was like musical butter.  Ice cream.  Red velvet cake.  It was so smooth and rich you just wanted to drop right inside of it.  I wanted it to last forever.  For. Ev. Ver.  Goose bumps, tears, the works.

Props, props, props to my husband, who knows me better than I know myself.  I never would have imagined this, but it was so fun and so, so perfect.  And it was clear that he put so much thought and careful planning into this trip.  What a gift.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine's Day/Turning 30/Our 10 Year Anniversary.