Day 225

Today was Day 1 of our vacation.  We drove down to my mom’s house a few hours south of us and spent the day hanging out with her as well as my brother and 2 of his kids.  Then GothGirl, my mom, and I left in the early evening for our girls night out.  Our plans: dinner & then the Taylor Swift concert in St. Louis.  We’ve been waiting since February (when we bought our tickets) to see this concert and I think I was even more excited then GothGirl for the day to get here. 

Note: all photos were taken with my iPhone, which turned out to perform pretty crummy in the dim light of the arena and the giant spotlights on Taylor (which were totally blown out on my photos).  I didn’t want to take my Canon though because I figured I would likely get turned away due to the changeable lenses (it would be deemed “professional”) and have to lug it back to the car.  Actually I didn’t think they would allow even point and shoot cameras, but I saw a few inside.  Most people were using their phones though. 

We opted to eat in my mom’s town as downtown St. Louis can be crowded, especially since the Cardinal’s were in town today as well as Taylor.  We went to one of my favorite restaurants…Olga’s Kitchen.  They have delicious Ogla sandwiches (sort of a sweet soft pita wrap), salads, soups, curly fries, and cheese/crackers. 

After dinner, we made the drive to St. Louis.  Here we are sitting in traffic downtown.

In the parking garage.  This was one of only 20 semi trailers that we saw that were part of Taylor’s entourage.  There were quite a few tour buses as well.  I was amazed at how many of these vehicles it takes to transport her people & equipment from city to city. 

At our seats (near the top of the Scottrade Center).  You can see the stage (red curtains) on the left side of the photo. 

The other end of the arena  before the show started.  All of the seat would eventually fill by the time Taylor took the stage.  Taylor announced later in the show that there were 14,000 people at the concert and this was Day 2 of her tour in St. Louis.

A grainy group shot….

The show opened at 7:00pm with new talent, Hunter Hayes.  He was really talented, especially for his age.  Hunter played 4 songs and then it was time for the opening act, Needtobreathe.  This group has had several popular songs on the radio and I was looking forward to hearing them play; but sadly, the quality of their sound tonight was pretty crummy (pitchy, loud, crackly).  Hunter sounded better than they did.  It was pretty unfortunate.  Then they didn’t play my favorite song of theirs….The Outsiders.  Really?!!!  I was pretty disappointed in their show and glad that they weren’t the main act.

Following a short stage change, Taylor took the stage at 8:30pm.  All I can say is “WOW”!!  She is an extremely incredible performer!!!  The concert was wonderful and included some amazing costumes, sets, and dancers.  Plus, Taylor’s beautiful songs of course.  And the great thing is that she sounds exactly like she does on the radio.  I’ve been to other concerts where the artists don’t sound anything like how they sound on the radio and I don’t enjoy the music.  But Taylor’s voice was simply beautiful and amazing.  I would go back to see her in a heartbeat!  Here are some random photos from the first half of her show.

About this time, she walked to the back of the arena and sat under a large, fake tree.  The tree was lit with many lights and was built on a circular platform that slowly rotated in circles.  Taylor sang several songs as she was sittings under the tree.  The color of the tree changed with each song. 

Back on the main stage, Taylor performed the second half of her show. 

While performing Love Story, Taylor got into a balcony which was suspended on wires all around the stadium.  She was whisked up and over the audience as she sang.  Despite the fact that she was closer to us, my camera still wouldn’t take a good photo.

Taylor came back for a few encore songs and then it was over.  What a let-down.  Since there were so many people at the concert, we decided to wait near our seats for the arena to clear a bit.  Amazingly, we ran into my friend Kelly and her two girls.  Crazy that we would run into them as such a large venue.  I made them pose for a photo with GothGirl (in her new concert tee). 

We finally made our way out to the parking garage but had to wait about a half hour before we could get out due to the congestion.  We then made our way back to our mom’s house, arriving at around 12:30am.  I was glad that we were on vacation and not having to get up for work on Monday like my mom had to.  What a memorable evening….so glad I got to spend it with my two favorite girls!!