TL; DR

I won a contest. Puerto Rico is amazing. Hamilton was mind blowing.  I bowed down to Lin, literally.

The Contest

Let’s take this story back to January 7th.  I was working from home and received an email from Prizeo.com regarding a new contest.  The general gist – donate $10 or more to two charities Lin-Manuel Miranda works closely with in PR and win a chance to be one of FIFTY winners.  The winners would receive round trip airfare, hotel stay, two tickets to closing night of Hamilton, and tickets to the VIP after party.

I’ve spent $10 way worse ways so I figured…why not.

Once I donated, I was given a referral link.  If anyone used it, they would receive 100 extra entries and I would receive 500 extra entries. It also happened to be my 9 year anniversary on twitter…so I wrote a not all that clever or funny tweet and sent it off into the universe assuming that only Chuck would use the link.

When Chuck got home from work, we were sitting upstairs talking about the contest when all of a sudden I heard this…noise…coming from the kitchen. I assumed my phone was broken, but jokingly said as I walked down the stairs “maybe I have a tweet going viral”.

And then there it was.

“Lin-Manuel Miranda has retweeted your tweet.”

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized he had retweeted my REFERRAL LINK which mean everyone who saw that tweet could get 100 more entries if they used my link.  Just as I made this realization, the emails started. “Someone has used your link!  You’ve earned 500 more entries.”

And then we sat in silence, panic, sweat for 4 days until…

Well, I wish that was what had happened.

What really happened is I was sitting at work on a Friday afternoon and just HAPPENED to check my spam email.  And there was an email from Prizeo saying that I was a winner.  I was instantly skeptical.  I mean, the email was in my spam next to another email from “Mr,LarryMike the General Manager of United Bank for Africa Plc”.  S

O there was more silence, panic and sweating.  I then, calmly, called Chuck, told him not to panic, but that I was going to forward him an email and we MAY have won the contest but I wasn’t sure.  He looked and attempted to convince me that it was real.  However, it wasn’t until I spoke to the woman who had emailed me that I was letting it start to sink in.  Then we waited for the official tweet from Lin himself to confirm that it was really really real.

In the next couple of days we received our flight information, then later hotel and finally the details on the main event and two weeks later, we were heading to Puerto Rico!

The Country

One of the (many) reasons the Miranda’s wanted to bring Hamilton to Puerto Rico was to create media attention that the island is in fact “open for business”.

With a little help from friends (Prizeo, Jimmy Fallon, me…) they are definitely getting that message out.  From the food, to the views, the weather, the beaches, and most importantly, the people…this island was a perfect escape from the Polar Vortex in the Northeast!

I wish we would have extended our trip to have more time exploring ALL that Puerto Rico had to offer (I really wanted to see the bioluminescent bay), but having 2-ish days to hang around San Juan was perfect!

Our first day, we landed and checked into our hotel.  We ate a late lunch at Yamburger (YUM) and then decided to start exploring.  Six hours later, we were having a rum drink (emphasis on the RUM) and tapas in Old San Juan at Concha Y Flori. After a bit more wandering, it was back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.

We opted to hang on the beach on Sunday before getting ready for the show.  (More on that later.)  There was a public beach that was relatively empty at 8 AM near our hotel and for $5 you could have a lounge chair to yourself – so we did exactly that.  After reading and tanning, or burning, we decided to stroll through Condado.  There were some extremely beautiful hotels and restaurants, all truly open for business. We popped into the Hilton, just to check it out and ended up hanging by the pool for a snack and a drink! (The most disappointing food experience of our trip…but we should have known, womp womp).  Then it was back to the hotel to nap and prep for the big night!

Fast forward to Monday morning and after a night of emotional rollercoasters and partying we needed some Puerto Rican coffee.  We took a short uber ride to Old San Juan to Cafe Don Ruiz for an INCREDIBLE coffee followed by a wonderful stroll through El Morro.  We did some last minute shopping at a local shop that was full of art from local artists (#shoplocal) and then sat in the Plaza de Armas before heading back to pack and head to the airport.

Like I said, I wish we had more time to explore all this amazing island had to offer…but this gave us just a taste and we will definitely be back!

Hamilton

THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR.  THE PRIDE OF MOUNT….okay okay, I’m getting carried away.

I preface this by saying Chuck and I had been extremely fortunate to
a) agree on a mutual wedding/1st anniversary gift
b) agree that it should be Hamilton tickets
c) get Hamilton tickets.
So in October of 2017 we headed to NYC and had our minds blown by the wonder that is Hamilton : An American Musical.  Little did we know that it would be NOTHING in comparison to our experience in PR.

After prepping, debating which Rent the Runway dress to wear (they were both perfect, of course, but the blue dress won over the red dress due to some unexpected sunburn) and a small nap, we headed to the elevator.  There waiting were two people, clearly going to Hamilton!  We found out they were all the way from FINLAND and had also won the contest.

We split an Uber and arrived at Centro De Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré.  Upon arriving we found our contact who escorted us inside to the Prizeo team who handed us our tickets and our bracelets for the VIP afterparty!  Like clockwork, the doors opened to the theatre and we were among the first people in.  We were able to get some TeeRico merchandise and chatted with the bartenders before ordering champagne and finding our seats.

It seems the prize winners were split either in the orchestra or the mezzanine.  We were exact dead center of the mezzanine, in seat 26, which of course THRILLED me.  And then we waited.  We chatted with so many other lovely winners (seriously, this contest only had nice people win!) and then heard a dull roar.  Lin’s parents and wife were making their way into the center of the orchestra (in what I can only imagine are truly the best  seats in the house) and I even caught a wave and, I assume, am now on Lin’s moms home video of the evening.  A few minutes later and there was a bit of a larger roar, followed by a standing ovation, as the Clinton’s had entered the building, surrounded by secret service.

(Here’s Bill pointing at us)

Not long after The Clinton’s took their seats, the lights went out and the show began.

1 minute and 20 seconds later, Lin-Manuel Miranda stepped on stage with his opening line “Alexander Hamilton” and the crowd ERUPTED into a two minute standing ovation.  I GET CHILLS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.  And from there…it was go time.

This cast was electric.  The show was unstoppable. The energy of closing night, with Lin at the helm, made for some of the best on stage performances I have ever seen.  IT WAS AN EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER AND I’M STILL NOT OKAY.
Anyway, if you have a chance to see the #andpeggy tour of Hamilton, DO IT.  They are headed to San Fran now and are worth the trip. Go, go, go, go, go.

There’s so many things to say about the show, but the most poignant would be watching Lin sing “Hurricane” to a crowd of people either in attendance to support the rebuilding and revitalization of the island, or people who lived through the tearing apart of their home.  Here are the opening lines of the song…

And then it was over.

The After Party

We had been directed to head to the front of the stage at the end of the show.  SO, we fought upstream to get there and made our way into the third row.  I jokingly said “I hope they take a picture with the set in the background and we’ll be right in the front” and then they told us all to turn around so they could take the photo.  They introduced a few of the amazing people doing great work for both of the organizations that benefitted from the contest and then surprised us by saying Lin’s dad would be joining the picture!  Awesome!

AND THEN THAT LIN WOULD BE JOINING THE PICTURE.  I knew that this meant he would a) walk right past me and b) BE STANDING IN FRONT OF ME so I just remained very calm.  I’m sure someone has a photo of my head (hope my hair looks good) interacting with him, but I was very in the moment and just enjoyed hearing him thank us for coming and … other things but I blacked out.  Then I bowed to him and said thanks, Chuck gave him a high five, he said “Best Prom Ever” and then this photo!

(Can you spot me?  Can you see the exact location in which I BOWED TO LIN AS A NATURAL REACTION? Can you see how calm I am?)

Then it was off to the party! Making a left through the lobby, through a parking garage, past the secret service (bye Clintons!) we made it to Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.  After waiting a bit for security, waving a second time to Lin, spotting many members of the cast, we were finally in and welcomed with a passion fruit mimosa, no less!

And what happens at the party, stays at the party…for the most part.

We met the kindest couple ever from Puerto Rico, spent some time with our Finnish friends, as well as our amazing host from Prizeo, cast members and other Prizeo winners!  We ate, drank, danced (not as good as Lin’s dad, however) and were quite merry.  And the rest is better told in person 😉