All the Shows: Flynn Creek Circus & The Sound of Music

We had a busy pickleball weekend but also caught some local shows!

Humboldt Light Opera Company put on The Sound of Music, and we attended on Friday night. The live orchestra, singing, and kids (Jeteo and Reiko, two kids from the kids' classes at school) were Kurt and Gretl von Trapp, respectively, were wonderful. 

In a historic first, Kelvin (and one child) pooped out at intermission, but I sat, rapt and enjoyed the rest of the show, which was truly a delight, and got picked up afterwards.

On Saturday, we watched another Flynn Creek Circus show, which we've enjoyed in past years. 

VIP table

Juggling

Suspended acrobatics 

Ring twirling

Aerial silks

We love supporting the local arts and theater!

Let it Go! (Frozen 2026)

 

On Saturday night, we went to Arkley to see Main Stage's production of Frozen, featuring some professional actors and some local ones, including kids.  

Our friend Tito and his daughter Clara who is very into musical theater, were both featured in the play.

The Count of Weselton

... and as Pabbie

The lead actors' voices were amazing, and the costumes (including puppet Olaf and Sven the reindeer) were awesome. We, familiar with the story, characters, and musical numbers, thoroughly enjoyed the show.  None of our kids is particularly interested in theater performance, but we appreciate the arts-- from our balcony seats :) 

Las Aventuras del Biblioburro (Readers' Theater 2026)

On Thursday, FN had its year-end school bilingual (but mostly in Spanish) production (Readers' Theater) or school play. In past years (post-COVID), they put on: Alicia en el país del las maravillas (Alice in Wonderland) in 2022, James y el Melocotón Gigante (James and the Giant Peach) in 2023, El Niño del Mago, (The Magician's Boy) in 2024, and El Mago de Oz (Wizard of Oz) in 2025.

The first time I've seen him rock jeans (for the costume)

The production stars the fifth graders, while fourth graders are (English) narrators, and other classes (KG through third grade) perform musical numbers. This year's production was quite special because it featured our soon-to-be-graduated fifth grader, and was written as an original script by the school's staff of Maestra Cammy and music teacher Megan. The story (the donkey library), based on the true story of  a traveling library created by Colombian man Luis Soriano, who was contacted and replied to the English teacher about the kids' performance, touched these bilingües greatly.  Fifth grade families had priority seating, and Kelvin and I enjoyed the show from front-row seats!

Bio

Posters

Iver's design also won and was featured in the printed programs! 

Iver impressively spoke clearly and at a good pace and nailed his Spanish lines in his role of "Blue Jeans [Poison Dart] Frog" and "Accumulator" in two of the three acts. Other kids played the donkeys (Alfa y Beto), kids from different Latin American countries from which they had roots (including Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, & Mexico), as well as slow-moving costumed creatures of Costa Rican sloths and a Humboldt banana slug. The musical numbers and costumes were sweet (I was really proud of the tune-carrying and mic'd fifth graders!)-- "Biblioburro" to the tune of Shakira's "Waka Waka" was really well done! 

(Blue jeans frog in red shirt on the left, matching and next to friend Joah, the Costa Rican kid)

Fifth grade ensemble singing la canción Bibloburro

(Iver in black)

KG

First Grade 

Second grade "La Tortuga Concha"

Third Grade

Fourth grade

Whole School! 

From COVID Kindergartners to Kings (and Queens) of the School!

Bien hecho!

SF Date Overnight!

Kelvin's parents planned to drive up and visit us this month and, after Kelvin saw an advertisement for the play "Kim's Convenience" in SF, they stayed through the weekend to help watch the kiddos. We haven't done it often, but we got away for a quick ~24h date to "The City" which was fast but enjoyable. 

Kelvin is a "maximizer," and while the play alone was enough entertainment for me, he found and bought tickets for a comedy show on Saturday night featuring Sebastian Maniscalco, who he likes and I don't know, in Rohnert Park (just outside of Santa Rosa, about 4 hours from home).

We left Iver's soccer game at halftime (he scored a hat trick in the first half and ended up with five goals, leading his time to a 14-0 shut-out and continuing the Grim Reapers' undefeated season!) and headed south. 

We stayed at a Hampton Inn hear Graton Casino, which hosted the show. Sebastian was definitely funny, irreverent at times (but not as much as some comedians), and we both laughed a lot. Even though the show started at 8 p.m. with an opening act by Mike Young, I stayed awake until bedtime! 

On Saturday morning, we headed an hour south into San Francisco and after having a bit of a panic of where to park the RAV-4, which, with the cargo box, wasn't able to enter some of the nearby parking garages (and street parking was full!), we found a different garage with a handicapped side near Union Square.

We ate dim sum for brunch in Chinatown at Hang Ah, the oldest continuously operating dim sum restaurant in the U.S., dating from 1920.

All the dishes were made in house and were delicious.

We did a bit of shopping before heading to the Toni Rembe Theater for the performance of Kim's Convenience, which opened as a play (by Ins Choi) in 2005 and became a Netflix series in 2018 (I really enjoyed the show when I watched in a couple of years ago). 

The show features a Korean-Canadian family who runs a family convenience store in Toronto, and exhibits many funny and heartwarming moments and storylines. Many themes (including the emphasis on hard work, achievement, filial duty, and saving money), are very relatable and quite hysterical, especially if you have immigrant Asian parents (or in-laws :)).  The play's author (Ins Choi) starred as "Appa" (the patriarch) in our performance; in other theater productions, he has starred as Jung (the son). He was incredible and I found the 90-minute play really well done. Kelvin, who watched a few episodes prior to the play to get "the flavor," also enjoyed it.

We then busted out of the city to head home to Humboldt, seeing many "Waymo" (driverless) cars along the way.  We ate some delicious Thai food in Ukiah and made if safely home with enough time to tuck in the kids, who were happy to see us! 

It was a whirlwind 24 hours but a fun one! We appreciate Kelvin's parents for holding down the fort at home!