Roxanne and Katie do Taylor Swift and Palo Alto
Selfies during opening act HAIM
Part One Taylor Swift
None of my friends are Swifties… but they would have gone to Taylor Swift with me if it was convenient. Enter DIL Katie. Katie IS a Swiftie, but already had tickets to go with friends in Chicago. I had decided to join a Social Media Swiftie group and find a “friend” to go to a concert with when Katie casually offered ”if you want to go to Taylor Swift, I would go with you.”
Happiness! A wise woman said "Strategy sets the scene for the tale" and so the plans began ... .Since we had to buy tickets on the secondary market anyhow, we decided to search for an open air stadium. We came up with Santa Clara, California on July 28th. Open air, hotel easy walk AND proximal to Palo Alto, Roxanne’s favorite place in the world...
Since I was feeling 22 I wanted to do Taylor makeup. Katie and I went to MAC and Dallas taught us the ins and outs of Taylor's Red Lips.
Taylor Style Red Lips
Once we had mastered the lips we returned and Dallas showed us how to do Cat Eyes Sharp Enough to Kill A Man. Cat eyes are way more complicated than I thought- going to look very different depending on the shape of your eyes. Katie rocked the Cat Eye look.
Travel and makeup logistics down, time to think about what I would wear.
I had a lot of outfit options, mostly from the Lover Era, but after Katie saw Taylor in Chicago, she was enamored with all the sequins...so I was enamored too! I couldn’t find a pink sequin dress, so I made myself a Dress. Katie painted a jean jacket "Lover" for me. Katie ended up with an ERAS jean jacket and a sequin Dress.
Cat Eyes
Of course we made Friendship Bracelets
Our hotel closet was so sparkly and happy!
The big adventure begins....aboard Delta
Are you Ready For It?
We flew to Santa Clara, California the Thursday before the concert. Everything was so simple...rental car, drive to hotel, Hyatt Regency was perfect...literally ACROSS the street from Levi Stadium. I could tell from the beginning our trip had good KARMA. The hotel was ready for Taylor with staff wearing glittery, pink or Taylor t-shirts and giving away candy bracelets. The coffee shop even had some Merch! The lobby played Taylor songs and videos and there were poster everywhere! We had landed in Taylor land. Thursday night, after settling in our room, we walked to the venue and checked out the merch truck - that is how close we were!
Roxanne and Taylor at Hyatt Photo Op
Katie and Taylor
The next morning we checked out the fans waiting for the merch truck to open. They were so peaceful, making friendship bracelets and and doing the Taylor Vibe.
Swifties waiting hours for the Merch truck to open
We had a lot of fun getting ready -doing hair and makeup- Katie curled and Bejeweled our hair. Our hotel was located in a food desert - so we smugly enjoyed our Mollie Stone dinner. Finally we donned our sparkly outfits.
Hair Done
Katie with bejeweled hair and Mollie Stones for dinner
Taylor Twins
All Sparkly
Our seats at Levi Stadium were awesome. The weather was Palo Alto perfect. The people were so much fun to watch. We saw airplanes fly over, a security guard taking photos for fans and the infamous cleaning cart
Levi Stadium
Katie
Roxanne
Taylor was a Superstar! The fireworks were Gorgeous!
We had an incredible view
After the concert we WALKED back to our hotel. The Eras Tour lived up to my Wildest Dreams and I had THE BEST DAY with Katie.
Part Two Palo Alto(with a side trip to tailgate)
When we first married Mark did his residency at Stanford in Palo Alto. We lived there for three wonderful years. I LOVED living there! Katie and I had a lot of free time, so Friday morning Katie drove our RAV4 rental car to Palo Alto. We started with Stanford campus...
August Rodin Burghers of Calais near Quad
Memorial Church
Lulu at the Stanford Bookstore
Rodin Sculpture Garden
Then we walked to our old apartment...1150 Welch Road #514
So many memories at our old apartment
We had lunch on California Avenue and visited the iconic Mollie Stone grocery store. While there we wisely bought our dinner- that we enjoyed later when getting ready for the concert.
Mollie Stone singing/moving Display - was there when I lived in Palo Alto in 1991-1994!
Saturday we returned and bummed around University Avenue, visited the library, enjoyed the flowers that were all over...pretended we lived there. We went to Stanford shopping Center. Another of my memories, my part time job at Williams Sonoma....where I really spent more than I made...We returned to University Avenue for Dinner and walked around the neighborhoods.
Williams Sonoma
Dinner at Osteria Saturday Night in Palo Alto
We walked neighborhoods looking at beautiful flowers, Katie especially liked the lavender flowers!
Katie kept her eye on ticket prices, but the prices for Saturday's show didn't drop, so when we returned to the Hyatt in Santa Clara we tailgated Taylor's concert. This was more fun than I imagined. We could hear and see one of the screens.
Taylor on screen from parking lot of Levi Stadium
People were singing, playing guitar and some Dads were keeping an eye on their tweens. Great America theme park was very close and they LIT off fireworks. We knew they would be perfectly placed for Taylor to see them on stage. "When the song was finished, Taylor acknowledged the fireworks with a laugh: “Do you know why they're doing that?It's because I'm the mayor,” she quipped, and although she was clearly making a joke about the fact that the city of Santa Clara had granted her that honorary title, it could almost have been true".
Fireworks from Great America
The Merch Truck
After tailgating we returned to the hotel and went to the gym to foam roll- we had been on out feet all day and needed some stretching...
Hyatt Gym
Sunday morning found once again heading to Palo Alto for a Yoga class! It was so fun, but also enlightening to take a class somewhere other than our beloved Lifecore
Yoga Source Palo Alto
Sadly we had to return to the hotel and get packed up for out flight home. We stopped at Peets for some refreshments, which curiously is Bjorn's favorite Coffee. Peet's was also around during my time living in Bay Area.
Peet's at San Jose Airport.
Waiting to board plane with drinks ffrom Peet's
And to finish our trip our gate was number 13 and our seats were in row 15 (IYKYK)
Gate 13
We were entertained by our older seat mate on the plane ((think Uncle June from Sopranos) who was in Cupertino for a funeral)) who told us he spoofed some Swifties in the hotel that he was Taylors Grandfather......<3
Part Three
Taylor Swift Eras Tour Set List 7/28/20023
Santa Clara, California
Lover
Fearless
evermore
no body, no crime (with HAIM) (wearing their gowns from the "Bejeweled" video)
Reputation
Speak Now
Red
All Too Well 10 Minute Version;
folklore
1989
Surprise Songs
right where you left me (with Aaron Dessner) (live debut, on guitar)
Midnights