Where Locals Go

Doug is owner, tour guide, and driver. After 22 years in banking, and seeing customer service go down tubes, he decided to follow his dad's inspiration and start celebrating his hometown. Doug had been providing generic scenic tours, as if any scenery in Monterey is generic! But in 2003, to honor new DVD release of Clint Eastwood's "Play Misty For Me", Doug organized a special movie tour. Because "Misty" was filmed entirely in Monterey area, choosing just a few locations for opening was a challenge, but event gave Doug idea to create a movie tour. If you're like me, and like to go where locals go, this tour is it.

What You'll See

First, you'll see a comfortable, 32-seat bus with overhead TV monitors and headsets for listening to Doug's commentary and movie clips he shows. He is terrific at showing snippets just before you arrive at location. When we first boarded bus, we watched a scene from "A Summer Place", with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. Our first stop was Colton Hall that doubled as Sandra's girls' school. Today, this historical museum was home of California Constitution.

Most of movies made on Monterey Peninsula were created in 1920s — about 30 films — but continued to be recognized at Oscars through 1950s in "Mutiny on Bounty" (1935), "Captains Courageous" (1937), "National Velvet" (1944), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), and "East of Eden" (1955). Monterey has also been featured in some real flops, and Doug shows a bit of these just for fun.

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Cymber Quinn, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com

There was some adult supervision in cast, too. The dancing dolls were great fun, managing mechanical movements that a wind-up doll would make while performing jumps and spins. The soldier performed an athletic battle scene with Mouse King. The Sugarplum Fairy was terrific, performing solo and with prince who accompanies kids through la-la land. He had some marvelous moves but appeared exhausted by end. It was like watching Olympics, hoping he wouldn't drop his partner or slip and fall. I was reminded of Shanghai Ballet, whose lightly built male principals lacked Herculean strength but still looked remarkably graceful in their lifts during their visit to Las Vegas in November.

Tchaikovsky epitomized Romantic period of music, which emphasized exotic influences and emotional expression. The most fun part of story - and of music - is dancing performances in Clara's dream. The Spanish Dance trio whirled in their flamboyant costumes. Tonight's Arabian Dance was slow and sensual and featured an impossibly flexible female dancer who made yoga look like child's play. The Chinese Dance pair hopped and twirled playfully to very lively music. The Dance of Mirlitons featured three graceful ladies doing some fairly traditional ballet moves. The acrobatic Cossack Dancer threw himself all over stage, doing one-footed twirling jumps, landing in a split without wincing (I did wincing for him), and making it look easy. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe had an army of small children emerge from folds of her enormous skirts to perform a very playful and charming dance as she blew kisses to audience. Finally, scene in Land of Snow featured a corps of young female ballerinas and three principals who enchanted us (well, me, at least) with their graceful dancing and warm smiles as they performed lovely Waltz of Flowers.

The costumes, sets, and choreography for this performance were lavish and reflected quite well on NBT's artistic director, Bruce Steivel, and theatrical designer Alexandre Vassiliev. My date had seen same performance two years before and said that this year's was greatly improved. The $250,000 grant from E.L. Wiegand Foundation and sponsorship by International Gaming Technology helped make all this possible.

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Rob LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com