It’s been five years since I saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which means that it’s been five years since my wife and I vowed to have and to hold, etc. (Yeah, we watched a Tarantino movie on our honeymoon, so what?) This year, for our anniversary, we traveled to our nation’s capital to watch Back to the Future: The Musical, a winsome adaptation of Robert Zemeckis’ hit film.

Featuring original music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (plus all the popular songs from the film), and an updated story from original Zemeckis collaborator Bob Gale, the performance was a pure delight. The already exaggerated characters were pushed nearly into the realm of absurdity—when George McFly (Burke Swanson) was introduced, he made that throaty stammering noise for like thirty seconds straight as the audience roared; when Lorraine (Zan Berube) got Marty (Caden Brauch) alone in her bedroom, several extra sets of hands emerged from her headboard and began caressing him like Dr. Manhattan. Ethan Rogers did a spot-on Biff, while Don Stephenson’s Doc Brown was a little bit more of a new creation, seeming like a combination of Christopher Lloyd’s original with a healthy dose of mad scientist Rick from Rick and Morty (which was surely inspired by Lloyd’s characterization). Though it may have occasionally exhibited too much self-awareness, sapping its story of some of its emotional heft, it was totally enjoyable even for a non-hardcore fan of the film. It was likewise incredible from a technical perspective, as a full-sized Delorean was spun around and lifted into the air as a projected background whizzed by to simulate motion. At various points, I believe that layered screens were used to allow the action to “cut” from one location to another, though we were in the balcony and I didn’t get to witness the wizardry up close.

Six hours of driving in one day isn’t exactly my idea of fun. But it was a day away, just the two of us, without the constant stress of wondering what color crayon our darling daughter was eating, with the added excitement of a Secret Service agent telling us that the GPS was taking us down a forbidden path, with lots of laughter and visits to two different restaurants (if you count Chipotle as a restaurant, which being a single-income household, we do). It’s been a good five years; they passed by in the blink of an eye and yet feel like they contained a lifetime of challenges and unspeakable joys.