I'm baaaack!
Back from my weekend in New York. Because I was away, I finally broke my posting streak, after 112 days of posting. I did take my laptop with me, but was having too much fun that I couldn't be bothered to update LJ. Ah, well. Guess I can start counting up to another hundred from today. I also missed a milestone this weekend - Saturday, August 28th was my three-year anniversary with LJ.
Lots of talking about my trip under the cut!
Despite having been to NYC dozens of times in my life, I can't recall ever staying overnight there. I grew up in New Jersey, so we'd always just go for day trips, but I've been wanting to go for a whole weekend for a while. I went with C, a friend of mine from college who recently moved to the Boston area. New York is nicely located right in the middle, and we're both huge musical fanatics, so when she texted me that Bernadette Peters was starring in A Little Night Music, we pretty much had to do it.
I took Friday off from work and went up by bus. I am mildly annoyed that Bolt Bus advertised a 4 hour and 15 minute trip time, but obviously they knew it was going to be more like 6 hours since they announced a much later arrival time as soon as we got on the bus. So that was kind of frustrating, since it was sort of a big factor in deciding whether to take the bus or spring for the train (the train cost over $200 round trip, compared to $45 for the bus, but I'd have gotten there in under 3 hours) and since C and I had been trying to coordinate our arrival times. I ended up arriving around 5:30, and C (whose bus also took much longer than advertised) didn't get there until almost 6:15. I did get some reading done on my six-hour bus ride, though, so there will be book reviews.
We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Times Square South, which is on 40th Street between 6th and Broadway. It's a great location, since it's within walking distance of all the theaters, but it's far enough away from Times Square that the street's not mobbed with tourists. Also, since C's dad travels a lot and let us use his Marriott points, it was free! Can't beat that.
We decided not to see a show Friday night, since we were both tired from traveling and C had worked a 24 hour shift the day before and hadn't actually slept yet. As a substitute, we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner for dinner, home of the singing waitstaff. Like most restaurants in New York, the waiters are all aspiring Broadway actors, but here they actually put their talents to use and serenade the customers in between waiting tables. After dinner, we went up the Empire State Building, which is another thing I can't ever remember doing in all my trips to the city. It wasn't too crowded, but it still a good 30 minutes to get through security and go through three separate lines to buy tickets and wait for the elevators and dodge all the people trying to sell us stuff along the way, and we were amused at how movies never show all that stuff when people are rushing to get to the top. I think it would've been funnier if Meg Ryan had been stopped by people hawking audio tours and photos on her way to meet Tom Hanks.
Anyway, on Saturday, we got up early to get in line at the TKTS booth for half-price tickets. This is really why we were there, lol, to see as many musicals as possible in a single weekend. Once we got our tickets (for Billy Elliott), we went to Triton Gallery so C could buy posters and then to a pet store where we bought souvenirs for our kitties. We walked up to Rockefeller Center, but didn't have time to do much before we had to turn around and start heading back for the show. We stopped for pizza and then saw the show that afternoon. It was actually kind of a disappointment, but I'll do separate reviews of the shows.
We had dinner at a really good Thai place on 9th Avenue, and then went to the second show of the day - A Little Night Music. That one was fantastic, and we hung around the stage door until Bernadette Peters came out. We got autographs from several cast members and I have some blurry pictures of Bernadette, lol. Afterward we stopped for cheesecake and then back to the hotel to frantically look up train schedules for the next day.
See, I'd bought a return bus ticket for noon on Sunday (I'd have stayed longer, but all the later buses were sold out), but C was thinking of staying for the Sunday matinee and going to another show. I was bummed that one of our picks wasn't that good - especially since we'd been deciding between that one and Next To Normal, and I felt like I'd made the wrong choice. So now I wanted to stay and see another show with C to make up for it, but I'd have to take the train home instead and I couldn't get a refund on my bus ticket. We decided that it was worth it, since it would cost way more than a one-way train fare to come back a different weekend and see Next To Normal.
We got up early again on Sunday and checked out of our hotel before going back to the TKTS line. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten that most matinees are at 3 on Sunday instead of 2, and we'd both planned to take a 6pm bus/train, which we'd never make with a 3pm show. So we ended up not getting to see Next To Normal anyway, but we did get tickets for In the Heights, and I ended up being glad I stayed.
Once we had our tickets, we went back to Rockefeller Center and did some shopping, then met C's high school friend for lunch. We went to this yummy crepe place on 9th. The show was great, and then we stopped at the hotel to pick up our suitcases and went our separate ways. The train ride home was nice - they had free wifi, so I was able to start catching up on my flist and chat with Emmie, and I made it home by 9:30. Chelsea was very happy to see me. :)
The only downside is that I did something to my knee and it would get really stiff when I sat still for a while and then it would hurt to walk on it. It seemed to go away after I walked a bit, but every time I sat down (which, um, I did a lot of, in two hour stretches, lol), it would hurt again when I got up. It wasn't bad enough to make me stop doing anything, but it was rather annoying.
Lots of talking about my trip under the cut!
Despite having been to NYC dozens of times in my life, I can't recall ever staying overnight there. I grew up in New Jersey, so we'd always just go for day trips, but I've been wanting to go for a whole weekend for a while. I went with C, a friend of mine from college who recently moved to the Boston area. New York is nicely located right in the middle, and we're both huge musical fanatics, so when she texted me that Bernadette Peters was starring in A Little Night Music, we pretty much had to do it.
I took Friday off from work and went up by bus. I am mildly annoyed that Bolt Bus advertised a 4 hour and 15 minute trip time, but obviously they knew it was going to be more like 6 hours since they announced a much later arrival time as soon as we got on the bus. So that was kind of frustrating, since it was sort of a big factor in deciding whether to take the bus or spring for the train (the train cost over $200 round trip, compared to $45 for the bus, but I'd have gotten there in under 3 hours) and since C and I had been trying to coordinate our arrival times. I ended up arriving around 5:30, and C (whose bus also took much longer than advertised) didn't get there until almost 6:15. I did get some reading done on my six-hour bus ride, though, so there will be book reviews.
We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Times Square South, which is on 40th Street between 6th and Broadway. It's a great location, since it's within walking distance of all the theaters, but it's far enough away from Times Square that the street's not mobbed with tourists. Also, since C's dad travels a lot and let us use his Marriott points, it was free! Can't beat that.
We decided not to see a show Friday night, since we were both tired from traveling and C had worked a 24 hour shift the day before and hadn't actually slept yet. As a substitute, we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner for dinner, home of the singing waitstaff. Like most restaurants in New York, the waiters are all aspiring Broadway actors, but here they actually put their talents to use and serenade the customers in between waiting tables. After dinner, we went up the Empire State Building, which is another thing I can't ever remember doing in all my trips to the city. It wasn't too crowded, but it still a good 30 minutes to get through security and go through three separate lines to buy tickets and wait for the elevators and dodge all the people trying to sell us stuff along the way, and we were amused at how movies never show all that stuff when people are rushing to get to the top. I think it would've been funnier if Meg Ryan had been stopped by people hawking audio tours and photos on her way to meet Tom Hanks.
Anyway, on Saturday, we got up early to get in line at the TKTS booth for half-price tickets. This is really why we were there, lol, to see as many musicals as possible in a single weekend. Once we got our tickets (for Billy Elliott), we went to Triton Gallery so C could buy posters and then to a pet store where we bought souvenirs for our kitties. We walked up to Rockefeller Center, but didn't have time to do much before we had to turn around and start heading back for the show. We stopped for pizza and then saw the show that afternoon. It was actually kind of a disappointment, but I'll do separate reviews of the shows.
We had dinner at a really good Thai place on 9th Avenue, and then went to the second show of the day - A Little Night Music. That one was fantastic, and we hung around the stage door until Bernadette Peters came out. We got autographs from several cast members and I have some blurry pictures of Bernadette, lol. Afterward we stopped for cheesecake and then back to the hotel to frantically look up train schedules for the next day.
See, I'd bought a return bus ticket for noon on Sunday (I'd have stayed longer, but all the later buses were sold out), but C was thinking of staying for the Sunday matinee and going to another show. I was bummed that one of our picks wasn't that good - especially since we'd been deciding between that one and Next To Normal, and I felt like I'd made the wrong choice. So now I wanted to stay and see another show with C to make up for it, but I'd have to take the train home instead and I couldn't get a refund on my bus ticket. We decided that it was worth it, since it would cost way more than a one-way train fare to come back a different weekend and see Next To Normal.
We got up early again on Sunday and checked out of our hotel before going back to the TKTS line. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten that most matinees are at 3 on Sunday instead of 2, and we'd both planned to take a 6pm bus/train, which we'd never make with a 3pm show. So we ended up not getting to see Next To Normal anyway, but we did get tickets for In the Heights, and I ended up being glad I stayed.
Once we had our tickets, we went back to Rockefeller Center and did some shopping, then met C's high school friend for lunch. We went to this yummy crepe place on 9th. The show was great, and then we stopped at the hotel to pick up our suitcases and went our separate ways. The train ride home was nice - they had free wifi, so I was able to start catching up on my flist and chat with Emmie, and I made it home by 9:30. Chelsea was very happy to see me. :)
The only downside is that I did something to my knee and it would get really stiff when I sat still for a while and then it would hurt to walk on it. It seemed to go away after I walked a bit, but every time I sat down (which, um, I did a lot of, in two hour stretches, lol), it would hurt again when I got up. It wasn't bad enough to make me stop doing anything, but it was rather annoying.