Today we begin our brief journey to New York City. Our primary purpose is to see Sweeney Todd starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. We will also try to see a few other attractions while we are in town.
Traffic on the QEW was bad so we obeyed our GPS and got to Fort Erie via all the back roads through Bimbrook etc. then we had quite the wait and the border.
The drive from the border to the airport was about 15 minutes. We parked and were on our way to the terminal by 6:33pm. TSA was short, took about 5 minutes. No time for dinner just a quick bathroom break and then boarded the plane a little before 7pm.
Because I love to throw my money around on frivolous things… we purchased the low cost JetBlue Basic fare tickets. They come with a generous allowance of a single personal item that must fit under the seat. Carry-on and checked luggage are not included and cost more than the base fare. We packed light. They also do not let you pick your seats until you check in unless you pay. I would rather sit alone then be gouged by additional fees.
Plane touched down at 8:34pm. Need supper. Then two trains to our hotel near Times Square.
Made it to our Hotel around 10:30pm after picking up supper along the way at McDonald’s. Took a while to walk from Penn Station to the hotel due to all the people. It is facilitating how the people here treat walk/don’t walk signals. They basically just ignore them. Step out into traffic just daring the cars to hit them.
So we took the free ferry to Staten Island and then immediately turned around and came back. There is nothing to do on Staten Island but the boat ride is fun and it takes you past Ellis Island to get a good look at the Statue of Liberty.
After our Staten Island adventure we took the subway back uptown but made a quick stop at the 9/11 memorial and saw the One Trade Center building.
Next stop was the Flatiron building which was right next to the Shake Shack in Madison Square. We decide to purchase our lunch here for approx. $40 CAD. I’ll admit the burgers were much better than McDonald’s but that seems a little steep for two burgers, 2 waters and a single order of fries.
On our way back to our hotel for a quick rest before our show we passed by the New York Public Library.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library_Main_Branch
I still remember the conversation. It was December 2022, Leanne and I were sitting in our chairs in the bedroom. It was after Chemo and we were discussing future travel plans. We determined that Leanne likes to travel to see plays and I happened to mention that I would still love to see Sweeney Todd. A quick Google search later and we found that there was a new production of Sweeney Todd on broadway in NYC starring Josh Groban. At first we dismissed the idea because broadway is so expensive and it is complicated to get there. Well, after a weeks of thinking about it we finally decided to go. My unpredictable cancer treatments delayed our execution of our plan but we finally booked the tickets and began making plans.
Well we just finished watching our first broadway musical and it was excellent. Josh Groban unsurprisingly was flawless and Annaleigh Ashford was quite amusing. I was looking forward to seeing Gaten Matarazzo playing Toby as I really like him in Stranger Things. All the other supporting characters were excellent. I was especially enjoyed the character Antony’s singing.
The movie version with Johnny Depp was much darker and more serious than this production. It was much more light hearted than the movie. As light-hearted as it could be for a musical about a demon barber.
We paid the big bucks for seats in the second row. I could see the actors facial expressions quite clearly.
The crowd on 46th street after the performance was absolutely insane. We were packed together trying to head down a very narrow sidewalk and to make thing more chaotic there were bicycle driven carts all along the curb blasting music to pickup fares. We thought it was a parade or something at first.
We made it through and stopped at Popeyes and Dunkin’s for chicken and coffee for dinner. we ate in our hotel room. We had quite enough of people for one day.
Tourist attractions don’t seem to open before 10am in NYC so we had a leisurely breakfast in the packed tiny breakfast area at our hotel before setting out on our 20 minute walk to the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space museum.
The hotel serves Starbucks coffee at breakfast which seems extravagant for a free breakfast. I had a pre-made sausage, egg and cheese bagel which was pretty good.
It is fascinating how narrow our hotel was. Only 8 rooms per floor. Perfectly adequate hotel, around $300/night CAD.
I have now been on two Aircraft carriers. The USS Yorktown in SC and now the USS Intrepid in NYC.
