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broadwayandshakespeare · 6 years

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I’m still in awe that I was able to travel to NYC a couple weeks ago. I’ve been dreaming of Manhattan since I was a little girl, and somehow I convinced my sister that we should do a weekend trip to the Big Apple. Our two days in NYC cost as much as a week on a Caribbean island, but I don’t care. It was soooo worth it.

I’m going to tell you the story of our weekend. Fair warning: it’s really long, but it’s worth it. For some weird reason, every time my sister and I travel together, something goes wrong. When we went to DC, we got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere at 2am and then had to turn around—postponing our trip by a few days. Thankfully, Peyton and I decided to fly to NYC instead of going on another road trip. We thought that would be a lot easier (we were wrong).

We had a rough start to our Saturday morning. Our alarm went off at 5am, we scarfed down bowls of frosted flakes, quickly got dressed, and then made our way outside. It was absolutely pouring, and it was cold. We shared my tiny umbrella and tried to stay as dry as we could as we walked the 10 minutes to the streetcar station at Bloor and Spadina. I had planned our route to Billy Bishop Airport, and I checked online every day for a week to see if the streetcars would be operational that morning. The websites said everything was running the way it should. However, when we got to the station, a notice was posted on the door telling us that the streetcar wasn’t running, and we’d have to wait for a shuttle bus (which could show up as early or as late as it wanted). Typical Brittani: I panicked. We only had 45 minutes to get to the airport, I had no idea when this bus was going to show up, and I reeeeaaally didn’t want to waste the money I’d saved for the trip on a cab. Luckily the bus showed up in a reasonable amount of time, and it dropped us off where another streetcar would pick us up. After another transfer, and then another, we finally hopped off the streetcar right out front of the airport. I’d never been to Billy Bishop before, and I guess the tunnel under the water is pretty cool. But damn, there are so many stairs to get back up to airport level. Thank god for escalators!

Thankfully there wasn’t a line at security. After we’d deposited our belongings and shoes in the little plastic bins, they waved us through and we were one step closer to New York! Billy Bishop is great, because in the “Porter Lounge” they have a refreshment area where you can take all the water, pop, coffee, tea, and juice that you want. Oh, and did I mention they also had a table covered in shortbread cookie packages? I think I grabbed eight and stuffed them in my bag (I lived off the shortbread in NYC). Soon they were calling for us to line up for our flight. I started squealing with excitement. We pulled out our passports, we got to our seats, and then it was time for takeoff. We were sitting on the city-side of the plane, so we got to see some pretty awesome views as we flew away from the 6.

We watched a bit of “Sing” on Peyton’s iPad, and then I bugged her until she turned off the movie and started playing the Hamilton soundtrack. We were going to New York; it only made sense to prepare for the show we were seeing that afternoon. I may or may not have started singing/rapping into a water bottle. It may or may not have been captured in a photograph.

The flight was pretty quick: 68 minutes from takeoff to landing. We got off the plane in Newark, New Jersey, and got kinda lost in the airport, but two middle-aged men who were on our flight helped us figure out where we were going. We bought two tickets on the New Jersey Transit (basically NJ’s GO system), hopped on a train, and made our way to Manhattan!

Penn Station was so friggin busy. We kinda just followed the flow of people until we saw signs of where we wanted to go. We ended up on 7th and Fashion Ave (Peyton pointed out after we got home that The Devil Wears Prada shows the same street signs… so cool!) As we’re walking down the street, we look up and see the Empire State Building peeking out from behind another skyscraper. It was 11am at this point and we were starving, so we stopped at the first food place we found: Wendy’s, across the street from the Empire State Building.

After satisfying our hunger, we headed back out in the cold and walked up 5th ave until we found the New York Public Library. Again, I squealed. Maybe that time it was more like a squeak. Either way, I was excited. The building was beautiful; old architecture always makes me happy. We popped inside for only a moment—I wanted to see the stairs where they filmed Carrie Bradshaw’s failed attempt at a wedding in Sex and the City. The security guard said we couldn’t take pictures until we’d paid to go inside, so being the sassy monster that I am, I snapped a photo of the marble staircase, said “Just took a photo,” and walked out the door. YOU CAN’T CONTROL ME, Mr. Security Guard!

Down the street from the library is Grand Central Station. Man oh man, it was massive. People always say that Union Station is just a smaller Grand Central, but I think it’s more of a miniature of Grand Central. There were over 100 train platforms. Union Station has at max. 26. The ceiling of Grand Central is painted with constellations, and it was beautiful. I think Peyton even snuck onto a train platform… see, I wasn’t the only rebel on that trip.

We also saw the Chrysler Building down the street from Grand Central, but we kinda didn’t care too much about it so we just looked at it from afar.

After Grand Central we saw the holiday windows at Lord and Taylor (kinda like the Bay windows in Toronto… except bigger), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Saks Fifth Avenue! We popped into for just a few seconds, but the setup was beautiful. It looked like a winter wonderland, interspersed with really expensive makeup and handbags and shoes and ohmygod I could’ve spent a ton of time in there. But it was really hot, and we still had our coats on, so we left after about a minute.

We kinda stumbled upon Rockefeller Center after we left Saks. It’s just across the street, actually. They were still setting up the massive Rockefeller tree behind a tall tower of scaffolding, but we saw parts of it. I can’t believe how big that tree is, and that it’s real! They must have to airlift that thing into the city. In pieces. I could tell Peyton really wanted to go skating at Rockefeller Center, but the line was huge and we were on the clock.

Down the street is Radio City Music Hall, and the NBC building (aka where The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon films). There was also some random food festival on 6th ave so the whole street was shut down. It was pretty cool though. After that, we had one destination in mind: Times Square. It’s so crazy. I swear, an epileptic wouldn’t be able to handle it; the amount of flashing lights and electric billboards is insane. And there were sooooo many people! Thank god we’re both okay in a crowd, because there was no personal space to be had.

By this time it was about 1pm, and so we made our way down the street to the Richard Rodgers Theatre to see HAMILTON! When we bought the tickets back in September, they were the last two seats in the house, and we were in the second last row in the Mezzanine. I had opera glasses in my bag just in case, but the view of the stage was actually really good from our seats.

Peyton and I stocked up on Hamilton merchandise (t-shirts for us both, a cup for Peyton, a shot glass for me), and then a sassy black usher (she called herself that) told the entire balcony section that the only bathroom in the theatre was 66 steps down the stairs in the basement. She said “you have been warned. Go before the show, or fight to get all the way down there before the rest of the theatre at intermission.” She then went on to say, “You may L-O-L, but you cannot text your BFF throughout the show. Turn the phones off.” She was great, and also, like 60, so that made it even better. The show started soon after that, and I was in heaven for the next 3 hours. I’d been waiting to see that show for so long, and my dream finally came true. Now I don’t have to fight against the massive hordes of people trying to get tickets for the Toronto run in 2019/2020. I saw it on Broadway!

After the show, the cast stayed onstage and explained the charities they were raising money for. All the Broadway shows were collecting donations for AIDS/HIV research, and they made a little competition between each show to see which cast come could up with the most. So, at that Hamilton show, they auctioned off a shadow box frame with a signed poster inside that the producers presented the cast on opening night. They started the bidding at $500. It sold for $3500. Could you imagine that? Going to the theatre, paying a ridiculous amount of money for the ticket, and then dropping another $3500 on a poster and frame? Whoa, I wish I could drop that kind of cash. Anyways, the cast was awesome, and I’m glad they could raise the money for a good cause.

As we left the theatre we found that it was pouring outside. We shared my tiny umbrella again and found our way up 7th Ave to our hotel on 57th. We were actually across the street from Carnegie Hall (and apparently a few doors down from the most expensive apartment building in New York City). I went up to the desk to check into the hotel, and the man told me that we’d been upgraded to a suite on the top floor. Apparently they’d oversold the hotel, and since we were only staying one night, it was easier to upgrade us then to upgrade anyone else. So there we were, on the 17th floor, occupying a 2 room suite with a massive bathroom and a kitchenette. No complaints here! At that point, the room was actually worth the amount I paid.

It was about 5:45pm so Peyton and I dropped off our big backpacks, changed into our nice clothes and our high heels, and then headed back out in the rain. We wanted to eat at this cool diner near the Gershwin Theatre, but the line to get in was around the block, so we ended up eating at a McDonalds across the street. Two classy-looking girls in the back corner of a Mcdicks restaurant… Yeah, that was loads of fun.

After we’d eaten, we walked across the street and into the Gershwin. It’s more of a modern theatre than the Richard Rodgers, but it was still incredible to be in the theatre where Wicked was born. We sat down in our second-row seats (yeah, we went from second last row for Hamilton to second row for Wicked) and soaked in all the amazing feels from being on Broadway. The show started, Peyton and I were blown away, and even though it was the fifth time we’ve seen the show, it was by far the best. The Glinda actress was so ditzy (she played the character really well), and the Elphie actress was throwing out notes that I’m pretty sure Idina Menzel doesn’t even know exist. After the show, the cast did the same charity announcement, and they auctioned off a costume piece for $500.

When we left we saw that the rain had finally stopped, so Peyton and I went back to the hotel, changed into our boots and normal clothes again, and then wandered to Times Square. We just had to see what it was like at night. It was just as busy, if not busier, but it was very cool to see.

We made it back to the hotel around 12:30am, and we crashed hard. I think I fell asleep in under a minute. In my own bed. In the suite. In NYC. I slept so well that night 🙂

(End of Part 1… to be continued)

Let’s Hear It For New York (Part 1) I’m still in awe that I was able to travel to NYC a couple weeks ago. I’ve been dreaming of Manhattan since I was a little girl, and somehow I convinced my sister that we should do a weekend trip to the Big Apple.

#blog #blogger #dream #escape #family #happy #Life #love #manhattan #me #newyork #nyc #sisters #Travel #vacation #yay

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