matt had to work saturday morning, so i met him at the train station around 1:30 to catch our megabus to the city. we opted for megabus over amtrak because it saved us $130. amtrak is lovely, but megabus is actually rather comfortable and only 30 minutes slower. we got a great deal at the intercontinental times square on hotwire. it ended up being the perfect location, at just 2 blocks from times square, and there was a subway station right outside the front doors. not to mention, it was beautiful.
our bus was actually a little late getting into the city (we've taken megabus 6 times and this is the first time this ever happened - usually they are right on time, if not early). we were a little time crunched, so we decided to take a cab to the hotel. cabs in new york city are an adventure in and of themselves, and as long as you don't get carsick, it's definitely something you should experience at least once in your life. we got to the hotel around 4:45, checked in, dropped off our luggage, and headed right back out to walk over to the tkts booth in times square.
this was my first time actually using the tkts booth, and i had absolutely no idea what to expect. i had prepared myself for an hour-long wait, and was very pleasantly surprised when our wait was no more than about 15 minutes, if that. if you are relatively flexible in what you want to see, i definitely recommend going this route. on our walk over, we talked about what we'd like to see. our first choice was once and our 2nd choice was rock of ages. i also suggested chaplin because i'd read some good reviews, but mostly because a girl i grew up with is in it and i thought it would be so cool to see her perform on broadway! unfortunately by the time we got there, they did not have any tickets for once available. for rock of ages, all they had left for that were partial-view seats. we were actually ok with that, but then they also only had single seats. we were not ok with that. and even though we had already talked about what our third choice would be, suddenly, standing there having to make a decision, i panicked. i looked at matt and just blurted out, "ok, um, phantom of the opera?" matt said ok, and we had ourselves 2 tickets to phantom of the opera at 50% off. as we walked away, i thought, "i'm such an idiot...why didn't i ask for chaplin?" i mentioned this to matt and he said, "yeah, i said that to you, but i guess you didn't hear me." darn it.
anyway, we rushed back to the hotel and got ready for our night out. i had rented a dress from mine for nine, and would absolutely do it again. for $40, i got a dress (actually, 2, since you get to get two sizes of each item so that you can be sure to get a good fit) for 2 weeks. they send it to you with all the stuff you need to mail it back (return postage included). so i got into my fancy dress and matt put on his shirt and tie and we headed out for dinner. we had made reservations at a restaurant called strand bistro. our reservations were for 6:30, but i wasn't worried because it rarely takes us more than hour to eat a meal. strand bistro was this cool little place, set up a bit like a library lounge. it had old books lining the walls, and the seating was soft cushy chairs. matt gave me the "sofa" side of the table so that i could use the pillows they had to prop myself up. he's so thoughtful. the food was delicious, but the service was slllooooww. by the end, we had to ask for our dessert and for our check to be brought with our dessert. we left there at 7:45, walked as quickly as my 5.5-months-pregnant-ass-in-heels could carry me until we were able to flag down a cab. we only had to go about 7 blocks, but we were in a hurry and i couldn't walk very quickly.
we got to the theater at about 5 of 8, and walked in. as we showed our tickets to the usher, she looked at the tickets and then looked at me and said "you're all the way at the top of the stairs. like, you're literally in the last row of the theater. are you ok to use the stairs?" i thought it was very sweet, but i decided to tackle it. we went slowly and i did fine, but i did not leave our seats until the end of the show.
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| i am terrible at taking selfies |
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| Gorgeous theater |
the show was fantastic. i've seen phantom before and it's a beautiful show and the music is great. and i think matt enjoyed it. but i really wish we had seen chaplin instead. i think it would have been a more fun show and i would have really loved seeing sara up on a broadway stage. i have known her since she was 4 or 5, so it just would have been super cool. oh well. next time. baby loved the show, that's for sure. he was kicking like crazy throughout the entire show. we're going to have a cultured little guy! matt finally got to feel him kick, and his reaction was just, "wow, that's so weird!" ack, men.
after the show, we walked over to a bar where matt had a few drinks and i watched some college football. around midnight, i finally threw in the towel and said it was time to go. luckly, the bar was directly across the street from our hotel, so we headed over, up to our room, and fell into bed.
that was pretty long for saturday, so i'll come back with sunday's happs tomorrow.
1 comment:
*WHISTLIN* hot mama! :) Glad you had so much fun!!
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