“Meet me at the bookstore at the top of the Metro at Union Station.”  That’s how our New York City adventure began.  My  two traveling buddies and I spent this weekend in the Big Apple.  The stated purpose was to take a Gotham Writers’ Workshop on ‘travel writing,’ but mixed in were going to be an off-Broadway show – Tribes – and a Broadway musical - Peter and the Starcatcher.  The trip proves that three women let loose in NYC will have a ball regardless if the highly touted play they've paid big bucks to see is a stinker!  More about that later.

The weekend reminded me of the excitement of living in a big city and taking public transportation!  I'm not afraid to admit that taking public transportation still thrills me because it means I'm a big city girl.  I sort of feel like turning around in circles and throwing my hat into the air, a la Mary Tyler Moore.  That of course would negate my statement that I am a big city girl, but what the heck, I think you understand.  I still get smug when I tell my family at home that I took the bus to NYC!

For $35 round trip each, we met at Union Station to take the Bolt Bus complete with WI-FI and pretty comfortable seats on a 4 1/2 hour drive to the city.  The driver dropped us (and all of the other cool public-transportation-savvy-travelers) off at 33rd and 7th Avenue, smack dab in all of the action.  A short cab ride later, we arrived at our apartment for the weekend,  on the corner of Washington Square (courtesy of Motor Bike's nephew).  Yippee!!  Of course, this is New York, so the apartment with the fantastic view of Washington Square was a five floor walk up!  But we made it.

Tribes was a pleasant surprise.  We saw it Off-Broadway at the Barrow Theater right in our Washington Square neighborhood.  We had 4th row seats and congratulated us on getting such close seats.  We didn't know that Barrow is a small theater in the round and the LAST row is the 4th.  Great seats, regardless.  Tribes is about a young deaf man who has grown up in a very dysfunctional family of academics who have never fully accepted his deafness.  His life changes when he meets a young woman who has grown up with deaf parents and is herself losing her hearing.  It was very thought provoking.

Saturday we walked to Xavier High School in mid-town for a seven hour (!) class on travel writing.  The class was okay and I learned a bit about the travel writing profession, but it was addressed much more to people who wanted to write travel articles for money.  I was inspired to submit an article to the Post on our bike trip to Italy.  So that is going on my bucket list.

Peter and the Starcatcher - winner of five Tony awards, touted by Entertainment Weekly as "an absurdly funny fantastic journey!"  The New York Times hailed it as "The most exhilarating story telling in decades."  Friend and I just kept looking at each other and wondering why most of the other audience members were laughing.  The play is based on a series of children's books by Dave Barry, one of my favorite humor writers.  The books are about Peter Pan, and this play is about how he became Peter Pan.  I just didn't get it and don't mind admitting it.

Sunday, we walked to the High Line, a magnificent "public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side." It is a really beautiful walking park above the streets of Manhattan.  It uses an old railroad track that would have been torn down as a place to view gardens and art.  Get there when you are in the city.  Stop by Chelsea Market, too.  It is right across the street.  Go there when you want to eat.

Funny window in apartment on the High Line

Produce market at Chelsea Market

Funny sign

  The trip was so great that we've decided we must go back and just explore the neighborhoods.  So my next bucket list item is to plan future trips to NYC to do just that.