Of course, the end comes all too soon

Wednesday 10 October

The decision yesterday to take it easy in the morning worked well, so to-day we are planning to leave sometime mid morning.  It’s pouring with rain, so there is simply no reason to leave early and all we want to do to-day is go to a show on Broadway!  Yes, that’s right, we are going to see a show.  We had thought about it, but shows at night were not an option.  However, Eric told us that we were lucky, because there is a matinee on Wednesdays and we would be able to buy cheap tickets at the TKTS booths in Duffy Street near Broadway.  And that’s just what we are going to do!  Well, that was the plan, but it nearly didn’t happen, and here is why:

As we have all the time of the world we are not in a hurry and since the rain is coming down by the bucket load it made no sense to leave on the 10.11am train from Ronkonkoma.  We are not leaving from Bellport, because Ronkonkoma has express trains coming back at night and we are taking the car.  By 10.25am we are sort of ready to leave to catch the 11.11am, but my laptop refuses to save my work and shut down quickly and I don’t want to loose all the work I have done. Next we get into the car and get a bit lost on the way to the station.  I get the GPS out quickly and that’s better, we are getting somewhere…  At the train station there is no parking spot anywhere so we hurry to the $5/day parking lot and are allotted a space… all the way at the back!!! Grrr…  We run to the station, buy tickets and….. only one comes out of the machine!  More grrr….  Hurry to the platform, only to discover that to-day the train leaves from the other platform, across the lines!!! Run to the elevator, being held up by a whinging lady who is even later than we are, run down the stairs on the other side, only to see…. the train leaving!!!  D…n, d..n, d..n. (Fill in the blanks if you are familiar with English swear words).

Well, that’s it.  The next train leaves at 12.11pm, which will make us very late for a 2pm show.  In the meantime we have to fill an hour, because it’s no use returning to Bellport.  Since we are not going to have time for lunch in the city we get a tuna melt (tuna mix on a croissant) from Dunkin’ Donuts and admittedly it’s quite edible. We eat it on the train.  No problems with drinks or food on the train!

When we arrive at Penn Station we have to run all the way from 34^th Street to 51^st Street to get tickets.  Not a mean feat considering we have to work ‘upstream’ against most of the other pedestrians and nobody sticks to a particular direction…  At the tickets booth we have only a split second to decide which show (of the 145!) we want to see and our eye catches: Jersey Boys! So, we’re going to see Jersey Boys on Broadway.  How cool is that?

We quickly get our tickets and have to run again, all the way to 56^th Street.  We are only a few minutes late and haven’t really missed anything, so we are happy to sit down and relax for the next few hours.  It is a fantastic musical which brings back memories of Frankie Valli’s beautiful voice and the music of the Four Seasons.  I know, Jersey Boys was on in Brisbane before we left and will no doubt have been on in The Netherlands and everywhere else in the world, but for us to see a show on Broadway was the jewel in the crown of our holiday!

At the theatre during half time

This time we walk back at a more relaxed pace, taking in the sights of Broadway and Times Square for one last time. I had seen a jacket much the same as I have borrowed from Diane, and wanted to try it on, but it and all others that look the same, don’t feel as comfortable, so I decide to let it pass.  We take some last pictures (of ourselves taking pictures) on a huge screen and of a busker in the street and then we are back at Penn Station.

One last piccie? ;-)

A busker in the streets

Do you see us? Look at the corner of 'dunkme'.... Frank is waving at you!

We can catch an early express train and we have a little time to get a bite to eat before we have to leave, so we walk into one of the many little restaurants underground at the station: Au Bon Pain.  Here you can choose from 8 different soups, and plenty of other eat-in or take-away meals and we get soup (clam chowder (Frank) and pumpkin for me) and a wholesome roll with roast beef.  As there is wi-fi available I quickly check my emails and go on fb to let the kids at home know where we are.  We haven’t been on the internet since Saturday, so it was high time.  I clicked a quick funny picture of Frank eating his dinner, which wasn’t a great success (the picture!), but hey, who cares…  and then it was high time to get to the train.

I'd forgotten Frank had taken a picture of me, so here goes:

Dinner at Au Bon Pain at Penn Station

It would've been a more suitable picture for fb, but too late now...

We were home by 7.30pm and stayed for a short while chatting with Eric and Nancy.  We took pictures and then it was time to say farewell to Eric, whom we wouldn’t see the following morning. 

with Nancy and Eric in Bellport

In bed I did some work on the computer, because I wasn’t very sleepy and it was still early, but we knew that Nancy had some studying to do for the next day and we didn’t want to keep her from her work.  Lights out at 10.30pm.