In the scheme of things, New York is not that far from Washington, DC. Even still we don’t get up there very often, One of the reasons we don’t go to New York City very much is because the price of a hotel kind of intimidates me. Last time we went for an overnight stay, we stayed with friends. That was in 2017. But since then, I’ve discovered that NYC is actually a very manageable day trip from D.C. A couple of years ago, the Husband and I took a day trip up, leaving on the 6:30am train and coming home on the 6:30pm train. If you can buy train ticket well ahead of time, it’s actually not too expensive. And then you don’t have to pay for a hotel.
When I saw that the two older kids had a random Wednesday off at the end of January, I thought about things we could do. Usually on these days off I will take the kids down town to the Mall or on a hike somewhere local. On a whim, though, I looked at train tickets to New York and they were not that expensive – $120 round trip and the 8 year old was discounted. (It would could have been even cheaper if we took an even later train; the DC-> NY leg was only $45!, but the return was $75. The 11pm return was $25)
So I started to look for things to do, thinking we’d go to a museum or something, and then I discovered that the last week of January was Broadway Week and a lot of shows had 2-for-1 ticket deals. Now usually I take a long time to plan things and I hem and haw and book things two minutes after I should and things are way more expensive than they could have been. I tend to over think travel. But this time, I surprised myself and decided to book the trip. This was of course after asking the Husband if it was a silly idea, after all we had just gotten back from an not inexpensive trip to Asia. Why not have an adventure? I thought. I’m never the “fun parent” and I wanted to be the “fun parent.” Plus I wanted to see some theatre.
Originally I wanted to take the kids to see SIX since they have been listening to that soundtrack non-stop for the better part of a year. But there was not Wednesday matinee of SIX. So when I looked to see what else there was, I saw that there was a Wednesday matinee for Hadestown. I didn’t know anything about Hadestown except that all the theatre people I knew raved about it. Well that was good enough endorsement for me, and Hadestown it was! All together I think we paid $77 per ticket with the Broadway Week deal.
The day of the trip, I got everyone up at 5:00am so that we could get on the metro at 5:30pm for Union Station. I packed lots of snacks, water, and some books and games for the train ride. The kids were surprisingly uncomplaining about having to get up so early. I guess they were looking forward to the trip too. I also promised them hot chocolate if we got to Union Station and didn’t miss our train. So there was that. We got onto our train with plenty of time to spare and we were off! One of the things I love about taking the early morning train is getting to watch the sun come up as we sped up the coast.
Three and a half hours later we were in New York City. It still felt like morning when we got there, and we had a whole day in front of us!
First stop: Bagels! We picked up bagels from Best Bagels and took them to Bryant Park and sat in the park to eat. New York bagels are enormous! I had a bacon and egg bagel, the 8 year old had a blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese and the 13 year old had a salmon sandwich. The bagels were soft and tender, breadier than I am used to. And the blue berry bagel was a revelation – it tasted like real blueberry, not like artificial blueberries.
We sat in Bryant Park for an hour, watching people go by and the 8 year old chased pigeons.
Next stop – after a stop at CVS and a bathroom- was the New York Pubic Library. This wasn’t actually the part of the library with books, rather we saw one of their exhibits of parpphenelia related to their collections. There were some video clips and design sketches from their performing arts library, the papers and novels of James Baldwin. My favorite part was the collection of stuffed animals that inspired Winnie the Pooh:
After examining the library’s exhibit, we headed towards our next stop, but as we were leaving the library, we saw a group giving juggling lessons. What a whimsically serendipitous thing. We spent about twenty minutes tossing bags around and watching the other jugglers.
Our next stop was Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore that specialized in manga and graphic novels. It was an amazing place – the kind of place where dreams come true. At least for me. The store was three stories. The main floor was full of book- best sellers, a children’s section, gift gooks, the usual. (There was a four foot display for Onyx Storm). The second floor was all manga and graphic novels. These were the two floors where the kids wanted to spend their time and money.
The lower floor, though…. The lower floor was my heaven- the lower floor featured a stationary section. Pens and notebooks and paper and pencil cases galore. I was in a state of bliss. So many A5 notebooks! My fingers trailed over paper and pages, reveling in the different textures. And all the pens- so many colours and sizes.
We stayed at Kinokuniya until it was time to head over to the theatre, leaving with quite a haul. Each kid chose a book – the latest Dogman for the 8 year old and a graphic novel called “My Super Hot Husband” for the 13 year old, that is not as racy as the titles would have you believe – and I picked out a notebook and two pens.
(Okay on the note of My Super Hot Husband. I had no way to vet it before we bought it because all the books in the Manga section were wrapped in plastic. I tried to Google the title, but nothing really came up. I had a massive debate with myself in the bookstore about whether or not I should tell the 13 year old that she couldn’t get the book. In fact I did make her pick out another book. But then I couldn’t really come up with a good reason why she couldn’t make her own choices as to what she wanted to read as long as she felt comfortable discussing topics with me that came up. I’d rather she feel confident and open about sharing her reading choices with me, than ashamed and hide things from me. Plus, why and I so worried about a book when there is the whole internet in front of her? So in the end, she came home with “My Super Hot Husband” with the proviso that I got to read it too.)
From the bookstore, it was a fifteen minute walk up Broadway to the theatre. Up past Times Square, full of brilliance and bustle, even at 1pm in the afternoon. We held hands tightly so as not to lose one another as we wove in and out of crowds. When we arrived at the theatre there was quite a line to get in because everyone had to go through security screening. At first I was worried that we would be late for the show, but the line moved very quickly. I suppose when you do eight shows a week the staff gets very used to moving people through quickly. Broadway theatres are so different from the theatres I work in. For one – they are much smaller so the doors open straight into the theatre.
I’m going to give a huge shout out to the ushers at the theatre. There was one lady stationed by the bathrooms. She was managing the traffic with such firm efficiency and calm. “Please move in. You can stand against that wall and wait for a stall on the left. Thank you. Can you stand here behind the person with the plaid shirt, and wait for a stall on the right. Please don’t worry. I’ll get everyone into the bathroom and into their seats before the show. I never leave anyone in the bathroom. Step this way, please….” It made my stage manager soul really delighted to watch her work.
After our bathroom stop, we went to our seats. And there was another usher who looked at the kids and asked, “Is this anyone’s first Broadway show?”
The eight year old said it was his first Broadway show, and the usher gave him a sticker set that said, “My First Broadway Show!” One sticker was to go on his program and one was to go on his shirt. He wanted to save the shirt sticker for later, but he did put a sticker on his program.
I didn’t know a whole lot about Hadestown going in. It’s billed as a folk musical which intertwines the myths of Orpheus/Eurydice and Hades/Persephone, and sets it all during the Dust Bowl. We had listened to the soundtrack to prepare, and on the train in I listened to a few podcasts on Greek mythology with the kids because I had heard that if you didn’t know the underlying myths the story might be hard to follow. Other than that, I didn’t know anything about the production aspects of the show. I had known that Hadestown had won a lot of Tonys in 2019, but then there was the pandemic, and it fell off my radar. I wanted to go in without a whole lot of information, so I could experience the show pretty fresh.
The show was AMAZING! I loved it so much. – Okay, a gripe first. During the show not one, but TWO cellphones went off. TWO!!!! The second one went off in the second act during a moment of absolute silence. WTF!!!?!?!. People, turn your phones to silent! – But even that could not ruin a wonderful time at the theatre. Technically the show was stunning, the set seemed simple when you first walked in, but then it became such an integral part of the drama. The actors inhabited and interacted with the set in such beautiful organic ways. I loved the musicians being onstage – you could really watch them play and the actors work off them. I loved the way the ensemble moved together. And I also really just loved the story telling. I mean we all know how the Orpheus story ends, but I was still on the edge of my seat as the story unfolded. The show has so much to say about connection and feeling alone and the importance of stories in our life. The songwriter Anais Mitchell first wrote the musical in 2006 as a concept album, but so much of the show felt really pertinent to our times. Hades is a wealthy womanizing mogul who runs the mining town, exploiting the poorer people. There is literally a s song called, “Why We Build the Wall”. There was one line when a character gives a toast “To the times we live in now” which was greeted by the audience with absolute silence and a palatable air of tension. I love when a theatre experience feels like it is perfect for them moment. The whole timeless/ timeliness of art – I think about that a lot.
After the show, we went for dinner. The kids had requested burgers. I had to admit I was a little nervous about eating near the theatre because I hate waiting in lines and eating in crowded places, but we ended up at Bareburger a nice quiet burger place with no wait. (Maybe because it was only 5:00pm?). I think the place is actually a chain, but it still had a nice sit down/neighborhood feel. We ordered fried pickle chips, and each of us had a burger.
After dinner, we had a few hours before our train, so we wandered back to Penn Station slowly, staying a few blocks from Broadway. We got some boba at Jooy Tea Shop. The Boba was very good and the drinks not too sweet.
Then we stopped at Muji near Penn Station. Because one Japanese stationary store in one day wasn’t enough. I love Muji – the simplicity and practicality of everythint they carry. We didn’t buy anything at Muji because we had already bought ourselves presents earlier in the day. But it was fun to look.
We made it back to the train station with plenty of time to spare and soon we were on the 7:40pm train back to D.C. The train ride back was uneventful. The kids read their new books and played games on their screens. We were back in DC a little after 11:30pm, and didn’t have to wait but a few minutes for the Metro home. By midnight everyone was tucked in bed.
Just for my records, I kept track of how much the day cost, and here’s the breakdown:
Train Tickets: $330 (for three tickets)
Hadestown Tickets: $250 (for three tickets)
Hot Chocolate at Train Station: $8
Bagels: $34
CVS: $8 (Funny story – I had to buy pads because I had a period emergency. But then I left the pads in the bathroom at the park! I felt really stupid about this one. But the 13 year old found some pads at the bottom of her bag. I’ll never give her a hard time about not being prepared ever again.)
Kinokuniya Bookstore Haul: $80
Dinner: $64
Boba: $19
TOTAL: $793 – So it wasn’t exactly a cheap day, but I think as a once every six months or so splurge-y day of fun for me and the kids, it felt pretty doable.
All in all, a great day. Full of adventures, but moving at a slow enough pace that I didn’t feel rushed. I don’t know if Broadway Week is a regular thing, but I’m going to keep my eye out next year because it was such a fun, doable day trip for us.