A Quick Trip to New York

After I went to the latest revival of Into the Woods last summer and had such an incredible time, I definitely wanted to head back to see the new version of Sweeney Todd that was getting such rave reviews. I wanted to be sure to see it with the original cast, however (since more and more, I’m convinced that’s the main reason to pay a premium to see something on Broadway.) This meant going sooner, rather than later, except I had no real reason to go to New York City other than seeing the show, and making a specific trip just for the show seemed a little overkill

Except then I found out I had a free night at a Hilton certificate about to expire at the end of May, and suddenly I had another excuse to go (especially when I could pair it with a work lunch with my agent). So Denisa and I headed down Wednesday morning and back today, a trip that sounds kind of nutty when I write it out, but which has actually turned out really well.

First off, we flew down. I still hate flying, but the original plan had been to take the bus. That was going to involve getting up at 4am or so to make it to the bus on time, then driving for six hours, to arrive in NYC around 1pm. Doable, but hardly enjoyable. JetBlue had one way tickets from Portland to JFK for $65, though, so I switched over to that. The plane left at 10:10, and we were in downtown NYC by 12:30. (You can take a train straight from JFK to the subway, and then it’s just MTA from there on. Really easy.)

We stayed downtown in the theater district, and managed to fit in a lot of fun in just a bit of time. A stop by a Slovak/Czech Variety store in Queens, followed by lunch with my agent at Westville Hells Kitchen. Denisa was really happy with the variety of vegan options, and it was nice to catch up with Eddie again in person. (I hadn’t seen him face to face since pre-pandemic times.) We walked around Times Square for a bit, grabbed some Danish treats at Ole & Steen, and some far-from-great pizza at a random pizza by the slice place. (Hey, you win some and you lose some.)

Sweeney Todd was absolutely incredible. A 26 player orchestra, fantastic scene design and seriously creepy costuming and choreography. Deeply, deeply unsettling, and I loved every minute of it. Josh Groban sounded like an odd match for the musical, since he’s kind of a squeaky clean guy in my head, but it made a ton of sense once you saw him in action. Todd was a squeaky clean guy himself, back before everything took a nose dive. Groban really sold the transition from simply desire to vengeance to full on bloodlust, and his voice was incredible. The star of the show was most definitely Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett, though. I’ve seen Angela Lansbury play the role in the recording, and I can’t say to how she would have come across live, but Ashford . . . just perfect. Her acting of the role, the comedic timing, all of it took the musical to another level. And who knew Dustin Henderson on Stranger Things had such a great voice?

So good.

The show finished at 11, and we were back to our hotel by 11:15. This morning, we slept in and then ate some of the treats from yesterday before checking out and going to Hummus Kitchen for lunch and Amorino’s for gelato. (We don’t get a chance for much variety in Maine, so when we’re somewhere that has it, we try to get as much as possible.) Both we very good, and then it was a twenty minute walk to the bus station, where we caught the bus back at 1:45. (For $85. More expensive than flying. Go figure.)

We’ll be home by 9 or so, and honestly, I would do it all again. (Though if I could score the cheap airfare both ways, I’d probably go for that. Even though I hate flying. On the plus side, the bus gave me plenty of time to catch up on work and writing, so I felt pretty dang effective. It’s helpful at times that so much of work has shifted to things that can be done remotely, even on a bus as you head back to Maine.)

My big takeaways were that I’d rather stay downtown in NYC from now on, and that going down and back in two days is nothing to shy away from. Manhattan will always be “the city” to me. Yes, it’s dirty and full of garbage and smells, and people can be really rude and there are tons of tourists, but . . . it’s still a place I love to be. That’s surprising, coming from a guy who’d really rather not be around people too much. Manhattan has been in my life for a long time, though, so it’s kind of like family, in a way.

If you’ve got a chance to see Sweeney Todd in the next few months, you should most definitely take it. Not to be missed.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Adventures in Boston

Friday, Denisa and I had tickets to go see Wynton Marsalis play jazz in Boston. I’d bought them a few months ago, and I’d been really looking forward to it. We’d lined up things for Daniela and MC (and Ferris), gotten a hotel, planned everything out, and all we had to do was have Friday go right. I had to be in Bangor for a library meeting, so I’d be leaving from that, rushing home to get Denisa, and then hurrying down to Boston, hoping we’d miss the traffic, so that we’d make it to the concert in time.

Everything was going well. My meeting had been successful, and I was looking at getting home maybe a little early, even. Someone called me on the phone, but I didn’t recognize the number, so I let it go to voice mail. When I got home, I went straight to packing, then checked the message.

The concert had been canceled due to illness. (Wynton or someone in the band caught COVID, perhaps?) So just like that, Denisa and I now had everything lined up so we could go down to Boston and . . . hang out for the evening.

That sounded like a missed opportunity, but I looked around and saw My Fair Lady was on tour from Broadway. I checked the tickets. There were cheap ones in not great locations, and expensive ones in better locations. I went with the expensive route. (Ever since I bought the cheap-o tickets to A Gentelman’s Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway, I’ve been a firm believer in getting good seats.) We rushed down and made it with time to spare.

The show was really good. Solid on acting, singing, and playing, though with a musical like My Fair Lady, it’s hard for me to separate it from the film adaptation, which I’ve seen many (many) times. The theater (Boston Opera House) was incredibly ornate. They had a string quartet playing for people as they came up the stairs in the lobby, and it was one of the nicest theaters I’ve been to. It wasn’t Wynton Marsalis, but it was still lots of fun.

For dinner, we ate at a vegetarian place called Life Alive. Denisa really liked it, though it was a tad too healthy for me. We were staying in Cambridge, which was a fun area of the city to be in, right next to MIT and close to Harvard. The student presence was strong. (The hotel was one of the free Marriott nights we get each year with the credit card.)

The next day, we headed to the Boston Temple before making our way back home by way of Portland. Stopped off for Indian food at a place called Taj, and shopped a bit at Trader Joe’s as well. All in all, a great trip, even if it wasn’t exactly what we’d planned. (I’ve got tickets to Sweeney Todd next month. If those fall through, I will be much more disappointed.)

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Italian Vacation: Rome

Our final city of the trip was Rome, and it’s the city where we spent the most time. It’s a large city with such a deep history, how could we do anything else? Because it’s so large, getting around it was more difficult than the other places we’d gone. Everywhere else, once we were in the city, we could mostly walk everywhere we needed to go. You can’t do that in Rome. (Also, you don’t want to do that, because it’s sweltering outside.) On the plus side, Rome has a fairly large public transportation network. On the minus, most of that depends on buses, and those are . . . not very on time. We were never quite sure if the bus was just seriously late or very early, and we made many mistakes about which stop to wait at. It was just plain confusing, though it also might be due to being very tired by this point.

Still, Rome didn’t disappoint. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

• St. Peter’s Basilica: Talk about ginormous. It’s the large (large) cathedral built over St. Peter’s grave. We first tried to hustle there right before it closed, but all that hustling was for naught. Instead, we went back on Sunday, which worked out very well. The place is very large, with lots to see, and we got to see mass and hear the organ music, which is always a plus. There’s Michelangelo’s Pieta, the tombs of so many popes, monuments to different popes of note, St. Peter’s grave, and a hike up to the dome which we didn’t do. (Though I’ve heard very good things about it.)
• Vatican Museum: This is also where you go to see the Sistine Chapel. I was amazed by just how much is on display here. Artwork for so many different masters. Treasures from throughout history. By the time you get to see the Sistine Chapel, you’re almost in sensory overload. I had always assumed the Chapel would be like so many of the other painted ceilings I’ve seen in palaces over the years, with Adam reaching out to God being the large centerpiece. Instead, it’s essentially one large painting. Adam and God is in the middle, but it’s no larger than any of the other scenes depicted. It really was incredible.
• The Colosseum was much bigger than I expected. It was also absolutely mobbed. Like with many places, however, there was a glut of people taking pictures at the literal first chance they could, but if you got away from there, things opened up and it wasn’t as packed. (And you could take better pictures.) That said, it didn’t take too long to actually see the place. It’s largely in ruins, after all, and without an organized tour, you’re really just checking out the massive scope of the place. I really liked it.
• The Roman Forum: A series of monuments built by Important Romans over the years, all kind of scattered around in the same area of the city. Daniela was a big fan, and she now wants to know more about archaeology. (A heads up: we bought the two day ticket for the Colosseum and the Forum. The first day, we went to both, but we were short on time, so we decided to come back and see more of the Forum the next day. When we came back, we discovered that “two day ticket” actually means “you can use the ticket either the first or the second day, but once you use it, you can’t use it again.” It does not mean “come both days.” So that was a bummer.)
• Circus Maximus: I thought this would be awesome. The site of chariot races? How could you go wrong? Instead, it’s basically a big open field with a lot of construction work in it, often used as a concert venue. There’s like one small ruin on one end, and that’s it. Underwhelming.
• The Stone of Truth: Famous from Roman Holiday, it’s the stone Audrey Hepburn visits that is supposed to bite your hand if you’re a liar. It’s also right next to the Circus Maximus, which helped make that trip feel more worthwhile. Yes, you essentially just wait in line to take a picture in front of the stone, but the kids really liked it. (Daniela liked recreating shots from the movie.)
• Catacombs of St. Callixus: The burial site of the popes before things in St. Peter’s really took off. This is where Christians were buried back in the early days, when they were still being fed to the lions on a regular basis. Seeing this firsthand made the persecution early Christians experienced much more real to me. These catacombs are enormous, and they estimate about 500,000 people were buried there over the years. Very much worth the bus ride.
• Trevi Fountain: The most famous fountain in the city. It’s generally mobbed unless you go early. It was pretty, but I had somehow expected more . . . fountains. Like, actual streams of water going every which way. Instead, it’s mainly just a regular fountain, but with great statues. Not a big fan of the crowds, though.
• Spanish Steps: The site of my biggest mistake of the trip. We went early to the steps and got there well before the crowds (which meant we could actually take some pictures with almost no one else in them.) However, it also meant we had enough space to race up the steps. First the kids gave it a shot, and then I decided I wanted to try as well. People, there are a lot of steps. A lot of steps. I bolted up them as fast as I could, thinking there were only as many as you can see from the bottom. But then they turn, and there are more steps. I made it to the top, but I felt awful for the next half hour. That wasn’t that smart. Don’t pull a Bryce, folks. Just walk up the steps.
• The Pantheon: Originally a Roman temple and now a Christian church, this was super interesting to see. We went early and were some of the first into the building that day, which was (again) a good call. Great to see the place without a big crowd. It still has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, 2000 years after it was built.
• Borghese Gallery: This was the one art museum we decided to visit in Rome. (Any more, and some of the kids would have started a revolution.) It was very nice, and quite compact. We saw the whole thing in under two hours, and it had some fantastic sculptures and paintings. Very worthwhile.
• Gelato della Palma: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this gelato place. It has 150 flavors of gelato to choose from, which was really incredible. We went twice, and we could easily have gone many more times. So much gelato, so little time.

Crowd levels were quite busy. I went out one evening to see things at night, and it was elbow to elbow walking down streets in popular areas. If you know me, you know how little I enjoyed that.

One thing I would do differently if I were to do it again would be to actually pay for some tours of the different places we went to. We sort of cobbled together the history with the small posted signs and some Wikipedia searches, but it would have been much more impactful to listen to someone who actually knew what they were talking about. (Of course, you’re never sure if you’re going to get a good tour guide or a bad tour guide, and with kids, “no tour guide” is definitely preferable to a bad tour guide.

Anyway, that wraps up my report on Italy for now. It was a great trip, and I’ve got lots of good memories from it now.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this PERFECT PLACE TO DIE Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Italian Vacation: Pisa

The way I figure, if you’re going to Italy, and you don’t take a stupid looking picture in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, have you really been to Italy? It’s only an hour train ride from Florence, and so we decided to do it as an afternoon trip on one of our days there. It took a bit to decide just how long to stay. You can get tickets to go up the tower, and to visit the church and baptistry there. In the end, we decided to just stick with seeing the outside.

The plan, when we left, was to head out of Florence at 4:30, get to Pisa at 5:30, walk to the tower, check it out, grab a bite to eat, and then come back on the 8:00 train, which should have theoretically given us plenty of time at the tower and to eat.

In practice, it ended up taking more time at the tower than we had anticipated. For one thing, you just underestimate how much time it takes to get a really good goofy tower pic. Everyone wanted their own, and when there are 11 of you, it doesn’t matter if you have multiple cameras. It’s going to take some time, especially because everyone wants to make one with their own style. It’s kind of like carving a pumpkin in that respect. You don’t all want to be identical.

So there were pics of people hugging the tower, leaning on the tower, stealing the tower, eating the tower, jumping in front of the tower, running from the tower. You get the idea. Meanwhile, there are hordes of other people doing the same thing, so you have to make sure to time your pics to have as few in them as possible.

Of course, there’s a ton (ton) of people taking pictures right where the main path leads out to the tower. It seemed like the perfect angle for it. We took a bunch there, but then we walked to the other side of the tower, and you could actually walk on the grass there, it was in the shade, and there weren’t nearly as many people. So if you go, remember that there are more angles to take a good picture from than just one.

Just as we were finishing pics, some of the group decided to see inside the church and baptistry, which took additional time. Long story short, we were too low on time to grab food in Pisa and make our train. This meant we were forced to just buy gelato, instead. I know. The sacrifices we make sometimes. I will say that there are much worse things than gelato for dinner . . .

Honestly, there isn’t much else to do in Pisa than what we did. Yes, we could have walked up the tower, but then you’re just looking out on Pisa, and it’s not like the town itself is famous. There were a few restaurants there, but there are many more in Florence. I think we timed things just about right, all things considered. Very glad we didn’t take more time in the city.

Of course, this begs the question, “Was it worth the trip?” I would say yes. The tower is world famous, and it’s not that much time to go see it. Would I go again? No. But once was far from a waste of time. Your mileage may vary.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this PERFECT PLACE TO DIE Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Italian Vacation: Florence

When I told people I was going to Italy, I was surprised by how many of them said, “So you’re going to Florence, right?” Honestly, Florence hadn’t even been on my radar, which shows just how ignorant I was when it comes to Italy. Florence, for those of you who (like me) don’t know, is the center of art in Italy, more or less. It was the birthplace of the Renaissance, so yeah: pretty important. We decided to stay there for three nights, though we didn’t get in until late on our first day (9:30pm). (Pro-tip: getting a bus in Florence is a pain in the rear, or at least it was for us, possibly because we came into a train station that wasn’t the main one. We ended up getting taxis, which were very reasonably priced. It just took an hour to figure out that was the way to go.)

We stayed right downtown, perhaps a block from the Duomo. It was B&B Le Stanz, and the rooms were nice, spacious, and well air-conditioned. (Too well air-conditioned, according to Daniela.) Being so central to the city was great in terms of getting around places. All the old sites were within walking distance.

Three days was probably a bit tight for a good stay in Florence (go figure), but at the same time, I think it was about right for a stay with family members ranging from 9 to much older than 9. The younger kids can only do so much when it comes to museums, after all. Here’s a rundown of what we did and what we ate:

• We started things off by going to the Accademia Gallery, home of the David and other Michelangelo statues. Seeing it in person really was stunning, and my kids were big fans of the musical instrument collection the museum had as well (including a Stradivarius violin and cello. Bonus!) We got tickets ahead of time, and we got them for as soon as the place opened, which was definitely a good move. We walked in, and there was hardly anyone there, giving us time to walk around the David at leisure and see everything with no crowds. A half hour later, the place was busy, and when we left an hour after that, it was packed. Way too many people. It’s not an enormous museum, which is also nice. Easy to see in a few hours.
• From there we went and got “smoothie bowls” at the Shake Cafe at the Via del Corso location. These were thick smoothies with toppings you could add, and they were so tasty, we went back for breakfast the next day. Highly recommended if you’re looking to switch things up from the same thing all the time.
• We toured the cathedral and baptistry, which were . . . different. From the outside the Duomo in Florence is just stunning, in green, pink, and white stone, it looked impressively unique. But once we got inside, the interior was disappointingly generic. I had somehow expected the interior would match the exterior. It didn’t. The baptistry was interesting, as it had once been used for baptisms by immersion until, according to the story, a child almost drowned getting baptized, so they shifted to the current baptism by sprinkling water.
• Outside the Duomo, there are a ton of street artists. Daniela had a great time checking each one out and asking them about their techniques, and she bought a painting to take home. It’s also a great spot to be at night, as there’s a lot of musicians around (and being a block or so from it made that very appealing.)
• We got sandwiches at L’Girone de Ghiotti. There were vegetarian options, but I had salami the first time and (since everyone liked them) spicy pepperoni the next time we went.
• The Basilica of Santa Croce was incredible. It’s the burial site for many famous Italians, from Michelangelo (with the memorial carved by Donatello) to Galileo. I really enjoyed walking up and down it, reading about the people there.
• In the evening, we caught some of the sunset at the Ponte Vecchio. It’s an old bridge with a bunch of shops on it. From afar, it looks great and is picturesque. When you’re actually on the bridge, it feels like you’re on a crowded street, and you can only see the river from the middle. Good for pictures, but that was about it.
• The next day, we started by going to the Pitti Palace first thing. Again, great to beat the crowds. (Actually, this is something we did often there. Head out early to see things, and then come back to the hotel in the afternoon, because it was dang hot. Then we’d head out again in the evening when things cooled off a smidge.) The palace was very impressive, with some great views of the city, and a cool ancient map collection. When we came out, a police band was giving a concert in the square by the palace. Totally unplanned, but a great coincidence. They were very good. I have no idea when they usually play there.
• Some of us headed to the Galileo Museum. This another small-ish museum, but it had a lot of cool exhibits, including Galileo’s telescope and (bizarrely) his middle finger. There are exhibits on how science has developed over the years in different fields. It was a very popular museum for the kids.
• In the biggest tragedy of the trip, we had tickets then to go to the Uffizi Gallery, one of the best art museums in the world. When we got there, it was completely shut down. Apparently the museum workers had decided to go on strike “until 3:15.” I have no idea how such specific strikes work, but it meant that we no longer had time to see the museum. Not cool. I suppose I’ll have to come back late. (Though to be fair, some of the kids were Far From Crushed about missing out on the museum.)
• We finished the day off by getting kebabs. You can never have too much kebab. That’s a fact.

It was a fun leg of the trip, and I’m very glad we went.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this PERFECT PLACE TO DIE Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.