Okay, so while in Hartford we had two days off. The first one came before our opening so we were put under "house arrest". We went to the mall (wahoo!) and had a fancy dinner. Not too bad considering we had only been there for less than a week and weren't fully exposed to the mind numbing boredom Hartford had to offer.
As the end of the second week was approaching, it was obvious to many of us that we had to get the f%#k out of Hartford for the day. Colleagues Allan Morgan, Mark Christmann and myself decided to escape to New York. The idea of staying overnight was sketchy considering the weather and the idea of getting stuck there was just too daunting, so, day trip it was.
We caught a 6:30 am (yikes!!) express bus into The Big Apple. We ran into "rush hour" as we approached Manhattan but the traffic that we are used to in our little cities is nothing compared to what we were facing here. What should have been a three hour bus trip turned into a four hour one because of the jam getting into the Port Authority. Here we were chomping at the bit to get on our adventure and we were stuck on a bus. (Slight side note here - in the morning, I wasn't going to waste precious sleep time by applying makeup or putting in contact lenses therefore, this task came up during the highway portion of the bus ride. Let me just say that I have a new skill to add to my resume!!)
We finally got into the Port Authority and my good friend Rick met us and took us to a great greasy spoon for some much needed breakfast. After that, they gents went off exploring on their own and Rick and I headed off to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). I'm not a big "art gallery / museum" kinda gal so Rick and I spent most of the time there making fun of stuff or creating names for the "untitled" pieces. Broken Wood Beam Stuck in Concrete was one of my favourites.
We wandered Broadway for a bit then ducked into The Palace to have a look around at all the poshy poshes. Then it was off to Canal Street (aka China Town) to see if we couldn't find a "Coach Bag" knock off. I'll give you a little back story on this one - Judi, my long time friend that is in the show with me, has a bit of an obsession with the Coach line of hand bags, wallets, etc. We stumbled upon an authentic Coach store while in the mall and I thought her head was going to pop off from excitement. I figured I'd search out the knock offs and see how they compared.
Here's where the real adventure takes place. There has been a major crack down in New York to the knock off industry so retailers are very careful about who they peddle such wares to. Mind you, as you walk down this section of street, shady looking men are whispering "Prada, Vitton, Coach" as if they were offering you smack. I asked for Coach in one place but didn't really like the ones he had available. I asked in another and the small Asian woman, looked us up and down (I imagine we didn't look like the "authorities"), then told us to follow her; warning bell number one. She lead us back onto the street and into a shopping arcade of sorts. We followed her up a flight of stairs (insert more jingling of alarm bells here), then she pointed to a store that had it's windows covered in newspaper and said, "My sister will meet you there." Rick and I exchanged "we're about to be murdered aren't we?" looks but before we could run for our lives the sister appeared and beckoned us to the store. She opened the door to reveal a small space filled with knock offs. Prada, Louis Vitton, Coach and some I'm sure I don't even know the name of. She showed me the Coach bags she had and out of them I found one that I liked. Of course I found one I liked...when have I ever not found a purse/bag that I liked. She wanted $40 US for it and considering I had seen that the authentic versions of this bag were close to $300 US, I figured I was getting a deal. The truth is, I knew the reaction from Judi would be worth the $40 even if the bag fell apart the next day. So I paid the woman and we escaped with our lives.
The remainder of the day was pretty cold so we spent it in a pub, a Starbucks (oooh the Chantico is so good!!!) and a restaurant. After dinner Rick took us to the bar at the Crowne Plaza for a drink, at which a surly waiter spilled mineral water on Allan's leg (and not in that "I'm picking you up sort of way"). By then it was close to 10 and we had to catch the return bus at 10:30.
Let me close by saying that the woman bus driver drove like a bat out of hell. I was surprised she didn't roll the sucker!!! We made it back in a couple minutes over two hours!!!
P.S. When we got back to the hotel I found Judi hanging out with a couple other cast members in the breakfast area on the second floor (aka Level 2 - we sort of took that area over for post show gaggling and tomfoolery). When she saw the bag she screamed so loud the security guard came up from the first floor to find out what was going on. Job well done, forty dollars well spent!!!
As the end of the second week was approaching, it was obvious to many of us that we had to get the f%#k out of Hartford for the day. Colleagues Allan Morgan, Mark Christmann and myself decided to escape to New York. The idea of staying overnight was sketchy considering the weather and the idea of getting stuck there was just too daunting, so, day trip it was.
We caught a 6:30 am (yikes!!) express bus into The Big Apple. We ran into "rush hour" as we approached Manhattan but the traffic that we are used to in our little cities is nothing compared to what we were facing here. What should have been a three hour bus trip turned into a four hour one because of the jam getting into the Port Authority. Here we were chomping at the bit to get on our adventure and we were stuck on a bus. (Slight side note here - in the morning, I wasn't going to waste precious sleep time by applying makeup or putting in contact lenses therefore, this task came up during the highway portion of the bus ride. Let me just say that I have a new skill to add to my resume!!)
We finally got into the Port Authority and my good friend Rick met us and took us to a great greasy spoon for some much needed breakfast. After that, they gents went off exploring on their own and Rick and I headed off to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). I'm not a big "art gallery / museum" kinda gal so Rick and I spent most of the time there making fun of stuff or creating names for the "untitled" pieces. Broken Wood Beam Stuck in Concrete was one of my favourites.
We wandered Broadway for a bit then ducked into The Palace to have a look around at all the poshy poshes. Then it was off to Canal Street (aka China Town) to see if we couldn't find a "Coach Bag" knock off. I'll give you a little back story on this one - Judi, my long time friend that is in the show with me, has a bit of an obsession with the Coach line of hand bags, wallets, etc. We stumbled upon an authentic Coach store while in the mall and I thought her head was going to pop off from excitement. I figured I'd search out the knock offs and see how they compared.
Here's where the real adventure takes place. There has been a major crack down in New York to the knock off industry so retailers are very careful about who they peddle such wares to. Mind you, as you walk down this section of street, shady looking men are whispering "Prada, Vitton, Coach" as if they were offering you smack. I asked for Coach in one place but didn't really like the ones he had available. I asked in another and the small Asian woman, looked us up and down (I imagine we didn't look like the "authorities"), then told us to follow her; warning bell number one. She lead us back onto the street and into a shopping arcade of sorts. We followed her up a flight of stairs (insert more jingling of alarm bells here), then she pointed to a store that had it's windows covered in newspaper and said, "My sister will meet you there." Rick and I exchanged "we're about to be murdered aren't we?" looks but before we could run for our lives the sister appeared and beckoned us to the store. She opened the door to reveal a small space filled with knock offs. Prada, Louis Vitton, Coach and some I'm sure I don't even know the name of. She showed me the Coach bags she had and out of them I found one that I liked. Of course I found one I liked...when have I ever not found a purse/bag that I liked. She wanted $40 US for it and considering I had seen that the authentic versions of this bag were close to $300 US, I figured I was getting a deal. The truth is, I knew the reaction from Judi would be worth the $40 even if the bag fell apart the next day. So I paid the woman and we escaped with our lives.
The remainder of the day was pretty cold so we spent it in a pub, a Starbucks (oooh the Chantico is so good!!!) and a restaurant. After dinner Rick took us to the bar at the Crowne Plaza for a drink, at which a surly waiter spilled mineral water on Allan's leg (and not in that "I'm picking you up sort of way"). By then it was close to 10 and we had to catch the return bus at 10:30.
Let me close by saying that the woman bus driver drove like a bat out of hell. I was surprised she didn't roll the sucker!!! We made it back in a couple minutes over two hours!!!
P.S. When we got back to the hotel I found Judi hanging out with a couple other cast members in the breakfast area on the second floor (aka Level 2 - we sort of took that area over for post show gaggling and tomfoolery). When she saw the bag she screamed so loud the security guard came up from the first floor to find out what was going on. Job well done, forty dollars well spent!!!
Up next....Lucy comes home!!!
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