Sweeney Todd....the demon barber of Fleet Street

For Christmas this year, I was presented with tickets to see Josh Groban, who is once again performing on Broadway.   This year, he is delighting viewers with his role in Sweeney Todd, where he plays the role of the demon barber.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, having briefly read the storyline, but I enthusiastically booked a hotel months ago, in anticipation of the event, basing my choice on my previous trip last year with the girls.  After all, when you find a place that suits in New York City, you might as well stick with it....right?

So, Marty and I headed out yesterday, bright and early, driving into the city with the hopes of a little exploring prior to the 3:00 pm performance.  We were making great time, exiting the Lincoln Tunnel way before noon, headed on our way to the hotel parking lot.  We did notice that traffic was extremely heavy, but didn't give that much thought.....until......we went to make a turn as directed, and there was a blue barricade blocking us from entering the street.  

We traveled a few more blocks, only to find ourselves in repeat.  A quick google search, and I learned that yesterday the city hosted a half marathon, which began in Brooklyn and finished in Central Park.  As our Gps kept directing us to "turn right",  I located a map for the race online, and quickly determined that the only way to achieve our goal was to drive west, travel down to the middle of Central Park, scoot through the transverse (that part was a breeze), then head back on 5th Avenue, turning on 51st street.  This way, we would be able to enter from the opposite direction, as 7th Avenue was closed.  

It was a clever plan...don't you think? And we were finally making our turn onto 51st street with just a block and a half to go.  And, what do we see?  A blue barricade with a policeman standing behind it.  Our hearts sank. 

As we sat at the light, I decided to pop out of the car, cross the street, and throw myself at the mercy of the policeman manning the barricade.  (Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic)....But I did very sweetly ask him if he could help me....and he was actually quite happy to do so.

In the meantime, Marty took advantage of a break in traffic, and worked his way to the spot where the man moved the barrier so that he could squeeze the car by (without hitting any pedestrians....that was key) , and we could finally breathe a sigh of relief.  

The result was that we reached our destination an hour and a half after entering Manhatten.  Obviously, the garage wasn't busy (since no one could get on the street to enter the building), so we had no issues handing over the keys, grabbing our luggage, and making our way to the hotel lobby.   We couldn't check in yet, so we handed over our bags and headed out to find the theater.

It wasn't far from our hotel and there was no one in site when we managed to capture a photo in front of the sign outside. 

We popped inside a nearby restaurant for a quick bite to eat.  (the beer belongs to the photographer). 

The ambiance was quite lovely, and this large mural on the wall was really quite clever, filled with so many familiar faces from films over the years. 

Having recouped from our driving adventure, we headed outside, only to find ourselves in a throng of people who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere....all lining up to see Sweeney Todd. (Good thing we took that photo earlier!)  We  headed in the opposite direction of the theater, because that was where the end of the line could be found.  But the staff at the theater were extremely efficient at getting the people in and seated in relatively short time, all while treating us as valued guests.  How great is that? 

This was a "preview" performance of the musical, and I will admit that at the beginning, I had a bit of difficulty understand the words as the ensemble began singing the lyrics of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd".  But as the show  progressed, that problem seemed to vanish, and I was able to absorb the content without issue.

Let's face it....the plot is rather macabre,  but the musical performance manages to capture the audience's sense of humor with some extremely entertaining puns thrown in for fun during some of the musical scores.  Annaleigh Ashford plays the role of Mrs. Lovett to perfection, complete with a convincing cockney accent.  She had the audience in stitches numerous times through the performance. 

And as I mentioned, Josh Groban played the role of Sweeney Todd, and there's no doubting his entertainment value.  My eardrums nearly burst at the roar of approval from the audience as they applauded, hooting and hollering, at the end of the performance.   He had missed the prior three shows, due to illness, and I think the audience was eager to show their appreciation at his return.  I know that we were certainly happy to hear him!

The show lasted nearly three hours, and, afterwards, we did a quick check in at our hotel, then headed out to an Italian Restaurant, Azaleas, which was just a block away.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner to end our day.  

About the play......let me just end on this note:

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd

He served a dark and vengeful god

What happened then, well, that's the play

And he wouldn't want us to give it away....

Guess you'll just have to find out what happens yourself!   

 

Back in Wytheville

When we decided to make this trip, I chose Wytheville as a stopping point along the way.  We enjoyed the town so much, we knew that it would be the perfect place to stop on our continued travels along the way to Pittsburgh.  

Our hotel is the Bolling Wilson hotel located on Main Street, and what makes it a treasure is that one can sleep without highway noise pounding your ears.  

Although I must admit that the heating system in the room does sound like a UFO taking off every few minutes as I write this.  Perhaps we'll be beamed up while we sleep.  Guess we'll find out tomorrow. 

The hotel takes its name from Edith Bolling Wilson, First Lady to Woodrow Wilson, who was actually born across the street in the upstairs apartments across the street.

There is a lot of  history here regarding the First Lady's role during her husband's term as President, and one of the features of which I was completely unaware was the grazing of sheep on the White House Lawn during World War I.   Apparently there were a lot of complaints from the locals at the time, and Wilson was sure to make it publicly known that those very same sheep served their country by contributing wool from which uniforms were made for soldiers. 

And so, the sheep are recognized for their service here at the Bolling Wilson Hotel. 

Honestly, don't we find the most interesting facts on our adventures? 

We began our day in Asheville, once again enjoying a scrumptious breakfast that included a fruit parfait and blueberry puff. 

I decided that it was worth tempting you by showing photos of the delights so that you could see just how delectable our breakfasts were.  Just to backtrack:  fresh fruit salad with a ham/cheese/potato casserole

and black cherry yogurt parfaits with strawberry french toast. 

Is your mouth watering yet?    Believe me.....each were scrumptious!

We then hopped in the car and headed to Tennessee for a quick visit with my cousin, Lenka, and her family

which included Buddy who was an extremely entertaining part of our visit.

Lenka's husband prepared a tasty lunch, and we sat around the table, catching up and enjoying each other's company for well over four hours.  It was a quick, but certainly meaningful trip, and we are so grateful that we had the chance to visit them, even if for just a short time.  

We said our fond farewells and headed back to Wytheville, but not before a quick stop at the Bush's Baked Beans visitor center.  (Did you even know that existed?)

Unfortunately, it had just closed, but that didn't stop us from grabbing a few photos.

Certainly an entertaining ending for another remarkable day.

Until next time.....

Out and About in Asheville

 We started the day with another yummy breakfast, and headed out to explore the wonders of Asheville. 

Our first stop was Biltmore Historic Village, which, unlike what its name implies, is actually a glorified shopping mall, with modern day fashion shops disguised as Shakespearean structures and brick sidewalks to emulate Victorian era streets.  Marty and I aren't really "shoppers," so we found this to be a bit disappointing. So much for "stepping back in time"  as the online description had suggested. 

I did spot this Evangelical Church, built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt.   It is marked as being on the Register of Historic places, and appears to have held up quite well over the years. 

What you can't see is that there are five bells, hanging horizontally under the front peak.  Quite a unique structure, and I felt that it exemplified Vanderbilts' Dutch heritage beautifully. 

From here, we headed to the next venue of interest:  Grove Arcade.  Along the way, we passed this mural that seemed to be calling my husband's name. 

But, we aren't here to fish.  So, we made our way to the Arcade, snagging a parking place right outside the front.  The building brought back memories of Jenkins' arcade in Pittsburgh, which I recall visiting as a kid, but this was much more "sophisticated".

Unique boutique-type stores lined the downstairs, and the middle and top floors were designated as offices and suites.  But, you can see the beauty of the interior.

One of the unique shops was The Woodrow Instrument Company.  A young man was working on the detail of one of these unique instruments.

There are four different styles, each unique to the sound of a different instrument:  guitar, banjo, mandolin and lute. The man who founded the company wanted to design an instrument that would be easy to play for anyone.  He believes: "If you got one finger and you can count to seven, you can play the Woodrow."  Something to keep in mind, as I'd say most of us fit the criteria. 

There was one more shop that caught my attention.  It was bookstore/slash restaurant, which was loaded with shelves bursting with just about any title of book you could want.  But, I was actually amused by what else the place had to offer.  There were loads of bottles of Champagne, as well as lunch options.  As you can see, pastries for dessert, and extremely interesting wall decor.  To top it off, the employees wore white fluffy halos upon their heads.  Definitely not anything you'd be seeing back home!

The outside of the Arcade was guarded by lionlike statues, each with their own given name. 

(I have no idea who named them.)

We took a quick jaunt around the exterior of the building, but there wasn't much more of interest to us, so we decided to head to the Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of town, to see what it had to offer. 

I'll be frank.  It's early March, and there isn't much happening in respect to gardens at this time.  But I did spot a splash of pink growing on a rock formation,

and a beautiful blooming cherry tree adding yet a different shade of pink to admire, 

and a Purple Toadshade which I had actually never seen before.

The grounds are laid out with graveled paths, some lined with rock walls, making it a relatively easy to maneuver and pleasant to view.

At the edge of the gardens, stands the Hayes Memorial Cabin , built in 1893.  

It was donated to the Botanical Gardens in 1965, by Hubert Hayes' widow, Leona, but there is no explanation to the origins of the cabin.  I can only presume that Hayes was born in the cabin in 1901.  Hayes is a local celebrity and is known for being  an author, folklorist and the founder of Asheville's Mountain Jamboree.  

The entire botanical walk took us all of 20 minutes so we obviously had plenty of daytime left for another adventure.  So, we headed towards the Blue Ridge Parkway, and began making our way north to Craggy Pinnacle. 

 

The road was beautiful, well maintained, and offered some incredible vistas as we worked our way up in elevation.

There were designated pull-offs along the way, each one strategically placed to offer an amazing view. 

Here you see the sign for the "Bull Creek Valley" view from an elevation of 3,483 feet:

Upon the sign one reads: 

 THE LAST BUFFALO SEEN IN THIS LOCATION WAS KILLED NEARBY IN 1799 BY JOSEPH RICE AN EARLY SETTLER.  

Does anyone else find this to be extremely interesting?  I have so many questions:  Who would be keeping a record of the number of buffalo killed, with the last being in 1799?  Was a record made every time one was killed?  How would they know when it was the "last" one to be killed?  Why inscribe this upon a plaque for all to remember?  And, do you think that Joseph Rice wants to be remembered as the man who gave up the last buffalo here?  Ok, I'll stop.  Something tells me that you don't know the answers anymore than I. 

Continuing our drive, you can see how the vistas became more and more remarkable, and it's obvious why this is called the "Blue Ridge Parkway." 

Our final stop was at nearly 6000 feet.  The mountains seemed to roll on forever in the distance. 

What an amazing view, don't you agree? 

We certainly did manage to make the most out of this last day in Asheville!  Hope you enjoyed traveling along with me!

Until next time....

Gallivanting in Asheville

You might have guessed that Marty and I are on a little adventure....this time just a wee bit southeast of Bristol...in Asheville, NC.  We find ourselves settled into a charming B&B, called the Beaufort House Inn, which is a "rescued" Victorian Mansion, built in 1895. 

 It was once scheduled to be demolished and replaced with a parking lot, but, luckily, a couple purchased the property and worked hard to have it listed in the National Register as a Historic property.  I had read that Paul Newman and his wife had once lived in the house and when I investigated a bit further, I learned that the couple actually rented a room here, in 1947, for one year prior to his moving to California to pursue a career in acting.  Can't say that would be a priority on my list for staying here, but the convenience, quiet, and awesome breakfasts certainly have me sold!

We're just here for a few days, and since today featured bright blue skies with sunshine, and temperatures in the low 60's, we decided to head out to Biltmore Estate to wander about the grounds.  One travels a small path from the parking lot, and walks right into this view!

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

The house was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt, grandson of the shipping magnate, Cornelius.

It stands presently on 8000 acres nestled among countless rolling mountains, as you can see in the distance. 

As I mentioned, the skies were brilliant, which only added to the beauty of this magnificent building.

We chose to purchase the grounds ticket without the house tour, as we wanted to really enjoy this magnificent day.  As you can see, some of the trees are just beginning to bud.

And the gardens were planted with early spring flowers to enjoy.

The conservatory to the back of the gardens was bursting with loads of colorful tropical flowers.

So many different blooms to enjoy! 

We decided to hike some of the trails, and headed out to Bass Pond to begin our adventure.

Marty, of course, spied several bass, and you can bet he was looking for some at the base of this waterfall as well. 

I spotted this group of daffodils popping up, just along the edge of a stream. How brilliant is that?

The river itself offered some beautiful vistas with the mountains in the distance. 

We decided to head back to the parking lot, and after climbing uphill for what seemed to be ages (and exhausting), we spotted our intended destination in the distance.

Just a few more quick photos

then we hopped in the car and drove over to Antler Hill to check see what it had to offer. 

Included with our Grounds package was a complimentary Wine Tasting event.  Getting to the tasting room was an experience in itself.  The tunnel went on for quite some distance. 

The experience was quite fun, and we were asked to pick 5 different wines to sample.  All of the wines are made and bottled by Biltmore, and, I must say, we did enjoy all of our choices. 

Nearby, there was a small museum devoted to the story of George Vanderbilt, and he and his wife, Edith's love story.  It really was quite fascinating learning so many facets of his life, as I was completely unfamiliar with his story.  One aspect of interest was that George loved to travel, and as part of that venture, he loved to collect unusual items.  No worries, I'm not going to post a long list of George's acquisitions, but I must say, that his fascination with Napolean intrigued me.

And, here you see an original chess set that belonged to Napolean himself. 

Bet you haven't seen one of those before! 

We originally planned on spending the entire day on the grounds, since it is open until 9:00 pm, but we found ourselves quite spent (perhaps it was that wine tasting?) , so we decided to head out to dinner, then spend a quiet evening in our quiet B&B.  

A pleasant ending to a lovely day!