Megh and I recently celebrated our anniversary (22 years!), and we took the train to White River Junction, Vermont, for an overnight to celebrate.
On the train to Vermont
The weather started clear and warm, and we ate dinner outside.
The town holds an annual parade for Halloween called “Gory Daze.” It started at 9 pm and featured a few hundred young adults in costumes and small marching band. We didn’t know about it until we saw the participants gathering in front of the local museum. It’s a hoot!
The next morning was cold, cloudy, and (eventually) rainy. We walked around a bit to check out the town.
The Connecticut River from White River Junction
We started by heading across the river to a breakfast place in New Hampshire, then came back to do a little shopping. About the only thing open on a Sunday morning was the local co-op grocery store. We picked up some maple donuts and oatmeal cookies for the train ride home, and some local syrup for Meghan to give to her coworkers.
Meghan gave me an awesome Christmas present: tickets to see Neil Gaiman read from his latest book, Norse Mythology at The Town Hall on February 9, 2017 in New York City. She only purchased two tickets and it’s a Thursday night. Too bad kids — you’re staying home! (We arranged for our neighbor’s adult daughter Sam to stay with the girls for the night).
As the day approached I watched the weather forecasts with growing interest. Snow was forecast for Thursday, the day of the event and the day we planned to travel to NYC. By Tuesday the forecast was clear: snow, and possibly a blizzard. Driving to NYC was out of the question, and flying would be problematic as well. We have easy access to trains, though, assuming they would run in a blizzard.
The storm could not wait to arrive and it was snowing hard by the time we left the house for our local train stop. In order to head south on Amtrak, we take commuter rail from our house to Boston’s North Station, the subway (or walk when the weather is nice, which is to say not this time) from North Station to South Station, and pick up Amtrak there. The Amtrak train was scheduled to depart at 11:15, so we left the house by 9 am to catch everything on time. As usual, we forgot a few minor things like toothbrushes, and had to purchase them when we got there.
We watched people skating at the park for a while, until the pink unicorns came out — then it was time to leave.
Amazingly enough, train service ran perfectly despite being a real, legitimate, certified blizzard. We had periods where we could not see the landscape at all, but the train continued to rock along at 100+ mph (verified via Waze on Meghan’s phone). The ride from South Station to Penn Station is about 4 ½ hours.
By the time we got to NYC the snow had wound down, though it continued to snow back home for another six hours. The streets were messy and wet, with snow piled up at every corner. The hotel is only a few blocks from Penn Station, a few blocks from Times Square, and a few blocks from The Town Hall — NYC is great that way.
I still wonder what she’s thinking here
We ate dinner around the corner from our hotel at the Beer Authority. The food was yummy, the beer selection is well-curated, and we had a very enjoyable time. (I thoroughly enjoyed a Founders Porter and Meghan tried a Timmerman’s Strawberry Lambic that was surprisingly tasty.)
We popped out of the hotel, went around the corner, and had a (relatively) great view of the Empire State Building
We killed a little more time before the show by wandering the local neighborhood. Times Square is always blindingly bright, but within a few blocks are much nicer views.
Finally, the main event: Neil Gaiman. “Norse Mythology” was finished some time before the 2016 election, and every story in it is a faithful retelling of stories from the original eddas, but the story he chose to read was eerily appropriate: a book about the gods building a wall around Asgard to keep the ice giants out. The reading was followed by a pair of previews, one for the American Gods miniseries (based on his excellent book), and one for a movie adaptation of an old story of his, How to Talk to Girls at Parties. Finally, he came back out with Ophira Eisenberg for a Q&A session. Mr. Gaiman is, by turns, very thoughtful and very funny. Despite the cramped seats made for midgets with abnormally short legs we really enjoyed ourselves.
Neil Gaiman. He read a segment from his latest book, Norse Mythology, about building a wall around Asgard
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and killed some more time waiting for our 11 am train. We visited the Empire State Building’s lobby and checked out a few adjoining blocks. Our train was delayed for nearly an hour due to “missing equipment”, but we got back to Boston by dark and back to our car by 6 pm. (Rush hour on the subway is never fun, but all in all it wasn’t too bad.) Glad to be home!
As the day approached I watched the weather forecasts with growing interest. Snow was forecast for Thursday, the day of the event and the day we planned to travel to NYC. By Tuesday the forecast was clear: snow, and possibly a blizzard. Driving to NYC was out of the question, and flying would be problematic as well. We have easy access to trains, though, assuming they would run in a blizzard.
