Our last night in New York, I surprised Steven with tickets to Stephen Colbert. We weren’t sure we would get in because we got general admission tickets, not the priority ones, but after luckily standing outside under the overhang for “West Side Story,” since it was raining, we got the coveted wristband. So did a man who had been waiting with us—an actor who plays Vincent Van Gogh in a one-man play by Leonard Nimoy (who also lives right near my daughter in LA). Yes, he did look like him, but no, he was not missing an ear.  A bomb-sniffing dog and metal detector later (How is it that I always manage to be in the line where the person in front of me doesn’t understand how a metal detector works and so needs 4-5 tries to get through it??), we were in the last row at the Ed Sullivan Theater waiting for Colbert.

Aside from the warm-up comedian, Paul Mercurio, who was funny in a get-the-audience-jazzed way, and a round of “Tequila” from John Batiste and Stay Human (who, btw, are really good as far as my untrained ear can tell), the man himself appeared. The show featured Anthony Mackie and Susan Glasser. Mackie was fun and interesting (although he and Colbert spent some time talking in the foreign language of fishing), and Glasser (who writes for the New Yorker about the Washington political scene if you were too lazy to follow the hyperlink) had thoughtful ideas about politics, which we try to not to mention here lest this blog becomes a rant.

After the show, it felt really late. We are used to watching the monologue and Meanwhile and then going to sleep, old people that we are. But, it was really not even 7 p.m. So we walked back toward the hotel and decided that since it was taco Tuesday,  we would indulge. We went to Dos Caminos, because it was around the corner from the hotel. We didn’t realize it is part of a huge restaurant chain (which we tend to try and avoid so we can have a local experience), but it was good and the tequila list was extensive.

We said goodbye to New York on Wednesday and took the Amtrak train up to Boston. I figure with the airport transportation to and from and the waiting etc., the train is an even swap for a flight and it’s more comfortable. (free wifi and more space between the seats made it easy for me to work during the trip- YAY?)

Our lovely niece picked us up at the train and we just hung out with Steven’s brother and caught up.

Steven was working all day Thursday (remember, this is a working vacation) so I worked, too. (I did manage to have lunch with an old friend who lives here and I made sure that we went to a restaurant where I had my choice of MEAT as my brother, his family and Sue are all vegetarians so I am terribly outnumbered.) I did get in a long walk along a path nearby. I forgot the New England look so it a nostalgic few miles for me as I looked at the grand houses, pine trees, and stream. Oh, plus the high school kids practicing lacrosse.