NYC Trip

Finally. I burnt the midnight oil last night and got through all the pictures from Steve and I's trip to New York. I'm warning you, this is a looooooooong post!

We just explored the first day and got familiar with the city. We saw Rockefeller Plaza and where they filmed NBC's Today show so we would know where to go Monday morning for the live taping. ;) Walked through Bryant Park and explored Times Square. We stayed in the W Hotel right there in the heart of it. Thanks to Nate and Meri for the recommendation!



We took a night tour of the city that first evening and ended up getting poured on on our way back from Brooklyn, but right before that happened, I got some killer lightening shots. It was so cool!

I thought this was kind of a creepy picture of that wedge building! I got a daytime and less creepy one on another day.


You can see the Statue of Liberty in the bottom left of both of those if you look close. ;) (click on them to see them bigger)

We took a day tour of the city Sunday morning in an attempt to get to the ferry to Ellis Island and see the Statue of Liberty up close, but the line was SO long that we didn't have time to do that and still make it to our broadway show that afternoon... so we just saw more city. Battery Park, Wall Street, Ground Zero... are just a few. A couple pics...
See? Not as creepy. :)




We went to Wicked on Sunday afternoon and it was so good! Steve loved it too. I only brought my little cam that day though...
Here is the stage before it started. Had to be sneaky... no photography allowed! ;)

We ate dinner at Serendipity after the play and had their famous frozen hot chocolate. It was really good! I wish I had thought to pull out my camera while we were there. We went to the top of the Rockefeller Center that night after dinner. There was a lightening storm again and a bit of rain. I guess it was because of the record heat out there... one day it was 100* and 40% humidity. YUCK. Walking around all day was not the greatest in those temps. ;)

Monday morning we got up early (but not crazy early!) and saw the taping of the Today show. Matt Lauer is a pretty small guy! I was a little suprised. But everyone was as nice in person as they seem on the show. Got a close up shot of Hoda Kotb who hosts the last hour of the show... not a good one, but a close one. haha!


After the Today show, we went over to Dave Letterman to see if we could get tickets for a taping of that show. After about 30 min. in line and an interview... we left to go shopping and wait for a phone call saying they had seats for us. We saw Central Park, Fao Schwartz, Bloomingdales, etc and finally got a call. We went to pick up tickets and they put a blue dot on the back of ours. No one else was getting a blue dot so we were nervous that we were picked to be made fun of. ;) But, it actually meant that we were selected to sit in the first 2 rows of the Ed Sullivan Theater! That was really fun... It was an okay show - Tom Brokaw, some model, and Gnarls Barkley. It was mostly fun seeing Dave himself! :)

We did a little more shopping Tuesday morning before we had to leave to catch our plane and had lunch at the Olive Garden. I know, so lame for being in NYC with all the choices. But, I was ready to have a familiar meal for a change. ;) It was a cool Olive Garden though and we had a table overlooking Times Square! Can't get that at home. ;)
Our flight was supposed to leave around 4pm on Tuesday, but after boarding we sat on the runway for 4 1/2 hours. We couldn't take off because of bad weather. All the gates were occupied, so we couldn't de-board either. Steve and I didn't even have seats by each other, so that stunk. :( After our 4 1/2 hour wait, we took off and flew down, almost to Atlanta before we headed to Salt Lake. It was a LONG day and we got home finally around 2:30am Wednesday morning. Scarlett woke up at 5:30 that morning and was so excited when she saw Steve that she wouldn't go back to bed. Kanyon was up a 1/2 hour later... so we were exhausted. But it was so nice to be back home with the kids and they were so happy to see us. :) Kanyon told us how he watched us on TV. Our babysitter tivoed the Today show and he watched us on there like 4-5 times.

We had such a good time, but we've decided that NYC cannot be called a vacation. ;) Steve's looking forward to our next trip where we can lay on the beach somewhere!