I’m finally getting around to writing about our trip to NYC and I’m going to get through everything I’m going to have to break it up into a couple of posts.  Jen and I had a fantastic time and we managed to cram in all kinds of stuff in the short time that we were actually there.

On Friday morning we started out and headed to Rockefeller Plaza to see NBC Today in person. (No, we didn’t get on TV.) Since it was a Friday they had the outdoor concert series going with special musical guest Earth Wind and Fire. I don’t want to say that I’m not a fan of EWF, okay, I’ll be honest, I’ve never really listened to enough EWF to know if I’m a fan or not, but the following week the musical guest was Phil Collins so lets be honest, we got gipped. It’s not like we had front row seats, or even a good view for that matter, so I don’t feel like it was that much of a loss.  The concert area and the outdoor studios that the Today show uses are across the street from each other and we managed to position ourselves at the back entrance to the studio so we got pretty good looks at Campbell Brown, Matt Lauer, and Al Roker as they were moving from concert to studio.

After EWF had completed their performance we walked around to the front of the studio to get a glimpse of interviews but security was pretty heavy and kept people moving so we didn’t get a chance to linger very long. However, we did manage to linger long enough to see Ann Curry doing an interview with someone and Cambell Brown do an interview with Jean Chatsky from Money magazine.  Total Celebrity Sightings: 5.

After the Today show wrapped up we went on the NBC Studio Tour where we actually got to stand in the Dateline studio, the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams studio, and view the Saturday Night Live Studios. We never bumped into anyone famous walking the halls but it was still neat to see the studios in person. Each studio is much smaller then they appear on television, especially the SNL studio. Both the Nightly News and SNL air live with no tape delay in the Eastern TZ so if they screw up it goes on the air as is. Brian Williams writes about 95% of all his own news copy so what he reads during the broadcast is what he wrote himself. The tour guide said he is typically in the building from about 9:00am to 9:00pm every day to make sure that when the news airs across all time zones he doesn’t have to update any of the stories in the event that things have changed. The SNL studio was originally built to broadcast symphonies so apparently it has very good acoustics for musical performances. The tour guides comment was that if the band you hear during SNL sounds horrible it’s because they are. (They didn’t bring up and I didn’t have the guts to ask about the Ashlee Simpson lip syncing incident but I have to think that would be an exception.)

With the NBC tours wrapped up we walked on over to the United Nations. The guide book we had suggested “for an unusual treat try a multi-ethnic meal while visiting the UN at the Delegates’ Dining Room.” With voracious appetites we entered the UN only to find out the guide book apparently failed to mention that to get to the Delegates’ Dining Room you had to pass through security and to pass through security you needed to know someone inside the UN to sign you in. We ended up settling for multi-ethnic UN Coffee Shop kosher hot dogs instead.

The official UN tour was pretty interesting. You go into the Security Council Chamber, the Tursteeship Council chamber, and the Economic and Social Council Chamber which are all different branches of the UN. The tour then culminates with a visit to the General Assembly chamber which is the one you typically see pictured in the media. After the tour you can explore the UN grounds but unfortunately for us the main garden had been closed off by the Secret Service for “someone really important.” And before everyone asks, yes it looks just like it did in “The Interpreter,” though now that I’ve been there I want to see the movie again since I have a better idea of where things are.

When we were done at the UN we walked back to the hotel for a little rest but not before stopping at the Grand Central Terminal just to say we’ve been there.

We wrapped up the day by going to see the Broadway show “The Wedding Singer” which was fantastic. I highly recommend it if you can see it.  I still liked Mama Mia more since I’m such a big Abba fan but this came in a close second.

We were still on our celebrity look out and who was sitting two rows behind us during the show but David Copperfield. You read that right, we had better seats then David Copperfield. I’m not quite sure how that happened but somehow we managed to pull it off.

After the show we were walking up 45th Avenue heading towards Times Square when we passed the Bernard Jacobs Theatre that was showing “Three Days of Rain“, which was the Broadway show starring Julia Roberts. There was a huge crowd gathered outside the theatre entrance we assumed trying to catch a glimpse of Julia Roberts but it turns out she had left just before we got there but we managed to catch glimpses of her co-stars Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd as they were leaving. Total Celebrity Sightings: 8.

After walking around Times Square for a bit we headed back to the hotel where we collapsed in bed from exhaustion.  Actually, I take that back, we did make one stop on the way back to the hotel to listen to NYC’s emanate Barry White impersonator caroon at the corner of 6th Ave and 50th.