Wednesday started so early for us. 4:30 am early (that's 3:30, Texas time!). I think we were crazy. We must of been. We took a 6 am subway up to Rockefller Center to try to get a spot outside Fox & Friends so that Mom could see us on her favorite news program (and let's face it, it's our favorite news program too). I was expecting crowds, crowds I tell you! Instead, there was no one. The windows were frosted or had Fox News writing all over them that you could hardly see inside the studio AND there was not a soul set up outside. So we gawked and then we decided to move on.
Fox News studio
And lo and behold a block down we came upon the Today show. And we just followed the crowd, straight into the plaza where we were all lined up outside a gated area. An outside set (Christmas trees, etc) was all set up and we stood there. And stood there. And stood there. For an hour and a half. In 26 degree weather. I told you we were crazy!!! Finally, Al Roker came out. Woo hoo! He seemed very nice and even went around the entire gates and shook hands with everyone. I like that. It's classy. Afterward, he and the crew got into place and delivered a quick weather report a few people down from me. While they played more of the weather segment, he moved down the line and stopped directly in front of yours truly and when they came back to the live feed, yours truly (and Jeff too!) were in the background. Probably looking as frozen as can be, but with a smile on our faces!
Me outside the Today show studio (freezing!) with great studio lighting
Jeff outside the Today show studio (so dang cute!)
Hey look! It's Al Roker!
After Al went back inside, we left! More show or not, it was 26 degrees outside (have I mentioned that already?!?!). So we went to go grab some coffee and wait for the NBC Studios to open at 8:30am so we could schedule our tour. I had heard good things.
Overall the tour is good. There's a pointless 10 minute video at the beginning that I could of gone without, history of NBC, etc. But afterward, we got to see Brian Williams studio, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon studio and some other behind the scenes stuff. I had heard that many people toured SNL studios but we didn't get to see it on our tour, which kind of bummed me out. But still worth it I say. After that was over, Jeff got us stand-by tickets for Jimmy Fallon that we had to come back for later in the day.
We left NBC Studios and then walked our way down to Central Park. On the way, we passed Saint Patrick's Cathedral. What a gorgeous building, embedded amongst high rises and in such an urban area. Nuts!
Saint Patrick's Cathedral
We also stopped by FAO Schwartz, so that Jeff could take his picture with Santa Claus (just kidding). But seriously, isn't this lego Santa amazing!?
Lego Claus & Jeff at FAO Schwartz
Weirdo Smurfs at FAO Schwartz (look closely)
After checking out the toy store, we headed to Central Park (literally across the street) and checked it out. We probably did not even cover 10% of the park, it's that big, but we made it past the zoo, past one of the "lakes", and down to a promenade called "the Mall". These parks (both here in NYC and Boston) are so amazing set in such an urban setting. So cool to see and the Parks Departments have done such a fantastic job of keeping them beautiful.
Kind of dark, but us in Central Park
"The Mall" - Central Park
iPhone shot
Central Park
Winter in Central Park
We decided to grab some lunch at a deli before heading back to our hotel. We tried out a place called Lindy's. I am no food critic, but this place was mediocre at best. Drinks (that would be Diet Coke) cost us $4.50/each (say WHAT!?!) and the sandwiches were also ridiculously overpriced. We decided to just pick up something easy (and cheap) for dinner that night (which is exactly what we did) to offset the ridiculousness of lunch.
Corned Beef Sandwich (Jeff) 
The Britney Spears - chicken salad (Colleen)After lunch, we came back to the hotel to chill for a bit, before heading back up to the NBC Studios to stand in line for standby tickets for the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. The experience was crazy. Each standby ticket has a number on it. We were #40 and #41, they must of distributed around 200 (we think). Then they line you up against a wall and tell you how many numbers they can take to the "next round" - today it was 128. Yay, we survived round #1.
We all headed upstairs, to wait for about 20 more minutes, when we were told that they had room for 52 people - uh, SCORE! We were in! See happy (or crazy) faces below:
Scored tickets to Jimmy Fallon's show!
ProofNo camera's were allowed, so everything past this point you'll just have to take me at my word. The studio is so much tinier than what you would think. Tiny. The standby tickets put all of us in the back three rows. No worries, I'll take it.
From here on out, the experience was completely AWESOME! I had no idea I would like it this much, but it was so much fun - you MUST try to get into either this show (or another) when you are in NYC (or LA). Totally worth it. They had a comedian warm up the audience, they explained a lot of htings they wer going to do. We had cues. We had interaction with the crew/cast. The Roots came out and were super awesome.
And his guests included, Amy Adams (of Julie & Julia fame), The Situation (of Jersey Shore fame) and a comedian (Adam Ferrar). They play everything on the monitors above too, so you can see how it's all put together. And yes, Jimmy Fallon did come through the audience at the end (roll credits) and both Jeff and I got to give him five :). The whole thing was just such a cool expereince.
Afterward, we came back to our hotel, and here we are still. Relaxing. And calling it a day. Tomorrow will be another busy one, but we are sleeping in! Till then, I'm out.
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