Day 8- Empire State Building and the Rockettes

We've done a great job at sleeping in every day! Totally unintentional, but it feels like we're still on mountain time. :-)

For lunch we went to Heartland Rotisserie at the bottom of the Empire State Building (ESB). I just had to show this picture of our soup. It was squash and apple soup. Oh my word... I need this recipe!

So I guess it wouldn't be a trip to a big city without getting "taken". Lol A group of people were selling tickets on the street to go up in the ESB. They were "VIP" passes and for an extra $10, we could bipass the long lines inside. So we agreed to the $10 extra, but upon looking at the receipt later, we noticed they had charged $40 extra per person! Ummm yeah. :-) Plus the guy pleaded for a $100 or $50 tip. 

The sights from the top... Breathtaking! 

We were hoping for a sunny, clear day, and it was!

Part of the city is enshrouded by the shadow of the ESB.

After returning from the ESB, we went to the New York Library, which is pretty close to us, and sits behind Bryant Park. I just love this building!! 

The bookstore inside was fantastic. 

Tonight was the Radio City Christmas Spectacular! Since I was a little girl, I've wanted to see the Rockettes. This was the night. :-) On our walk to get there, we walked by a European couple very dressed up. The man was in a tux with 3 medals hanging from the middle of his shirt. The top one was a crown. I think they were attached with a blue ribbon. Any idea in what kind of royalty? I was curious.

The Radio City Music Hall is a gorgeous venue. 

The Rockettes' famous toy soldier routine. Amazing!

Lots of beautiful Christmas songs...

The live nativity...

The girl taking our photo didn't focus on us, but that's okay! Lol

Getting in the Christmas spirit extra early this year! :-)

For a late dinner, we went to Connolly's, an Irish place. Our waitress had the best Irish accent. :-) 

Another full day, and great memories made! 

Day 7- Today Show & Bus Tour

Today dawned bright and early... Only it was before dawn because it was 4:30am. :-) We decided to be crazy and walk down to NBC to get on The Today Show. There was a line forming when we got there, and a food truck was giving out free breakfast. Apparently, we were told, Thursdays are the best days to get on the show. 

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

They had an area where you could make a sign to hold. We were lame and didn't come up with anything super clever to say. :-) 

Lots of waiting and drumming up the crowd. We did see all the morning show anchors. Al Roker was doing "Rokerthon" to surpass the world record for giving weather forecasts 34 hours in a row. He was enclosed in his little weather reporting room- we saw him, but he didn't come outside. The other anchors may have come outside later in the show, but the wind was awful and we were chilled to the bone and left after awhile. 

We were in the first row of people, and it did look like we got taped for some of the group shot feed, but who knows. :-) It was a fun experience though.

Later in the broadcast, they were going to attach the Swavarski crystal star atop the Christmas tree.

All we wanted to do was get warmed up! We stopped at Pershing Square for breakfast with the best hot chocolate! 

In the afternoon we went on a bus tour of the downtown. In one of the metro stops this group was playing big band style music, and were marvelous!

The bus made a few stops and we got off at the Freedom Tower 9/11 memorial. The Brooklyn Bridge was nearby too. You've already seen pictures of the memorial... We walked a ways on the bridge to see some of the skyline. Very cool.

One of the main things we wanted to stop and see on our tour was the Statue of Liberty. But- for some unknown reason, the bus didn't actually stop there. It was supposed to, and we kept waiting for that stop on our map guide, but we noticed the driver would just drive by some of the main stops. It was getting cold and starting to sprinkle, so maybe that's why?  A bit of a letdown, but the guide was fantastic and super knowledgeable. Oh, for lunch at the bridge, we decided to get street food. I got a chicken kebab, and it was not cooked through. Into the garbage it went! Lol 

Funny sign along the way. 

George Washington lived here for a time.

We also saw where people bought tickets to ride the Titanic.

And...FIT, for all my fashion friends. ;-)

We ended up going back to Two Boots again for supper, because it was so close and delicious. Ok so the waitress recognized us from the night before. When she asked what we wanted to eat, she rattled off what I had previously, before I had a chance to spit the words out! Lol "Small gluten free pizza with cheese, creole chicken, black olives, and garlic." Ha. She was right- great memory!

Day 6- Rockafeller Center

Today Jer took the witness stand and was questioned and cross examined for 1.5 hours! But when his part was finished, he got the rest of the day off at 11am! A day and a half ahead of schedule! More time to play... :-)

Chilaxing on the club patio. I wish we had a cool deck like this.

No-coat-November! It was so warm today!

We ventured a short jaunt over to Rockafeller Center to see the famous ice rink and Christmas tree. They'll do the tree unveiling when the lights come on.

A huge job stringing the lights! 

Trimmings in the foreground...

We visited the Lego store and loved the colored bins!

Rockefeller Center in Legos.

Gotta say, the rink is super tiny, but very festive!

We walked through the NBC store and got our photo with Matt Lauer lol.

We were handed tickets to see Late Night with Seth Meyers.

While waiting for the monologue to start, we killed time by having lunch and doing a bit of shopping. Sorry New York, but you don't know how to make French fries like Idaho does!! ;-) 

So those that know me know that Anthropologie is my favorite store in the world. And the New York store? Unbelievable!  Our precious Boise store is great, but doesn't have a shoe section and personal shoppers. Lol 

The Lego store to Jeremy was what the American Girl store was to me. ;-) It took me back to my childhood and was a dreamland! Thankfully I still have one young niece to get doll clothes for. ;-)

Three floors of doll bliss.

Back at the rink, we had someone take our photo. And then...

 Five seconds later, I fell going up the stairs. I've been so "trippy" here!! My hot chocolate landed upside down, I landed on my purse which had my camera in it, and hurt my pride a bit. Lol embarrassing.  Just a few bruises, but most importantly, my camera was unscathed.

So to watch Seth Meyers' monologue rehearsal, we stood in some long, tiring lines. :-) Each late show like this has a rehearsal, where the producers and writers figure out what jokes Seth should actually tell on the recorded show. We were the test audience to see what jokes we laughed and found funny, and which were not funny. I'd never seen him before (or heard of him?) but it was such a fun experience.

The recording studio he is in was also where the original Jeopardy was filmed, and many other shows. We also walked by the set of Saturday Night Live. Seth was very friendly and yes, funny. We had free tickets to see the actual produced show, but decided not to wait around. We'll have to watch TV tonight to see what jokes he ended up using in his monologue. Of course everything is copyrighted, so no photos were allowed. 

For dinner we went to Two Boots, by suggestion of our friend Clint who used to live here and is authority on all things NY. :-) It was a fun pizza place with gluten free crust (yay!). Jer was eating it folded- New York style. I admit I did use my fork a couple of times, until he took it from me. ;-) 

Good-night! We are planning on getting up suuuuuper early to go stand in line for the Today Show. So if you happen to watch that show tomorrow, look for us! :-)