There is a first time for everything!

JM and I planned a last minute trip to NYC last week.  On March 24th, Baylor beat Auburn and advanced to the NIT Championship Tourney to be played in NYC.  The Baylor Alumni Assoc. secured a block of rooms at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station at an unbelievable price,  and we had enough frequent flier points to get free airline tickets.  The only hold up was securing sitters for the kids!  Oh, that is a BIG one when you do not have family in town!  I was able to get our housekeeper, Mrs. Roberta,  to watch the kids all day and Mrs. Jan, JM's receptionist was able to come for the evenings and overnight.  It was quite an orchestrated series of days with kid activities, homework and an extra dentist appointment!  They all did a great job with only a few break downs!  JM and I are so greatful to have 3 ladies who truly love our kids and we can trust them to take care of our kids without worrying!

So we flew out of Atlanta on Tuesday and arrived in NYC by mid-afternoon.  We decided to tour the Empire State Building since we had a good amount of time.  Once we finally got to the top, it was a beautiful view.  I enjoyed listening to the audio tour and observing the sites of NYC. 

Next, we traveled over to Madison Square garden and enjoyed watching  the Baylor Bears win on Tuesday night and secure a place in the NIT Championship for Thursday night.  

On Wednesday, we got up early and went to the TODAY show set in Rockefeller Center.  It was interesting to see how the show is made.  Everything seems so big on TV, but it is so small in real life. 

 

Here are my random comments:

1.  Matt wears A LOT of makeup!

2.  Al was not so friendly in person - maybe he was just having a bad day.

3.  Merideth looks so much YOUNGER on camera and on advertisements.  

4.  Keith Urban was so nice and great to listen to.

5.  They transform the set many times during the morning.  

6.  People act crazy to get on TV!

After a little over 2 hours, we decided to leave and go eat breakfast.  We ate at the Rockefeller Cafe right in front of the ice skating rink.  It was humorous to watch the people skating - most were over the age of 70 today!

Next we toured the Statue of Liberty.  This was my must of the trip!  We have all been to NYC before (JM has been 5+ times) but have never seen the Statue of Liberty up close.  We had our "Amazing Race"adventure at this point.  We left Rockefeller Center  in a taxi at 10:25, and we had 11 am tickets for the ferry tour leaving from Battery Park.  We had a taxi driver that did not seem to speak very good English, and JM believes he drove us in circles.  We got close to Battery Park at 11:10 and told him we were getting out.  We ran across the park to the ferry loading area only to find that was our 1st security check point.  We made it on the boat!  It was really awe inspiring to take the ferry over to Lady Liberty.  It was a beautiful day and she stood proud!  We had tickets to take the tour of Lady Liberty and this is were our patience was tested!  We stood in line for at least 2 hours only to go through another security check point!  Finally, we were inside the statue.  The audio tour was very interesting and I do not like history!  We felt like to had finally accomplished the tour of Lady Liberty!

At this point it was 4:30, we were exhausted and hungry!  But we still had more day to enjoy!  We ate at Tavern on the Green for dinner (or lupper) and then went to see the Broadway musical Mamma Mia.  It was awesome!  I loved the music, and I think JM enjoyed it also.  After the musical we met up with our Baylor friends, Jay and Heidi,  at Carmine's for dessert.  We had a wonderful visit with them.  It was releaving to hear how they had gone through very similar "growing pains" on their post residency jobs!

After staying out until after midnight last night, we slept in on Thursday morning.  We grabbed a light breakfast and caught the subway to Central Park.  We enjoyed a carriage ride/tour through Central Park and found quite a few places that the kids would have enjoyed in Central Park (during the day time)!  The carriage driver also point out were a few "stars" lived, and we toured the Plaza Hotel from Home Alone where the average night is $1000 and the penthouse is $10,000 (per night)!?!. 

We did a little shopping at a few of our favorite places - Apple and FAO Swartz.  JM had to play the Big Piano.  He even got a clap from a few moms in the store:)!

Next on our to-do list was our tickets to the Late Show taping.  Again, it was a lot of waiting in lines.  But once we were in the studio, it was non-stop laughter and music.  It was fun!

After the Letterman Show, we went straight back to Madison Square Garden to see Baylor play Penn State for the NIT Championship title.  The stadium was packed---mostly with white (Penn State) shirts.  Baylor played a great game, but they were unable to pull the victory in the 2nd half.  It was an exciting and intense game.  We learned that Big Ten teams are not friendly or polite--they are RUDE!  Oh, and their chants make Texas A&M (big Baylor rival) look like saints!

We slept for a few hours and then it was time to head to the airport to catch our 6 am flight.  It was hard to believe that it was already time to go home.  There was still so much we wanted to do (or at least a few shows I wanted to see)!  Just means we will have to go back!