Today began early. We were up by 6 AM. We had to be up early to make it into the city for our tour. We had decided to take the Park 'n' Ride the night before. We left our hotel at about 7:15 AM and headed to the bus station. When we had arrived and parked, we went to purchase our bus tickets. I thought it would be much more complicated, but it turned out to be quite simple. The bus just went from our location to downtown with no stops in between. After we waited for the bus, we had a long ride. From what I heard, the buses were running late and traffic was awful since we were riding amid rush hour. After we had made it downtown, our next task was to find 30 Rockefeller Center for our NBC Studio Tour. By the time we had gotten out of the terminal and made our way to 30 Rock, it was almost 9AM. Luckily, they had room on the 9:15 tour, and we waited a few minutes for that to begin. The tour showed a brief video of the NBC Studios history and shows, then led us around the building. We saw the evening news studio of Brian Williams. You will not see any photos from this tour as we were not allowed to take any while there. After seeing Brian Williams' Studio, we were led to Conan O'Brien's set. The set was much smaller than expected. Also, they pump refrigerated air into the studio, so it was kind of chilly. Next, we saw the SNL sets. This was closer to what I expected. Much bigger than Conan's studio. After this we saw a demonstration of the makeup that the actors and actresses use. We also saw a demonstration of a newscast and weather set with green screen. Courtnie was fortunate enough to participate in this. She did a great job reading from her cue cards and pointing to the weather map! This was the end of our tour. Following this, we had a few hours before we had to line up for Conan. We decided to look around town and see some of the closer sites. We took pictures outside of 30 Rock and the plaza. We walked down to Grand Central Terminal and walked inside. It looks just like the movies portray. As we walked, we looked for restraunts to eat at later. Seth, being a member if the Masons, wanted to see the Grand Lodge. We walked towards this and engulfed ourselves in the fast pace of New York City. When we got to the Lodge, we inquired about a tour. Luckily for us, they were giving tours. We were given a tour of the building and it was extensive. We saw many of the different meeting rooms used by the many Masonic Lodges that meet there. If I remember correctly, the building had 19 floors and we saw about 15 different meeting rooms. The standout here was the largest meeting room which had a fantastic ceiling. This same ceiling was duplicated in the grand ballroom of the Titantic and featured in the movie Poseidon. After the tour, we asked our guide if he knew anywhere we should grab a bite to eat. He suggested the Shake Shack (can be found on the map at left). We headed towards the park to see what it was all about. Supposedly, this place has been featured on the Food Network and many other places. We waited in line and got some food. My shake was great. We ate and walked back towards 30 Rock. When we got back to 30 Rock, we had to meet up with some of our friends to give them our extra Conan tickets. After we met up and got in line, we waited for Conan's show. We had only been there 15 minutes when representatives for Conan came out and were ready for us. We were given actually tickets and seating assignments and told to come back at 4:15 PM. We didn't realize we would have so much time before the show. We decided to walk to Central Park. We strolled around part of it and took some pics before we need to head back to Conan. We headed back to Conan and got in line. After we were filed into the studio, they showed past Conan clips on the monitor while we waited. A warm up comic came out to get us pumped for Conan. He was pretty funny. Conan came out to address us before the show too. Cory was so close to him. I think he almost had an aneurism. We also listened to some tunes from the Weinberg 7 before the show. They are a very good stage band. Once the show started, we saw Jonah Hill, John Tesh, and the musical guest The Drive-By Truckers. We were also on TV! You can look for us on the broadcast! After the show, we saw Radio City Music Hall and the Empire State Building. We decided to get a bite to eat and head back towards our bus terminal. We made it back to hotel without any problems. We relaxed at our hotel and rested our feet from all the walking. We decided on using the subway downtown for the next day. We watched Conan to see ourselves and then went to sleep.
Photos - Day Three
