SOOOOO... it was our last full day. And it started early - after we raced to 30 Rock and got there 35 minutes before our tour started (barely, whew!)... we then had time to kill. A lot of these things have you show up early to confirm, oh... and then wait 30 minutes. So we walked out to the plaza to see the ice skating rink (which isn't a rink in 90 degree weather) - which they had no interest in... and we encountered the THRONGS of crazy teenagers and their mothers who were "Beibering" - it's a verb now. Wow.

We had about 10-15 people on our tour that had been out on the plaza since 3am - all from Kentucky. And that's all I have to say about that.

I got a pic of Lauren with the Today show barracade after our tour - this was after the mob had dispersed. I was excited about the tour - we got to see the SNL studio so now I can see how they re-use so much of their set, there are really only two stages, and one of them is the same place where the host gives the monologue (the tongue stage that rolls out from under the stage with the steps that they all walk out of. We also saw the MSNBC set, and where they do the evening news. Then we went to Jimmy Fallon's set. I'm not a huge fan of Jimmy's show (loved him with Weekend Update, but I don't have Fallon Fever yet - I'm with Coco, Go TBS!!) - BUT they told us what a huge fan of Carson he was, and he was thrilled that he was in Carson's original NYC studio before he moved to LA (also incidentally it was Milton Berle's studio). Jimmy wanted his set to be in the same place as Johnny's was - the desk, the curtains, the announcer podium, and the mark where he does his monologue, so I thought that was cool.

After the tour we spent a lot of time in the NBC store - Thomas got a Dr. Who shirt (NBC owns BBC), I got a 30 Rock shirt (and took lots of pics of shirts I wish I could get from the Office, Psych, SNL... ) - and Lauren got a Smurf shirt. I still don't know why there were Smurf shirts there. And then we went back to the apt to chill and nap cause we had to get up so early.

We took the subway up to 86th and Central Park West, and walked down through the park to 59th street. We saw the castle, the pond, the Angel statue from Elf (and Hair if you go back). It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... It's a nice place, very cool and great people watching, but yes, it is just a lot of trees and grass and rocks and bridges. Lauren and I got lots of pics of her on rocks and bridges - and then I got this pic of them on Poets Walk - they use this in a lot of movies, so you may recognize it. Lauren remembered it from "Enchanted".

We got out on 59th and after fending off several bicycle cabbies, we finally got a cab to the Empire State building! YAY! We had prepaid tix so there really wasn't a line so to speak, but there were many miles of places where lines could have been. I felt like I walked more on our way through the building than I did through Central Park. My feet were hurting - and Lauren told me to stop whining. Bummer, I like whining. But we finally made it to the top and we got a lot of cool pics that you'll see in our facebook albums later, I'm sure.

So after the ESB we attempted another cab, but the demand was higher than the supply at that point so we set off walking toward 8th ave (from 5th) - just a few blocks we now knew that we could catch either our C or E line back up to the 50th street station. We caught a train at Penn station (Thomas was all awonder with the "underground city" - but seriously its a train station with a Kmart and TWO Starbucks, so I can't argue). Headed back to the apt at about 7:30pm to rest our feet before the comedy show at 9:45 (advertised as the early, all ages show).

We had a good time - and good seats (again) - the first guy was good, we all liked him, and then we saw a guy that will be on Last Comic Standing this Monday night (he was so-so) ... OH! and that reminds me, we saw "Darrell" from The Office in the NBC Store! He was giving an interview because he's hosting Last Comic VERY long day ::::::::::: ready? DUSTIN DIAMOND (Screech from Saved By the Bell) did a set at the club! And the most shocking part, he was actually funny.

So now we're back at the apt - hopefully we're going to have breakfast with cousin Carson tmw morning, then pack and head out. We have to be out of here by 1:00 but the flight isn't until 4:45 (for the kids) - so Lauren asked what we were doing in the mean time. Waiting. And Blogging.

Night all!