So far, so good

There are so many iconic places to see here, it`s actually ridiculous. I`m definitely getting a lot of mileage on my camera, and it`s really fun to try and capture these places on "film."

I really want to post pictures, but I`m still getting used to my dad`s tiny comp, so I`ll recap with words and then post pics this evening.

SO, yesterday we went to get standby tickets for Conan O`Brien. Which meant we were all at Rockefeller Center around 7:30am, what should have felt like 4:30 to us, but thankfully we were super adjusted to the time already. They don`t hand out the "tickets" until 9am, so we were standing around for quite a while. While the rest of the troops held our place in line, Aaron and I went and checked out the Today show people. Once we finally got our blue tickets, we still weren`t guaranteed a seat. For that we had to come back at 4:15 and pray that at least 14 people who had reserved tickets for the show wouldn`t make it.

Once we had secured our standby ticket spot, we walked over to the NBC studio store and then to Nintendo World. We walked around at Rockefeller, and then made our way up to St. Patrick`s cathedral. Talk about breathtaking! The outside is gorgeous, but then you step inside and it`s a whole new level of beauty.

Side note here. When I post the pictures you will see another guy and girl consistently in them. These are not just random people we met in NYC. We actually discovered a few weeks ago that two other Cal Poly theatre friends would be here at pretty much the same time as us, so we`ve been hanging out with them on and off. Then, when we got here, Joe informed us that yet another CPP grad would also be around in the BIG city. We had already let Carlos and Samantha know we would be here, so we hooked up with them Sunday night.

Dave, on the other hand didn`t answer his phone when we called, and we weren`t even sure he was still around.

So imagine Nathan`s surprise when he`s just walked in to the cathedral, and comments about how remarkable it is, and turns around to see Dave standing there. Coincidence? I`m going with no.

We finish up there, Dave and Sio have plans for the day, but we agree to meet up later at a dive bar Samantha found.

We headd over to Little Italy to get pizza at America`s first pizzaria, Lombardi`s. Then we got some rice pudding from this over-priced trendy little joint called Rice to Riches, and to Ferrara to get gelato for Aaron. Then there was a lovely walking debacle with trying to finf the right Subway station, but once we were finally on we still had plenty of time to find the Flat Iron building before we had to get back to the Rock for Conan.

Obviously we did make it to Conan, but unfortunately Kelsey Grammar apparently got shuffled around and the other guests weren`t great. It was still fun to see Conan himself, at least.

When we were done at the studio, we walked over to see Carnegie Hall and then went on some bad directions in search of Gray`s Papaya for hot dogs. When we were back to the M&M store at Times Square, we knew we were doomed. But, we were spotted by Samantha`s mom who recommended we go to Sbarro fr dinner, that they had a good price on a buffet. That was disappointing, and expensive for Nathan and Joe (they charge by weight of your plate), but we were hungry so we made do.

We walked over to the giant TS Toys R Us and wandered around, then started making our way over to the bar to reunite with the rest of the CPP people. Once everyone got there, we were just amazed at how it could have happened. Seriously, we couldn`t have coordinated a trip like that if we tried. PLUS Carlos talked to Wahima, who`s MOVED here, only, she just got here last night. It`s crazy, I tell you.

While at the bar we met and befriended Ion and Gabriel, and had some awesome conversations with them, plus they gave us good tips for where to go and what not to pay for.

Then we walked down to Gray`s, and I`m so glad we didn`t end up eating dinner there. Yuck! But there was a man named Charles there who was homeless, and Aaron and I ended up having a pretty good talk with him, too.

At about the time we started walking to the subway station across the street, we realized Joe had had a bit too much of the sauce. W!hich left us to figure out the trains back to Queens. Oh yeah, add to that that it`s 4 in the morning so some trains aren`t running and some stops are skipped.

A good hour fifteen and four transfers later, with Aaron and Nathan tending to Joe and helping him up and down stairs, we got back to the house at 5:30, just in time to see Joe`s aunt leaving for work. And, at which point, we had been out in the city for over 23 hours.

It`s almost 2pm here, Nathan`s still asleep, and Joe was working on a crossword puzzle, but apparently sleep was calling him back. Once we rally the troops, we`ll go get some mac and cheese per Dottie`s recommendation. Joe says it`s good hangover food. :P