Day One Recap

We toke the "red eye" into NYC. Whose idea was that anyway? I guess my thinking was we could put the kids to bed, fly (and sleep) all night and arrive refreshed and ready for action in the morning. WRONG! We arrived at the apartment in Uptown around 8:00 am. The cab driver had some difficulty finding it, even after we gave him the written step by step directions given to us by Imagine Learning's Travel Coordinator. When we arrived to the apartment, we couldn't get our keys to open the door. Then we realized someone was on the other side of the door! He let us in, welcomed us and explained he thought we were coming in the late afternoon and he would be leaving immediately. We reassured him that it was okay and that we were going to catch some zzzz's. We awoke in the late afternoon just in time to grab some food and make our 2:00 arrival time to the Letterman Show. We were probably one of the first 10 people in line. Within minutes though, there was 500 people or more waiting on the rainy streets. When it was our turn, we went up to the podium, accepted our tickets (which had special codes written on them)....I think ours must have said-cute couple with lots of energy, great smiles.....must have them in front row! We were then asked to return at 3:15. We went next door to a little Italian restaurant with some fun Canadians we had met in line. We returned to be told we had been chosen to be in the front row. How exciting! They had a guest comedian come out and "warm up" the crowd. then they showed us THIS hilarious video. I sat directly about 20 feet across from Dave! It aired that night...... Go HERE to see for yourself......Just as Don and Dave are sitting down, it pans out to the crowd and there we are! Dave himself even came out before the taping and gave us instructions on what questions to NOT ask, if you know what I mean. I can't believe how small the set really is and how many people are on the set during taping (I counted 30 or more at one time). The Band "Built to Spill" was the musical guest....Go HERE to see their performance. Their music is good, but they were not that entertaining to watch. Enough about that, but it was a great way to start off the trip!

Just before we stood in Line

After the taping...what a rush!

Experiencing Times Square for the first time (for me)

After the show, we did what all parents on vacation would do....went shopping in Times Square for fun stuff for the kids. We walked for blocks and blocks looking for the perfect place to eat dinner. We found this resturaunt called MODA, which had just opened a few days before. The meal was fantastic and they even showered us with lots of free extras. Agreeing that we were both still too tired to tackle getting home by Subway (the apartment is about a 30 minute train ride from Times Square), we paid around $40 to return home via taxi. Upon arriving in Washington Heights, we stopped at a darling Jewish Market...paid $30 for some cereal and Hagen Daas....sat on the couch and ate our ice cream where I uneventfully fell asleep on the couch! What a great day!