Back in Time- September 13, 2013 Get out of Bed, we're going to be on TV!!

*** I am going to write this blog post up and then add pictures tomorrow, so if you read this and there are no pictures, make sure you come back later after I have posted them. :)

Today was going to be an early day.  We had told the kids the night before that we were going to try to be on the Today show, so they were going to have to get up and get moving- bright and early!

We had a late night the night before because we got home late from New York City and now we were going to get them out of bed super-early. Let me remind you that our normal waking time in the Ruwe camper is about 9 am.  On Friday morning, we woke them up at 6:30 am!! I was awake at 5:30 because I didn’t want to miss my alarm (and I had to go to the bathroom!)  and I could not get back to sleep, so I waited for my alarm to go off at 6:30. As I was watching my clock, it hit 6:31, my alarm didn’t go off because I didn’t have it set right! I am so glad I was awake!

Matt was already up too and we thought we needed to get the children going.  Courtney and Christian usually pop out of bed pretty quickly, but Megan is like me, she needs about 15-20 minutes to fully wake up.  We got everybody awake and breakfast started.  Our goal was to leave the camper by 7:10 am.  The train left at 7:40 and this one would get us into New York City around 8:30, plenty of time to be on the Today Show!

It didn’t exactly work as plan!  We had learned a huge lesson the day before about parking at the train station, so Matt dropped us off and he went and found and paid for a parking spot for the day.  I went upstairs and bought tickets.  Now the day before we rode “off-peak” time and it was about $21 to get to NYC.  Now, it was “peak” time.  Matt and I each had to pay over $9 and the kids were half the price of our tickets, it cost about $41 this time!  (I am so glad I do not do this everyday!)

Aren't our children happy at 7:40 am?? We were waiting for Matt to park the car at the train station.

 

We also missed the 7:40 train, but since it was early in the morning, the next train came at 7:45, so we got on that one.  Well, barely.  The train was packed!! I think we walked through at least 3 cars trying to find a place to sit down, but it was super-hard since there were 5 of us.  Matt ended up standing in the back and I had found two seats by two ladies.  Megan and Courtney squeezed into one seat and I held Christian on my lap

The train ride went super-fast.  We talked with one of the ladies we were riding beside, we found out that she was a nurse and had to work in NYC once in awhile.  She was an RN at a clinic where they do surgery on kidney stones.  She was interesting to talk to and informative and before we knew it, we were in NYC around 8:35. That was a great $41 ride! (haha)!

Once we got to NYC, we knew that we needed to head to Rockefeller Plaza.  Before we left, we had found this on the map and knew it was only about 6 blocks from Grand Central Station.  We didn’t need to take the subway today, we were walking!  After walking for a little bit, we came around a corner and all of the sudden Matt says, “Look, there it is!”  I looked and it was the Today Show!

Do you see the crowd of people underneat the two American flags? That is where I wanted to go!

 

I saw the very familiar orange barriers and a crowd of people.  As I strained to look further, you could tell they were taping a segment on cooking. I wasn’t quite sure though as they wrapped it up as we got over there.

We went around a certain gate and got into the Today Show area. 

by the time we got up to the fence, the segement was over and we saw a few of the main anchors going back into the building. As we made our way into the crowd, there was a page (person who gives information) and he said the next segment outside wasn’t going to be until 9:40 and we were free to stick around or we could leave.  I was definitely sticking around! It was only about 9 am at this time, so we had a lot of waiting to do, but I didn’t get up so early not to be on TV!

We took some pictures while we waited. Like ones to prove that I was actully there. :)

 

During this time, the crowd dispersed from the “kitchen segment” and moved over to where the “home improvement” segment would be at 9:40. Everybody was vying for the best spot to be on TV!

Soon after everybody moved, they all moved again! Matt Lauer had come outside and sat the news desk and was going to be taping some news updates.  I also moved!

Before Matt did the news updates, people would holler, “Matt, Matt” and he would come over, shake their hands, talk with them, and take pictures with them.  He seemed really receptive to the crowd!

Here he is taking a picture with a lady, I wasn't brave enough to try to get his attention. I got close enough!

 

He did his news updates from the desk that was set up outside.

Once he headed back inside, the crowd again made their way back to the “home improvement” set.  And so did we! We got in the front row right to the side. I thought it was a great spot and I stayed there! I don’t think the kids quite knew what was going on, they seemed a little bored with it all!

It was at this point too that I was texting people back home telling them that we were going to be on TV!!! I told them though that we were going to be on at 9:40, which was 8:40 central time.

Pretty soon Natalie Morales and Willie came out and started to get ready to do the “home improvement segment.” We saw five different cameras get ready and before we knew it, they were taping!  How exciting it was to finally be on the Today Show set!

 

Since it was only a 60 second segment,  Matt kept saying “They’re not going to get to us. Watch the guy in the gray shirt, he’s directing them.”  We were standing right by the last station that they would use on the segment. 

Sure enough, Matt was right. They did not get to the last station, but according to everybody back home, they still saw us on TV!

After this segment was over, the crowd moved back by the news desk because the four anchors were going to be doing news updates at 10.  I guess they redo the start of the Today Show at 10 am for the people on the west coast.

All four anchors came out (Al Roker, Matt Lauer, Natalie Morales, and Savannah Guthrie).  Matt Lauer even told us all to boo when Savannah came out, just to be funny. J  So we did and she grinned. 

Here are the four of them at the newsdesk. Al Roker wasn't quite ready yet. He is way on the left with his head down. Matt Lauer was net, then Savannah Guthrie, then Natalie Morales.

They all seemed to be having fun when they were not on the camera, but when the camera came on, they were all business! I noticed that when they were between news stories, they would do their own things. Al Roker had his cell phone out one time, Matt Lauer always turned around and threw some papers away, etc.  We were standing right behind them during this time, so I had a nice back shot of all of them!  I sure wish I would have known somebody on the west coast because I was almost surely on TV during this time!

 Here is the crowd to the side of the news desk during this time, you can see Al Roker towards the right of the picture.

 

By about 10:10, the girls were completely bored with this! They started messing around, Christian started disobeying (Matt had already taken him somewhere else once to go potty and to walk around with him.)  Finally I said, “Have you guys had enough? Do you want to go?” And their eyes lit up! They were definitely ready to go, so we walked away.  I am very glad we went through the effort to get there, it was a great experience!

Does this shot look familiar??

 

I wanted to walk around and explore Rockefeller Plaza some more, but the girls were anxious to see Radio City Music Hall, which was about three blocks away.  They love watching “America’s Got Talent” and they were currently filming this show there. I knew they gave tours and they were kind of expensive, so we walked down there to inquire about tours and to see if there were even tickets available.

We saw Radio City Music Hall and it was great! Just like on TV! 

We went into this little store and asked about tours.  They were $20 per adult and $15 per kid ($70 for everybody).  I asked what they showed us and the clerk said it was mostly the history of Radio City Music Hall and a tour of the backstage.  Honestly, I just wanted to see the auidtorium!  I also noticed a sign that said “Tours will not be allowed in the auditorium, but you may view the auditorium through a private viewing booth.”  Matt and I decided not to do the tour. I thought the kids would get bored with all the history (honestly, I wasn’t really interested in the history) plus they didn’t even get to see the stage.  Not worth $70!

Now what? We looked on our map (that we actually had today!) and noticed that Times Square was not that far away! Times Square is pretty famous, so we headed over there! We knew we were there when we saw all these HUGE screens on every corner! This place was amazing and Matt and I agree that no words could do this place justice! It was big, busy, and definitely a tourist attraction!  We even saw the place where they drop the ball on New Year's Eve!

 

I knew too that there was a visitor’s center in Times Square, so we asked somebody on the street where it was and we headed over there.  The visitor's center was an old theatre entrance and had a few neat things, including an old ball from New Year's Eve and some costume displays. 

Megan and a ball that they dropped on Times Square.

While we were there, we asked if there was any kid-friendly place to eat. We were all hungry already!  The guy working the desk told us about two places.  One was a pizza place (remember, Christian and I cannot have pizza) or there was a burger place where the waitresses sang.  That sounded good, so we got directions and headed that way.

Along the way, I got two text messages back to back from two people at home. Both of them said, "I just saw you on TV!"  I was a bit confused at first because we had left the set over thirty minutes earlier. They had filmed our segment at 9:40, but it was actually airing at 9:40 back home, not 8:40 like I thought. It was great then that our friends sent us screen shots of us on TV! We did make it on during the "home improving" segment.

We found the place where waitresses sing and then looked at their menu on their outside window, it was about $15 a person, which is a little more than we wanted to pay, but we knew this was also NYC.  We walked away from this place and voted for McDonalds. I know, I know, we were in NYC! But we also had a family of five and we were somewhat on a budget!  So, Mcdonalds it was. We also didn't know if we were going to be eating dinner in NYC, so we wanted to keep it on the cheaper side.

After we were done eating, we wanted to head back to a couple of stores we had seen along the way.  One was a Hershey Chocolate Store and the other was an M&M Store; the M&M store was three stories tall! Somebody certain girl in our house named Courtney has a sweet tooth and loves anything to do with candy, so we headed in that direction…

To be continued…