Give my regards to Broadway

There's a first time for everything. Tonight, for the first time in my life, I watched the Tony Awards. All three hours. No doubt, I was more interested because of our recent trip to New York City (beginning of May) and the fact that we saw four shows in four days. Because this blog is sort of like my personal journal/diary (very heavily edited), I thought I would recap our trip and post the few pitiful pics that we took. Most of you should just skip this post because it will be pretty boring to you.

Day 1: Direct flight from Roanoke to LaGuardia. Grab a cab and go straight to our hotel which was located in Times Square. Our hotel, the Renaissance, was a total score. It was a beautiful hotel, conveniently located, and not too incredibly busy. After we secure an early check in and drop off our bags, we head to Ray's for pizza.

Then it's off to the Ed Sullivan Theater to see a taping of the David Letterman Show. When I found out we were going to NYC, I signed both of us up to receive tickets to the show. Because I only signed up a couple of weeks before the trip, I felt sure that we wouldn't get tickets. I also learned that in order to receive tickets, you had to answer a random trivia question about the show. I went ahead and signed up and "crammed" on Letterman trivia for about an hour late one night. Lo and behold, a week earlier (right in the midst of preparation for Jack's birthday party), we got the call. Actually, they called Ned and left a message. I called back and they let me be the one to try to answer the trivia question. I GOT IT RIGHT!!! So, we were in. [In case you're wondering, my trivia question was: What color is Alan Kalter's (the announcer) hair. The answer is red]. Anyway, we had to be at the Ed Sullivan Theater between 2:00 and 3:00 pm.

You go and wait in line and they put you in a group and tell you to come back in about an hour. According to our guide, we were going to be in the front couple of rows so we should laugh and clap. During our break, we went to the Gershwin Theater to see about getting tickets to the musical "Wicked." I had read the book and I knew I wanted to see that show for sure. It was our lucky day because the box office had a cancellation and we got two tix in front of the theater for that night's show. The show basically sells out for just about every show so we were pumped that we were in.

After that, we headed back to Letterman and I went to check out Hello Deli. Rupert Gee was just hanging out punching a nail. I took his pic with Ned.

Of course Ned had no idea who Rupert Gee was. Also, in case you're wondering, there is no way Ned would have gotten the Letterman trivia question right either.

The Letterman taping was great. Dave was really funny and his guest was Regis Philbin. Dave and Regis have a great rapport. When we were standing in line, they allowed us to write down questions for Dave to ask Regis. Ned had wanted to ask Regis something about how did he like working with Kathie Lee Gifford. I had to explain to Ned that the current co-host was Kelly Ripa and that Kathie Lee had been gone for quite some time. I told him to write down a question about Charlie Weiss and Notre Dame. Ned asked me what that had to do with Regis Philbin and I had to explain that as well. Anyway, despite Ned's lack of knowledge regarding Regis, we thought he was a good guest. The musical number was the cast of "Hair" on Broadway. It was really cool. The youtube clip shows them coming into the audience; a guy was standing on the arms of my seat. If you look closely, you can also see me and Ned in the second row.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzMc_tgm7Do

We loved the show. After a fast dinner, it was off to "Wicked" which, not to be melodramatic, was amazing. Ned enjoyed it even more than I did. Our seats were great and the show was awesome. On the way home, we learned that a Tasti D-lite was on the back side of our hotel. I knew about Tasti D from "Sex and the City" so I was anxious to try it out. It's this ice cream/yogurt stuff which is absolutely delicious and has almost no calories. We went back every night we were there.

I wanted to stay up and watch Letterman to see how our show looked and to see if you could see us in the audience. I made it to the end, saw us during the Hair number, and passed out.

Day 2: Ned wanted to go to see a taping of the Today Show, especially since No Doubt would be giving a concert. He left extremely early and I told him to give me a call later. He got to see the band warm up and had a pretty good place to stand. I, on the other hand, sauntered over to Rockefeller Center around 8am and, although I couldn't see very well, I could hear everything. That was good enough for me. Ned got a few snapshots.

Our conversation afterwards:

Ned: Man, Katie Couric is looking old.

Allie: Ned, that's not Katie Couric--that's Meredith Vieira.

Ned: Well, they sure went and got a dead-ringer for Katie Couric.

You get the drift. The rest of that day was walking to Central Park, red velvet cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery (yes, they really are THAT good), a late lunch at SaraBeth's (also very good), and general sightseeing. We had tickets that night to see "Billy Elliot." You know, the one that just this evening won like a gazillion Tony awards. Our seats were in this balcony close to the stage and that was a neat twist. The show itself was great and something else really cool happened. I saw Tamara Tunie from "Law and Order: SVU" in the audience. She plays Medical Examiner Melinda Warner on the show and used to be on "As the World Turns." Ned had no idea who she was. She left during the intermission but I'm sure it was her. Not as good as seeing someone from the original "Law and Order" but still kind of exciting for a "Law and Order" freak like me.

Day 3: The next morning there was some huge charity run right outside our hotel. There were something like 5,000 runners. I managed to sleep through most of it but here's the pic from our hotel room.

Then we went shopping at this store I heard had great buys--Century 21. It was ok. Because of its proximity thereto, we went to see Ground Zero. That afternoon it was off to Yankee Stadium. We took the subway and it was actually really easy to do. Ned got tickets off of this guy he met outside of the stadium. Ned said he trusted the guy because he was with his wife. Our seats were great and in the shade so it couldn't have been better. Except that the Yankees lost.

That night we had dinner at this barbeque restaurant that came highly recommended in my guidebook, Virgil's. It was great. Great barbeque in NYC, I never would have believed it. That night we saw "9 to 5: the Musical" with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and based on the movie. Good show. Not as good as "Wicked" or "Billy Elliot" though.

Day 4: Ned's birthday. We had brunch reservations at Mesa Grill, a Bobby Flay restaurant I found out about because I'm addicted to the Food Network. OMG, sooooo good.

Of course, the weather which had held out all weekend finally decided to let loose and it rained most of the day and night. I passed a lot of the afternoon in this used bookstore (the Strand)which was extremely crowded due to the rain. But it was a GREAT bookstore. Ned, not really a fan of the used bookstore, passed his afternoon here:

That night, we saw "Mamma Mia" which was definitely our least favorite show with the worst seats. It was sold out though so what do we know? After a final, tearful goodbye with Tasti D-lite, we hit the sack because we were flying out in the wee hours of the morning.

My overall grade for the trip: a solid A. Except for missing the kiddies and a couple of wrong decisions, it would have been an A+. I'm already planning a trip to go back when Bear is a little older and will appreciate it more.

Love,

Allie