Aloha!
After a day like we had yesterday, a little rest and
recuperation would be a nice thing. We’ll have plenty of time for that on July
7th!
This morning’s plans had us eating some breakfast in the
motel lobby and then boarding the bus for the second day of our visit to New
York City. As you can imagine, the boys
were more than a little pokey from the late night we had before. We solved it by giving them a Red Bull and
some stay alert tablets from a truck stop we came across just outside
Louisville. That seemed to do the trick for
most of them. 
The first part of the day was actually in New Jersey, where
we navigated our way down to the waterfront and took some pictures in front of
the New York skyline from Liberty State Park.
The boys were able to go through a moving 9-11 Memorial dedicated to the
victims from New Jersey. There was also
a piece of twisted steel that once held the massive buildings up that served as
a reminder of the terrible events of that day.
In order to get to the islands, we needed to take a series
of ferries to get there. They launched
from the park we were at. We had to
bring the boys through security and then wait a few minutes before boarding the
ship for Ellis Island. The boat ride was
pretty fun, as we managed to snag good seats on the top level. The temperatures were warm, but not crazy
warm like it was set to be later in the day.
So many boys took pictures!
Our time at Ellis Island was heavily dictated by the ferry
schedule. We didn’t have oodles of time,
so we held-off on souvenir shopping for the morning. We brought all the boys through the main
level exhibits just inside the main doors then let them break-up into small
groups to tour the rest of the exhibits they wanted to. There is so much history in this building and
its importance in our country’s growth is incredible. The growth of the island is pretty impressive
to, starting as a small island and growing (literally) as more space was
needed. Worth researching if you are
nerdy like me and into that kind of stuff.
When our ferry arrived, we jumped on it and rode into the
Statue of Liberty. The ferry ride brings
you right across the front of Lady Liberty at a perfect distance for
photos. I think the ship was leaning a
little from the number of boys on that side of it. We docked and did our photos right away. While we were waiting for the next ferry
anyway, we decided to have lunch there in their little cafeteria style
restaurant. It was sort of a madhouse,
but all the boys got enough to eat and drink.
Drinking was sort of the theme for the day, as we were
pushing incredible amounts of water on them throughout the day. With incredible amounts of water come
frequent bathroom breaks – it’s a time-consuming battle. Finding water in downtown New York is a
battle to. It’s so very expensive! I think we went well over our budget for
water while we were there, but it was what was necessary with temps in the low
90’s.
After eating lunch, we hopped back on the ferry and made our
way to Long Island. We did our best to
impress upon them the massive sizes of the buildings. When you consider that most of those
buildings are the size of the IDS Tower in Minneapolis, and there are hundreds
of them, it really puts things in perspective.
When we arrived at Battery Park to offload the ferry, waves were making
it difficult to allow for safe transfer to the shore. The waves would slam the boat against the
dock and send everyone flying a good two feet to the left instantly. The first time was a little scary, but as it
continued to happen the boys really got into it. About 25 times the boat slammed up against
the dock. When it was safe and
everything was tied-down, they lowered the ramp and allowed the passengers to
get off.
With lunch and the ferry schedules throwing us a little
behind schedule, we had to book it in order to get back on track. Our first stop was One World Trade Center and
the 9-11 Memorial. Unfortunately, when
we got there we saw the incredible line to get through security that was
estimated to take about 30 minutes. This
wasn’t possible with the other stops we had for the day, so we took our photos
the best we could and started heading the 4 miles by foot up to Rockefeller
Plaza.
It was becoming very clear that pushing the boys that
distance in this heat wasn’t going to be a great plan. (We actually walked further five years ago
when we went into New York, but it wasn’t quite this warm.) Since we are on a very tight budget in order
to fit everything in, we didn’t have 39 tickets in the Subway planned, but it
became a necessary expense. Aaron used
his schnazzy new phone to navigate us to a subway station and we loaded the
boys onto the right car that would get us there. About 15 minutes later, we emerged just
blocks from our destination and fresher from the short rest.
The NBC Studios Tour at The Rockefeller Plaza was the
highlight of the day for many. For Anne
Curry fans, it was a little bittersweet, as it was her last day on The Today
Show. We had to split the group into two
in order to accommodate everyone. The
tour started with a short video on the history of NBC and the rules of the
tour. It was interesting to me to know
that Rockefeller Plaza was actually built for radio, not television, so many of
the floors and studios have had to be redone in order to accommodate the
changes in broadcasting processes. 
The first stop on the tour was pretty cool – the Football
Night in America set for Sunday Night Football.
The very set where Bob Costas and Tony Dungy break-down the game was
set-up for us to see. It is the highest
rated program on NBC, for those keeping track at home.
The second stop was for a little program called “Saturday
Night Live”. You could see the train
station set still standing there as the tour guides talked about how they
banished Chris Farley to one of the side sets for most of his sketches because
he made such a mess and it took longer to clean-up. Since the show is on hiatus for the summer,
they set-up banks of computers and temporary sound booths on the floor and in
the seats to help support their 2012 Olympic Coverage, starting next month on
July 27. (I know you will be eager to
get home from the Land of Lakes Choirboys Golf Tournament that day so you can
watch the opening ceremonies with the satisfaction of knowing you helped
support the boys, just by playing golf earlier in the day.)
The third stop in the tour was with the news programs of
NBC. There wasn’t a whole lot going on
there, which either explains their plummet in the ratings or was a by-product
of it. I didn’t ask. Right after this, we were able to see the
make-up artists of NBC and how they make masks and have adapted to the HD era
of television. In my group, we went into
a mock studio where two boys, Steven Kelly and Joel Zimmerman were invited to
give a short news report and weather update in front of a green screen,
complete with Teleprompters and sound.
It was pretty neat, but ultimately a weak attempt to get you to buy
something at the end of the tour. (They
recorded it, but neither of the boys wanted to buy it.)
The last stop of the tour was on the set of the Today
show. Anne Curry’s chair was still
sitting there, complete with a masking-tape “Curry” stuck to the side, right
next to “Roker” and “Lauer”. Lisa got a
little misty-eyed, I think. Outside the
windows, you could see some barricades being placed for the next day’s live
concert by Maroon Five. We made our way
back out to the starting point and bid our NBC Page farewell before dropping
all your hard-earned money on “Friends” coffee mugs and “The Office” bobble heads. The NBC Studios Tour was very fun!
We tried to take a picture in front of the 30 Rock
fountains, but they had some event being held there which detracted from the
scenery a bit. Oh well, we still got
about 20 other places this day.
From NBC, we had to go about 15 blocks to the Empire State
Building. We didn’t have to be there at
any particular time, just around 7:00.
This gave us time to eat at a McDonald’s directly across the street and
spend more of your hard-earned money at a sweet discount gift store. Prefect tip of the day: When they advertise 20 postcards for $1, you
have reached your destination. The boys
loaded-up on gifts at great rates!
The Empire State Building was our final official stop of the
day. The timing was perfect to view the sun
setting in the west over the New Jersey horizon. From the top, you were able to see everything
we walked around from the top of the city – a perfect ending to as perfect of a
day as you can have in New York City.
Three blocks away was Penn Station, directly below Madison Square
Garden, where we boarded the train and headed to New Jersey, where Rodney was
waiting with a cooled bus. The Choirboys
trip into the big city was over and a lifetime of memories were stored in their
little heads. After a 25 minutes drive
to the hotel, they washed their faces, brushed their teeth and hopped into bed.
Goodnight, Choirboys.
Good job today.
P.J.
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