After a quick breakfast in the hotel room we walked the 25 minutes to NBC Studio. Unfortunately there were no photos or video taking allowed and for the $39 price tag it was a bit short - just under an hour. We toured the NBC newsroom & the Saturday Night Live set and no, we did not see
any celebrities while we were there. At the end of the tour some of the group got to participate in a “taping” of a mock talk show - which could be fun for kids but seemed a bit juvenile/silly for the adults. Everyone in the tour got a digital copy of the clip as a souvenir.
The afternoon started a bit rocky with M1 feeling queasy. My kids don’t fare well when they have to eat a lot of restaurant food/fast food/take-out. I like to think it’s because we feed them clean, nutrious home cooked meals regularly so they can’t stomach a lot of preservatives, salt, sugars and grease. M1 ended up spending the entire afternoon in the hotel room with the Big Oh while I took M2 & M3 on a bus ride to Chinatown. My SIL gave us a recommendation for a good noodle place from her fam in NY and it was a hit with the 3 of us - almost as good as what is served in TO. By the time we returned to Times Square it was already past 5:00pm. Our plan was to catch a 7:00pm magic show at the LOL Comedy Club so we decided to have the Big Oh & M2 meet us there instead of having us return to the hotel first. The club itself is in the heart of Times Square, up a dark flight of narrow stairs. The room was pretty basic: it was dark, with cafeteria chairs, & small tables to put drinks on, a small stage, and everything was packed together so tightly to try to get as much audience in as possible - M1 kept saying she was scared because it looked “sketchy”. And it didn’t help that this place was near empty on a Monday night. Only 20 of us in the audience. But the two magicians didn’t let the small size of the group affect them, and were very entertaining and the kids even got to participate in one of the tricks. After the show M3 went to ask how one of the tricks was done and the magician Eric Walton stayed and talked to us and even did a few more close up card tricks for just my family (he never did tell us how the trick was done). In the end even M1 agreed it was a good show.
By the time we left the show it was getting close to 9:00pm and Times Square was a buzz. With all the lights and billboards you couldn’t even tell it was nighttime! The atmosphere at night is definitely different than during the day. We had to walk about 30 minutes back to our hotel. Our curious family were soaking in the sights and sounds of the street performs and quickly realized that if we looked too interested in what they were doing we would become prime targets for their hustle - which is exactly what happened. There were a group of young street dancers and we stopped to watch and clap along - next thing we knew The Big Oh was pulled in along with a few other men to “help” with a stunt they were going to perform. And this is when the speil and bags came out asking for tips & donations before they would finished the show - they even asked for $20 minimum! But that’s OK. I figure this is their job & this is how they make their livelihood plus they were pretty funny & entertaining. When we left this performance not 10 steps away we were approached by a singing performer who thrust a self made CD into the Big Oh’s hand and in about 20 seconds convinced him to “help support the music he loves making with a few dollars or change” and even signed the CD! I left thinking that it could be a blank CD for all we know! We were continually being accosted as we walked but after 2 incidents we now knew we had to walk fast and a polite and firm “No, thank you” is all you need to say.
I didn’t realize how tired I was until got back to the hotel. We are all going to sleep in and even though we have things planned, we won’t be following s schedule and just take it easy tomorrow.
Y.C.
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