Nik's Trip - part 1

Wednesday - My brother arrived in the Big Apple today. He hasn't been here since his brief stay after helping me drive my stuff out here over a year ago.

Met him on 5th Avenue after work and we checked out the NBA Store and as it started to rain we ducked into the Heartland Brewery for dinner - where he tried a Cornhusker Lager. ;)

Then we headed to the theater where Inside Spragg's Shorts is being performed. While I had to report early he went on a search for Red Bull (sugar-free) to perk himself up and later I found out he nearly got himself lost while checking out the Hudson nearby.

Since it was the last show of the run much of the cast went out afterwards and my bro tagged along as he was asked various questions about life in NE while we drank @ Dublin 6.

Thursday - We were up bright and early to head into the city and get in the stand-by line for Conan tix. We got there about 6:40am and already there were about 20+ people ahead of us.

When we arrived they were filming a bit for the show (Inflatable Conan) and also filmed us as we stood there to get bland reaction shots. They asked us to sign off on it and we called the folks to let them know we might be on TV!

While we stood in line we found out the people in front of us were from St. Louis and the people behind us were from North Carolina. Reps from the Fox Morning Show came by the line to recruit people as audience members for their show but no one would go.

At 5 minutes after 9am an NBC rep came out and handed us standby tix. We made the first cut and had to be back at 3:45pm to check in and see if we'd actually be able to see the show.

So then it was back to Astoria to work out @ the gym and get ready to go back into the city.

We had lunch @ Hard Rock Cafe and I discovered my Hard Rock Card had enough points on it to pay for $20 on our bill! Yipppee! :)

After lunch we still had some time to kill so we wandered Times Square, Rockefeller and the NBC Store. Along the way I noticed that a lot of landmarks are celebrating their anniversaries this year- Madison Square Garden is 40, Rockefeller is 80 and the Brooklyn Bridge is 125!

It was time to report back. We did. Then we were told to come back at 4:15pm.

So we did and then were sent downstairs to wait in line. The airflow wasn't the greatest down there so the NBC Page fanned us down w/the standby sign.

Finally they started to send people up. Little by little we got closer to the front of the line and they ended up letting 23 people in. We were 21 & 22. An NBC Page said that he has to give bad news to people everyday (that don't get to see the show) and then said, sometimes it's okay because they're jerks. lol! ;)

On my first visit to NYC, a friend and I had barely made it in then, too. That time we sat on the band side of the audience. This time we were sitting on the opposite side.

While we waited for the show to begin they showed a highlight reel and then one of the writers came out to warm up the crowd asking where everyone was from. Then Conan came out to continue the warm up. He danced and hugged a random guy (who also ended up hugging Max and getting his drumsticks!)

Then it was time for the show to begin!

They showed the skit - we weren't in it. :( But we were witness to the first of many more inflatable Conan sketches!

The guests were Anne Hathaway, Romany Malco and My Morning Jacket. And James Lipton even had an appearance...in a belly dancer outfit and then chatted it up w/ a member of My Morning Jacket in the bathroom. It's amazing what Conan gets people to do! ;)

After My Morning Jacket played their song, they went to a final commercial break and the band started playing "Creep" by Radiohead and Conan began to sing it. He sang it right up until the very last minute when he had to be on the air and close out the show. Then he proceeded to sing "The End of the Song Show" to the music that typically plays at the end of his show. One of the lyrics was "I know you want to leave but I'm still singing".

We were finally able to leave and were very happy to catch Conan another time before he leaves the East coast.

After a quick bite @ Cosi it was time to head to the Brooklyn Bridge! Little did we know that our planned crossing of the Brooklyn Bridge coincided w/ a fundraiser for Crohn's Disease in which a mass was crossing at the same time. When you cross the bridge you are supposed to be wary of bikers but it was hard to do that w/ all the people. The bikers weren't happy about it either. Not good.

But we did get across and navigated our way to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and walked out onto the pier to enjoy our ice cream and the view.

We headed back over as the sun began to set so we managed to get pics in daylight, dusk and night. Nice timing! :)

Then it was back home to rest up for another day of touring the city!

You can see pics here!

Check out what else we did in the next blog! :)