New York, Take Two

Last Christmas, Sean gifted me with tickets to Saturday Night Live. Tickets are very hard to come by (I've been trying on my own for a decade), but he has a friend that is an owner/operator of a couple NBC markets and was able to hook us up. It still wasn't an easy feat to get to the show. You may remember from this post that this wasn't our first trip to NYC this year. We went back in March with wait list tickets to SNL, and while we had a fantastic trip, we weren't called for the show. So we were promised tickets to the season premiere in September, but two weeks before our trip the tickets were given away to someone more important than us! Well the third time is a charm - we finally got tickets, actual tickets in our hands, to the November 17 show with Jeremy Renner and Maroon 5! For some reason we were sent tickets to the dress rehearsal, but we aren't complaining. It was literally the exact same show except for a few EXTRA sketches. I'll get into more detail below.

Friday, November 16
We made a really quick weekend out of this, flying in on Friday morning, and returning Sunday morning. I dropped Mason and Hazel at my parents the night before so we could get up and go bright and early. Many thanks to my parents for keeping an eye on our babies while we were gone. We stayed at the beautiful Waldorf Astoria in Midtown Manhattan. Sean had warned me that while it's a cool hotel, the rooms are tiny and to not be disappointed. We seem to have luck in this area when in NY however, and were upgraded to an executive suite upon arrival. It's was large and luxurious and I loved it!

After check-in we walked to the Upper East Side and stumbled on a delicious French restaurant, Le Charlot, for lunch (veal scallopini for me, mussels in white wine for Sean). The weather was sunny and brisk, perfect conditions for a long walk in Central Park. We really enjoyed the fresh air and scenery and were glad we took time to do this instead of rushing to another activity. We then hailed a cab to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), which was on our list of things to do from the last trip. It was a little crowded due to the fact that it's free to get in after 4:00 on Friday's, but it was still really neat to see and we couldn't complain with the cost to get in! At this point we needed a little pick-me-up so we grabbed a Blue Bottle Coffee and sipped it while watching the ice skaters in Rockefeller Plaza. The big Christmas tree wasn't up yet, but we did see it hiding behind scaffolding!

Central Park

Central Park. I don't think Sean knew I snapped this pic of him and I love it!

MoMA

Top: Blue Bottle Coffee. Bottom L: The Christmas tree behing scaffolding, lol! Bottom R: Rockefeller Center

Now it was time to freshen up and head to one of my favorite dinners ever at the Sons of Essex in the Lower East Side. By day the front of the restaurant is a deli, and you enter a little door in the deli to this amazing 'Gangs of New York' vibe restaurant playing old-school hip hop and serving American comfort food and Prohibition-era cocktails. The neighborhood is full of cool bars, one of which being Please Don't Tell (or PDT), an underground speakeasy of sorts. It's nearly impossible to get a reservation, trust me, I tried and failed close to 100 times, but we still popped in to see what all the hype is about. You enter by dialing a number from a pay phone in a shady hotdog joint called Crif Dogs. Then this mysterious door that you didn't even know was there opens to the exclusive bar and they take your name and say they'll call when a seat opens. While we waited for the call we made our way to two other really cool bars in the area, Swift and NoMad.  We stumbled upon a comedy club called Eastville and in complete spontaneity, grabbed tickets to a show. It was hilarious and filled with foul language and inappropriate jokes. We like to think that places like this are where NY comedians that make it big are discovered. Actually the likes of Louis C.K., Damon Wayans, Sarah Silverman, Judah Friedlander, Aziz Ansari, and other famous names either used to or currently perform there. As we were leaving the comedy club at 1:00 in the morning PDT called to tell me a table had opened for us. We laughed them off and hailed a cab to bed instead!

Sons of Essex dinner. Top R is the bakery/deli that you enter through.

Our bar-hopping night. PDT is inside this shady Crif Dogs joint!

Saturday. November 17
I really wanted to make our way to SoHo for some shopping, so we grabbed a quick-ish breakfast at Ess-a-bagel. I say quick-ish because I would assume that a bagel shop would be an in-and-out experience, but it's a much more popular spot than we anticipated and we ended up waiting in line forever! It was delicious though and worth the wait. We then surprised ourselves by figuring out the subway system and catching a ride to SoHo for some shopping. I was in heaven and didn't even scratch the surface of all the stores I wanted to check out. If you have a favorite online store that doesn't have a location in your city, chances are there's a location in SoHo! We made our way back to midtown for some more shopping and a late lunch before heading back to the hotel to get ready for SNL...

Left: Land of Nod - As much as I loved it in there I know Mason would die! Right: The only Dwell Studio store that exists!

Around SoHo. I promise I'm not as high maintenance as I appear in the picture!

Getting cozy on the subway 

Our tickets!

We got to the studios right when we were instructed to and waited patiently in line for our balcony seats. While we were waiting a girl that worked for the show came and pulled us out of line to ask if we'd like to sit on the floor instead. It took us about half a second to tell her of course we would! The studios are so small and there really isn't a bad seat in the house, but there are only 30 or so seats on the floor and they are right by all the action. Before the taping they moved the floor seat people to the actual hallway that the actors roam around to line up while we waited. It was lined with signed pictures of all the previous hosts and the green room was on the other side. A couple of the actors walked by and Bill Hader graced us with a little joke. Once we were seated I was amazed at how close we were - it felt like they were putting this whole show on just for us! My seat was on the aisle and I could have reached out and touched the actors every time they walked by. It was so cool to see how the show is filmed. It truly is a live show and they work so hard during commercial to get the next scene ready. There are cameras moving everywhere, rushed costume changes, props being moved and people running in every direction. They use every inch of the studio and only about three of the sketches were done on the main stage. The rest were in various corners of the studio. It's amazing how they can transform the place. Seeing Maroon 5 perform so close and in such a quaint setting was a surreal experience. I kept having to remind myself that I wasn't dreaming! Jeremy Renner was great and it was funny to see him in a comedic setting when he's usually so serious. Oh, and I have a new BFF. Vanessa Bayer from the show was standing in front of me at one point before the cameras started rolling. We made eye contact and she smiled directly at me. Then, when the show was over, she walked right by me, smiled again and waved! Sean said that if you didn't know me, you would think we were friends. She totally made my night and I will forever be a fan of hers!

Cameras weren't allowed in the studio but we snuck this one in their hallway by the green room before we entered!

Vanessa Bayer. We're tight.

We were on such a high after the show. I don't know if any other show experience will ever top that for me. We grabbed dinner in our hotel at the Bull & Bear and then drinks at one of the hotel bars, Sir Harry's, and talked of nothing but the show. Then we went up to our room and fell asleep while watching the live performance of the dress show we had just seen. It was literally the same thing.

NYC at night and a shot inside our hotel 

Sunday, November 18
We grabbed Starbucks and a cab and headed home early on Sunday. We were so excited to be there when Mason woke from his nap. Both my parents, Sean and I all went in to get him up and the first things he did was reach for my mom and say 'BeBe!'. My feelings were a little hurt but I'm glad he had such a great time while he was with them. It was nice to get back to our routine for a full 24 hours before we headed out to Seattle for Thanksgiving on Tuesday. More on that to come!