New York City, NY – June 16, 2008

Our last day in the city started at 6:00 a.m. when we took the PATH to 33rd and Broadway then took the NY subway from there to Rockefeller Center, which is the site of the Today Show on NBC. We arrived there at 6:45 and were four people among a very large crowd.

The first hour of the show was all inside the studio, most of it was devoted to Tim Russert. Additionally, Al Roker was in Iowa reporting from Cedar Rapids, so he wasn’t outside with his frequent weather reports.

The second hour had quite a few of the segments outside. It was very interesting to watch what was involved in getting everything ready for Matt Lauer or Meredith Viera. There were so many people there, seemingly doing nothing. We decided that each person has one job to do and then they stand around and wait until they have to do ‘their’ job again.

There were monitors outside so we could watch the program. There were also speakers but we were unable to hear much of anything, even when the segment was being shot outside.

A few times during commercial breaks Matt and Meredith would walk around, shake hands, sign autographs and say hi to people. They didn’t come in the area where we were standing, but we did get some pictures. You really need to look closely to see Matt. He’s blurred in one and we just got the back of his head in another. One of the guests today was Mike Meyers who has a movie coming out. He was interviewed inside the studio but he came outside before the segment to greet the people and sign a few autographs. We got some close shots of him.

We don’t think we made it on TV this morning, however Bob and Margaret did. We each made a sign and were holding it up. Bob and Margaret were in a better place and Keely told us she saw them and the sign. We had a good time this morning and are happy to have experienced this.

We were quite tired when we finally left. We had been standing for over 2 hours and went into a coffee shop to sit down and have a coffee break. Then we made our way back to the PATH and came back to New Jersey.

We have really enjoyed the past few days, but we are ready to continue our trip. We didn’t encounter a single “stereo-typical rude New Yorker”. Everyone we asked questions of or talked with was very nice and helpful.