I have so much to blog about. We have been ON THE GO the last few weeks. This post will be about our trip to New York City and I'll do separate posts about our other trips.
When we first found out that we were moving to Philadelphia, George entered his name into the Saturday Night Live lottery. On a previous trip to NYC, George and I did the SNL standby line, which was a super huge pain, and we didn't get in. The lottery is much easier, but the chances of being drawn are really slim. Well, George's name was drawn.....FOR THE SEASON PREMIERE!! :) Also, I should note that you do not have a say in the date that you are selected for. There are so many dates that wouldn't have worked for us because of other trips, but we happen to be completely free the weekend of the premiere. He was notified via email that he was selected about 2 weeks before the show. He was required to reply 3 days beforehand to secure our spot. We actually weren't planning to go because ya know, we have 2 kids and what would we do with them? I did some research and found a reputable babysitting agency called Pinch Sitter, George researched hotels and parking, and we decided to go!
New York is only about two hours from us so we drove up first thing on Saturday morning. It was a super easy drive, exactly two hours from our place in PA to our hotel in Manhattan. The show didn't start until 11:30PM (we had to arrive at 10:15PM) so we had lots of time to explore after we checked-in. We stayed at the Kimpton in Chelsea (got a great last minute deal). Our room was so nice and even had a great view. I was pretty nervous about how things would go with the kids in NYC. George and I absolutely love NY (like we would move there in a heartbeat), but I wasn't so sure that we'd love it with the kids along. It was definitely a different trip with the kids, but had very compact "baby gear" so we were able to get around easily and had no where to be (until SNL at 10:15PM) so we could play it by ear. Luke was pretty oblivious to the whole thing and slept a lot in the Ergo. Madeline loved walking everywhere and enjoyed the couple of sites that we did see. We stumbled upon the kids area at the New York Public Library and spent an hour or so there. Then we walked to Grand Central Station and checked that out. We grabbed an early dinner and then took the scenic route back to our hotel. We relaxed in the hotel for a couple of hours and then took Madeline for ice cream.
The babysitter arrived at our hotel at 8PM. I did a lot of research on Pinch Sitters and spoke to the owner, but we were both still pretty nervous about how it would go. However, once our sitter arrived, we felt so relieved. She was awesome right off the bat. Luke was asleep, but she immediately connected with Madeline and we left without any tears (yay!). We had a couple of hours to kill before we had to be at SNL. The ASU game was on and I found a bar right around the corner from our hotel that was playing it. It turned out to be an ASU bar and the NYC ASU alumni group was there watching the game. So, we hung out with the alumni group and watched the game until half time....it was so much fun! And I actually saw someone I know from my undergrad.
When we got to Rockefeller Center, we sought out "Jen's line" per the instructions on the email. George gave his name and we were on the list (phew!). I'm going to be honest, I felt so VIP. Haha. They checked his ID, gave us our tickets, and sent us to a waiting room with the other audience members. We were told not to take any pictures. George took a picture of our tickets and I got so nervous....I was convinced that we were going to get kicked out. We didn't. Next, they brought us up to the studio. We had to take an elevator up several stories (I think we were on the 10th floor or so). We shuffled into the studio and they pointed us to our seats. The majority of the audience (with the exception of a small amount of VIP audience members who sit right on the floor) is raised up about 15 feet off of the stage level. We were in the front row of that section. When looking at the stage, we were to the right a bit. There is the main stage in the middle with the house band. Then there are a few other stages. We had very good visibility to all stages except the one on the far left, which ended up being the musical guest's stage (we could see the frontman, but not his band).
Margot Robbie was the host and The Weekend was the musical guest. The premiere was the same week as the first Presidential debate so the highlight of the night was the debate skit. Alec Baldwin was Trump. He was HILARIOUS! The debate was my favorite skit and my second favorite was the sink hole skit (check it out on Youtube!). George was really excited that Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) was on the show. He was also very excited for the house band -- he is a big fan of jazz music.
George is an SNL fan and has watched many episodes. I, on the other hand, had never seen an entire SNL episode prior to watching it live, so I had no idea what to expect. A lot of it was funny to me, but I also found some of it kind of stupid/weird. Maybe my sense of humor is not that sophisticated??? We both found the "behind the scenes" perspective fascinating. The pace at which the cast and crew move during the live show is insane. They were literally pulling Margot Robbie off of the stage as soon as it cut to commercial for her costume changes. It was clear that the crew had every detail thoroughly planned. The sets were so intricate. Many of the props/scenes were leaning against walls throughout the studio. The cast is full of comedians, but many of them had very serious game faces on before their skits....you could even see some of them sort of rehearsing their lines prior to going live. We have been to other shows (Live with Kelly and Price is Right) and those shows gave direction to the audience. SNL did not give much direction. The laughter and audience reaction is all very spontaneous and genuine.
We were both so glad we went. It was a once in a lifetime thing and we had a blast.
We rounded out our trip with donuts at Doughnut Plant in Chelsea and coffee at Stumptown on Sunday morning. We hit the road after lunch and got back in the early afternoon. I even had time to do my weekend grocery trip.
We will be back soon, New York! Here are some pictures from our trip...
George connected a strap to our umbrella stroller so that he could sling it on his back when Madeline wanted to walk.
Luke was in the Ergo the entire time. He loves being in it and it's simple for us. Win-Win!
