The Expedition- Digital Collage Painting

It pays off to get out of you comfort zone every once in a while.  I've never been a fan of crowds and the hustle and bustle of a city, so the king of all cities, The Big Apple, sends fear into my heart at the mere mention of going there.  So, of course, my teen daughter, who is into television production, live theatre, movies, and all things LA, New York, and Hollywood, choose to go to New York City for her 16th birthday trip.  In lieu of a sweet 16 party, both of my teens opted for going on a trip instead. So, off to NYC we went on Sunday via the train.

We stayed in Times Square and did all things television and theater.  Our first morning there we made it to the front row of the Today Show Plaza and actually were spotted on television for a brief wave to the public.  But the cool part was actually watching how the whole production went down. So many people are involved behind the scenes and the anchors or "talent" as they are called, are pretty clueless about the segments coming up other than a quick briefing right before the segment is about to happen.  The tele-prompters keep them on track with the content and the producer behind the camera keeps them on track with time (soooo funny to watch them get upset when the anchors aren't wrapping it up). Basically, the anchors get paid a LOT of money for reading, smiling, and looking pretty.  Which, they all are, actually...we had a chance to shake Al Roker's hand (boy is he much tinier than I imagined!), and Tamron Hall's hand (she actually had a conversation with my daughter about her birthday and said she was a queen!)  We were greeted in general by Willie Geist, Natalie Morales, and Savannah Guthrie when they waved to the crowd in between segments.  Apparently Matt Lauer was on vacation this week, so we didn't see him (which was fine...I think he is my least favorite of the bunch).  Besides having to stand for 2.5-3 hours, it was a fantastic experience to watch it all behind the scenes.  Check in with Nine Acres Designs on Facebook later today for some screen shots of the broadcast of us on the Today Show (and maybe some other shots from the Today show).

It was a great morning and then afterward we took my daughter to Central Park since she has never been there before.  We walked around in the beautiful weather (80's with almost no humidity) enjoying the sights and sounds.  It really is amazing to see what the natural landscape of the area looked like before they bulldozed it all over to build the city.  A quick rest in the hotel geared us up for dinner at Planet Hollywood where my daughter was overjoyed to see some of the costumes from one of her favorite  movies...The Hunger Games.  After dinner we went to a great Broadway show called 39 Steps...an amazing and hilarious adaptation of a Hitchcock movie.  There were only 4 actors in the entire show that played 101 roles!  Truly amazing.

Riding in New York taxis is a must for any first timer to the city, just for the experience, so we did that several times for my daughter, but honestly, it is pure torture for me filled with anxiety and fear! I thought driving with my teens was terrifying...um, no.  For someone who hates not being in control, the back seat of a NYC taxi is not the place to be!

So glad to be safe and sound home in my rural comfort zone, but so happy to have gone with my dear daughter to experience some of her life's firsts with her!  I wouldn't have missed it for the world.