I really wish I’d have taken some video of our late night/early morning airport shenanigans. Neither of us felt safe enough in Newark airport at night to really sleep, so we alternated running around the entire place trying to keep ourselves awake and trying to find quiet places to nap. We’d been awake for nearly 24 hours and had to power through a few more.
Another 5 am start, this time to stand in line for a chance to attend the TODAY Concert. The Tonight Show the night before and the TODAY concert now — it was a perfect way to round out our trip activities! A representative led to the back of the line and it was several blocks long at this early in the morning. I was not feeling good about our chances of making it into the concert, or, if we did, being able to actually see the performance from how far back in the audience we would be.
After about half an hour of waiting, fate intervened and we started chatting with the guy in line behind us, who, as luck would have it, had fan pass tickets. He happened to have two tickets and each ticket allowed one guest. My friend and I were nervous about getting away with being the “guest” since the guest portion of the ticket had clearly male names on them, but when the concert reps came by, they just took the pass and didn’t give it a second look. And then we were in!
The alarm went off at 4:30. After hurriedly getting dressed and snagging a croissant from a street vendor, I headed to NBC Studios for four-and-a-half hours of waiting in line. My friend went with me, and although it was brutal getting up so early to do something so boring, it would be great to have some company.
We made some friends in line, and the time passed faster than you’d think. When someone finally came out to give us our standby line tickets, I couldn’t have been more excited. We were told to come back at 3:30, which was around the time people with actual tickets needed to be back as well. For a full recap of my Tonight Show standby line experience, see my Yelp Review of the Tonight Show.
We arrived late morning to Newark airport and took a car service into Manhattan. Our hotel was the Sheraton at Times Square, which was in an easy walking distance of the majority of the things we wanted to do and see. Although we could have found some place cheaper, the trade-off of cutting down on taxi and Uber rides made the extra expense worth it to us.
After my tour of Europe, I assumed I’d stay put for the summer… I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had told a friend of mine earlier that if she ever got tickets to the Tonight Show, I’d go with her. This was months and months ago, and I hadn’t given it a second thought since she’d already been trying for years to get tickets. But, of course, while I was away having the time of my life overseas, she finally scored Tonight Show tickets. More specifically, she scored one ticket, which meant if I went with her I wouldn’t have a guarantee that I’d see the show, but I’d have a good chance of getting one if I was willing to wait in the standby line.