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Day 3: April 7, 2011
Five brave souls woke up early and headed down to the broadcast of The Today Show, where they saw Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera and Al Roker, not to mention Anne Hathaway! The rest of us met them at NBC later in the morning for a tour through the studios -- we saw the sets for Saturday Night Live, MSNBC and the Dr. Oz show. We walked around the beautiful Rockefeller Center, and up past Late Night with David Letterman. Then, we hopped on the subway to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where we had lunch at Gray's Papaya, a favorite local hot dog stand. From there, it was just a short walk to Central Park, passing the Dakota apartment building, where John Lennon was shot and killed 30 years ago, and Yoko Ono still lives. We then strolled through the Park, visiting Strawberry Fields, the Lake, the Boathouse, Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, and Conservatory Water, aka the Miniature Boat Pond. Next up was a visit to the sprawling Metropolitan Museum of Art, where 90 minutes just gave us a small taste of the wonders contained there. Back on the subway down to the United Nations, where we took a fascinating tour and got to sit in the General Assembly and Security Council rooms. We then took a bus ride across town to a terrific Italian dinner, followed by a walk through Times Square ablaze with lights. Finally, it was time to go to our Broadway show, Memphis, which was terrific. We squeezed a whole lot in to today, and wish we had more time tomorrow to keep exploring!