On Monday we decided to spend the day in Rockefeller Center and tour the Top of the Rock.  Those of you who are familiar with the show "30 Rock" will know what I am referring to. We went to the observatory on the 69th floor.  We couldn't get to the 70th because they were filming a movie.  We saw what appeared to be a George Clooney stunt double. Not sure though and no way to confirm this.  Central park looked breathtaking from the observatory. I highly recommend viewing NYC from these tall towers whenever possible.  Just remember it is cooler and windier up there.

Our next stop was the Nintendo World store.  A whole retail store dedicated to Nintendo products.  It's the only one in the whole world and if you are a fan of Nintendo or have kids it's a must visit. You can try out numerous WII and DS games or buy some shirts.

We decided to spend the extra money and tour the NBC studios.  I enjoyed it, but I'm not recommending it for everyone.  Having been a communication student in college I'm into broadcasting and journalism. So, I thought it would be cool to see how a network setup its studios.  We got to tour the Saturday Night Live studio and the Sunday night football sound stage.  I don't watch football, but evidentally it is where Bob Costas and some other sportscasters sit around and talk about the game.  I guess Madden used to be there as well before he retired.  We couldn't tour the MSNBC sound stage because they had breaking news at the time.  We were dissapointed because we wanted to see Brian Williams in action.

Later that night we ate at Max Brenner a restaurant devoted to chocolate. I had a chocolate martini that was to die for and we shared some chocolate desert. My taste buds didn't even know how to handle it all.

Tuesday, we made our way to the Natural History Museum.  Be warned, if you plan to this museum give yourself all day and don't plan to read everything.  The museum is 4 stories and once inside don't expect it to look like the movie "Night at the Museum". The museum is 4 floors and I recommend starting at the 4th floor with the dinosaurs and working your way down.  We didn't do that. We bought an  extra ticket to a live frog exhibit.  Completely worth it.  Many different frogs from all over the world.  My other favorite highlights from the museum were largest meteorite (that you can touch), mammals, dinosaurs, ocean. The museum is in the theme of evolution.  So you can start with dinosaurs and see how they evolve.  The same for mammals and humans. This is a must stop if you are coming to NYC unless you just went to the Smithsonian in D.C.

After the museum we hurried down the street to the NY Public Library.  You can't actually check out books, but instead you can do all your research there.  This library is breathtaking.  If you have the extra time you should pop in (it's free) and walk around.  On display you will find one of the first Gutenberg Bibles.

Today we're off to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

As always thanks for reading.