Live! Central Park and the Plaza

We had to be up at quarter to 6 am Monday morning as Jere was on the ball and got us tickets to a taping of Live with Kelly & (now) Ryan Seacrest! I was so excited when he told me he got them, and even more excited that the star of scandal Tony Goldwyn was appearing! We got the metro and headed towards Central Park to the studio. We were told to dress like we would for a fancy dinner, so I wore a floral skirt, black top and my dressiest sandals. Keep in mind I'm coming off of a month backpacking! And blisters we're still raw from my new heels so that wasn't happening.

On our walk towards the studio I hit a manhole cover just right and ripped the toe piece clean out of my sandal!! My first thought was, oh my goodness is Kelly going to let me in?! It was a clean break and the shoe was totally unwearable. I took it off and walked barefoot for the second time in New York; it was a lot harder to bear totally sober!

Luckily we weren't that far from the studio, and I put my shoe on when we saw the line and just slid my one foot along the pavement as the line moved. It was a little embarrassing! The one security guard noticed and asked if I was ok, I explained what happened and he was so sweet and tried to help out with some advice. And I thought they wouldn't let me in! Next thing I know this woman from the lineup is foraging in her purse for something to fix my shoe. She had some dental floss, which she tied around the sole and wrapped around the broken piece. The security guard brought us some tape and bam! I've got a shoe that at least allowed me to briefly lift it off the ground. Century 21, kind of an American sears, was around the corner, and my shoe fix lasted until right after the show when we walked over there to look for shoes. It was a team effort!

Anyways, after the shoe fix we stood in the line for close to an hour and a half. We had security and the merchant sales guy brief us a bit, but other than that we were just waiting. They filed us into the lobby and studio at 8:40! We thought that was quite rushed for a 9:00 live show, but the merchant guy assured us with over 20 years in the biz, the show knows how to get it done.

I was totally overwhelmed with how the studio was laid out, it's not at all how I pictured it from watching! Gelmann came out and with only 6 minutes to go (!!) they asked the audience for volunteers to audition to be the crazy dancer for while they do the spin-the-wheel trivia. Efficiently the dancers did their thing, we voted, and a lady from Vegas was picked to be the dancer! She was whisked away to be prepped for her part in the show. We got a crash course from Gelmann on when and how to clap and what to do if our number was picked for the $500 prize they give away each show. Then with hardly any warning at all the show got started! The beginning credits rolled and out come Kelly and Ryan!! I got a great video, I'll see if I can post it on here once I get some good wifi.

The two of them seemed like old friends who sat and chatted and we all just watched in awe. I was surprised how close the staff gets to them while they're on air. Someone's phone went off from the audience and nobody really cared! They really have a way of drowning us out. This show was live! It was really, really cool to watch. The first segment seemed to go on forever, they spun the wheel and did the trivia and then finally they went to commercial.

During the break it was a seamless set change. Kelly and Ryan got their hair and makeup touch ups and Gelmann directed and Kelly totally entertained the crowd. Ryan not so much at that point. Jere and I were totally in awe! Kelly chats and engages with the audience even while they're counting down from 10 seconds! You can really tell she's done it forever.

Sitting on their chairs they came back from commercial and invited out Tony Goldwyn! I was totally star struck. They chatted with him and what felt like a minute later they went to commercial! As soon as the break happens the three stars started to chat like old friends, and it almost felt like the audience wasn't even there! Finally Kelly came over and chatted to the audience while Ryan and Tony continued their conversation. Once again the countdown from commercial and Kelly hops up on her seat with a few seconds to spare.

We said goodbye to Tony and went to another commercial where Kelly and Ryan get touched up again. Like, they hardly do anything and yet Kelly needs more makeup?! Next they invited out Derek Hough! Which I thought was funny since Ryan used to date his sister. Derek's suit was obviously too tight and they chatted about it, it was quite funny seeing him struggle a bit to sit down in it.

Derek's time was super quick! He came and went in one of the takes. After that Kelly and Ryan did some more chatting to the audience between being on air. It was funny, Kelly was talking about how much she loves Ryan's American Idol voice and his one liners, so he did a few like, "Dim the lights, and here we go!" And "We'll find out the results.... after the break!" It was so crazy to see in real life haha! Total fan girl moment.

They had this weird family dance off which was a little boring, but before we knew it we were at the end of the hour!! It was SUCH a cool experience. After it was over Kelly and Ryan had some promos to shoot, so Ryan joked we would all get to see their acting chops. This director guy comes out and directs them quickly, they shoot a line or two over a few seconds, and move on to the next one! It was so fast and they did one take and that was it! Even did a quick one where Kelly makes an action and Ryan falls over. Just one quick take and that's it! And they were explaining that it's this director guy's job to write these and he puts in so much effort and it takes them two seconds to shoot haha. So fun!

With that our time in the studio ended and we filed out to head to Century 21 for some new shoes. I hate forced shopping, but I found a cute pair of sandals at a good price, plus I found a cute summer dress. Overall we had an awesome morning and we headed back on the metro to have our pizza brunch in our Air BNB and get changed out of our fancy clothes.

Update: I had my mom watch the show for us, and Jere and I TOTALLY made it on TV when they pan the audience after the trivia!!! We got our five seconds of fame

After stuffing ourselves with the rest of our delicious pizza and having a bit of a rest from our early wake up, we headed out for the day towards Central Park where we rented bikes to ride around the park. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we got to see the whole park in almost two hours! It was perfect, we both really enjoyed it.

We the walked around the Upper East Side, one of the sections of Manhattan we hadn't covered yet. The apartments were so fancy, we both would have killed to do an inside tour of them! We found a realtors site afterwards and looked at some of the listings. They ranged from 12-36 million, but they also ranged from like 5,000-12,000 square feet and had like, 6 bed 8 bath or in one case, 12 bed 12 bath! So I feel like the prices were close to Vancouver since these places were so grand?

We hit up Zara on the way home and Jere and I both got some really good finds. The shopping here has been incredible - so many good deals, even with the exchange. I've totally spoiled myself, especially since this was the last leg of my trip!

Next we took the metro back home to change once again. We wanted to go to a fancy vegan place for dinner, but by the time we got home and freshened up it was almost 9, and the place closed at 10! Oops, bad planing on our part. One of Jere's must-do's was having champagne in the plaza, so at that hour we had to get a quick dinner so we could make it in time. Not much was open that late that we could find in that area (again, are we in New York or what?) so we decided on the Whole Foods buffet, which definitely hit the spot.

We walked from Whole Foods to the plaza and, while we felt a little out of place not being dressed in a tux and gown, we were kindly greeted by a waiter and sat down at a table by the window. We decided to split a bottle of the plaza's cheapest champagne and toast to our last night in the city! We reminisced about our favourite and least favourite parts. Mine was breaking my phone and then being soooo hungover, but Jere didn't really have a least favourite. Our trip was pretty phenomenal! In large part to having Jaime as our local tour guide. We wouldn't have covered the ground that we did on my day 2 without her there! Took a stroll through Times Square to finish off the night, since I didn't really remember it from our night out Saturday.

Off to bed and I was really sad that my final full day of traveling had come to an end. I miss my Max more than anything, but I'm still not ready to face reality! I feel like I could go a another whole month away. But all good things must come to an end, and this trip has been really, really great. Plus we still had a half day in the city to enjoy, so I wasn't going to let myself be too sad yet!