11.30.2017

New York City :: Day 2

I am recapping our amazing NYC trip that we took last week.
To read about Day 1, click HERE.


DAY 2:
The day started off early for my sister and I.

When I went to NYC in 2002, I tried to get tickets to David Letterman.
I called in early the morning of the show, had to answer trivia about The Late Night with David Letterman show & since I answered it correctly, they gave me tickets to the stand by line. I got numbers 3 & 4. One for me, one for my sister Elyse. When we got to the stand by line for Letterman later that afternoon, everyone in line said that for sure the first 20-25 tickets will get to go see the show because that is how it has been on their previous attempts. Well, when the time came, there was only room for numbers 1 & 2. I couldn't believe it. I was so bummed!

So, when I started planning this trip to NYC, I knew that I wanted to go see a taping of Jimmy Fallon. I LOVE Jimmy Fallon!
Tickets for November shows could be reserved on October 5th. I had my alarm set and the moment the tickets were released, I logged on at that second and tried to get 2 tickets. It said wait list, but that they would notify us within 2 weeks of the show.  Fast forward & we got an email saying we didn't get tickets, but we could attempt to get stand by tickets the morning of the taping. They save some of the tickets for standby.
They gave tickets starting at 9am but encouraged people to get there before that.
I got there about 7:30 am & it was dumping rain.

 There was already a long line that had formed. The 1st people in line told me they got there at 4am!!! No way was I going to wake up that early (espcially since that would be 1am California time & I had just taken a red eye)
 
We had a great time chatting with people in line. It made the time pass by quickly.
  We could also see the Today Show being filmed while we were in line, so that was fun.

 After waiting in line for over an hour in dumping rain, we got numbers 40 & 41 and had to return back in the afternoon to see if there was room. 
They also gave us stand by tickets for Seth Meyers. We got 23 & 24 for that.

Elyse & I checked out the NBC Studio Experience Store.

They had memoribialla for tons of NBC shows (current & past)
 Some of my favorites are Friends:

The Office

Of course they had a section This is Us :)
 We headed back to hotel to get my mom & the girls and then we took the subway to Chelsea Market.

 I LOVED Chelsea Market!! It was so cool, it reminded me of the Ferry Building in SF, but better! 

Tons of restaurants that served locally grown items. Lots of farm to table, etc.
There were several Flower Stands inside as well.

The inside of Chelsea Market is exposed brick, exposed beams, etc. I really loved it!

Our main reason for going to Chelsea Market was to get  doughnuts at the Doughnuttery for breakfast! 
They are mini-donuts & we ordered a dozen. 

They are plain donuts & then you pick the flavors you want them dipped in.
We ordered sprinkle, fruity cereal, apple cider & powdered sugar.


 The powdered sugar ones were the best. They melted in your mouth. SO good! 
It stopped raining at this point, so we walked a block to explore The High Line.
The high line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail. 
 It was created on a former New York Central Railroad spur & is now a public park with walkways. 
It was neat & we had great views of the city.
 
I loved how they repurposed the rail way to make walking paths above the city.
After Chelsea Market & The High Line we took the subway to Central Park for the Parade Inflation Celebration. We got there right at 1pm when it opened up and there were already crowds of people lined up to get in.

This was on the Upper West Side, right near the entrance of Central Park.  
 
Loved admiring the brownstones while we waited in line :)

We had to go through a security checkpoint and then we were there!
There were 2 full blocks where they inflated the balloons. At the beginning of each block, they told us which balloons would be on that block (we also discovered this was the order that they were in the parade)

First up was Olaf (this was his first time ever being in the parade)

Because we got there right when it started, only some of them were blown up.
Ice Age Balloon partially blown up:
Ronald wasn't blown up yet. I also loved how they had signs up so you could see what balloon it was going to be and it said which year that balloon was first in the parade.
Hello Kitty was next:
Red Power Ranger (this was his first year as well)
Pikachu:
Charlie Brown (you can see that they net them to keep the balloons low to the ground)
Jett:

Macy's Balloons that were throughout the parade:
We rounded the corner and had to walk a block, but the entire block was lined with Macy's Thanksgiving Balloons:
The building you see is the Musuem of Natural History & Planetarium.
Who doesn't love balloons!

 They were handing out free newspapers for us, I got one for each of the girls.
So many NYPD were on site.
We rounded the corner for the final block of balloons.
This block was the end of the parade, but reverse, so we saw the last ones first.
Elf on the Shelf:
The Grinch:
Aflac Duck:
There were a few more I missed getting photos of Dino, Pilsbury Dough Boy, Angry Bird, Harold the Baseball Player.

Here is Sponge Bob:
We all got so excited when we saw Chase from Paw Patrol. Luke LOVES Chase!
We absolutely LOVED going to the Inflation Celebration. So glad we took the time to do this. It's a free event & was so fun to preview the balloons up close!
This event was from 1pm-8pm, but we were there less than 2 hours. If you ever go see the Thanksgiving parade, this is a must do!

Then went Elyse & I went back to NBC Studios and waited in the stand by line to see if we got to see Jimmy Fallon. 
My mom took the girls to the American Girl Store while we were waiting to find out if we got to see Jimmy.   

They only took a few people (so bummed) 

We had a great time chatting with all our friends in line who we met that morning. 

Super sad we didn't get to see Jimmy :(


 But since we had our stand by tickets for Seth Meyers they told us to come back in line for  his 9pm taping.

We headed back to American Girl Store to get my mom & girls...the girls were in heaven, they didn't want to leave.
We walked over to Times Square to check it out & then have dinner.
I forgot how crazy Times Square is. YIKES!

We had reservations at Carmines. It's a delicious family style Italian place.
It was all decked out for Christmas inside.

We got an amazing salad with apples, cranberries, feta cheese & balsamic. For our main course we got Chicken Marsala....it was divine!
We went to Juniors cheesecake since it was right around the corner and got some cheesecake to go (we were too full from dinner to eat!)
I love cheesecake, so I was so excited to try some authentic New York Cheesecake!
My mom and the girls heaeded back to the hotel to go to bed, but Elyse and I headed back to NBC Studios to try our luck for Late Night with Seth Meyers. We were tickets 23 & 24. They only took 1-7. Struck out again.
 
 Elyse and I walked back to the hotel, this building was around the corner, so pretty all lit up!

 When we got back to the hotel,  there was a jazz quartet playing & singing in the hotel bar/lounge. They sounded like they were from the 1920s. SO good!

 We stayed and listened and had a drink to relax after a LONG but fun day! This was one of the best lemon drops I have ever had....check out all that sugar on the rim. YUM!

I got back to our room and of course had to have a sample of of some of the cheesecake!
 We got 4 slices....Red Velvet, Chocolate Mousse, Carrot Cake Cheesecake & Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. I love that you can buy slices, more variety that way :)
 I had a bite of each that night....Juniors Cheesecake is amazing. 
We earned that cheesecake.... we walked 10.23 miles & almost 23,000 steps on Day 2!

Then it was bedtime because we had to rest up for the next day...the big day...the day I have been waiting for....Thanksgiving Parade Day!

Come back tomorrow to read all about it! 

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See you back here tomorrow for NYC Day 3.....Thanksgiving Day & the PARADE!!!!! 

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