New York - Day 4

4:30 am - beep, beep, beep, grumble, grunt, WHAT THE HECK?

Let the record state that there are only a handful of things that make an alarm piercing me to awakeness at such a horrid hour a forgivable offense. Kelly Ripa is one of them.

So, I rolled out of bed, got in the hot shower, and reminded myself that farmers are probably harvesting food I will eat without a second thought and all I have to do is get pretty for Kelly and Regis. By 6am we were dressed ready and the youngest people at breakfast by easily 25 years. We took the subway to the studio and got in line. They had a breakfast van with free food and hot drinks. We each got a hot chocolate and waited until they let us in. We were pretty close to the front of the line and when we got into the studio were able to get GREAT seats. Their show was SO fun! They had four guests: Milo Ventimiglia (from TV show Heros), Sam Champion (ABC weather man), Trevor Immelman (winner of The Masters), and Jack McBrayer (from 30 Rock). During the commercial breaks all of the guests were interactive with the audience so it was really fun to be able to talk with them "off air" and unscripted.

Then came the BIG moment we'd been waiting for!! Side note - it is no big secret that Kelly Ripa and her daughter Lola love Disney's High School Musical. In fact, Kelly even dressed up as Sharpay last year for Halloween. It was all too convenient that I work on High School Musical watches at work...and of course this would be my "in" with Kelly (whom I'm sure I'd be best friends with if she wasn't so busy with her show, Electrolux and so on).

SO, it was commercial break number 1...and Kelly walked right up to the audience to welcome a sweet couple who was there celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. As soon as she was done, I jumped right up and got her attention. Here is our dialogue:

Me: "Kelly, I brought a little something for Lola"

Kelly: (Head pops in my direction, face lights up) OH MY GOSH!!!! She will LOVE IT. (Takes the box from me) What is it?!

Me: "A watch...open the little box"

Kelly: OH MY!!!! It is so cute! I am going to use this to get Lola to do her homework. What can I do for you? Can I clean your house? Thank you! This is so sweet. Thank you!

Chris: (snapping pictures like a pro!)

Karen: You are so welcome.

The rest of the show was so fun. Regis and Kelly have great chemistry as co-hosts and the studio was so friendly and upbeat. I'd so recommend this show....and tell Kells I say hi when you go.

Kelly was great but there was no denying that our sleep had been disturbed the night before. So, we headed back for a nap...why not? It's a vaca after all.

Around 1:00 we took the subway to Brooklyn. Our friends, Angie and Ricardo had mentioned Grimaldi's pizza on their web review of NYC and we'd heard from several others that it was one of the "famous" pizza places. In fact, we've since learned that the owner even served pizza to Old Blue Eyes - Frank Sinatra. The place smelled wonderful with it's big fire brick oven. We ordered a pepperoni pizza with black olives. It was delicious beyond the words I have to describe. We really recommend making this stop if you're in the city. It's located right under the Brooklyn bridge and eating at odd hours is the only way to avoid a wait...and still no guarantees. But it is worth it.

Next we walked across the Brooklyn bridge. We'd eaten a whole pizza so there was no subway for us....at least for awhile. We loved the views and picture opps from the bridge.

Once we hit the city we decided to walk over to the twin tower memorial. Chris was in NYC a week after 9/11 so he has a very different memory of it. When he was there last time, dust and dirt was still everywhere. Signs were posted along buildings and street signs of missing persons. It was so fresh and painful. This time, construction was in process and we couldn't even get to the temporary memorial they had set up. While it's still breath taking in the solemn way to imagine the two giant towers collapsing, it wasn't what I expected.

Conveniently located across the street was Century 21. A designer clearance house department store. We went nuts. We each got a pair of shoes, I got some Chip and Pepper jeans, and Chris some shirts, and an athletic shirt. It's quite a mad house though...even at 4pm on a weekday. So, beware of weekends and holidays if you want to do some shopping here.

We took the subway back to our part of town to put on different outfits and head to a bar we'd read about. It was called 230 5th...on 5th St. It was on the top floor of it's building and had incredible views of the city. We sat on a cute couch enjoying the views while drinking margarita's. We also ordered some slider hamburgers (so cute!) and some noodles with peas. It was romantic and fun. I LOVE when Chris researches awesome venues for our trips...he always finds something good.

After that, it was back to Times Square to buy some postcards and then head to bed...with only one day left in NYC, we wanted to be full energy for the last day.

New York - Day 3

By day three, we were really getting good at the breakfast thing. We got up and ate the free meal with time to spare.

Today it was off to Union Station and what better way to get there then the subway? I'd come along way from two days ago when I was sure people got killed there. Now I really enjoyed the whole little world that existed below the city....kind of like the Doozers in Fraggle Rock.

Right out of the subway in Union Station we found a Farmers Market. It was fun to compare what was fresh and local on the East Coast this time of year. We were thrilled to see apples as those aren't found in our own Farmers Market. We also found a laughable "dog park." The so-called park was a fenced in area no larger than our back yard which isn't very big. Dogs were running like maniacs through the area. It was really interesting. We also saw our first professional dog walker...a girl about my height with about 10 leashed dogs. If those dogs were smart, they would know they could drag her through the city but somehow they all stayed organized and well mannered around her.

Next we decided to head across the street to Chocolate by the Bald Man. We couldn't help but think of my choco-holic sister-in-law. This place was like the Chocolate part of Willie Wonka's factory. There were vats of chocolate being slow churned all over the shop. Tiny truffles were displayed beautifully in shiny glass cases! A huge bar with ornate bar stools invited you towards the wall menu of every chocolate indulgence you could imagine. But before we get too carried away it was still early morning. So we opted for an Italian Hot Coco. It was like drinking melted chocolate. Delicious!!! I almost pulled the lid off to lick the cup but remembered where we were and tried not to come undone over chocolate. While enjoying the coco we did a brief walk through of Trader Joe's...how we wish we had one in Austin!

Next we walked to Greenwich Village. I found a lingerie boutique that had my favorite hanky pankies on sale....so I had to go in! While I bought my girly stuff, Chris opted to head to The Strand bookstore. (Book lovers, beware! They have 18 miles worth of new and used books...that's a lot!) There, he glanced over their "Top 80 of All Time" list and opted to buy one we didn't have in our collection. We are book lovers and don't go into book stores and come out empty handed!

Of course all this walking around left us a little hungry so we grabbed one of the infamous Papaya Dogs. Yum! Also, as we were walking through a little park in the village we walked right past Peter Dinklage. For those of you who are cool, you'd remember him as Miles Finch. He was walking his dog. It's tough work rubbing elbows with the famous but little did we know our elbows would only get more sore while in NYC...

Refreshed by star gazing and Papaya dogs, I had worked up an appetite for SHOPPING! We grabbed the subway and headed to Macy's. Chris may not get as excited about retail as I do but I couldn't allow him to come to NYC and not walk through the 8th Wonder of the World. After that we headed to one of my favorites, H&M. I historically would come home from business trips with bags full of new goodies for both of us. However, we had never had the H&M experience together. It was delightful and this time of the bags of goodies even included some other people...

Next it was time for more food! It's amazing how much more you want to eat when walking so much. We went to S'Mac a fun Mac and Cheese place that we'd totally recommend. Chris had the Napolita Mac (like pizza mac!)and I had the Buffalo Chicken(Spicy hot). It was a super cute place with lots of character. After chowing down, we took the subway back to the Theater District so we could change into some fun clothes for our David Letterman taping.

We arrived at the Ed Sullivan theater around 4:30 to check in. We were pulled out of line to a separate line. The girl asks "So, are you guys ready for David Letterman?" my response in my squeally, scream voice, of course, was "OH YEAH!" Before Chris could be too embarrassed she asked our favorite part of the show. (Remember my side note yesterday? We don't watch the show.) So, I head snap to Chris as if to say "Tell Her Honey" and Chris quickly responds with "The Mail and of course The Top 10." She put a blue sticker on our ticket and sent us to the next line. There we were pulled aside from the group of 20 or so other people. We were informed that we "looked fun" apparently that's a high value at the Letterman Show. I was just happy my squeals finally got a reaction! Anyway, our fun look had earned us a place in the first few rows!!!! We were told to come back earlier than the rest of the gang. Whooo hooo!!!

We went back to the hotel since it was a block away and I called my parents to tell them about our excitement. Why is it when I can't figure out how to cook chicken Mom is a phone call away with the perfect Martha Stewart answer but when I really have something good to share no one answers?

Anyway, we got back to the theater, got in the "special" line and were whisked inside to do a "warm-up" with another assumed Intern. She got us excited, had us practice screaming, told us the rules (including no "whoo-ing") and then we headed in. We were about the 2nd or 3rd row back in the center. It was AWESOME! First a warm-up comedian came out and got us laughing. Then Dave came running...like sprinting out for a little time with us. Then the taping began. The Paul Schaffer band was really good. Dave was mostly funny with a few canned moments. The guests were: Amy Poehler to talk about her movie Baby Mama, Jason Segel to talk about his movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and a live performance from musical guest Jordan Zevon. Jason Segel was REALLY funny but Amy and Dave were not as funny (without their writers) as I would have imagined! It was great to be in the Ed Sullivan theater and to see the production side of it all. Because it was the Friday taping, we even got to watch ourselves on TV at home in Austin a few days later! We really had a blast!

After that we grabbed dinner at the Cosmic Diner. Chris had an awesome lasagna that we think had cinnamon in it...there was a unique flavor that was YUM! I had the pasta primavera with fresh veggies on top. We then took a piece of New York Cheesecake to go.

We took the cheesecake back to our room and ate dessert in bed...we had to hit the hay early because we'd be getting up at 4:30am the next day...