M&E in NYC - Day 2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EARL!

After a full 7 hours of sleep - which was wonderful - we woke up early to go and see Martha!

We walked from our hotel on 40th Street to Martha's studio on 26th Street. It wasn't raining, so it was a fun walk. We should have stopped at a street food cart for a breakfast sandwich, but not knowing how long it would take us we keep walking until we got there - so on no food we went into Martha's delicious smelling studio!

We waited in the audience holding area until being brought up to the studio. It was interesting to watch the system - when we came in we were given a ticket and they wrote a number on ours, and others had colored lines. They called people in by their ticket indicator - who knows what meant what! We were the last group to go in and were seated in the very last row on the far left side. Being the back was actually very nice - we could see EVERYTHING!



Today's show was LIVE! Hope you caught it! If not, it will replay on the Hallmark channel today and maybe tomorrow. It will be online next week. On today's show Martha answered viewers questions about Thanksgiving dilemmas and side dish ideas. The set was crazy busy with so many people taking care of every little detail. We heard from viewers at home that we were show on tv several times! So if you watch look for a big guy in a pink shirt and you will find Earl!

As we left the show were were given Martha's new book - 'Martha's Entertaining - A Year of Celebrations' it's a 430 page, $75 book! We had to go back to the hotel to drop them off - they were too heavy to carry all over the city. Earl enjoyed the reason to come back to the room... he is snoring as I type this - it's his birthday so if he wants a nap he can have one!



After the show we headed down 7th Avenue. Since we didn't eat breakfast, and Martha's sweet potatoes were making even Earl drool (he doesn't like sweet potatoes) we stopped at a pizza place for a slice. Earl's first New York Pizza - he liked it! As we sat in New Town Pizza it began to POUR rain! Earl used the opportunity to enjoy another slice!

We were four blocks from Macy's - THE Macy's, we we stepped in to shop for Parade souvenirs. I found some fun stuff, including a book I wanted to get for the boys.

After Macy's we came back to the hotel to drop off the books, recharge our batteries, and plan for the rest of the day - and nap (or blog!)

Tonight we are off for more fun... including the NBC Studio Tour and then to the Parade Balloon Inflation!

Day 2 - Continued:

After Earl woke up from his nap we headed back out - destination 30 Rock and the NBC Tour. It was a fun experience. First we saw the studio for Dr. Oz, then the studio for Football in America. Next we got to go into the Saturday Night Live studio - lots of history in that room!

Following the tour we went outside to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Tree and skating rink. The Christmas Tree still has scaffolding around it while they finish putting on the lights and we couldn't get near the rink because the rumor was that Justin Bieber was going to be down there. As the teen girls began chanting "Justin, Justin, Justin" we go the heck out of there!

We grabbed a hot pretzel from a street cart and walked down 5th Avenue enjoying the snazzy stores decked out for the holidays. We stopped into FAO Schwartz to check out a few toys.

We were at Central Park so we began to walk west to head toward the Balloon Inflation. We walked past the horse and carriages and said "no. no thank you. no thanks." and continued walking and then Earl decided that heck yes, we were going to take a carriage ride! So we went back and met up with Mehmet (the driver) and Fury (the horse). Mehmet offered us a deal instead of the regular loop he would take us up closer to the balloon inflation - so we met on a price and away we went. The carriage kept us nice and protected from the wind that had kicked up and the blanket kept us cozy and warm. Mehmet gave us fun information and facts about Central Park as we drove through - and Fury got us to our destination quicker than we could have walked it. Not to mention a carriage ride in Central Park is romantic memorable thing to do with your honey while in NYC! Earl fed Fury at our drop stop and we were on our way.

We found out way to the que for the Balloon Inflation and got our first glimps of the GIANT balloons! They were laying on the ground all along 79th street and continued onto 81st streets with the Museum of Natural History in the middle. The huge crowd walked along the side walk to see the balloons inflated, covered with mesh and held down with sand bags (so they don't blow away!). When they first came into view I got so excited that we were here and seeing them for the first time! They are HUGE! and so fun to see! A definate 'must do' if you are in NYC for the parade.

When we saw the last balloon we left the massive crowd and headed to Cafe Lalo for Earl's Birthday dessert! I was so excited to see Cafe Lalo because it was the location used for a scene in my very FAVORITE movie You've Got Mail. I LOVE You've Got Mail staring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. In the movie Meg's character, Kathleen Kelly, is waiting to meet the person she has been online chatting with, and instead in comes Joe Fox, played by Tom Hanks - a man who has made Kathleen's professional life miserable - I won't give it away - watch the movie - I have 3 copies if you want to borrow one! ...anyway... It's a tiny little coffee shop with a case loaded full of beautiful desserts! I chose a frosted white cake filled with strawberry, while Earl chose a chocolate peanut butter cake and a chocolate milk shake. And just for good measure, we took a piece of Amaretto Tiramisu to go and enjoy when we got 'home'. After a few photos we grabbed the subway back to our hotel.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a deli to grab a sandwich - yes, we ate our dessert before dinner! Oh my gosh, I had forgotten how much a love a roast beef in New York. Delish! Sunshine Deli has hooked Earl in with their peppered turkey sandwich - he is going to have to come back to New York to visit when he can't find such goodness back home - which is fine with me! Before we knew it, it was midnight and we had to get some sleep for tomorrow is the big day! The Parade!!!