New York Day 2, Live with Kelly and Ryan, NY Metropolitan Museum

New York Day 2, Live with Kelly and Ryan, NY Metropolitan Museum, Thursday,  April 18, WTRD 33 of 36

We slept well until we woke up around 4:30.  Not bad for the first night back. After our first back to normal breakfast of yogurt, granola, and fruit, we hailed a taxi for the ABC studio building where the Live with Kelly and Ryan is produced.  While we waited in the priority queue for seating, we met two ladies from Mystic, Connecticut.  One of them was a real fan, the other was a friend of the fan.  We enjoyed our conversation with them and in the end of the second show, the friend won a $500.00 gift certificate.  We were excited for her.

It is interesting to see the behind the set and scenes of a live show between commercial breaks.  The New York new car show is debuting this week, and there were three cars positioned on the set creating challenging logistics for the production crew.  Both Kelly and Ryan are small people.  Kelly is very tiny, almost twiggy like.  Watching their interactions with guests, audience, and production staff during the breaks was amusing.  There seemed to be a little discord going on between staff members during the first show and Kelly made it clear that she didn't want to hear them arguing. 

The staff is right there between breaks to fix up her makeup, comb her hair, hand her a jacket.  If Ryan drops something which he did, someone picks it up and places it on a low table so that it can easily be retrieved.  We were surprised how scripted  comments and quest questions were, each written out a cue card and held up for Kelly and Ryan to read and say.  We watched two shows.  Thursday was live.  Friday's show was live to us but taped for the following day, Good Friday.  Not sure if this was done because of a holiday weekend or simply because this always done for a Friday.  

In between shows the hosts change clothes and come out again.  The first show featured guests James Brolin, and the second show David Muir.  Russ really enjoyed the cars, all of which were SUVs, the 4 wheel drives of station wagons.  We had a good time and were out on the street in the real world by 11:30.

We walked through central park and enjoyed the spring feel of the day, and spent the rest of the day in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, seeing only a fraction of the exhibits.  It is a very impressive place and we really enjoyed the American Art and the Egyptian artifacts.

On our walk  back to our studio apartment along the river and then up the avenues, we stopped at Toscana's Italian restaurant for an excellent dinner of lasagna and veal scallopini.  Russ and I as newlyweds (50 years ago) ate in an Italian Restaurant called Mama Leone's.  There was an older couple next to us who heard us discussing whether we could afford to buy some wine.  They gifted us a bottle.  So sweet.  Still brings tears to my eyes.  Unfortunately, Mama Leone's closed in 1994 with the hope of reopening in a new location, but it never did.  Our dinner at Toscanas was excellent.  Fifty years later we were still discussing whether we could afford to buy a bottle of wine.  Haha!  

We walked about 10 miles today, and return back to our studio late in the evening.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in NYC