This past week, I got one of the best opportunities I’ve ever gotten in my life. I got an opportunity to go to New York City to be in the audience for a taping of Live with Kelly and Ryan with one of my good friends, Mariah, and have a lunch with the titular stars. You can read more about how I got this opportunity here. This blog will serve as kind of a retrospective on the whole experience from my point of view. From the plane rides, to the limo rides, to the actual show itself, it was an experience that I would take again if offered.
This is part one of my retrospective of NYC. Part Two, covering the day of the show and the trip home, will come in the near future.
Tuesday
I had to get up early, since my flight departed at 10am that morning. I hadn’t been to the Kalamazoo airport since I was 5 years old, so I had no idea how early to get to the airport, so I decided that I’d be there by about 8am. That would give me a couple of hours to get through security, get our bags checked, all that stuff. So, I picked up my friend from her house around 7:40 or so, and managed to get to the airport at just after 8am.
Now, the Kalamazoo airport is pretty small in comparison to some of the other airports in the area. Just how small was it? Small enough that the TSA line wasn’t even open yet when we got there, and wouldn’t open until maybe 45 minutes before we boarded. So, we waited for a good hour after we got checked in just to go through the security line.
When it did open, it went pretty quickly. However, for some reason, I had to get patted down. The system saw something in my shoulder and groin area, and I wasn’t even wearing a belt or anything. That confused the ever-living hell out of me. What did it see? I know I filled up my car the previous day, but I wasn’t even wearing the sweatshirt I was wearing through TSA. That was the weirdest part of the whole experience for me.
Either way, we got through that, and soon enough, it was time to board the plane to Detroit. This plane was what they called a “regional jet”. To me, it was “a plane with low-ass clearance”. There was probably less than six inches between my head and the roof in the center aisle. 
Soon after, we took off. Now, I haven’t been in a commercial aircraft before, so imagine my reaction to taking off in an airplane for the first time. I was literally holding my friend’s hand just to keep my wits about myself the whole takeoff. After that, though, it was actually a smooth ride, and I was able to get the courage to take outside-of-plane pictures, like the one shown off to the left.
My first thought after we landed was, “when do we clap?”. I thought that that was customary to do after a plane lands. I didn’t do it, but just today I learned that pilots don’t like that. So, I just resorted to shaking the pilot’s hand after we landed, just to say “thanks for landing us safely.”
After we landed in Detroit, we had to go to the main terminal to get to our layover flight. We had to go through what I believe to be the trippiest tunnel of all time, connecting the B and C terminals with the A terminal.
Along with that, I had my first experience on a moving walkway. All I can say is, if Western Michigan wants to invest in that technology, please do. Quickly.
I noticed that our flight to NYC would be on an Airbus A320, also known as a big freaking plane. When I got on, I was kind of amazed by the seats themselves. There was even a TV on the back of the seat in front of me! Although there were a couple of Japanese TV shows that intrigued me for in-flight entertainment (hello, Cold Case Japan), I decided to stick to the games that were available for entertainment.
The game that got me the most was the Bingo game they had. I played this with Mariah in a multiplayer room, and she won. However, I still claim that I won, but apparently you have to have Bingo on all three of your given cards to win. It took almost 65 numbers to declare a winner, making it one of the longest Bingo games I ever played.
Either way, because it was a bigger plane, the flight probably went a lot smoother than I thought it would. We landed at LaGuardia Airport, and then the trip to the hotel officially began. Compared to Detroit, LaGuardia (at least from where I was) does not have all the same amenities as Detroit. At least Detroit had more than one restaurant at the terminal!
After getting our luggage, we met up with our limo driver to take us to the hotel. The limo itself wasn’t a limo per se, but it was more of a four-door SUV-type vehicle. I was okay with this, though, at least until we actually started driving in New York City proper. You want to know how that went? This was my face for most of the drive.
I swear, there were at least two or three times where our driver almost ran over someone trying to cross the street. I have not seen this kind of driving before. Thank God I wasn’t the one doing the driving, though.
We eventually got to our hotel, the Empire Hotel. And this was one of the swankiest hotels I’ve ever been in. Check out the lobby:
Our hotel room was a small, two-bed room, with stuff you’d find in every hotel room: a TV, table, and nightstand. The only thing confusing about the room, we found, was the bathroom. It took us until the final day of our trip just to figure out how to turn on the shower head.
Either way, after relaxing for a little bit, we decided to head outside to explore the area around us and perhaps get some dinner. We decided to go to a place called Big Nick’s for dinner. The restaurant was one of those hole-in-the-wall establishments, located on 71st Street. We had a good meal, Mariah getting chicken, and me getting the linguine and meatballs, as shown in the picture to the left. Those were the biggest meatballs I think I ever had.
The only problem with our dinner experience was that it rained. Really rained. Rained so hard.
Before we left, we saw the rain doing its thing, and decided to get an umbrella. I didn’t bring mine because I didn’t think I needed it, but Mariah brought hers, so we decided to use that. Thing was, it was only big enough for Mariah, and it broke before we even got one block down the street. So, when we got to the restaurant, we were very much soaked.
On our way back to the hotel to look for the complimentary umbrella the hotel had in our room, we decided to stop by the Magnolia Bakery to get Mariah some dessert. It was pretty cheap, too: the cupcake she got was only $3.
Speaking of the umbrella that we had in our room? It didn’t exist, even though the hotel info said it did. So, we borrowed one from the front desk, and headed down a block to the Shops at Columbus Circle, just to see what was there. This place was huge, with five levels overall. The top floor had restaurants that A) we couldn’t afford, and B) couldn’t eat at, because, duh, we already ate. So, we mostly stuck to the middle floors, where most of the shops were. After picking up a couple of things, including A Die Hard Christmas for myself, we went to the bottom floor.
The bottom floor was a Whole Foods.
Reader, I have never been to a Whole Foods before. However, I’ve heard good things about it, mainly that it’s a Supermarket For Hipsters. So, both of us were riffing on the place the whole time with all the stuff they had. So much organic stuff. Hummus flavors we’ve never heard of before. WHOLE FISH. After picking up a couple of small foodstuffs for the hotel room, we went back to the room, and decided to chill for the rest of the night.
Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, it was so dark outside, you couldn’t tell it was only 6pm when we got back to our room. But we took this time to dry off, warm up, and get some sleep for the big day tomorrow: The day we sit in the audience for Live with Kelly and Ryan. We couldn’t wait for Wednesday to come.