Day 71

Day 71: 7/27/15 (New York City)

0 miles

Our wake up call was at 3:30am this morning! Ah!  We quickly got ourselves ready and packed enough to keep us entertained for about 5 hours.  By 4am we were out the door and headed to the train station.  We had to a wait a little bit for a train to arrive so we didn't get to the Jimmy Fallon line until about 4:45am.  It was neat to walk by Time Square so early in the morning.  An area that is often swarmed and chaotic was calm, though as bright and inviting as ever.  If our place in line wasn't so important, we would have stopped to take a few pictures (Jillian especially wanted a handstand picture).  When we reached Rockefeller Center, Jillian freaked out a little because she thought we were first in line. Then she remembered that the line was supposed to be around the corner and noticed a small group waiting.  We were happy to count only 9 people before us making us 10, 11, and 12 in line – pretty good odds from what we had researched.

We brought a blanket and a small camping chair to try and make our wait more comfortable.  We also had tons of snacks and a deck of cards to help pass the time.  It seemed wrong to eat Gushers at 6:30am, though we had already been up for a few hours so somehow that made it okay...sort of.  At some point during our wait, a group of middle-aged women behind us asked if we had "done this before".  When we responded no, she was surprised since we were so prepared for the wait.  Around 5:30am we started seeing and hearing the crowd for the Today show across the street.  Before we knew it, the rest of the world was awake and starting their day.  Around 7:30am a security guard made everyone stand up which put an end to our little party.

Finally it was 9am and we were itching to get our standby tickets.  The NBC woman was not so pleasant, but she gave us our tickets (#10, #11 & #12) so we loved her!  From there, we hopped on a train back towards the Little Italy area to pick up some cronuts.  We placed an order online back when we were in New Orleans so we would be guaranteed some deep fried treats.  Surprisingly, they weren't sold out by the time we got there – maybe Mondays aren't as busy?  Regardless, we got to skip the line which was nice, kind of like a little VIP service.  Somehow we waited until we were back at Kristy's apartment before we dug in.  Overall they were pretty delicious, but we both agreed (dare we say) that they may not be worth all the hype.

We all took quick showers and started getting ready to head back into the city.  We had to check in around 2pm for the monologue rehearsal and shortly after for the show itself.  Once we got to Rockefeller Center, we found out that it would be physically impossible to go to both the monologue and the recording so we were left with a choice – either guarantee ourselves some intimate studio time with Jimmy (wink), or risk waiting in the standby line for the full show.  Ultimately, we decided to risk it for the biscuit.  The NBC employees didn't dare to let us know how good our position in line was, but we knew it was pretty freaking good.  We had about 15 minutes to kill so we walked around the plaza a bit and checked out the gift shop – nothing was worth that kind of money $$$!

Over 100 standby tickets were handed out, but they were only accepting #1-#50 after the initial check in.  We had some time to kill before we had to be back so we found a bar close by for drinks.  Little did we know that we were walking into a fairly expensive bar with $10 beers.  Jillian splurged and went for a gin martini which ended up being close to $20 – when in NYC, right?  Once we were back at Rockefeller Center, we had to line up in chronological order and then our wait began.  After about 15 minutes, someone came down from the studio announcing that no more than 22 people would be able to get in.  We were one step closer and THAT much more excited!  The next wait was the worst, but eventually she came down again and announced that #1-#12 would be going in – THAT WAS US (10/11/12)! We got our bracelets and our tickets and made our way upstairs to the lounge.  The walls were covered with photos of all the guests from the show which really gets you pumped up.

We were the last to be seated so we ended up in the back row, but at least we were all together. Also, at the end, we got to high-five Jimmy – ahh!  Watching the show live was just like watching it on TV.  Jimmy is so talented that he doesn't need editing or retakes.  Shortly after his monologue, he told everyone how Tom Cruise had challenged him to a lip sync battle and we just about died.  The battle was definitely our favorite part, AND it was right after that we kind of sort of ended up on TV.  Going to The Tonight Show was definitely a highlight of our entire trip.  It was pretty much the only reason we even stopped in New York.

After the show, we hopped on the train to try and make it to the Comedy Cellar for some standby tickets.  We arrived early and they weren't taking names yet so went to a bar across the street to get some beers.  After one drink, we still had some time, and we were hungry so we went over to a different bar called Off the Wagon to order some apps and drinks.  Our hunger made us lose track of time so we didn't end up getting tickets to the show so we just headed home.  It worked out perfectly for Jillian and Kristy because we got back just in time for the Bachelorette finale

Fact:

Jimmy Fallon is hands down the best personality on TV

Lesson:
If you want to be first for the Jimmy Fallon standby line, you have to arrive around midnight


Eat Well; Travel Often
Rico & Jillian