Kelly & Ryan

Location: New York, New York, USA
Address:  77 W 66th St
Date: June 2017
Website:  kellyandryan.com

  LIVE with Kelly & Ryan is a morning talk show filmed at ABC studios in New York City.  The show has left the studio and travelled to Canada on three occassions.  Back in 1996 the show filmed from Niagara Falls, Ontario and the hosts were Regis Philbin and Kathy Lee Gifford.  In 2006, the show returned once more and this time Kelly Ripa joined Regis as a host. In 2017, the current hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest filmed a pair of episodes and this time we were there.  Ryan Seacrest has announced that he will be leaving the show so we found ourselves looking back.

  We didn't actually have tickets to the show but we obtained ourselves a bird's eye view.  We had a room at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel which overlooks the Oakes Garden Theatre where the taping of the show was to take place.

  The hotel also offers a great view to look across and admire the American and Horseshoe Falls.

     As we looked down from our balcony, we had a perfect view of the stage below.  The day before the taping we could watch the crews getting everything ready for the big day. The proximity to the Falls means that even if there is no rain in the forecast, you always have a chance of mist. The main desk on stage remained under a tarp for protection.

   Since we had arrived the day before, we were able to go down into the gardens and get a close up view of the stage. This is what it would be like to be one of the lucky audience members in attendance when the show went live.

  The audience members started to fill up the street at the bottom of Clifton Hill, waiting for their chance to enter the gardens.

  While the crowd squeezed into the gardens, we admired the beauty of Niagara Falls and were quite happy having our own private viewing area. It may have been way in the back, but we had an unobstructed view. 

 

   As show time approached we headed down to the hotel lobby.  Rumour had it that the stars themselves were in the hotel and getting ready to walk across to the Oakes Garden Theatre. Next thing we knew we had a front row seat as Kelly & Ryan were greeted to cheers from their fans.

  We headed back up to our private viewing suite.  We were just in time to catch the start of the show.

  Kelly & Ryan addressed the crowd of mostly Canadian fans.  It is only a short walk or drive across the Rainbow Bridge to get to New York state for any American fans in attendance.

  Kelly & Ryan sat at their big white desk. The desk was nice and dry after being protected under tarps waiting for the hosts to arrive. 

  To make the show even more Canadian, one of the guests was Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The highlight of his appearance seemed to be that he wore R2-D2 and C-3PO Star Wars socks.

  Since Kelly & Ryan had been nice enough to visit us in Canada, we decided to see more of them when we were in New York City. The show is filmed at ABC studios at West 67th Street and Columbus Ave. in Manhattan.

  If you follow West 67th Street into Central Park you will see a row of benches as you enter the park.  One of those is dedicated to Kelly Ripa.

      The bench congratulates Kelly Ripa for over 30 years with the Walt Disney Company which owns ABC. Kelly has been with LIVE for over 20 years and shows no signs of stopping. Her next co-host will be her husband Mark Consuelos.  If they choose to do another taping from Niagara Falls, we know where we will be watching from.

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Map of Our World
Kelly Ripa Bench , ABC Studios NYC
Oakes Garden Theatre

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Post # 321

Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns

 

Location: Wheatley Heights, New York, USA
Address:  185 Colonial Springs Rd.
Date:  September 2022
Website:  jackolanterns.com

  As Halloween season approaches, all sorts of creatures prepare for October 31st to arrive.  Nothing represents Halloween quite like a carved pumpkin or Jack O'Lantern.  While we were in New York City we visited the Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns.  The Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns is a winding trail through the woods and is filled with hundreds of pumpkins.  There were pumpkins from all sorts of movies from animated Disney to Pulp Fiction.  This blog is going to focus on some of the spoookier carvings.  We followed the trail into the woods towards the glowing orange lights.

   The first pumpkins we encountered were based on famous works of art.  There was American Gothic, Mona Lisa and this more Halloween appropriate, The Scream.

     The next section featured all the Simpsons characters.  While not normally spooky, the animated show does a special Treehouse Of Horror episode at Halloween.  This year they will have made more than 32 of them.  Also Marge's hair reminds us of Bride of Frankenstein.

     There was no shortage of comic book heroes and villains.  We have pictured Venom above, as we find him to be the creepiest.

 

  While all the character carvings were made out of groups of pumpkins, there were still more traditional carvings scattered along the trail.

  The next group of carvings were from the creepy and kooky Addam's Family.  The Uncle Fester above appears to be from the movie version with Christopher Lloyd.  Further down the trail was also Christopher's most famous character of Doc Brown from Back to The Future.

    This skeleton biker reveals a bit of the secrets behind how these intricate carvings are made..

    A Pee-Wee Herman carving was the next we encountered.  Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was Tim Burton's first feature film.  Pee-Wee himself is not very scary. 

    But Large Marge is!

    Tim Burton's movies have always had a darker feel to them.  They have been associated with ghosts and strange creatures and Halloween.  He is responsible for Beetlejuice.

    Burton created the stop motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Jack Skellington has become both a symbol of Halloween and Christmas.

     There were also some carvings from the hilarious Mars Attacks!

 

    We headed further into the woods to see what else awaited us.

    There was a section for Peanuts characters.  Each Halloween, Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin to appear.  This year a great pumpkin carving of Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.

    There was a section dedicated to artwork made up of flowers and skeletons.

   There were some classic horror film villains such as Freddy Krueger and the clown from It.

    In the Star Wars section there were lots of carvings.  Sorry Rebel forces but Halloween belongs to Darth Vader.

    There were so many more pumpkin creations along the Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns trail.   We were impressed by the amount of work that went into the carvings.  If you need to get some costume ideas or enjoy a fall evening walk, these type of events can be found in many cities across North America.   Happy Halloween!

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Map of Our World
Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns

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Post # 316

The Fifth Season

Location: New York, New York, USA
Address:  611 Fifth Avenue
Date: November 2021
Website:  www.saksfifthavenue.com

  We found ourselves in New York City for American Thanksgiving.  This is the offical start of the countdown to Christmas.  We took a little stroll along Fifth Avenue to experience something called The Fifth Season.  Along the way we enjoyed the sights and sounds as only New York can offer.

  We started our outing closer to Sixth Avenue as we visited the Bryant Park Holiday Shops.  We enjoyed a cake in a jar and found a few little gifts for our family.  Afterwards, we headed towards Fifth Avenue.

  Bryant Park is located right behind the New York Public Library's main branch.  As we headed onto Fifth Avenue we noticed that even the lion statues that stand guard at the front entrance of the library were wearing wreaths.

     As we headed north on Fifth Avenue we reached Rockefeller Center.  Angels playing horns lead the way to the giant Christmas Tree.  The tree this year was estimated to be about 80 feet tall and almost 45 feet wide at its widest point.  We guess that is how a lot of people feel after indulging in holiday treats, more than half as wide as they are tall.  We were too early for the tree lighting ceremony, but the tree itself was still impressive.

    Looking back towards Fifth Avenue the angels lead us to the Saks storefront all decorated for Christmas.  We had arrived just in time as the first show of lights was only a few minutes away.  We took a look at the Christmas window displays before finding a good spot to watch the show.

  This year the windows were of children's winter drawings come to life.  In the corner of the window was the child's name, age and their original drawing.  The window was a three dimensional, moving recreation of the original artwork.  A great idea and sure to be a thrill for the chosen artists.

  Some music was heard from across the avenue and the Saks Holiday Light Show was about to start.  The front of the store looked like a magical castle.  A wave of Christmas lights, music and colour swept over us.

    Everyone on the street stopped to admire the show.  Truly a great way to get yourself feeling that Christmas spirit.

  Just north of Saks Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Center is St. Patrick's Cathedral.  We went inside to get away from the crowds and see the less flashy side of Christmas.

  The inside of the cathedral is as impressive as any light display that might be happening across the street.

  In the corner of the church was a large manger display.  We took a few moments to pause and then stepped back out into the lights and sights of New York City.

  As we travelled up Fifth Avenue we were treated to light displays set up on the sidewalk.  There was Frosty the snowman making a magic landing in his plane.

  There was an iconic New York yellow cab all lit up for Christmas.

There was a glowing cube that could have been a present or maybe an unsolved Rubik's Cube?

  Other stores besides Saks were also ready for Christmas.  The Cartier store was dressed up in lights to look like a glowing present wrapped in red ribbon.

  One store had a penguin in its window.  A lot of penguins live in cold climates, but live south of the equator.  That is a long way from the North Pole.  There are several species of penguin at the Central Park Zoo, including King penguins, if you keep walking up Fifth Avenue.

  There was a mailbox covered in lights.  You could leave your letters for Santa in this box.  The mailbox was just outside where the famous FAO Schwarz toy store used to be.  The store is now located further back down Fifth Avenue inside Rockefeller Center.

  A polar bear welcomed us as we arrived at the Pulitzer Fountain.  The fountain is located right in front of the Plaza Hotel.

      The whole fountain had been taken over by skating penguins, polar bears and seals as part of The Fifth Season.  We think the fifth season is that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Fifth Avenue is always a sight to see, but during this time it is something extra special.

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Map of Our World
Saks Fifth Avenue
Bryant Park
St. Patrick's Cathedral , Cartier , Pulitzer Fountain

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Post # 306