Our Trip To New York To Debut On "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"!!

So in July I had "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" on TV - I like to have it on while I'm doing stuff around the house sometimes and see if I know the questions. Anyway, they said that if you wanted to be a contestant to sign up online. I did just that for fun and wasn't expecting ANYTHING from it - but a couple of days later I had an online test in my inbox from "Millionaire". I had to complete on a Friday at 5:00 and had only 20 seconds to answer each of the 30 questions. Well I did it but thought I completely bombed it so I really didn't think anything else of it.

The following Tuesday I got a call - this call was from a producer at "Millionaire" who asked me if I could fly out that next Tuesday and be on their show!!! Holy cow I was ecstatic! They called right before I was heading out for my first Dr.'s appointment so I was scrambling trying to get everything ready, trying to write down the information they were giving, and keeping Mckenna quiet. Kind of crazy but my heart wanted to jump out of my chest. I called Jason right after because he of course was going to be my companion. Well, with that being said we flew out the following Tuesday and went to New York City! The best part about this trip was it was completely free. They paid for the plane tickets, transportation to the hotel, the hotel itself, plus they gave us some money to spend while there. I already felt like I won something even before I got on the show. We left Mckenna with my Mom and sister, Kerri who so gratefully drove down from Montana to stay with her. It was such a great trip with just Jason and I.

We got off the plane and here was my driver! I was the only one who had a sign with my name it and I felt pretty special! :) We got our luggage and drove to New York! It was kind of crazy because we got in the car right around rush hour but it was so fun to see all the sites and to drive through the city. This was Jason's first time there and he loved it. Our driver said he drove lots of celebrities like Serena Williams, Regis Philbin - who I would soon meet, and Kirk Douglas. He had some fun stories which made the car ride that much more exciting.

We got to our hotel and I was starving so we decided to go and grab something to eat in "Little Italy". I had been there before but it had been a long time. We walked straight through China Town and saw lots of fish and frogs and guts. Yum. We finally got to this cute little restaurant and ate right outside so we could soak in the atmosphere. Our food was delicious and we ate until we were stuffed. It was so good, though. I still dream about the food in New York.

After that we went and hit Times Square. We met some cops...

took lots of pictures...

and even were able to see an advertisement for MY show!

After we hung out in Times Square for a while we walked over to Rockefeller Plaza - here is the famous "Radio City Music Hall".

We went to the top of the "Rock" and had the most amazing view. We were able to get a perfect view of the Empire State Building and the rest of the city. It felt so good to sit down for a little while and there was a great breeze going up there so we stayed up there for a while just talking - it was perfect.

We toured some more sites and then went and got dessert at Carnegie Deli. It was delicious but I don't think I could have eaten another thing that night. Everything in New York is HUGE and a lot of places don't let you split so we each had gigantic piece of cake before we called it a night. We got back to the hotel about midnight and got ready for "Millionaire" the next day.

Unfortunately we weren't able to take our camera into the studios. Jason wasn't allowed to come with me into the studio for the first few hours, but I thought for sure we could take pictures so I took the camera with me. Well I was wrong so we didn't get any pictures of the actual show. Jason ran into Kelly Rippa after he left the studio and got a picture of her with his cell phone camera - I still need to upload it but that was it. The show was exhausting but very interesting to see how everything was done. I didn't get in the hot seat, but we still had an amazing time in New York.

After the show we went and ate at "Carmine's" - an amazing Italian restaurant in Times Square. I think it was one of the best dishes I've ever had. Like I said, I'm still dreaming about it. We loved New York City and plan to go back again to see some more sites and maybe win a few thousand dollars next time. I'm still in the contestant pool for 2 years so we'll see what happens!