We made it to NYC by 9:15am, with plenty of day ahead of us. Once we got there, we grabbed some breakfast and ate it out on Fashion Ave. All the mannequins were outfitted in various wardrobes and such by different designers. That was fun to look at. I did my best imitation model pose with one diva mannequin.
We walked through Times Square to kill some time before the game. That’s always a great place for entertainment and people watching. It was a sea of lights and people, as usual. We took in some sunshine and gazed out over all the activity from atop the TKTS booth on the ruby-red steps.
We walked back through Bryant Park, enjoyed the fountain for a while, and hopped on the subway headed towards Queens. Waiting for the subway was miserable. The air was so thick you could almost drink it and the temperature felt like 100 degrees down there. I’ve never been so thankful for AC on the train!
We arrived at Citi Field around 11:45am. I noticed two things. 1) The stadium is actually very nice! I’m not sure what all the hoopla is about Yankee Stadium… Citi Field is a better ballpark in my opinion. 2) When compared with the Yankees game, there weren’t nearly as many Twins fans at the Mets game. We were on our own here, let’s hope Mets fans are friendly! =) And that they were. The atmosphere at the place was great. In the concourse behind center field, they had a dunk tank and batting cages set up, wiffle ball for the little kids, lots of food and beer stands. It was really fun. We indulged in ballpark food for lunch and headed to our seats. We sat in the upper most tier in section 515 right behind home plate. We had a great view of the whole field. The Twins started off the first inning with a bang and scored 4 runs… not the best performance by Santana, but I was okay with that! I realized it was both mine and Adam’s first National League game we’ve ever attended. It was really weird hearing, “Next up, pitcher, Carl Pavano!” The sun was beating down on us the whole game. We downed water bottle after water bottle and ate some ice cream in an attempt to stay cool. Kyle came down for the game with Beth’s dad, so we got to see him again as well. Always a good time! Next thing we know, it’s the bottom of the 9th and the Twins were up 6-0. Those next three outs would be something glorious… and then it happened – TWINS WIN!!! Our nine game losing streak was finally over! Woohoo!
After the game, a lot of the fans stuck around to watch the end of the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game on the big TV in the concourse. It’s not every day you see a crowd that big watching a soccer game. It was pretty cool. After Ghana scored in over time everyone fizzled out a bit defeated.
We took the subway back to Manhattan and transferred trains to go to the Meatpacking District. There we went to High Line Park, which is an elevated park that winds its way around buildings above the city streets. It’s over a mile long and filled with lots of flowers and vegetation. It was very well designed with a beautiful mix of artwork and flora. They also have lots of benches and lounge chairs for relaxing. If I lived in NYC, I would totally take my book and head down there for an afternoon to catch some rays.
After our stroll through the park, we were running out of steam. We headed back towards Grand Central and stopped in at what is becoming our “usual” pizza place. We devoured a few slices to energize us for the long trip back. We took the train out at 8pm and made it back to Boston by midnight. All in a day’s work! Never did I imagine we could make NYC a day trip, but it worked out quite well. In fact, this just made my future weekends very dangerous!
