Our Trip to the Big City Part I

Dear Val~

I will expound upon the details of the first part of our trip for you.

Yankee Stadium: We came up out of the subway and there it was. Yankee Stadium in all it’s glory. We took some pics, some with Sue in the foreground. Then it dawned on me. The tide of pedestrians was running perpendicular to the stadium. Hmmm. What we thought was YS was actually the NEW Yankee Stadium, not quite complete!

We went in to the current YS and walked around a bit. We only stayed along the 3rd base side though. Either construction or the crowds made it seem like we couldn't get all the way around. Maybe the heat and humidity just made us lethargic and killed our curiosity. We couldn’t get into the memorial park as they close it at so many minutes before the game. We did find a food court that beat the pants off Fenway, and I’d even venture Petco. I had sushi, yes, sushi @ Yankee Stadium. Sue had Chinese food.

The seats, although at the top of the world were fairly good. We had a good view of the base lines, but not foul territory where some action did occur. Too bad! We did get a fantastic view of Johnny Damon’s collision with the outfield fence, though. That was BRILLIANT!

There was a woman behind us in Sox garb who engaged with Yankee fans. Everytime she left her seat, she was pelted with peanuts. None hit us, but they did people along the aisles. And they pelted a woman in Sox garb who I don’t think did engage. Luckily, we were not wearing our Sox garb. I was wearing my patriotic and entirely too big Rosie the Riveter shirt with the American flag backdrop. Sue wore a Life Is Good shirt. This is why I hate moronic sports fans. You should not be afraid for your safety when visiting another team's playground. Period.

It rained off and on, but it felt good. It was quite warm, but not too hot, but very steamy. Then the rain began in earnest. I had brought my LLBean raincoat, and Sue had a sweatshirt, so we left our seats and went in. They called the rain delay. We walked around a bit more. We found seats behind the left field just to the side of the Sox bullpen and got comfy. The score was close, yet it seems like Yankee nation left. The stadium was mostly Sox fans. When it looked like they were going to resume, they were playing fight music and inspirational movie clips to try to pump the Yankees up for a comeback. There was some idiot, up in the rafters, along 1st base line, dancing up and down row of seats. I was thinking, "Man, it’s STEEP up there. And NARROW. That idiot is gonna fall..." and he did, and he rolled/slid/fell about 10 rows!!! I swear to god I thought we were going to watch him fall to his death once he got to the bottom of his section. But at last, he stopped. It was frightening, but funny. Man, I would LOVE to see THAT on video!

The game resumed. We saw Coco make that catch, and to us it certainly looked like he caught it. I texted my cousin’s son who was watching with my Dad at my uncle’s to find out why Coco was so mad. We had no doubt he caught it.

The Sox won. Yeah! Good trip. We got some souvenirs that are... appropriate. ;) You’ll have to see when you come over.

We went to the apt of my old co-worker-turned-housemate Julie and her gf, Jessie. Jessie has a dog, Sparky, that I would take care of occasionally. Sue would get Sparky all hyped up running around the apt, and jumping up on my bed. I adored that little dog. She’s beige, ears look like a Papillion. She’s just a cute little moffet. We haven’t seen her since about July 2001. She went NUTS! BERZERK! We are sure she remembers us. Amazing. So, we had a nice reunion with Sparky, and Julie & Jessie, and met their new dog, who is an adorable little rescue dog.

It was about 9 p.m. by this time (thanks to the rain delay). We went out for dinner at a BBQ place around the corner from their place. It was fantastic. It had started to rain again, and then we realized, duh! We were missing the fireworks! But they were on tv. I don’t really feel like I missed anything because I didn't think we'd be able to see much thru the rain. We went back to J&J’s, chitchatted, then took a cab across the park back to our hotel. It was a fairly inexpensive ride, which was nice. Yeah!