New York City

Nearly a week ago from this moment I was driving my car into the parking lot near a hotel in Flushing where I was staying with my dad and brother for the weekend as we took in a Yankees game and a Mets game.

The drive down started so early Friday morning that one might have mistaken it for Thursday night. Other than a brain cramp, which has been referred to as a 'Tommy Boy' moment (see Big D's blog for details), and a constant debate over which was better old school maps or a GPS the drive was fairly uneventful. There wasn't even too much traffic when we reached the George Washington Bridge - in fact, we never ran into as much traffic as I exepected for New York City.

The hotel was decent, however there was one small problem with the room. The internet showed that there was a couch in the rooms, but we only had a lazy boy chair. Being able to sleep anywhere I wasn't too bothered by having to sleep on the chair though as long as I was givien a pillow and blanket.

It rained all evening Friday so we didn't venture too far from the hotel. We had a fantastic dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head into Manhattan before heading to Yankee Stadium. We managed to conquer the subway system with only a little trouble and took it down to Times Square and then up to the game. We thought we were there early enough to get into Monument Park, but by the time we found where to go we could not get in. After reaching our seats way up in the top level we discovered that it was best we didn't get into it - people were crammed in like sardines and I have no clue how they were able to manouver to what they wanted to see. After the game we decided to go back to the Times Square area for some dinner and found a fantastic pizza place. I made the mistake of having pasta which was only a mistake when I saw the pizza and confirmed when I was given a piece to try.

Sunday we took our time checking out and then headed to Shea Stadium. The game turned out to be a good game after the first inning took an entire hour. The food at the stadiums was nothing spectacular except for the hotdogs at Shea. You could put any or all of chili, cheese or kraut on the dogs. I had one with cheese and kraut and it was the yummiest baseball food I have ever eaten!

After the game we drove home. The drive was going well until we reached Syracuse and couldn't find a hotel close to the highway. After driving around and around at one exit we managed to find a hotel for the night. We stopped driving at the right time because a bad thunderstorm went through as we slept. Then we had some more trouble shortly after we crossed the border. We were driving along and I noticed an indicator light on in the car. After researching what it meant, we realized a tire was getting flat. We had to keep stopping for air and I eventually had to get CAA to put on the donut to get home.

It was a very good, but exhausting weekend. I must have recovered enough from it though since I have started thinking about next year's trip!