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A Cat on a Hot Tin Stove
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After Waffles and Art, we headed to the City for a 2 hour cruise aboard the Circle Line. The tour took us all around the island, and we saw the bridges, ground zero, the skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and a whole lot more. It was really cool to see NYC from the water. Pics of this part of the trip: 
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From there the mission was to score tickets to a Saturday night show, get some dinner, and see some sights. We got tickets to a cool show called CURTAINS. It stars Niles from Frazier. They guy can sing! Who knew. Dinner was a lobster tail and a steak at a little place called The Oyster Bar. I also got to see the Hello Deli from The Letterman Show and a few other things. Here are pics from that part of the trip.
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Hello
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City Shots
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Me with "The Lady" in the background
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On the Ground
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Another shot while in the air
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Flying over the House that Ruth Built
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The heliport
As if this wasn't enough excitement, the cornerstone of the trip was still to come. My friend and I then hopped on the 4 train to 161st Street.
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I heart mass transit
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Outside the stadium...
Yep, Yankees Stadium. We had 2 seats behind 1st base in Row 1 (see previous post). I'd never been to Yankees Stadium before this, so it was truly magical. I couldn't take it all in fast enough. It was really cold, so people were in the team store snapping up $75 hoodies like they were $5. I splurged and got a really nice player jacket - the away game design. A couple of pics:
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Jeter
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My seat
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Being on the front row, I got some great pics. We were also right by the 1st base line ballboy. While I couldn't convince him to give me a ball, he did fill up a little aspirin bottle with dirt from the field. It had a few grass clippings in it plus a sunflower seed! I had promised another friend that I'd send him some if I got it and I made good on that. But I kept the sunflower nut.
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I asked for a monkey, passed my $20 down the row, and endured all the jeers from people making fun of me for buying a MONKEY at a Yankee Game. I then handed the monkey over to the kid who gave me the ball and said, "Thank you for the ball. This is for you." He hugged the monkey and lit up like a Christmas tree. The dad then leaned over to him and said, "You see what happens when you do the right thing."
This is the kid who gave me a ball from Yankees Stadium. (See monkey in left hand.)
There were some more kids around us and they all got balls too. One little redheaded kid told his dad, "This is one of the best days of my life." He couldn't have been more than 12. And at 39, I couldn't have had more in common with him at that moment.
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The kid who, like me, was having one of the best days of his life
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We took the train back to our car without incident. We saw the Seaport and Ground Zero on the way out of the city. That big empty spot is certainly cause for reflection.
Sunday night was a really, really good italian dinner with some cool friends and some of the best cheesecake I've ever had in my life. Monday was back on a plane to Minneapolis.
There are some precious times in life when you're doing exactly what you want to be doing. This was without question one of those times. To quote a friend and co-worker who passed away from cancer but was positive till the bitter end, "Life is really, really good."
4 comments:
Very Nice entry. Go Yanks
I am so sending these pics to the boston globe.
For real cool trip. take me next time.
I Heart NY also. Went for 7 days in April 2002. People were great, food is awesome, fun everywhere! Got to go into the Hello Deli (very small) and be in the audience of David Letterman. Memories I'll cherish forever...that's for sure. Here's to hoping today is the best day of your life...and tomorrow too. ;)
you are my hero
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