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Published: July 30th 2008
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Well we have finally found the time (a 5 hour bus ride or so) to write about yesterday. Hopefully we’ll be all caught up tonight.
We woke up to a really comfy bed and a real, hot buffet breakfast. No more plain cereal and juice, we had bacon and eggs and fruit. But anyways, we went down to Central Park South and got dropped off for an hour or two of free time before lunch. We decided we just had to go down 5th avenue to you guessed it, Tiffany’s. Wow was that fun, first floor jewelry, second floor lounge, third floor silver, fourth floor china etc. It was great. If anyone has a couple hundred dollars to spare, we can point you the right direction. After that we headed to another 5th avenue spot, Jill’s pick; F.A.O Schwartz. Now that’s a toy store! Anyone want a stuffed life size bison for a couple thousand? How about the three headed dog three feet high from Harry Potter (sorry Dad, I don’t know if it has a specific name…) Wow. Stuffed animals, the giant size piano keyboard, dinosaurs, a darth vader made of legos, a candy store. We picked up some
knick knacks there.
After seeing a proposal on the outskirts of central park in front of the Crown Plaza Hotel, we met the group for lunch at Mickey Mantle’s Restaurant. Very cool and filled with lots of baseball memorabilia.
After lunch we had the most fabulous tour of New York City. We knew we were going to have a tour, but we had no idea how extensive it would be. For over three hours we toured the City by bus and on foot. Not only did we see all the different areas and sites, but we had a truly interesting guide who gave us so much history and information that it will take us a couple of weeks to remember it all! Our foot tour began at Battery Park with a view of the Statue of Liberty, a walk through Wall Street, and a tour of ground zero. We were truly surprised to have had such an elaborate tour, and we enjoyed it a lot. We never would have thought of it before, but a guided tour is really the way to go. Had we been on our own, we would have needed several days to see and
learn about everything.
We then went on our way to Yankee Stadium. We kept saying over and over, that we couldn’t believe we were actually going to go to Yankee Stadium. After touring Manhattan and seeing the $20 million dollar multi floor apartments, we headed through Harlem to the Bronx. It seemed the historical Yankee Stadium was sadly not as well kept as even we had hoped. The area first was not what we had anticipated. We have a book about taking a road trip to all the different parks, telling us what we should eat, what to expect, and where to go in the city and around the park. That section simply stated: “This ain’t Disneyland. Walk with the crowd to the game. Walk out with the crowd. Don’t go down a side street. Keep your money in your front pocket.” That pretty much summed it up perfectly.
We went around the corner to see the construction of the new park, then decided we would rather just go inside… We walked through the main entrance into such tiny, narrow walkways, winding through concession lines, it made Dodger Stadium look huge. The smell was terrible, the walk was
extremely steep, paint peeling, rust, and puddles (of who knows what) were just… part of the charm I suppose.
We understand that place is 85 years old, its old. And we know it’s about to be torn down, sadly for good reason. But will someone explain why such a historical site looks as if it hasn’t been maintained in 20 years? It seems like such a recognizable and famous figure in sports deserves better. We decided just to get our food, sit in our seats and stay there til we had to leave. (This was mostly due to the treacherous climb it took to get there). We were told the place would be “spruced up” because of the All Star Game was there just a few weeks back. But other than a sign for the Game in right field, we couldn’t see any evidence of it.
In the end, the Yankees got crushed, so all was not lost. =)
It certainly was not our favorite place or area to be in, but don’t get us wrong. We had a great appreciation for the history that occurred there. It was amazing to say we had been there for the final season. Tomorrow we are looking forward to our tour and get to see Monument Park.
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