NY Mets Game & Brooklyn Bridge

Jeff & I arrived in New York!!! We are spending a week here before we travel across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. We wanted to visit one of my old roommates from when I lived in Spain before. Her name is Marissa, and she is from New York. I only get to see her every few years, and this is my first time visiting NY since I was in 8th grade! Jeff has never been here before, so we're both really excited! It's the biggest city in America, and world famous. It's incredible! It's a 3 hour time difference from California-- here, we're 3 hours ahead. So if it's 10 am in NY, it's only 7 am in Milpitas. Likewise, if it's 7pm in NY, it's only 4pm in Milpitas. 


On our first full day in New York, Sunday, we slept in before walking a few blocks to get bagels for breakfast. New York is supposed to be well-known for its bagels! I noticed the different types of bagels and wasn't too impressed-- they have the same ones here at Noah's. But then I noticed all the different spreads-- I've never seen so many different kinds of cream cheese! But of course, being the plain Jane that I am, I stuck with my usual. Then, we were off to Queens! Queens is east of Manhattan (where we were staying), and is one of the "boroughs" of New York. It's across the East River. 


We bought our first subway Metro Card and took the 7 to Queens, along with a throng of other Mets fans. The subway was PACKED! Luckily we had seats, and it dropped us off right in front of Citi Field (where the Mets play). We were running late, but stopped to take a few photos outside the stadium. Once inside, we found our seats: Section 109, Row 8, Seats 1-4. They were awesome! Right on the first baseline, just past first base. Unfortunately, it was SUPER HOT and the seats burned our legs. We were all melting in the sun, and our clothes were dripping with sweat. So we gave up our awesome seats and moved back to the rows in the shade. The Cubs killed the Mets, 7-0. I thought that was bad, until I looked up at the out-of-town scoreboard and saw the Giants (led by Tim Lincecum) lost 2-13. We walked a lap of the year-old ballpark... it was nice, but obviously not AT&T Park! ;) It didn't have a beautiful view/backdrop, but it did have a Fan Fest area like San Fran, except that they also had a dunk tank. It also had a lot of different food options from local restaurants. I'm glad they were in town and that I got to visit at least one of the NY ballparks! 

After we were back in Manhattan, we picked up some food at the neighborhood grocery store and took a cab to our friend, Andrew's place. He lives in downtown (the Financial District-- by Wall Street & the New York Stock Exchange), and his rooftop has the most amazing views of the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and the new World Trade Center. We BBQed and enjoyed the sunset views of the City... it was incredible!

Finally, we left and had to be real New Yorkers and maneuver our way back to Marissa's apartment using the subway on our own. We did it! We're tired and sweaty and are looking forward to a good night's rest before we go into full Tourist Mode and make our way around Manhattan while Marissa works (she's a lawyer and works lots of hours)... wish us luck!

Citi Field, in the Borough of Queens, where the Mets play baseball. It's a new stadium, only about a year old. The Mets are New York's 2nd baseball team (besides the Yankees). They are orange and blue because New York used to have 2 other teams-- the Giants & Dodgers. But both of those teams moved to California! So the Mets started playing in NY instead, and took the orange from the Giants and the blue from the Dodgers!

Jeff and I posed in front of the Mets logo on the Big Apple... that's New York City's nickname! The Mets are actually a shortened name. Their full name is the New York Metropolitans.

One of their concession stands... I liked the picture of old players above it. They are old baseball card photos!

The big scoreboard in center field

Our view from our seats (before we moved to the shade!)

They had a dunk tank behind the center field bleachers!

This is the view from the roof of Andrew's apartment. His building is 30 floors. It was a bright, clear, hot, humid, summer day! Far away, in the center of the picture in the very back, you can see the Empire State Building!

The Brooklyn Bridge is in front, and the Manhattan Bridge is behind it

This is the new World Trade Center building. Remember, the last one was the Twin Towers and they were taken down by the planes on 9/11 back in 2001. They are finally rebuilding the towers-- this will be the highest one. They started building it in 2006 and will finish in 2013. When it's done, it will be 1,776 feet high and will be the tallest building in all of the United States. It's going to be awesome! They are building it with a bunch of features that will make it safer for people to work there. The windows will have blast-proof plastic to protect it from explosions. They are also building other shorter buildings around it so that it looks like steps. For more information on the new tower, you can read about it on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center

The bridges at dusk

Can you see the Empire State Building? It's lit up in the center!

The Brooklyn Bridge connects Brooklyn to Manhattan. It's one of the oldest bridges in the United States! It was built in 1883, which makes it 129 years old!!! You can walk across the bridge and visit Brooklyn-- Jeff & I are going to try it out later this week.

Notice the traffic? It's cars waiting to get on the bridge and go to Brooklyn!

The Empire State Building, one of NYC's most famous landmarks
 Google it (or use Wikipedia) to get more information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building

This is just an apartment building. People actually live here! Besides Trump Tower, it's the tallest residential building in NYC. Just looking up at it from the street made me dizzy! I don't think I could live that high up, but it probably has AMAZING views from the windows!