Additionally, it was Kim's 60th birthday, and we had a fun day planned for it doing two things especially for him -- lunch in the Hell's Kitchen area and a night game at Yankee Stadium!
Knowing that 9th Avenue between West 54th Street and West 42nd Street was the main strip of restaurants in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, we headed over there to check them out. It was a warm morning, so we stuck to the shady side of the street and crossed over whenever a restaurant caught our eye.
After walking most of the blocks, we decided on a place called Dalton's Bar and Grill, and we're really glad we did. Our waitress was a very nice young lady, and since the place wasn't busy yet, she was able to be even more attentive to us, and we asked her about her favorite parts of the city. She said she was from New Jersey originally, but that she lived in Queens now, so that meant her commute was 40 minutes by subway. She couldn't believe it when I told her my commute was about 2 minutes by car! We discussed prices, and she said that a few Midwesterners she's met have been surprised by the cost of a single beer in a NYC bar -- 6 dollars -- and asked us what the cost was back in Nebraska. When we said anywhere from 2-3 dollars, she was amazed. We were pleasantly surprised by her and her friendliness and wondered if she were an anomaly, but as the remainder of our time in NYC showed us, most of the people there are actually very nice.
We ate very excellent cheese steak sandwiches and flatbread pizza, and Kim and my son had Bloody Marys to celebrate his milestone birthday. I love a good Bloody Mary, but not at 11:15 in the morning, so I passed -- naturally, I had a sip. Yummy. After lunch, we walked over to the Times Square area to hit up the Modell's Sporting Goods store and the Yankees Store which are directly across from one another. We were looking to buy apparel for the game that evening, and we ended up finding everything we wanted in the Yankees Store even though Modell's had great stuff to offer as well. I bought a t-shirt because I'm just a t-shirt kind of gal, I got Kim a nice polo as part of his birthday gift, Trevor got a baseball cap, and Sam got a jacket with patches of all the Yankee championships sewed all over it.
Then we headed back to the hotel, rested a bit and changed for the game. We had decided to head over to the stadium early because we wanted to beat the rush, and we wanted a little extra time to figure out the subway system on our own. It really wasn't very complicated, especially to get there from the subway stop that was right next to the hotel. From there, it was a straight shot up to the Yankee Stadium subway stop, so we were there in twenty minutes, if that.
The new stadium is quite impressive, even to a non-sports' lover like me. A bit over the top, but pretty darn nice. We walked around most of the outside of it, and then we had to wait a little before they would actually let us in, so we went into the attached Hard Rock Cafe and had some appetizers.
Once they let us in the stadium, we still had to wait a bit longer before they opened the seating areas. A man took our photo, and I've looked at it online, but I'm not inclined to purchase it. I got more of a kick out of watching my son, the sports' nut, look around in awe and make comments about everything.
We finally headed to our seats -- seats we'd purchased tickets to months ago based on an hour of comparing views of the field from various available seats throughout the stadium. Ours were up from first base in the second level of the stadium. We liked them a lot.
Since we were there so early, we were able to sit back and watch the place fill up, see the players warm up, and even see ourselves on the big screen pre-game!
The Yankees were playing the Orioles that day, and the Yankees kicked their ass 16-3. As I said, I'm not into sports at all, so to me, the score didn't matter for that reason, but since we'd gone through the trouble to buy Yankee apparel, and since my son, daughter and boyfriend were rooting for the Yankees, I'm awfully glad they won that day.
Leaving the stadium and getting back onto the subway turned out to be quite easy, too. It was just a bit more crowded this time. We had a late supper at the Stagecoach Irish Pub right across the street from the hotel, and we were served by an actual Irish waitress. Pretty cool. I slipped a little when I asked her what kind of pop they had, and when I saw the confusion go across her face, I quickly switched to the word soda. Turns out that word still confuses her because in Ireland they call them soft drinks!
So, our first day in NYC on our own was a great day, and the remaining ones turned out to be, too.
The following day, we had brunch reservations at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
Like every meal we had in NYC, it was pricey -- for the four of us, it was one of only two meals we had that was under 100 dollars, and this one barely made the cut at 99 dollars -- but we knew that going in, and we had planned for it.
The brioche french toast I had was to die for! The menu said it came with strawberries, but it was my lucky day, and it came with blueberries that morning. I love blueberries!
I'd been really looking forward to a day in Central Park. This day was a bit on the hot side, but we didn't let that deter us. However, first I'd promised my daughter, who plans to be a paleontologist, a visit to the Museum of Natural History.
We walked along Central Park West until we arrived at the famed museum. It is a massive place.
We had made arrangements to meet up with Jakub, our Czech exchange student from two years ago, at the museum, so we were excited about that. He would be spending some time with us in the city, and then he'd be traveling to Nebraska to spend more time with us at home.
After he arrived, we stayed in the museum for a couple hours and took in a 3-D Imax show about hump-back whales, too. My daughter was a bit disappointed in some of the exhibits, feeling that their information was not up-to-date with modern theories on dinosaurs, but she was still very impressed with the place as a whole and would love a chance to work or study there someday.
When we left, we just walked across the street and were in the park. Central Park is a half mile wide and two and a half miles long. They pack a lot into that space, just as all of Manhattan packs a whole lots of stuff into a space that is a mere two miles wide and thirteen miles long.
There are lovely winding trails that take you into densely wooded areas and up and down some pretty steep hills. It gave us a work out! We had specific places we wanted to see, and we also just wanted to take our time and soak in the place.
We did manage to see Bow Bridge, Belvedere Castle, the Bethesda Fountain, the Mall, and the Balto statue -- however, for that one we had to be escorted to it for a photo only because a massive Puerto Rico parade had just finished on that side of the park, and they were still clearing and cleaning the area. Crazy! The statue had been high on my daughter's list since she had loved that movie as a child, so fortunately we at least got to see it.
We stopped often in our stroll through the park to get some shade from the intense heat, to get something to drink from the vendors and to just people watch. We were in the park for hours, and we didn't come close to seeing even one-fourth of it! I can't wait to go back someday. Here are just a few of my photos of Central Park. I really enjoyed seeing in person these places that I've seen in so many movies.
That evening we revisited the Hell's Kitchen area and ate at Southern Hospitality, a BBQ restaurant owned by Justin Timberlake. My son said his baby back ribs were the best he'd ever eaten in his life. He was in rib heaven!
We strolled over to the Hudson River which was just a couple blocks away, and we viewed the Intrepid all lit up. It's a massive battleship that is now a museum. We'll save seeing the interior for another trip.
Thus ended our second, and perhaps my favorite, day in NYC. If you can, go to NYC. It's really an amazing place.
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