Bukkit Tour Day Eight: Yankee for a day

Day eight finds us still in the Big Apple. Saturday was pretty exhausting so we were happy to not have anything to do Sunday morning. It was also the day that I was going to get to see Yankee Stadium. I was really excited to get to see what it was going to be like. We left Anthony's apartment a little over an hour before game time. NYC was already sweltering. A short walk to Union Station found us on the subway bound for the Yankees game. The subway was PACKED full of people headed for the game.

The train made it through two stops before a passenger was injured on the train and pulled the emergency brake. About ten minutes after the conductor announced that the emergency brake had been pulled she then directed everyone to disembark the train because it was now out of service. That makes two days in a row that I somehow managed to take a vehicle of mass transportation out of service. I guess I'm just good luck. So there we are an entire train full of people displaced back onto the platform waiting for the next train (along with all of the other people who had previously been waiting on the platform). The next train eventually makes its way to the platform and of course it's already full of people headed to the game. The doors opened and it was a mad dash to hop onto it and grab a spot. The conductor came on the loudspeaker almost yelling at the passengers that not everyone would fit on the train and some people would have to wait. Fortunately for us, we made it on and although we were packed like sardines we were going to make it to the game.

Anyone who knows me and has ever talked baseball with me knows that I have no love for American League "baseball" and even less love for the Yankees. That being said I couldn't very well walk into Yankee stadium and not root for the Yankees. That'd be akin to rooting for the Russian hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics. So I figured, I'm in NYC, I'm seeing the home team, so there's no reason that I shouldn't root for them. I can be a Yankee fan for one measly day, right? There's no harm in that. As soon as we descended the subway platform to street level to get to Yankee stadium we walked into the souvenir shop. Like any dutiful Yankee fan, I bought a Yankee cap and Laela got a Yankee visor. The street under the subway had many shops, much like Yawkey Way did next to Fenway park, but the shops only lined one side of the street so it wasn't quite the immersion that I experienced when at Fenway. While on Yawkey Way before the game, you can "feel" baseball coursing though each nook and cranny of the street. It seems to ooze off of the walls. The street next to Yankee stadium, while cool in it's own right with a distinctly New York flavor had much more of a carnival like atmosphere.

We crossed the street and I got my first unobstructed view of Yankee Stadium. It is certainly a 50,000+ seat monster. Having gone from the second smallest park to the fourth largest park in three days I was gob smacked by the size. As we were walking around the front of the stadium, I could hear the national anthem playing. Although I couldn't see what was going on on the field, I removed my cap and placed it over my heart. You can't help but get choked up in NYC while the anthem is playing (although I get choked up EVERY time I hear the national anthem).

We wound our way through the bowels of the park and made our way to our seats which were amazing. We were in the first and second rows about two sections into fair territory in right field. Had I wanted to spit on Ben Zobrist or Nick Swisher, I could have. The seats were also padded! It was really comfortable. So comfortable in fact, that I didn't move from my seat from the time I sat down 2/3rds of the way through the top of the first until I heard Frank Sinatra sing. It was awesome getting to see Jorge Posada, Andy Petite, Joba Chamberlain, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera get to play ball. They hype up Rivera like mad. It's almost a five minute ordeal. He finally took the mound with two outs in the top of ninth with the Yankees up by four, throws one pitch and the game was over. Yankees over Rays 9-5. We went to the gift shop on the way out and I got a sticker for the bukkit and a banner for my stadium wall.

The subway ride back to Anthony's was uneventful. We went inside, rested for a bit and then set out about town to go get dinner. We ate at Totonno's on 2nd Ave. The pizza was delicious, but I did blow it ordering beer. I got a pitcher of Sam Adams (but I didn't hear the waitress say it was the Summer Ale). I hate beer that tastes like fruit. Sam Adams Boston Lager is one of my top three favorite beers but the Summer Ale tastes like someone poured Lemon Pledge into it.

For our last site seeing trip in NYC, we went to the Empire State Building to go to the observation deck. One would think that at 9:30 on a Sunday night it wouldn't be that crowded, right? WRONG. It took us 45 minutes to get to the elevator that took us to the 80th floor. The observation deck is on the 86th floor. It took another half hour to get there. It was ridiculous. The view from the observation deck was fantastic and makes one feel really tiny and insignificant. All I could think of was the amount of man hours and how many years it took to build all of those buildings. After we got finished on the observation deck we got back in line to go down and were finally finished at 11:30. Had I known it was going to take that long and that I was going to feel like herded cattle, I may have chosen another activity for our last night. But what's done is done. A short cab ride later we were back at Anthony's and turned in for the evening.

A very special thank you goes out to Dr. Anthony Fischetti for putting us up while we were in New York and for being an excellent tour guide. Not to mention one of my very dearest friends. Thanks for the hospitality Anthony, it meant the world to Laela, Miranda, and myself.

Bukkit Tour Day 7: Coney Island

Wow, day 7 already! I can't believe that we've been at this for a week and aren't even half way finished yet. Saturday was another busy day packed with good times and touristy attractions. We started the day simply by having bagels and hanging out at Anthony's apartment waiting for vampire kitty (Miranda) to arise from her slumber. I don't think that I've mentioned this in any of my travel logs yet, but Miranda has been wearing her cat ear hair barrettes everywhere we go on vacation. Combine that with her purple hair and she's quite "noticeable.". I find myself having to evil eye every teenage boy (and some not-so-teenage-males) that lays eyes on her.

Laela, Miranda, Lauren, Anthony, and I finally left Anthony's and hopped on the subway to make our way to the Staten Island Ferry. We really just wanted to see the Statue of Liberty with our bare eyes and not via pictures. There was no need to wait in line for the tour or have to walk my sickly ass up to the top. We just figured we'd ride the ferry past the statue, stay on the boat once it reached Staten Island and come back. Unfortunately, when the boat got to Staten Island it was taken out of service so we were compelled to disembark. Since we were the first to board the vessel we were the last to get off and just missed the boat back to Manhattan. So there we are at 3:00, stuck on Staten Island, and the concert we wanted to go to at Coney Island started at 4:00. We needed to make an executive decision. Do we wait for the ferry to come back or do we find alternate means for transportation? We ended up leaving the ferry terminal (which by the way is just like an airplane terminal) and hailed a cab to take us to Coney Island. I had not even realized that was an option. I figured that if there was a boat to the island that there wouldn't be a bridge off if it. I was wrong.

So here it is 3:20PM, our show starts at 4:00PM and we're getting in a cab. I'm thinking to myself that there is no way we make it on time to the concert. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to be behind the wheel when in a car and don't do well when someone else is driving. Especially when the someone else driving is a complete stranger. I was white knuckling from the moment we sat down in the cab. I finally had to just close my eyes which worked out to my advantage, because I ended up falling asleep.

We made it to Coney Island at 3:55PM. I was amazed that we had made it. The Village Voice was hosting a music festival called the Siren Festival at Coney Island. This dovetailed nicely with our touristy plans to ride the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel. John Reis' (Speedo of Rocket from the Crypt) new band the Night Marchers was playing at 4:00. They don't tour much outside of southern California so this was a rare treat to be able to see them in action. It was especially important to Anthony because he's had an opportunity to see them two other times and missed them both due to jacked up circumstances. I thought for sure that our Staten Island debacle was going to be another of these. The Siren Festival had two stages where bands were playing. We got out of the cab in front of the stage where the Night Marchers were just walking onto stage. It was absolutely perfect timing. There were lots of bands playing at the festival so the sets were short. The second song they played was I Wanna Deadbeat You which happens to be my favorite song by them. The crowd was hyped! The 40 minute set was short but it was a lot of fun. John is a consummate showman, know how to work that crowd, and could make watching CSPAN entertaining. When the show was over, we meandered up to the Boardwalk just to kind of take in the sites and sounds.

The Boardwalk is a huge carnival like atmosphere and it was packed with people on a hot July afternoon. As we were walking we heard a carnival barker calling people over to "shoot the freak." We went over to see what it was all about. There was a platform above an empty space between two buildings. There are lots of barriers and obstacles underneath and there is a guy down there called "The Freak." For a small fee, you can try your luck at shooting paint balls at the freak. So Anthony, Miranda, and I each got 25 paint balls and attempted to shoot the freak. It was a blast. Anthony and Miranda did great, but that wily freak managed to dodge all of my attempts at splattering him. When we finished shooting the freak we got lunch at Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs on the boardwalk, another New York tradition. Honestly, it was just fair. I mean how much can you really hype up a hot dog? Sorry New York, I'm about to blaspheme but the Fenway Frank blows Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs out of the water. There are a couple of staple rides at Coney Island. The Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone both of which we wanted to ride. The group split up at this point. Anthony and Lauren went to watch Ted Leo play. Laela, Miranda and I went to ride the aforementioned rides. The Wonder Wheel is a Ferris wheel, but it has cars on the inside of the wheel These cars are on roller tracks so as the wheel goes around the cars are rolling on the tracks too. I am not lying when I say this, but the janky old ass Wonder Wheel was WAAAAYY scarier than anything I rode at Cedar Point. The Cyclone is an old wooden roller coaster that has been in operation since 1927. Those that I had spoken too about it before going to New York had regaled me with tales of how it would shake my fillings loose and how rough of a ride it is. The Racers or the Beast at King's Island are way rougher than the Cyclone. I was expecting to be pounded into submission by it but it wasn't bad at all. In fact it was quite a pleasant ride and much longer than I had anticipated. Once off of the ride we met back up with Anthony and Lauren. It just so happened that Ted Leo was walking off of the stage as we got off of the Cyclone. All told, we only were at Coney Island for three hours, but it felt like we were there all day. It was a really good time. We rode the subway from Coney Island all the way back to Anthony's and it was really nice to be in an uncrowded air conditioned subway car.

After freshening up a bit, we went out to dinner. As soon as we descended into the subway station, we no longer felt fresh. The subway stops, nay, all of NYC is hotter than balls in July. We went to Tony Di Napoli's Italian Restaurant on the Upper East Side. Laela had been wanting italian food for two days and it just never seemed to happen so I wanted to make sure that she got a good Italian meal while we were in NYC. Tony Di Napoli's did not disappoint. The entrees serve 2-3 people so we had the following dishes: Caesar Salad, Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Marsala. It was all delicious. We finished our dinner at about 11:30PM and were just wiped out from the days events so we decided to call it a night. Little did I know, one more adventure awaited....

After dinner we hailed a cab for the ride home rather than trying to navigate the subway since we were now on our own. Having never been in a cab in NYC at night I had no idea that I was boarding Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The cab drivers are absolutely out of control, not just ours but all of them that we saw. There was no regard for turn signals, lane lines, traffic signals, or pedestrians. It was harrowing. I ended up just trying to watch the flat panel TV that was in the back seat because if I didn't I was afraid I was going to soil myself. I had sat in between Laela and Miranda on the ride home and I think that they still have indentations from my fingers on their shoulders.

It was a great end to a great day. I was happy to get back to Anthony's and get some shut eye though. All three of us were plum tuckered out.

Bukkit Tour Day 6: Boston to New York Travel Day

This entry wil be short going to be short because it was a rather uneventful day. We got up in the morning and I had to go to the front desk at the Colonnade to petition for a late checkout. Fortunately I was able to get that extended until 1:00. We packed up the room and headed out to grab lunch at McGreevy's. The bar was fantastic with lots of old Red Sox memoribilia on the walls and the food was good too.

After we wrapped up lunch we made our way back to the hotel with 15 minutes to spare. We got the car packed up and then had our wallet raped by the parking garage. Back out onto the street we went, but the GPS locked up and we were unable to get a signal. I didn't have printed maps so we wandered about the city until it was working again. Driving in Boston is a little nerve wracking. Once we got on the highway things were much better but traffic into New York city on Yankees game day sucks! The drive took about two hours longer than it should have. Fortunately for me Laela piloted our vessle to our destination like a champ. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like to be the navigator, I prefer to be the pilot.

We made our way to Dr. Fischetti's casa and got situated. It was a nice relaxing evening hanging out with Anthony, Lauren, and Chris. We went and had dinner at Old Town Bar at around 9:30. Everyone but Miranda had a burger and they were delicious. We were pretty tired out after our day of travel so we went back to Anthony's and got some shut eye. We've got a pretty big day planned today so look for a huge post tomorrow.

Bukkit Tour Day 5 - Fenway Day

Wow, I don't even know where to begin to describe our Thursday in Boston. It was an amazing day. The morning slipped by pretty quickly and we really didn't get rolling until 11:00 or so, but it's vacation. Right? To start the day off we dined at Brassiere Jo. It is in the lobby of our hotel the Colonnade. I think that it is the first time I've ever eaten at a French restaurant. The omelet I ate was as big as my head, I couldn't even finish it. I felt bad that I didn't have my yellow and black checkered slip-on Vans because the guys at ODJFS used to tease me and my 'stache about being a French Taxi driver when I'd wear them on casual Friday.

When we finished lunch we hit the street. One of the nice things about the hotel is that it is close to everything that we wanted to do in Boston. It was a short walk to the ball park. The girls and I arrived at 12:45 so we could go on the Fenway Park tour. There were no tickets available to the 1:00 tour so we got tickets to the 2:00. The Red Sox offer tours of the ballpark every hour between 9:00 and 4:00. This gave us time to mosey around outside for a little bit and visit the gift shop before hand. I wonder if they do that on purpose (the gift shop is where the tour originates).

The 2:00 group was so large that we had to be split up between two tour guides. Our tour guide Steve navigated us into the park and up on to the sun deck in the right field. There we all had our photos taken by Red Sox staff photographers and learned a little bit about the history of the park. From there, we went back inside and went past all of the luxury suites and press box. The hallways are lined with memorabilia. Every style of uniform since the club's inception, the hall of fame plaque wall, commemorations of all of the Cy Young winners, every cover of Sports Illustrated that's ever had a member of the Red Sox on it, and my personal favorite. The foul pole from game six of the 1975 World Series. The one where Carlton Fisk waves the home run ball fair as he's trotting down to first base. They don't talk about game 7 of the 1975 World Series in Boston, but I felt that it was my duty as a Cincinnati Reds fan to remind the tour who won game 7. From there, we went and sat in the seats on "The Green Monster" and after that we went to the grandstand section behind home plate. Those seats are the oldest in use in major league baseball. They were installed in the 1930s during the first renovation of Fenway Park. They are wooden seats and are not, shall we say, suited for the average modern American. The Red Sox can't replace them due to modern fire code regulations because they'd lose about 6000 seats and they're already the second smallest seating capacity in the Major Leagues with under 39,000 seats.

When the tour had concluded we walked over to the park where there are bronze statues commemorating the Caldecott Award winning children's book "Make Way for Ducklings." It was a pleasant walk through the park and the girls had their pictures taken with the ducks. It a big photo opp and was a beautiful day so there were lots of people waiting to take photos. Afterwards, we walked through Chinatown so that Miranda could experience that. She picked up a couple of souvenirs. We then got on the subway to go back to the hotel. The girls when up to the Colonnade's rooftop pool, while I took a quick nap. Before we knew it, 6:00 rolled around and it was time to leave the hotel and go to the ball park again for the Red Sox vs. Rangers game.

There were throngs of people making there way to the game, it was tough not to get separated. It got even worse once we made it onto Yawkey Way. That is the coolest sporting atmosphere I've ever been immersed in. It's all foot traffic and it's wall to wall people who are super hyped to go see the Red Sox play. We made it to the ticket window at Gate A got our tickets, and proceeded to our seats. The truly amazing thing about Fenway park is how crammed with people it was on a routine Thursday night game. It's a shame that other major league cities don't get the fan support at the games that the Red Sox get. The game itself ended up being not very eventful after the Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield gave up six runs in the top half of the first. Just being at Fenway was awesome enough and it was truly an experience being a Red Sox fan for a day.

In the middle of the fifth inning on the center field John Hancock scoreboard, there was a huge greeting that read "The Red Sox welcome Rob Behler." We were so busy enjoying the sites and sounds that we weren't quick enough on the draw to get a picture. During the top of the ninth, a representative of the Red Sox organization came to our seats and presented us with a photograph of the scoreboard. I was absolutely stunned. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been a victory for the Sox.

After the game we made our way back to the hotel anxious to share all of the photos on Facebook and then crashed because we were exhausted. There are a couple of things in Boston that we didn't get to do, but I think we could spend weeks here and not do everything. I'm looking forward to New York city today and getting to visit my dear friend Anthony Fischetti!

Bukkit Tour Day Four: Travel/Boston, MA

Day four found us waking up in Westfield, MA which is about an hour and a half outside of Boston. We started the day with "brunch" at the Friendly's which was next to our hotel and then got on the highway. Aside from some drizzle the drive was pretty uneventful until we got off of the freeway into downtown Boston. Driving downtown is nuts. Our hotel was right by the freeway exit so I ducked into the nearest parking garage trying to avoid driving around as much as possible. Well, that was a mistake. After two laps around the garage, no unoccupied spaces, and $9 later we thought we'd try our fortunes elsewhere. I decided to pull up in front of the hotel and unload our bags (and the girls). Of course the bellhop directed us to the Colonnade's garage which is right behind the hotel and I had no problems parking. Oh well, live and learn.

We went up to our room and it is ridiculously swanky with a great view of the city. So far we've had great luck with hotel rooms. The Colonnade was a Travelocity "Top Secret Hotel" so we got a four star room relatively inexpensively. It is one of the nicest rooms I've ever stayed in and it is really close to lots of sites in downtown Boston. More importantly it's within walking distance of Fenway Park!

After we settled in, we rested for a bit and organized our things. It was raining and we didn't really know what to do so we took a Boston Duck Tour which was really the only thing other than Fenway that was on our list of things to do while we were here. The photo above is the three of us in the rear view mirror of our duck, the "Red Sox Nathan." The "Red Sox Nathan" was the lead vehicle in the 2007 World series parade when Boston won the championship. Our guide, Captain AL (Amazing Lee) Courageous was the driver in the parade. The duck tour takes you by all of the historic and interesting locations in the downtown Boston area and being an amphibious vehicle, goes out on to the Charles River. It launches into the water right by the site of the forthcoming Charles River Skatepark (but we all know how that project has stalled out). Both Miranda and I had an opportunity to drive the duck while it was in the water. Of course I was the only "adult" to volunteer.

Later on that evening, we went for a walk up and down Boylston St. in search of dinner. We wanted to eat at McGreevy's but they are 21 and over after 8PM so we're going to try to have lunch there today (July 15). We ended up having dinner at Legal Seafood in the Prudential Center on the recommendation of Dan Michalec and he did NOT disappoint. The food was spectacular. Afterwards, we retired to the Colonnade for the evening for some much needed rest.

Today is Fenway Day, so I'm anxious to get out and get to it.