Day 3: "Shea"m on us...

A good effort, but we didn't get any 'Rally Fries'.

Shea Stadium with the Mets' New Stadium in the background.

The Transaction: My Wall Street hot dog.

Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge. (Brooklyn in the distance)

Me NOT buying anything at Tiffany's. Sorry Beth.

"You're Fired!"

The Statue of Liberty... well... sort of.

Part of the hole at 'Ground Zero'


Just another muggy day in the Big Apple. We got off to an early start today and headed over to the subway stattion by Columbia University. We grabbed some Starbucks for the 1/2 hour Subway ride south to Manhattan and were on our way. (Yes, we tried the Dunkin' Donuts coffee like the locals drink, but... nasty)

First we went to Ground Zero where we experienced the largest hole in the ground I think I've ever seen. There wasn't much to see at Ground Zero, but what was the most amazing to me, was to see this completely vacant block in the middle of the financial district in Downtown Manhattan. Crazy. I was never in New York while the Twin Towers were standing, so I didn't have anything to compare it to, but the expanse of nothing was striking enough. And here we are almost 7 years later and they're still clearing it out. Wow.

Then we hoofed ourselves to Battery Park (the southern tip of Manhattan Island) where we could see the Lady in the Water (no, not M. Night Shamalan's movie) But our dear friend the Statue of Liberty. I didn't realize how far away she was from land. We couldn't see much. But in the distance, there she stood. That was cool.

Then it was off to the Brooklyn Bridge by foot where we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the sake of walking the bridge and being able to take in the NYC Skyline on the way back. Wow! It's huge! Along the way to the bridge I naturally had to get a hot dog from a corner vendor on Wall Street. Some trade stocks on Wall Street. I trade my health for experience. And, it was quite and experience!

Finally we made it back to a Subway and took it up to Central Park. After a nice lunch at Mickey Mantle's Restaurant (it is a baseball trip, remember) we strolled through the southern part of Central Park and then mosied back over to Park Ave, Madison Ave, and 5th Ave. We even saw Shaun Alexander walking down 5th Ave. What's he doing in NYC anyway? Do you think he's going to sign with the Giants or the Jets? Hmm... Or perhaps I'm just starting rumors. Lastly Rockefellar Center.

To cap off the day, we took the 7 train under the water and over to Queens, where Shea Stadium and the Mets call home. The Mets were playing the Mariners, so we dressed the opposition in a New York sports event. We saw our pitcher, Felix Hernandez, hit a grand slam on his first at bat of the season. Dave caught an Adrian Beltre foul ball. And the Mariners marched on to victory over the Mets. It was good night! A couple of long subway rides later, we were back in our cozy little hotel back in Jersey where we got little to no sleep as we had to get out first thing for the plane ride home.

And that's our trip to New York! We LOVED it!