Big City Livin’

I have yet to complete my adventures of my trip to NYC/Jersey so a recap is due, mostly because the longer I put it off, the more likely I am to forget something.

Upon my Saturday morning arrival, I headed to Brooklyn to meet up with Jersey J and a couple of his friends. Check out this view from his friend’s balcony.

Yea, it’s not bad.

Following me changing out of my pajamas which I had flown in, we headed to the Guggenheim Museum where we took in the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. I felt very New York City in the museum, but it definitely wore me out and the idea of ordering pizza in was a solid way to cap off my first day.

Sunday was the Mets game at the new Citi Field, which was already covered in a previous post.

Monday I set out to wander the city. I wandered around Union Square, spending more time in a bookstore than I probably should have but I like bookstores. I like the smell of the pages and I like to browse, what can I say? I also purchased 2 books and am pleased to report that I finished them both. Also a sign of a productive vacation. The subway rides to Brooklyn and back certainly helped with that too. Monday afternoon, I had made plans to meet Jersey J and another winery alum for drinks. Since I was a bit early, I took my new book and read it in Madison Square Park, which was close to my beverage destination. Talk about relaxing.

The three of us watching the Home Run Derby at a local establishment where the bartender created new drinks and had us test them. That part wasn’t bad either. The food was great, including the sliders and shrimp dishes we had.

Tuesday, Jersey J and I cruised around Jersey City, made a Target run, and went to Liberty Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty, along with Manhattan.

The following photo ops presented themselves:

Lady Liberty
Lady Liberty
The Manhattan skyline (the Statue of Liberty is not pictured but would be at about 3 o'clock)
The Manhattan skyline (the Statue of Liberty is not pictured but would be at about 3 o'clock)
My hair is totally in a (small) ponytail
My hair is totally in a (small) ponytail

Tuesday night-Thursday were pretty much spent in Brooklyn at the Cyclones game, since they were playing Williamsport. Two former players for the price of one 🙂

I saw Josh get his first pro win on Tuesday night and met his delightful family.

The winning pitcher and me

Sam played in games 2 and 3 after getting cleared by the trainer. Good thing too, because I was going to be seriously bummed if he didn’t play any of the games I came to!

You know you've hit the big time when you're on the jumbotron
You know you've hit the big time when you're on the jumbotron
One of Sam's at bats
One of Sam's at bats
More at bats
More at bats

I would like to take a moment to point out that he is 10th in the league with a .323 batting average. Well done, sir, well done.

Holdin' it down at 1B
Holdin' it down at 1B

Following the game Thursday, I hot-footed it to JFK and boarded my plane to head back to the Boot. Sadly, I had to sit on the plane for an hour while they cleared the airspace around JFK for Air Force One. This did NOT make me a happy camper. I would have much preferred to sit in the terminal, where my dinner would have most assuredly consisted of something more than a coke and a snickers bar.

I did finally make it back to Nola and special thanks to B-Squared and Big Metal for coming to get me waaay later than anticipated.

Top-notch vacation, in my book.