NYC and Canada Day #2: New York Yankees

Recently, my family and I returned from a vacation to New York and Canada. If you missed recap #1, check it out below!
NYC & Canada Day #1: Exploring New York

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Saturday morning, we woke up a little early to get a head start on Yankee Stadium. The Yankees game started at 1 p.m., but we had to travel to the stadium via subway (and we were CLUELESS about the subway), so we left our hotel around 10 a.m.

We saw several interesting things on our walk to the Subway terminal!

Cabs cabs cabs everywhere!!

This fire station was right by our hotel

The New York Times building!

…..then finally, the Subway. Oh goodness……..when I say we were CLUELESS, I mean…we were absolutely lost.

We spent a good bit of time at the Metro card machine trying to figure out how much money to put on our Metro Card – I called my friend Kelli in an attempt to figure out what to do….I hate that “lost” feeling. I’m so grateful for Kelli – she was our lifesaver for sure!

After figuring how to get Metro cards, we finally made it to the Subway platforms.

Only problem, we got on the WRONG train. You see, the New York subways (and I’m sure all of the Subway systems) are like giant spider webs of color. There’s a red train, a blue train, a purple train, an orange train, a green train, etc. Then there’s an A train, a B train, a C train, a D train, etc. Also, there’s a 1 train, a 2 train, a 3 train, a 4 train, a 5 train, etc. Now, imagine all of those different train lines entangled on a map. There’s your Subway map and somehow, you have do decipher it out.

So, we were told to get on the BLUE A train Uptown, then transfer at 59th street to the RED 2 train. Sound easy enough? Yeah…well, we ended up on the PURPLE 7 train going right instead of up. I told Jason to follow the dude in the Yankees hat, only Jason lost him because he was walking so fast. We got on a train that we thought was the right one, and by the time I realized that we were on the wrong train, we had made it to Queens. Lovely. Also, to turn ourselves back around, we had to exit the Subway train on a platform that wasn’t a central location. Therefore, we had to emerge on the street, cross the street, go down through the Subway entrance across the street, re-load our Metro cards, then get back on a Subway train going the same way we came. I was a basket case. I hate not knowing where I’m going and I hate not having a plan.

After having made it back to the main station, we asked for help an an awesome Subway worker led us to the correct platform. She returned to us moments later because she realized she had led us to the WRONG platform so she re-directed us in the way to go. By this time, we were met with a  platform FULL of Yankees fans. I had much better directions this time, also. Besides, if we had any question, we could just follow the multitude of Yankees hats/jerseys, right? Yeah…that’s what got us in trouble in the first place.

On the CORRECT platform! And yes, I’m wearing my Texas Rangers shirt! Gotta support my team!!

Yankee Stadium! We made it!

After scanning our tickets, we began the trek to our seats.

 

We walked and walked and walked some more…until we realized we were on the very top deck! No worries-we had awesome seats!

Huge bonus – we were in the SHADE the ENTIRE game! Yay!

One thing that impressed me about the menus in New York – the amount of calories in each item is included on the menu! I think it’s great that Americans are made aware of how many calories they are shoving down their throats in a meal. Some don’t care, so do – I just like that it’s out there!

And yes, I enjoyed every single calorie in my personal sized pizza! :0)

Also, I bought a program……

 

……and I was incredibly shocked to see an article on (of all people) Les Miles (the LSU Football Coach)!!

The National Anthem

 

Let’s Play Ball!

We witnessed a few Orioles fans get kicked out of the stadium for their rowdiness (really, they were only cheering for their team)….crazy. Whatever.

Around the 5th Inning, we decided to walk around and explore Yankee Stadium a little.

We came across the Yankees Museum (which had a HUGE line of people when we first arrived at the stadium) with virtually NO line! Score!

 

We had fun exploring the museum and looking for autographs on the wall of baseballs! There’s so much tradition behind this team its amazing.

Various displays were set up for Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gherig. We really enjoyed looking through the Museum!

I loved seeing the World Series trophies and Championship rings!

After spending some time in the Museum, we returned to our seats just in time for the 7th inning stretch!

Something else I loved – they play God Bless America during the 7th Inning stretch of EVERY Yankees home game! Across the country, most baseball teams play it only on Sunday, but the Yankees play it at every game! The whole tradition of playing God Bless America at ball parks started after 9/11 and I love that the Yankees play it  every game!

After a few exciting innings……………Thaaaaaaa Yankees win! Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Yankees win!!!!

We had a fun time at Yankee Stadium and I would love to go back one day! (Minus the Subway mess, of course!)

We left the Stadium and this time, I knew where we were going!

 

We landed on the CORRECT trains and made it back to Manhattan in one piece!

This post is getting a little long so I’m going to break it in two.

Up next: One of my favorite parts of New York – WICKED!!