New York Yankees

On our last day in New York we decided to go to the Bronx to see the New York Yankees take on Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium.

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the borough of the Bronx. The club was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1901 as the Baltimore Orioles, and moved to New York City in 1903, becoming known as the New York Highlanders before being officially renamed the "Yankees" in 1913. From 1923 to 2008, the Yankees' home ballpark was Yankee Stadium, one of the world's most famous sports venues. In 2009, they moved into a new stadium, also called "Yankee Stadium".

The franchise is the defending World Champion of Major League Baseball and lead the League in both revenue and titles, with 27 World Series championships and 40 American League Pennants. They have more championships than any other franchise in North American professional sports history.

The new stadium was first class and we had seats in the top tier which offered a great view over the whole field. The atmosphere was pretty good and although we didn't really know that much about baseball before we went, apart from the brief rules we looked up, we soon caught on.

We found it hard to focus on the game as there were many distractions around us. These varied from competitions such as seat upgrades with camera people appearing behind us to upgrade peoples seats which could be seen on the big screen. As well as this there were lots of breaks between innings and baseball player changes where they played some great songs from The Rolling Stones, The Clash and Queen amongst many others while showing various people in the crowd on it. A few of the fans were caught on camera and shown on the big screen rocking out - one guy in particular was shown a few times on his air guitar doing some head banging, I don't even think he knew he was on the big screen! The main distraction was the people sitting next to us who had a few good pints to drink and had plenty of things to shout which amused us but offended a great deal of the others - mainly parents who were shouting at them to watch their mouths as there were kids in the section. A few of these were things like accusing the rest of the section of being Boston Red Sox fans for not participating in their Mexican Waves and chants he was trying to start.

The game ended 7 - 3 to the Yankees who were getting beat 3 - 0 in the 7th inning where they managed to score 5 runs. We also got to see 2 home runs, 1 for each side.

New York cont

Some of the other things we did in New York were:

FAO Schwarz

FAO Schwarz is one of the most famous toy shops in the world and has been around for almost 150 years. The store features a Grand Hall with more than 20,000 computer-controlled colored lights, a giant dance-on piano keyboard and "FAO Schweetz," a classic New York candy shop. FAO Schwarz was founded by Frederick August Otto Schwarz, who opened his first store in Baltimore in 1862 and relocated to lower Manhattan in 1870. The New York flagship store moved to its current location on 5th ave in 1986. More importantly this shop was featured in the Tom Hanks film Big in the 1980s and involved him and some other actor performing a duet on the giant foot piano. Unfortunately we decided to be kind to the kids and not show them up by performing on this piano although I did go on it for a photo.











































NBA Store

This is the next flagship store that we went to. This shop is lcoated on 5th ave and is really cool from the moment you enter as the doors are revolving with handles shaped like arms of a basketball player. Once inside there is a huge flatscreen t.v. with NBA games on and downstairs there is basketball nets and balls to shoot with. Oh yeah and there is plenty of nice NBA clothes even a tshirt with the name Griffin on the back which spoiled it if you ask me! Here some pics of us midgets next to NBA players:











Canal Street - Chinatown

As well as the shops on 5th Ave there is another big shopping area on Broadway near Chinatown. Just off of Broadway is Canal Street - best described as New Yorks answer to Paddys market or the Barras. There were plenty of souvenier shops, but even more knock-off goods. The place was full of fake designer bags and watches. It was hilarious to walk along the street and get big black guys and tiny Chinese women approach you and whisper in your ear "Gucci, Armani, Rolex" as if it was drugs they were trying to sell you.

Flushing Meadows Park

We were staying in Queens and located only 4 miles from Flushing Meadows Park. This was the location of the 1964 World Trade Fair, but more importantly, the location of one of the Men In Black film scenes! The Unisphere and the 2 observation towers which transformed into giant space ships in the film can also be seen at the start of every episode of King of Queens so it was great to be able to go and see it for ourselves. The park has also been referred to in an episode of the Simpsons and one of the GTA games.





















Carrie Bradshaws Stoop

After a few minutes of research on the internet I found the address of the stoop used for Carrie Bradshaws apartment in Sex & The City. The address wasn't the same as the one mentioned in the t.v. series as the street exists but the apartment number doesn't, and the actual apartment used is over the other side of Manhanttan. Only the outside of the building was used in filming - inside was filmed in the studios. This stoop gets a lot of attention and was a main feature in a Sex & the city tour until the locals complained so much they managed to get the tour company to take this location off their tour and get a sign saying no trespassing across it. However there are still a lot of individual tourists visiting the stoop and we stopped here to take a few photos. I also read that the location of the stoop was chosen as Sarah Jessica Parker supposedly stays a block down from it and people have apparently seen her with her child, unfortunately we didn't.


World Trade Center Museum

As we mentioned on our first post we went to the WTC site on our first night here. We went back a second time to see the memorial museum preview center. This small museum is dedicated to showcasing the amazing plans that they have to open a huge memorial museum on the exact site of the Twin Towers. It is also designed for people to go in and share their stories and feelings of the events so as they can collect all the information and artefacts to showcase. Regardless of where in the world you were, you can go into a booth and record your memories and feelings of the day, which will be recorded and stored for potential use in future displays.

The museum features a scale model of what the completed site will be like and provides up to date information on what stage they are at. It also hosts memorabilia from that tragic day. The most interesting piece we seen was the leather firemans helmet of Lieutenant Mickey Kross, which according to him, that and a huge miracle saved his life as he was one of the firemen in the North tower when it collapsed.

The museum is scheduled to open up on the 11th of September 2011 to cmmemorate the 10th anniversary of the event. More information can be found here:

http://www.national911memorial.org





Hudson River Parks

One of the other things that we did whilst here was get out and explore the many nice parks along the Hudson River. It is great in a big city like New York that there are nice places to come and relax in the sunshine. The place is also infested with cyclists and joggers, especially on such a nice day like it was when we were here.

Rockefeller Center

The Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 m2) between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the GE Building skyscraper. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, the 70-story building is the 9th tallest building in New York City and the 32nd tallest in the United States.

The observation deck at the top of the skyscraper, dubbed "Top of the Rock", offers amazing views, competing with the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building. It is often considered the best panoramic city view, if only because it offers a view of the aforementioned Empire State Building, which obviously cannot be seen from its own observation deck. After the views that we experienced from the top of the Empire State Building we were interested in going along to check it out and we weren't disappointed. The views from here were tremendous and it was easy to tell that $75m restoration work had been carried out up here 5 years ago.

The big advantages it had over the Empire State Building is that it was closer to Central Park, it was far less crowded and spread out over 3 levels, and it was glass panels that you could look through as opposed to the chain-fence on the Empire State Building.

Central Park & Empire State Building

As we mentioned before, we had briefly cut through Central Park and now it was time to return to spend a full day here. We had great luck with the weather whilst here and the day we decided to go to Central Park was no different, it was roasting.

The park is in the heart of Manhattan. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year making it the most visited city park in the US. It was opened in 1859, completed in 1873 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963.

Central Park covers an area of 843 acres (3.41 km2; 1.317 sq mi). It is 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide. It is similar in size to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park which we visited almost 10 weeks ago.

The park contains several natural-looking lakes and ponds, extensive walking tracks, bridle paths, two ice-skating rinks (one of which is a swimming pool in July and August), the Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, a wildlife sanctuary, a large area of natural woods, a 106-acre (43 ha) billion gallon reservoir with an encircling running track, and an outdoor amphitheater called the Delacorte Theater which hosts the "Shakespeare in the Park" summer festivals. Indoor attractions include Belvedere Castle with its nature center, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, and the historic Carousel. In addition there are numerous major and minor grassy areas, some of which are used for informal or team sports, some are set aside as quiet areas, and there are a number of enclosed playgrounds for children.

We had a great day here lying around in the sun and exploring the park. The parks natural scenery makes it a nice place to be and the sun made it even better.

















































The Empire State Building:

Next on our list was The Empire State Building. We had heard mixed reviews about going up to the observation tower here as we had heard that it was far too crowded to get a decent view and that there were better places to go to get a view over the city. However we thought that we would give it a try anyway.

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in Manhattan. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York, The Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

The Empire State Building is the third tallest skyscraper in the Americas (after the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and Trump International Hotel and Tower both in Chicago), and the 15th tallest in the world. It is also the fourth tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.

We ended up getting talked into taking a combined package that involved us getting a 15 minute simulator ride of a helicopter flying over the city. It was quite good and showed us a lot of areas that we would not be able to see from the observatory deck, as well as a preview of some of the sights we would see, however it was nowhere near worth the money.

From the simulator we were taken to the 86th floor observation deck. This is one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, having been visited by over 110 million people. The 86th-floor observation deck does offer impressive 360-degree views of the city but it was far too busy to appreciate it fully. We did get some great views over Manhattan though and it was worthwhile coming up to see it.