Baseball fans Ray and Traci decided to visit some of the most hallowed grounds in the sport before Yankee Stadium is replaced in 2009. In their ongoing tour of Major League Ballparks, neither had visited Yankee Stadium although they had a great time at Shea Stadium watching the Mets play the Mariners in 2003. Unfortunately scheduling conflicts prevented a simultaneous visit with their beloved but troubled home team so an interleague matinee with the Padres was chosen.
In contrast to their previous 3 visits to the Big Apple, Ray and Traci used Alaska Airlines miles to get free tickets on American Airlines non-stop flight from Seattle to JFK. Despite the horror stories of flying into JFK, their flight arrived 25 minutes early on a Tuesday late afternoon. Not wanting to fight rush hour traffic in a taxi or car service, they rode the Airtrain from the American Terminal 8 to the Jamaica stop, paid $5 to exit the Airtrain terminal and jumped on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) for a 20 minute $10 ride into Manhattan’s Penn Station. After a nice walk, they arrived at the Times Square Marriott Marquis in just over an hour despite rush hour traffic. Travelers familiar with rush hour traffic in NYC know about the long delays and frequent horn honking associated with trips in and out of Manhattan.
The Marriott Marquis is a much nicer hotel than the Sheraton NYC hotels where Ray and Traci had not so good experiences. It has an impressive lobby, and fast glass elevators which can easily scare those fearful of heights. One interesting feature is that the elevators do not have floor controls on them – riders have to key in a floor number outside the elevator lobby and the computer selects an elevator for them to ride. While more efficient, you don’t have a chance to change your mind. After checking in on the 8th floor sky lobby, Ray and Traci went to their 25th floor room and were very surprised at their spacious accommodations – unlike the Sheraton closet that passed for a room on their Christmas visit to NYC. The Marriott had a large room complete with full sized desk, love seat, and easy chair/foot stool. The room also had a nice bath and a 42 inch LCD HD TV. The dresser was also large with many drawers – only deficiency was no refrigerator. Interestingly enough, the Marriott didn’t try to make money off an overpriced mini bar. Further surprises awaited as the hotel had an amazing gym – with a great selection of cardio equipment and at least for this visit, no shortages for exercising guests.
After perusing their new home, Ray and Traci went to the Rockerfeller Center for a light dinner. Traci decided to get a roast pork loin sandwich at Tom Colicchio’s ‘Wichcraft. Tom is the head judge of Top Chef, a reality show watched by both travelers. Traci liked the sandwich although noted that it was very thin on pork loin – perhaps Tom put his cooks on a very meager budget like he does during some of the reality show challenges. Ray decided to get a tossed Caesar salad at “Hale & Hearty” – a chain of soup and sandwich shops. Although they ran out of chicken, Ray thought his custom bacon and roasted turkey Caesar salad was quite good. Before returning home, Ray and Traci walked toward Central Park, first stopping at the amazing St. Patrick’s Cathedral to admire the ornate statues and stain glass windows.
Once in Central Park, Ray and Traci encountered many runners enjoying an evening run thru the park – so many that one would think a marathon race was taking place! Before retiring to the hotel, Ray and Traci encountered a martial arts class, a beach volleyball game, and a small “Fun Forest” like area complete with carnival rides.
Ray began Day 2 with a run thru central Park – he tried to run around the Jackie Onassis Kennedy Reservoir but somehow ended up going in circles due to the roads that cut thru the park. Ray and Traci then left the Marriott to go to the Whitney Museum of Modern American Art – a museum not visited on previous trips. After seeing the Whitney, Ray wondered if 50 years from now an artwork consisting of vacuum cleaners sitting on fluorescent light bulbs really will be considered art like Picasso or Rembrandt. Some of the work at that museum really strains the definition of art. Perhaps one can say the same thing about today’s rap music – will it stand the time like Mozart or the Beatles? News magazines have done stories showing creations by young children and placing them side by side with modern art works to embarrass modern art “experts” when they can’t tell the difference. Perhaps some of the Whitney’s artists just have good agents to get their name out there – once someone has a name, anything they make becomes a collectable. In any case, the Whitney isn’t something recommended to those with classic art tastes. From the Whitney, Ray and Traci travelled back to Times Square and had lunch at Duke’s Café – It is a multiethnic food court all in one establishment – you can have ramen, custom salads, deli meats, soups, hot food buffet foods, and sushi all in one place. It is an extremely well run place with most people taking their food out.
After lunch, Ray and Traci attended a Wednesday afternoon matinee of “Young Frankenstein,” Mel Brook’s updated musical rendition of the classic story. The musical performances were well done and the production enjoyable, although Traci thought they could have had better humor. For dinner, Ray and Traci took the subway to Lombardi’s, one of New York’s most famous pizza establishments. In 1905 Lombardi’s started making pizza in coal fired ovens – which continues today. Lombardi’s is technically the first pizza parlor in America although it went out of business in a while back and was reincarnated with the same oven at the current location. Although Ray is a deep dish Chicago style pizza fan, he enjoyed Lombardi’s thin crispy crust as did Traci. After dinner, the travelers wandered around Central Park where they ran into a Mister Softie Ice Cream Truck virtually on every block – Ray took it as some sort of sign from a higher power and decided to have a chocolate covered soft vanilla cone which was covered with multicolored sprinkles. Unfortunately the chocolate did not make a hard shell like Dairy Queen’s dipped cones.
Thursday was baseball day – Ray started the day by successfully finding the reservoir by following the streets that parallel the park and then running around it.
Getting to Central Park can be a challenge on a workday – traffic around Times Square really follows the laws of the jungle. Pedestrians don’t follow traffic lights, and drivers have to be really aggressive to move anyway. It is impossible to walk a block without hearing someone honking their horn. Traffic lights are almost optional in downtown NYC. After successfully surviving the NYC jungle, Ray and Traci headed to Yankee stadium on the subway – one great thing about NY baseball parks is their easy access via subway. Upon emerging from the 161st Street station in the Bronx, historic Yankee stadium is seen side by side with its newly constructed replacement. Yankee stadium is long on legend but quite short on character or amenities – in fact, it is difficult to figure out what stadium you are in from the seating area – only the “26 World Championships” banner below the press box gives you an obvious clue. If any city had a dire need for a new stadium, it would be New York.
After watching New York win a close pitcher’s duel over the visiting San Diego Padres, Ray and Traci returned to Manhattan on the subway and had dinner at McCormick’s and Schmick. The large chain of seafood and steak restaurants can be found in many cities. Ray enjoyed a Rib Eye steak while Traci was quite happy to discover a good tasting Chilean Sea Bass. From dinner, Ray and Traci headed back to the theatre district to see another musical, Xanadu. Taking a horrible 80’s movie and turning it into a musical was certainly an unorthodox approach to Broadway production, but Xanadu is an entertaining and fun show along the lines of Mamma Mia. When it comes to Broadway shows, Ray likes ones with simple plots and familiar music, so his favorites include Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys and Xanadu.
On Friday, Ray and Traci started out by heading to the Chelsea Market – the home of the food network. Ray had a chicken noodle soup from Friedman’s Delicatessen while Traci enjoyed their fruit salad. Ray also had a strawberry gelato from L’Arte del Gelato. After leaving Chelsea, Ray and Traci wandered around the East Village pausing to sample some French fries from Frites Pommes – while you expect the fries to be good since that is all they sell, Ray wasn’t that impressed. After a long morning of walking around and a free evening awaiting, Ray decided to try the well known TKTS service to get tickets to another show. Fortunately, the TKTS booth is located at the Marriott so Ray went to the long line 30 minutes before the window opened and emerged 40 minutes later scoring 2 decent tickets to Hairspray. TKTS is a great place to get tickets if you want to save 50% and are flexible about the show – but if you are traveling from far away like we were, I’d recommend just buying good seats well in advance. Traci found a Japanese restaurant called Menchoanko-Tei to eat at which was full of local appearing Asians – a good sign. Hairspray turned out to be a good show, although the main character’s voice (Tracy Turnblad) was kind of annoying and she wasn’t a very good dancer considering the whole show is about winning an American Bandstand like dancing contest for social change.
Saturday was getaway day – Ray and Traci spent the morning in the Marriott’s excellent gym, and then met up with Ray’s cousin David to enjoy a brunch at the Eatery. Traci enjoyed a tasty French Toast dish while Ray and David had omelets that were well prepared. After brunch, Ray and Traci decided to reverse their original commute rather than trust the Saturday afternoon traffic patterns in a cab. By taking a short cab ride to Penn Station, the Long Island Railroad to the Jamaica station and then the Airtrain to the terminal, Ray and Traci had a 1:45 hotel room to gate travel time. On a Saturday, a cab ride would probably save some time and due to flat rate pricing wouldn’t cost significantly more but during rush hour, the train would be an option worth considering.
