The hotel for their latest New York Adventure would be the Hilton Times Square. Their room was surprisingly large, easily the largest room they ever had in New York. It was clean, modern and tastefully decorated with some very practical amenities like a good sized closet and many drawers to put clothes in. Adventurers to New York who want to stay in the middle of the action would find the Hilton ideal.
With darkness falling, Ray and Traci ventured into the crowds to find dinner. Traci picked a restaurant in midtown called Sapporo (like the Japanese Beer). Traci had shoyu ramen while Ray picked the Sukiyaki. The food was good especially considering the total bill was $22. Before retiring for the evening, they stopped at the fancy Times Square McDonalds for soft ice cream – the restaurant has a Broadway theater styled store front and the spacious interior is decorated in the same fashion.
When Ray and Traci woke up on day 2, the temperature was already 88 degrees! After enjoying a Hilton complementary buffet breakfast, Ray and Traci decided to go to the King Tut exhibit three blocks from the hotel – King Tut's return rekindles the interest developed in the 1970s US tour, updated with new scientific evidence (i.e. DNA analysis of King Tut's family tree) and new multimedia exhibits. Unfortunately, some of the key artifacts such as the famous golden burial mask didn't make the trip to NYC. Afterwards, Ray and Traci headed from King Tut's Times Square home up Broadway to the shopping district. After a brief repeat visit to the celebrated St. Patrick's Cathedral, they window shopped the Apple Store, Niketown NYC, the Sony Store and Trump Tower. Despite running out of iphones days ago, the Apple store was flooded with people wishing the store had iPhones or iPads in stock! In general, Times Square seems to be bucking the overall negative economy as people seemed to swarm the area even with the new expanded pedestrian walkways. Another recent change was the impressive amounts of police in both the Central Park and Times Square areas which must have caused crime to go elsewhere. Later, Ray and Traci went to Joe's Shanghai in the midtown area for some Chinese food including chicken dumplings, won ton soup and not so crispy spicy shrimp. Joe's is a highly recommended Chinese restaurant although Traci was somewhat disappointed compared to her meal during a previous NYC trip at Joe's other location in Chinatown. After leaving Joe's, Ray and Traci attended the musical "Rock of Ages." Traci was somewhat skeptical of a musical based on many of Ray's favorite musical acts from the 1980s – but the performances, the humor, and the cast's ability not to take themselves too seriously won her over. Ray felt the musical was the most fun Broadway show he attended – a "Mamma Mia" with self deprecating humor and 1980s music with a bite. If you only like musicals with opera quality vocals, orchestral music, and intellectually stimulating plots, don't bother seeing "Rock of Ages" when it plays in Seattle next year.
Tuesday brought more clouds and slightly cooler weather. Ray started his day by running around the reservoir in Central Park which turned out to be quite a challenge given the heat and humidity. After breakfast, Ray and Traci headed on the subway to the Southport TKTS booth to try their luck at getting discount matinee show tickets for the next day. After a 40 minute wait, they bought La Cage Aux Folles tickets at 30% off. The Times Square TKTS booth only sells tickets for day of shows, while the Seaport outlet will sell the matinee tickets the day before. From the Southport area, they walked across one of New York's famous landmarks – the Brooklyn Bridge.
As expected, many tourists crossed the Pedestrian walkways – some in better shape than others, with many stops for photo ops. Leaving the bridge behind, Ray and Traci had lunch in a famous Brooklyn eatery – Grimaldi's Pizza. Despite a 2 pm arrival, Grimaldi's had a line of people on the sidewalk waiting to get in. Fortunately, the line was a relatively short 15 minutes. Ray and Traci enjoyed a very good ham pizza cooked in Grimaldi's famous coal fired brick oven. After their late lunch, Ray and Traci rode the subway back to the hotel before heading to Yankee stadium. 
The latest incarnation of Yankee Stadium opened in 2009 to much fanfare. The easiest way to get to Yankee stadium from Times Square is the express "D" train from Bryant Park. A 30 minute ride drops you off right at the ballpark. At first glance the outside architecture looks quite plain with little detail except for the golden "Yankee Stadium " inscription. Once inside the main gate, visitors find the "Great Hall" with long banners celebrating Yankee heroes past and present. Ray and Traci took an extended tour around the main floor and the upper deck seating areas before settling in. Overall, the interior of the stadium lacks the polish one would expect in a billion dollar structure. Modern ball parks often have floor to ceiling views of the field for patrons walking the main concourses whereas Yankee stadium has narrower "mail slot" view. Monument park has been transplanted into the outfield of the new stadium but it closes 45 minutes before first pitch. A gorgeous gigantic Mitsubishi video screen occupies the biggest area in the center field scoreboard.
One area where the Yankees did not spare any expense was the high concrete partitions staffed by security separating the choice infield seats in the first few rows with the less pricey ones behind. A premium infield seat can run $1600 while the ones a few rows behind go for $300! Another big deficiency was the relatively limited concessions (with the expected very high prices) – Yankee Stadium's "food court" had only a very few vendors, and the variety of foods was really limited especially given the multicultural background of New York. The stadium does have several exclusive sit down food areas including a steak restaurant which may compensate for the limited concessions. In any case, Ray and Traci spent the first game up in the 400 level by the left field foul pole. Sitting so far away from home plate was a new experience for the Seattle fans however the Mariners surprising offensive outburst and Cliff Lee's typical professional pitching job kept them quite entertained. The M's won 7-4 making Ray and Traci's short subway ride home much happier than it was for the Yankee fans.
Wednesday was the last full day in NYC for Ray and Traci. Ray was quite thankful for 70 degree temperatures and again ran around Central Park's reservoir. After enjoying the Hilton's buffet, they headed out to wander around the area. At Rockefeller Center, the Lego company was having an event – children would build structures out of green Legos and the organizers would arrange them together forming big cities. In addition, master Lego builders put together a massive red Lego apple.
Ray and Traci's next event was the matinee showing of La Cage Aux Folles. Traci was pleasantly surprised when the well known actor Kelsey Grammer took the stage rather than an understudy. Ray was intrigued by Kelsey's talents which were much more impressive than just his famous roles as Dr. Frasier Crane and Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons. Ray did think the story could use a little modernization in its latest incarnation. From La Cage Aux Folles, the Mariners fans headed back to Yankee Stadium on the D train to enjoy another game. For the second game, Ray purchased premium seats directly from the Yankees – 3rd deck behind home plate in the "Jim Beam" section – basically similar to a more expensive but less extensive "Terrace club" experience found at Safeco. The private lounge had a bar (with Jim Beam, of course), a pizza concession, a burger/fries concession and bathrooms without any waits. After you leave the lounge, the cushy seats in the front portion of the 3rd deck behind home plate afforded excellent views of the action. For dinner, Traci had an adventurous Spanish Rice with Chicken dish while Ray stuck with the more traditional Yankee Hot Dog. Again, Mariner fans were treated with a dominating pitching performance, this time by Felix Hernandez while the offense again exploded for 7 runs including 2 homers by rookie Michael Saunders. Ray and Traci returned to the Hilton quite happy after a 7-0 thrashing of the World Champions.
Thursday was another cool day. Ray and Traci decided to end their NYC adventure by visiting the Frick Museum – the former residence of a steel tycoon and art patron who assembled a very impressive variety of art. As afternoon approached, they checked out of the Hilton and boarded the Newark airport bound train at Penn Station for an uneventful trip back to Seattle where they found cool and wet weather.
