Norsk versjon

Columbus Circle Centre of the universe!?

View towards the Statue of Liberty. Kenna, Alyssa, Hild, Rob and Brandon.

This here trip from Upstate New York to the City of all cities was not the most spontaneous of trips. All of us are relatively spontaneous on a normal day, but when a baseball game at Yankee Stadium is involved you have to plan ahead - way ahead. In fact, our initial plan back in the spring was to watch the Yankees play the Mets - a local derby - but there were no tickets left (at least not in our price range). Back in May we finally managed to land tickets to watch the Yankees play the Boston Red Sox - in September. And when it comes down to it this was a good move as they are the number one and two teams in the league (sadly, Rob's team, the Mets, are already out of the hunt for this season).

Brandon, Alyssa, Kenna, Rob and Hild - all five of us squeezed into Yogi the Toyota Corolla. We left Ithaca and found ourselves confused and semi-lost in Harlem five hours later. With a few quick lefts and rights Rob pulled up outside our hotel on Central Park West. The hotel rooms were rather small and a broken lift and a leaking sprinkler system didn't add to the joy. However, much credit was gained by newly renovated, fully tiled and very clean bathrooms. We stashed Yogi in a nearby, typical NYC parking facility where you think you are driving into a normal house - only to find that they have a lift to take your car to other unknown floors in the house. For $20 a day parking fee we were ready to explore Manhattan by foot and public transport.

Our license to unlimited travel by subway!

We spent a couple of days zipping up and down and across Manhattan looking for fun stuff. Because Manhattan is a big place we took advantage of the subways and busses by way of very handy day-passes. We had a few navigation problems and for some reason constantly went through Columbus Circle: Going downtown from uptown to see the sights; Going uptown through the Circle when we should be going downtown (either because Hild is an uptown kind of girl - or because she was very confused); Going downtown and then across town through Columbus Circle because Central Park got in the way; Going downtown from midtown by first going uptown because we knew things best from Columbus Circle. We had all sorts of reasons - now there is a brick on Columbus Circle with our names on it...

The Bull on the Bowling Green.

On another note, we will forever be aware of the perils of express trains on the subway. They have this nasty habit of disguising themselves as normal local trains that stop on all the stations you want to get off on. Alyssa and Hild thought they were pretty unique when they travelled from, yes, Columbus Circle and 59th, to 125th Street, swapped to a local train and got back to 103rd Street just in time and a bit late to check out from the hotel. As it turned out Kenna, Brandon and Rob did nearly the same thing by travelling from 34th Street to 125th, changed to a local train and got back to 103rd... ah Great minds think alike! (Or make the same silly mistakes anyway.) The lesson: never trust your instincts or the number/letter on the train, and don't make a rushed decision. Always do what the locals do: ask the driver.

Wall Street and Broadway - We were there!

Empire State Building - At the top with an upward view!

While we did use the subway a lot we also pushed our little legs to their limits. In the rain we explored Fifth Avenue, Broadway, Times Square, 42nd Street and lots of stuff in between. In between visiting Ground Zero, Wall Street, Battery Park to view the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building we had to shop for some extra clothes given the bad weather. Century 21 for jumpers, Macy's for make-up, watches and FUBU clothing and FAO Schwartz for cuddly toys were all on our list. If Monday hadn't been Labour Day with reduced opening hours we would have been shopping still more.

The biggest enjoyable surprise, at least for Rob, was to go to the top of the Empire State Building. We all loved the view, which wasn't all that bad considering all the rain. We could see lots of things and landmarks around Manhattan. It was windy up there though. The wind swept Rob's newly acquired Yankees cap off his head, kept it hovering above Kenna's head, just out of reach, and we thought it was forever gone. Luckily the tall fence around the building gave us a chance to catch the hat again. Before leaving the building we visited the NY Skyride, only to find ourselves tossed and yanked in every which way on a virtual yet violent ride through the skies and roads of the city. It would have been better just to show us the film without making us hold onto our seats for dear life... but then again - this is the country of high excitements.

Empire State Building - A foggy view toward South Manhattan and Jersey City.

While traipsing around Manhattan we were constantly trying to minimize the number of bags and things to carry in our hands. So we brought Rob and his Helly Hansen coat. This coat is now famous for its holding capacity. At one stage during our trip Rob's coat held: a city map, a pen, a reflector tag shaped like a cat (you've got to be Norwegian to understand that), tickets for the Empire State Building, a little radio with ear phones, a pack of chewing gum, half a bagel (for Kenna), half a pretzel (for Hild), hotel keys, a camera, a spare film, three soft drink bottles, and a small dog. Amazing!

There is one thing one always has to do when in New York: Go to coffee shops.... so we did. Given that Kenna and Hild are not coffee people the others had to live with the embarrassment of ordering tea and hot chocolate in Starbucks. Then there were all those delicious lunches and dinners we managed. We reminisce about that Broadway diner just up from Times Square. Then there was Hard Rock Cafe on Broadway and 57th and a small yet excellent pizza place on Broadway and 104th. Wherever we went we enjoyed huge sandwiches, enormous steaks, bountiful salads, extra large pizzas, tall burgers, and deep soups - yum! At one stage Brandon exclaimed: 'Why do they give Hild salads that are bigger than her head?'. In fact, it was true. In the US salads are not made for people on diets...

What's left of our Yankee Stadium tickets.

Rob, Kenna, Alyssa and Brandon at Yankee Stadium.

The eating continued when we hit Yankee Stadium. We'd all saved up money to afford the $3.75 hotdogs and $4 soft drinks. Even though it seemed a bit pricy, the hotdogs were so yummy we went for two each. Then there were the cracker jacks, the ice creams and the Krispy Kreme doughnuts (even if they had blue and white Yankees sprinkles on). The beer and other booze guys kept coming past our seats to no avail. There were so many things going on that it was sometimes hard to focus on the game. The big screen often captured various people in the audience putting it all out there for pure entertainment. Hild was quite pleased that no one zoomed in on the Upstate party of five. One of the crowd favourites was a 7-year-old boy dancing his little booties off on the second tier.

It's all happening at Yankee Stadium.

The big screen announces Soriano's homerun.

In many small breaks grounds-people came out to maintain the field in the constant rain. They spread sand in little piles and then dragged huge rakes to smooth it all out. The impressive and entertaining bit was that they walked in patterns and in time to the music. The crowd cheered loudly when they walked in time to Village People's YMCA - especially when they put down their rakes and did the arm actions Y - M - C - A... na na na na na na na... Y - M - C - A. It was a definite high point of the trip.

Another high point was Soriano's homerun for the Yankees. Even if the Red Sox won it was great and the spectators went wild! Surprisingly even Hild saw the homerun. She has this incredible ability to always be looking away when the exciting stuff happens (note several 6 pointers on Australian cricket grounds and a bunch of rugby tries and field goals). Baseball is a spectator's sport especially with all the breaks with little entertainment clips over the loudspeakers and on the big screen. In the 40+ minute long rain break we particularly enjoyed film clips from old baseball games. One clip was entitled 'the killer kitten' as we watched the ground crew chasing around to clear the field of a small cat. Needless to say, the cat won on several occasions - biting and scratching anyone who got too close...

Then it was all over. We piled ourselves into Yogi again and set for home - singing songs we did and didn't know all the way home. We landed in Ithaca the usual five hours later, and although it was midnight Kenna, Brandon and Alyssa pressed on to Watkins Glen to rendezvous with their own beds after a fun, long, exciting and exhausting weekend in the big City.

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Last updated July 2010