My friend Drew is a big fan of The New York Mets. For many years he's been trying to plan a trip to New York to see a Mets game, but it never happened. Finally, he decided to go on July 11-13, 2008 (this is fortunate, since it's the last year before Shea Stadium is torn down). So he called me up, and another friend of ours, Ben, both on June 19, and we all agreed to go, and had barely 3 weeks to plan and prepare for the trip.
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2008
I went to work in the morning as usual. Around 11:30AM, Ben picked me up at my office (he had already picked up Drew at the subway), and we headed west on the Gardiner Expressway and then the QEW. He stopped in Welland for an hour or two to meet with a client (while Drew and I waited at the Tim Hortons, at 95 Lincoln Street?), and then we crossed the border and headed for the Buffalo Niagara International Airport (it's much cheaper to fly from Buffalo than from Toronto). Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:35PM, but ended up getting delayed by probably about an hour, because there weren't enough New York air traffic controllers on duty. So we had some drinks at a bar in the Buffalo airport.
By the time we got to JFK airport, it was probably well after 9:00PM. Then we took the Air Train to the subway, and then waited a LONG time (maybe 20/30 minutes) for the "A" train to get to downtown Manhattan. With two subway rides and some walking, we arrived at our hotel, the Marriott Downtown (Financial District).
At the hotel, Ben's friend Paul was already waiting for us. We grabbed a cab (hard to find one when you need one in New York City!) and he took us to a restaurant (I think around 34th and Broadway) for some good New York steak! Then a quick subway ride got us to an area (I think around Bleecker Street, south of Washington Square Park) with a lot of bars and nightclubs, so we checked out a few of them. After Paul left to catch the train home, we checked out a couple more bars/clubs, then walked around for a bit looking for a subway station, eventually found one (at Bleecker & Lafayette) and took a short subway ride back to our hotel.
SATURDAY, JULY 12, 2008
Ben took the subway to go meet a friend for lunch. Drew and I took the subway up to Times Square and walked around for a bit, looking for a place to have lunch. Eventually we found a place he had been to before, and shared a large platter of meat (chicken, sausage, brisket, etc.). Then we walked over to the Mets Clubhouse Shop, where Drew bought a jersey and two hats.
Then we took the #7 train to Shea Stadium, and we got there just before they opened the gates, at 2:25PM. But when we got to our seats, Drew was disappointed, because they didn't have a great view of the field, and they weren't exactly in the section he thought they were in. (Plus, he later realized that he was overcharged for the tickets.) So he spent a long time on the phone with the ticket vendor, but they wouldn't do anything. He also argued at the ticket counter outside the stadium, but that didn't help either. Then Ben arrived, so the three of us went back to our seats and watched the game for a while. But in order to avoid the huge crowds on the subway after the game, we left after the 7th inning ended. In the end, the Mets beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0, to make their eighth straight win.
After the game, we took the subway back to Manhattan. We stopped by the Empire State Building, but there was a huge lineup to get in. So instead we walked to Top Of The Rock, the observation deck of the Rockefeller Centre. It's quite a magnificent view, in fact we seemed to be almost as high as the top of the Empire State Building. We could even see, and even HEAR, a Bon Jovi concert in Central Park, a good 3km away. (We had tried to get tickets to that concert, but couldn't.)
Then we hopped back onto the subway. Ben went to a bar, McSorley's, to meet his friend Paul. Drew and I went back to the hotel (after briefly getting lost on the subway, we ended up taking a taxi) to change, and then joined Ben and Paul at the bar (took another taxi -- the subway doesn't run very often in the evening). They were chatting with a couple of girls from Montreal, who eventually came with us to another bar, Zum Schneider. After Paul and the girls left, the three of us stopped for a late dinner at a small shawarma/kebab house, and then took a taxi back to our hotel.
SUNDAY, JULY 13, 2008
We took the "A" train and the Air Train to JFK, and by the time we got to the gate, the plane was already boarding. So we grabbed a quick breakfast in the airport and hopped onto the plane. The plane left at 1:10PM, but took over half an hour to get to the runway and get cleared for takeoff. But the actual flying time is only about an hour. The second half of the flight was a little bumpy, but we probably got back to Buffalo around 2:40PM. After that, we hopped into Ben's car, crossed the border again, and drove back to Toronto.
All in all, we packed a lot of action into a vacation that was shorter than Britney Spears' first marriage!
See also Jeff Aaron's other vacations.