NYC

9/10-9/11
　
We arrived in New York at around 12:45pm after traveling all night and getting very little sleep. We took the Airtrain then the subway from JFK to Times Square where we are staying at the Milford Plaza Hotel. We had planned to take a nap… but hunger won out. So we got back on the subway to get some food at Katz Deli (When Harry met Sally anyone?) in the Lower East Side, where they have awesome Pastrami sandwiches YUM!

With full bellies it was time for a history lesson. We went to the Tenement Museum to learn about the lives of Jewish German immigrants who came to live in New York in the mid to late 1800’s through the Great Depression. We heard stories of some of the actual people who lived in this specific building, and toured the building to learn what living there was like. It was close quarters with many families occupying units, but they had a great sense of community. It was really interesting to learn about their lives.

After the museum it was time for the Mets game. It was a little bit rainy last night so we got a little damp, but not too bad. We left the game a little early…Mets weren’t doing too well. The stadium was nice though. :)

Today was a very wet day for us…
We got up this morning and it had been raining on and off though the night. We were hoping it wouldn’t be too bad today because everything planned was for outdoors.
We started off the morning at the Bronx Zoo. The zoo was very nice and the weather wasn’t too terrible for most of the day. A couple of highlights at the zoo were the Pygmy Marmosets and the Gorillas. Unfortunately, the rain really started coming down at the end of our visit and on our way to the Botanical Gardens. We had an umbrella with us, but the wind was pretty strong and the umbrella was rendered useless pretty quickly…it was sad. We did go into the botanical gardens for a little while, and it was nice…but we didn’t enjoy it as much as we would have had we not been cold and wet.

After the gardens we went to Yankee Stadium for the game. We arrived about an hour early because we had cut our time at the garden short. When we were trying to get into the stadium they were checking our bags and this stupid guy dropped Kev’s bag in this box to check the size…and his camera was in there. We just discovered that the screen on the back is now cracked. Great. I also had to throw out a whole unused bottle of sunscreen because we weren’t allowed to take it into the stadium! Totally ridiculous!! I mean, we know today was 9/11, but COME ON! That was the second brand new bottle of sunscreen that I’ve had to throw out in like 4 months because of stupid sh!t like that! BOO!

Anyway, the stadium was nice, but we sat there for like 45 min freezing waiting for the game to start and the wind and rain wouldn’t let up so they went on rain delay. We walked around awhile and went to get food, then finally the game started. They had a nice tribute for 9/11 and showed the new USS NY made from WTC steel.

The spirit in the stadium was very high tonight. We saw Derek Jeter break the Yankee hit record and everyone going crazy…then we watched the Yankee’s blow their lead…and we left the stadium at around the 7th inning when the score was 7-4 Baltimore. Not sure what the final score was…

Now we are back in our room getting ready for bed. I spent the last half hour blow drying our clothes because this hotel doesn’t have a dryer…Tomorrow is our last day in the city, then we fly out at 8:50pm for Switzerland!!