go yankees

A few years ago, after my mom's little bout with breast cancer, I decided to take her on a trip...just the two of us. She had always talked about Walt Disney World and how much she wanted to see it...so we packed our bags and did a mother/daughter trip. It was so fun to hang out, just my mom and me. A year or so later, I took Beca (my sis) to San Diego for her first big trip outside the state. She was very into Sublime and Slightly Stoopid and Ocean Beach was the birthplace of their genre of music.

Over the next couple of years, I took the "girls" on a couple of other trips, my mom to LA to see "So You Think You Can Dance", the live show, and my sister to San Francisco to visit the city and drive along the PCH - pics from all the trips are on gaigespages.

These paired off trips became a family joke as the Lora's Make a Wish Foundation and I asked my dad where he wanted to go for his adventure. He wanted to see a Yankee game in his hometown of New York. I researched during last year's season and it was just too late to plan, get tickets and make it up to a game. So, fast forward to this spring and my mom hints that baseball season is coming up (even though my dad won't mention it right to me!). So the "Lora-style" planning starts!

Last Friday we took off for New York at 11am. I gave my dad a little care package to kick off the trip...including a map, yankee hat, NYC things to do book and a book called, "I Love You, Daddy" that I had customized with all the things we were doing on the trip. And finally, the signature laminated itinerary.

After a little delay, we made it to a rainy and dreary NYC at 5ish. We took the bus to the subway, like locals, and arrived in Times Square at about 6. From there, we hopped on the subway to Yankee Stadium. It was fun to watch the number of fans build as we got closer and closer to the stadium. PS...jerseys are really popular up there! We had to switch trains once on the journey and one of the guys got a text message that said "game cancelled". We all denied it and blamed it on him being a Mets fan. But, as we pulled into the 161st/Yankee Stadium stop, word was spreading fast that it was true.

We strolled our way through the rain to the box office to see if there was anything we could do. We met the craziest guy in line. He is the "world's biggest Yankee fan". He pulled out his cell phone and showed us a pic of his truck with a Yankee logo on the hood and his basement, he calls the luxury suite...it's all painted blue with pennants and other Yankee paraphernalia all over the walls!! Here's a pic of us :)

He also suggested a restaurant near the stadium called Molino Rojo. So, we finally get to the front of the line, ready to beg and plead, and to our surprise, we were able to get tickets for the next day's afternoon game...yea!! And they were even better seats, so we paid a little fee, but got to upgrade at the ticket's face value.

So, happy as clams, we walked over to the restaurant suggested by the superfan...and it was awesome! They have this greasy, kind oh "eh" looking food in the wndow, then the food inside is phenomenal! We had rice and beans, the philly cheesesteak, chiken and homemade flan. Yummy! After the restaurant, we went back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep.

Bright and early, 4AM, the alarm went off. We pealed our tired selves out of bed to stand in line for Saturday Night Live. We arrived in line at about 5AM...and there were about 80 people in front of us in tents and snuggled under blankets. The people right in front of us were awesome! There was a couple from San Fran (she was about to graduate from Columbia in NYC and he was in visiting) and a father and daughter from New York. We exchanged numbers with Melissa and her dad, Andrew...as they chose to try for the rehearsal and we went for the live show! We got our numbers and parted ways at about 7am. I'm so glad they were great...it helped the 2 hours of standing to fly by!

From there, we crossed the street and scoped out "The Today Show" weekend crew, so no Meredith, Ann, Al or Matt. And we snacked on croissants from Dean and Deluca...we may have been in the background and not even known it. :) The Matt Lauer replacement took this baby at one point and carried it all around...then kept kissing it on the head...we were hoping he knew this baby and didn't just take it hostage!

Next, we walked around saw Rockefeller, St. Patricks and Central Park. We also stopped in Central park to see the seals swim around at the Central Park Zoo and the John Lennon Memorial, Strawberry Fields. We then crossed the street to The Dakota, where he was actually shot. It was a very sad feeling place...you really got an eerie vibe standing there. hard to describe.

Our feet were aching by then, so we hopped onto the subway and headed back to the Bronx for the baseball game. We were there early for batting practice...it was pretty cool to have most of the stadium to ourselves! And it was a beautiful day...not a cloud in the sky. We rooted for the Yankees and I caught a super cool pic of Jeter hitting the first home run of the game! It makes me sad that it's the last season at Yankee stadium though...these old stadiums have so much more character than the fancy new parks. You can see the new one being built across the street while you're inside the old one. The grounds keepers were so funny and broke into a YMCA dance routine between innings! :)

After the game, we took to subway back into town and chowed down at the Carnegie Deli...the food was super (and the portions huge)...we had the best waitress of the trip here. Once we were full and happy we went back to the room to relax and catch a few z's before the show.

We arrived back at the NBC studios at 10:45 and took our place in line. We made it to the "elevators" (the first 20 people got to go up) and it was time to wait and see if our number was called. After about 15 minutes they said thanks for coming, but we're out of space. We all sighed and hung our heads...then the page said, "wait, we may be able to take a few more!". Cheers all around!!! So we stood all giddy and waiting. Then Samm Levine, Dax Shepherd, Kristen Bell, John Kranzinski, "Kenneth", the intern on "30 Rock" and Renee Zellweger walked by with their entourages. We all whispered and pointed as they took the elevator up. Then we realized, wait a minute...they just took our spots!!! A few seconds later, the page again made us hang our heads and said they were officially out of space. Oh well, waiting in line and making some new friends was half the fun!

We quickly called Melissa to see if they made it in...pretty sure they had since the rehearsal was a little less popular. And we were so disappointed to hear for the 2nd time they had tried, they were where the line was cut off! They were 40 and 41 in line and they cut off at 39! Stinks!!! But, they were super sweet and said they were rooting for us too. I will definitely we calling my new friends when I go back in Sept...they said there should be a film fest in that time frame too. :)

We watched the Steve Carrell/Usher episode from our room and laughed until we fell sound asleep. My favorites of the evening were The Japanese Office and Bless this Child. :)

Sunday morning we woke up again and headed to St. Patrick's for the music mass. It was very pretty, but very fast. The have a mass every hour...so they defintely run you in and out. But it's crazy that it is so full...and the Cathedral is huge! My dad was very excited to participate in service at this historic church.

Next, we shopped for a few little souveniers for mom, Beca, Paul and Bryan in Times Square then went to John's Pizza. This place was wonderful! The original was in Greenwich village from the early 1900s and now they have 2 additional locations with brick oven pizza that is defintely worth a try!

We had a little time to kill so we wandered up a few streets and hit the jackpot. There was a humongous street festival in Hell's Kitchen with food, clothes, housewares and lots and lots of people. We wandered from booth to booth and even though we were stuffed, we enjoyed a little dessert of coconut ice cream and a caramel apple. This neighborhood had such a cool vibe...we both really loved just hanging out there. There was even a cop dancing to the music from one of the booths...so fun!

We then went to the Golden theater to see Avenue Q. it was a beautiful theather and a very funny, creative show. There were parts that were a little risque...but it also had a nice uplifting message too! :)

When the show was over we headed to the airport to take off for Houston. I had gotten a first class upgrade that I gave to my dad...it was his first time to ride up front. :) And I was super excited when the flight attendant brought me an upgrade too! Yea! Here's the beautiful sky and view of the city as we took off. It was a wonderful trip and so glad dad and I got to share this weekend! Love you Dad! :)