The house that Ruth and $1 billion built...

I should mention that this is Dustin’s first trip to New York, and I was only here once, briefly about eight years ago, so we have a lot to see.  Tuesday brought many more sights, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, and the 9/11 memorial.  See the helpful pictures below to follow our progress.

This is the Statue of Liberty.  It is being renovated so we did not get to go inside.  It's very liberty-like.

Many annoying schoolchildren were having a spitting contest over the side of the boat moments before this picture.  My formidable glare frightened them away.

Ellis Island - Registry Room

There's a line to take a picture with the bull.  A friendly policeman took our picture (he hangs out there and took many people's pictures; it's not like we hijacked a policeman from useful work in order to snap our tourist photo).

9/11 Memorial

After a full day of sights, it was time for Yankee Stadium!  Now, we knew the previous night’s Mets experience would be hard to top, but this was The. New. York. Yankees.  In spite of our (especially my) general hatred of all things in Yankee pinstripes, we figured this had to be good.  The new stadium, the storied history of yore, the belligerent fans… surely, we were in for an experience.

You can hardly make out the Hard Rock Cafe that's part of the stadium... (really)

Alas, we found the stadium strangely… sterile, a word we both used independently to describe the nice but nondescript surroundings.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of two-dimensional Yankee stuff hanging all about, but if you removed that, the rest of it is oddly lackluster.  There are virtually no fun, quirky, or unique features once you’re sitting in the actual ballpark.  The field, food, beer, ambiance – it’s all just rather blah.  Dustin gives at a B- (actually, now he says C+ - "there wasn't anything super-unique, lots of concrete...").  It's not like it was terrible, but I feel like the bar is set high here and we were underwhelmed.

The score/video board was kind of annoying - they did not have information logically organized and frequently wiped out all useful information for ads, replays, and weird video montages.  I just want to see who is batting next or check the pitch count, please.

The view from behind the bleachers.  They have a huge bleacher section.

The fans themselves deserve some note.  First, the ballpark was virtually full at least 90 minutes before the game started.  Say what you will, but these New York fans take their baseball seriously.  As at the Mets game, there were no goofy shenanigans – no silly wave, or beach balls bopping about, or any such nonsense.  No, these people come to watch the game (take note, Angels fans!).  Both stadiums had a traditional organ and lots of cheering – the Yankees fans let loose with a blustery “LET’S GO, YAN-KEES!” at virtually every possible opportunity.

The view from our seats.

Unfortunately, their cheers were for naught, as the Yankees lost the game.  It was an up-and-down affair, with a final score of Braves 4, Yankees 3.  Going back to the previous baseball road trip, this was our 10^th road trip game.  We’d seen 9 home teams win.  The Yankees broke the streak, which seemed fitting since I was delighted to see them lose.

One unique feature - the grounds-crew does the YMCA before the 7th inning.  Heh.  This vastly entertained me.

One thing that may raise our Yankee experience is the alleged $225 that we won playing a new MLB.com trivia game ("Bucks on the Pond").  Some guy wearing MLB.com gear stopped us about an hour before the game, asked us how we are at trivia, gave us a few test questions, and before we knew it, we were signing waivers and being filmed for the website.  If any of you have had the misfortune of playing a trivia game against my beloved husband, you know that Dustin is pretty much the trivia king.  We answered a bunch of questions (maybe 15-20) and had to get less than "three strikes" (we got to two, making us victorious and awesome).  Supposedly they are now going to send us money.  If this money ever arrives, we may have to raise the stadium grade.

Up next: Washington D.C. (Don't worry, we'll be back in New York in about 10 days for some more sightseeing.)