Meet New York... and the Mets

What's a baseball road trip without a blog?  Welcome to both new and faithful readers.  For those of you who followed the 2010 trip, beware: this trip is a wee bit more action-packed seeing as how we aren't just driving across Texas for seemingly endless stretches of time.

The glorious baseball road trip color-coded spreadsheet.  Mostly Dustin's doing, but I helped.

Saturday was a travel-filled day as we made our way from Orange County to Providence, Rhode Island.  The trip was fairly uneventful, which pretty much equals success in the world of air travel these days.  Having arrived in Providence, we wasted no time in locating and consuming various oysters and other aquatic foodstuffs.  My cousin Josh graciously put us up for the night (Thanks, Josh!), and the next morning we set off for New York, or as Alicia Keys would nonsensically claim, the "concrete jungle where dreams are made of" (really, that makes no sense at all).

One of our first stops was the MoMA, where we gazed upon Starry Night.  Of course, it's a rather popular painting, so much of the gazing involved shoving other people aside and judiciously glaring at the individuals who chose to essentially camp out inches from said painting and monopolize it entirely.  I do a good glare when the situation warrants it.

After the MoMA, we did a fair amount of purposeful wandering to see the city, including Times Square.

Sunday evening concluded with our eagerly anticipated dinner at Per Se, which is the sister restaurant to the French Laundry in the Napa Valley.  Dinner did not disappoint: lobster, lamb, six different wines... how could it?  We had some truly magnificent food and a wonderful experience. 

 Monday included more sightseeing, including Rockefeller Center, a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, Bryant Park, and basically as much schlepping around as our feet would allow.

Finally, after a full day of sights, we got to the moment you've all been waiting for: the first baseball game!  We set off to meet the Mets, step right up and greet the Mets...

Naturally, the Mets have a home run apple.

The baseball park was much nicer than we had anticipated.  When you first walk in, there's an interesting rotunda area (unfortunately, the lighting wasn't right for pictures).  The stadium is really lovely - we got there over an hour early and had plenty of time to explore, and we had good seats on the first base side.

Here's the actual home run apple.  They put it down during the game until someone hits a home run.

The scoreboard as seen from our seats.

So, amusing story... as we're walking around, we see this dunk tank with a poor, cold-looking girl stuck wearing an Orioles (opponent's) jersey and waiting to be dunked.  Dustin decides he wants to try dunking her.  As you can see from this picture, there's an appreciable line, but, darling wife that I am, I hardly roll my eyes as I agree to wait.  So a bunch of us are standing around waiting... and waiting... dozens of people (mostly small children) try, to no avail... and Dustin gets up and dunks her on the first try.  Of course he does.

Ah, the rare vacation picture with both of us in it...

The stadium had excellent food and beverage options - there were more interesting food items than we had appetite to try, and Dustin repeatedly remarked on the quality and variety of their beer selections.  Score for the Mets.

After quite a bit of genuinely entertaining pre-game entertainment, they had this random guy come out and oddly sing a few songs.  Just look at him, doesn't he scream "New York baseball fans are totally going to love me and my blandy-bland, ridiculous music?"  No?  Yeah, didn't think so.  Dustin hypothesized that his dad owns the team.

Overall, the game was fantastic.  R.A. Dickey was pitching for the Mets, and he pitched a one-hitter.  It was pretty masterful.  Then, Ike Davis hit a grand slam for the Mets.  How often do you see a one-hitter on one side and a grand slam on the other?  We were impressed with the stadium before the game even started, but clearly, the stadium + game experience exceeded our expectations (Regarding the stadium: Dustin wanted to give it a solid "A" until I remarked in surprise that he doesn't usually award a flat "A."  He decided that it could get downgraded to an A- because the Cubs don't play there).

Jubilant fans post-grand slam

The food stand said "Fried Dough."  I was intrigued.

In the end, the Mets won 5-0.  I'm not sure what R.A. Dickey's initials really stand for, but the Mets have the right idea. 

Up next: Yankees!  I'm full of excitement and loathing.