Travel Diary

Since it was an overnight flight, I did try to sleep as long as I could, which certainly wasn't very easy but I still managed to get maybe two hours of sleep--better than nothing. When we landed in New York and I exited the terminal and was heading over to the air train when I heard a lady speaking to me. She asked if I wanted to split a cab. Hmm. Interesting.

I thought that might be a good idea since going solo, it was too expensive, but sharing the cost might make it a lot more feasible. What happened was we ended up in a minivan with four passengers, and headed over to Manhattan. I just elected to be dropped off where one of the other ladies was going to, in order to save the driver from needless driving around, as I didn't have any particular place to go.

On the way, I sort of figured out that it wasn't an official cab or Uber or anything, but rather a private person making some money, which was fine with me. But it was going to cost $30, and I only had $23 in cash, and I didn't think he took credit cards. When I got dropped off, I mentioned that I only had $23 and he said he didn't take credit cards, but he was okay with the 23 since the other ladies were paying 30 each. Seems he made almost $120, so not a bad way to generate some money, even though it wasn't authorized by New York City. But for me, it was easier and cheaper than even the trains.

Since I didn't have any destinations in mind, I just walked around and found a “waterfall garden,” which was very impressive, but I think they have the exact same thing over in Seattle. Maybe it's sort of a chain or something. After that, I went over to a place that looked interesting called Twenty-Four Sycamores Park. It took a while to get there, but it was a fun walk and great to see the city on Sunday morning. The park wasn't open though, and I don't believe it had even four trees, much less 24, and I'm not even sure they were sycamores to begin with. But again, it was still fun it adventure, and the bridge and tram line were pretty amazing.

I then met up with my friend at a restaurant for breakfast. I only had coffee. I did enjoy the atmoshpere of being at a nice cafe in the city on a Sunday morning. Just seemed like a quintessential NYC thing to do. In fact, upon exiting, we saw that a long line was forming to get in. Good timing!

After that, we headed over to the subway. We took the subway up to Yankee Stadium, which is the best way to get there, although finding the Bronx Express can be a little tricky, even with somebody that knows the city quite well.Some stations apparently have several levels of trains.

We didn't need to go to the stadium right away, so we walked around to the old Yankee stadium, which was fantastic to see. I was a little surprised it was only a grass baseball field as it did seem odd that they were playing on a basic field up till several years ago, but then I learned that there actually was a full stadium there, but it was torn down when the new stadium was built, and now it's left with only the field remaining. I believe I the Yankees did play on that grass, just without the surrounding stadium seats

Once inside it was familiar. We went over to the Audi club where it's indoors, but you have nice tables with a view of the field, and I got a beer there--a fairly large beer. I think it was 24 ounces and around $14 but that was a good deal at a ballpark. It had been raining all day in New York so the game was postponed a while, but they finally did have the game begin, just an hour or two late.

Some friend of my friend Bong joined up and we went over to the Delta club, which is a similar type area but with a lot more people. There is a huge indoor area with glass windows to see the game or people could be out on the terrace and watch the game from there. We spent most of the time on the terrace, which was fine, though it was cold and rainy, so I took breaks to go inside every once a while, and warm up. Oh also, this area provides free popcorn, peanuts, and coffee. The booze of course you still have to buy, but it was cool to check it all out. It’s a great place to watch the game and one foul ball even sailed into our area, bounced violently off the building and landed smack dab in some young man’s glove. He had been waiting there all game to try to catch a ball. Honestly, I don’t even know if he saw the ball to make the catch. I think it just happened so fast, it landed in his glove. Just a pretty wild event.

The Yankees were not playing as well this year, so they would not be in the playoffs, but every time Aaron Judge got up to bat, many people stood and started to take videos, figuring any hit could be a home run. He had some great hits, but alas, no home runs in that game. In fact, the Yankees only got one run in the game and that was off some walks. Pity since the bases were loaded a few times. A grand slam would have been fun to see.

After the game we took the subway back down to mid Manhattan, and found a restaurant called Trattoria del Arte, which my friend knew a lot of the staff at. They were generous and accommodating. We sat at the bar and had drinks and some great food, and after a while, another friend, Kat, showed up. We all chatted for quite a while. Soon, my friend Bong had to go, as he was dead tired. I stayed there with Kat to keep talking. Then these two ladies next to us, overheard our conversation and joined in. They were really, really nice ladies with very positive things to say. One was the kind of person that makes you think you can move to New York, and live out all your dreams of being on Broadway and such. While I'm not sure how realistic everything she said was, it was still really nice to hear. It's just great there are people out there who are so positive and see the world in such a good light. They do make a difference.

At some point, it was very late and I believe the place was closing down so we all left. Kat and I went to the subway station and parted ways. There, I was taking the “E” train to Jamaica station. It wasn't too difficult to find the train, although asking questions still helped. One lady I had asked earlier even came over and said, “Oh, by the way, the oncoming train isn't the one you want. It's the one after that.” I thought that was really good of her. There really are some very nice and friendly people in New York. It's important to remember that.

But of course, there are also some mentally ill people as well. On the train, a young woman was not right in the head as she was having a very busy conversation with her self out loud and you just kind of felt bad for her, but she wasn't harming anything and I had earbuds in anyway, so I guess it didn't matter, but I did kind of wonder where she was going and what would happen next. The train to Jamaica station via subway just take a long time with many stops. I might've been better off getting the Long Island rail Road although I wasn't sure that was still open and it was 20 bucks and I wasn't in any particular hurry. Otherwise pretty tired. I exited at Jamaica station, and I got to say it's a pretty...challenged part of town. I think most people would not feel safe there at night--especially past midnight, and there were a number of people out there. They really weren't doing any harm, but you could just tell it was a considerably sketchy area--to say the least. They even had two police officers stationed, which was telling.

I was hoping to get a beer, but the liquor stores, while they were open, had special windows where all transactions were done. I guess they didn't want people inside the place to avoid crime. But there was no way I could order something, since I wouldn't be able to know the price or which selections they had. No matter. It was late and it probably wasn't the best idea to have another beer, so I passed.

I summoned an Uber, and was a little surprised at the price. The place was only eight miles away but the price was $42, which wasn't ideal, but I had no other choice, so I booked the ride and soon was on my way over to the hotel. Yeah it wasn't a part of town where you really wanted to be walking at night for very long, and again it was eight miles away.

The place was the Best Western and I got to say the rooms were very nice. The cost was about $200 for one night. So I guess $278 total when factoring in rides. My room was 104 on the gournd floor. It was very clean, and updated, and in great condition. Plus, I could use the AC to turn up the heat--which I promptly did. I didn't really even get to use any of the amenities as it had a fridge, microwave, coffee maker, and TV. The shower was pretty good too, but I was just so tired. I made a very fast video and then went to bed, setting my alarm for 5:45am and 6 AM first.

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