After walking all over Philly, we made it back to the hotel to grab, what else, the cornhole boards and the cooler for some tailgating at the ballpark. In Philly, they have all the sports arena's in one area. Plenty of parking and space to play. You can always tell when no one has seen cornhole, because they stop and stare for a bit and then ask, "What are you playing?" You have to tell them and then explain to them, don't google the name because you will get something different.
Got in the ballpark and it was pretty nice. Like I said, it is similar to Turner and new Busch stadiums. They have a HUGE neon Liberty Bell in center field that "appears" to swing when a home run is hit by the Phillies. Of course, you have to have the sound to go with it. Food wasn't bad either at the ballpark. But can you really go wrong with ballpark food?? Unless it is sushi... bad idea! After the game, we played cornhole while the traffic cleared out and played for quite awhile. Got some interested people to play with us and tried explaining the concept of the game. Kind of hard to do when the person has been drinking all night at a baseball game.
Off to New York again the next day to revisit Yankee Stadium. Now as you have read, we have driven through New York, so you think we have an idea of where we are going, right? Well you would be wrong. This was the days before GPS, Blackberry's, and IPhones. Trying to read an atlas map of New York City is near impossible while trying to navigate through NYC. Next thing you know we are heading to the Washington Bridge and back to NJ... But we made it back over to the Bronx. We checked out the shops and a bar across the street from Yankee Stadium. Lots of neat stuff, but what we did find out on a later trip, these places aren't open during the day when the Yankees aren't playing. We also made a trip to the 9/11 site. Very somber site. To this day, I still remember seeing parts of the tower still standing, the fire house across the street, and the damage to all the buildings around the site like it had happened the week prior. Definitely something I will remember forever.
And now, the day of infamy... As we were enjoying the game in about the 7th inning or so, someone in our group went to the bathroom. This person at the time lived on their phone. Not going to say who, but if you read the earlier posts, I think you can figure it out. While in the bathroom, he left his phone on the sink when he washed his hands. After he came back and was sitting for a bit, he suddenly realized his phone was not on him. He realized he left it in the bathroom. He dashed back to get it and guess what, gone! From that point, he used our phones to call his and find out who had it. The game ended and he still had no luck in finding his phone. We walked back to our car, broke out the cornhole boards and played while he tried to locate his phone. Our amusement was turning into frustration. Finally, he got an answer on his phone. A lady said she heard the phone. Her son had it and she knew it wasn't his. She told him where she lived and if he wanted it, he could come and get it. We asked a NYC officer where these streets were and he told us how to get there. A trip into the mean streets of the Bronx for a cell phone. We found the place somehow, and made him run to the apartment to get it. We were in and out as fast as we could. He will never live this one down, but a great story to tell.
pics...
