2017 NYC (Mets)

Two years ago we got extremely lucky when we stayed in the Financial District of NYC on the southern tip of Manhattan. We had no idea it would be so cool and laid back. So we tried it again and again it was great. Sadly, and again due to some extremely wild circumstances of which I'll leave out of this post we were without Keith. It was Paul (who decided NYC > Antigua and re-joined us), Jason, Matt, Fish, Shane, and myself.

Thursday

Due to the 10-hour drive it was mostly a road day. But we made it to our hotel around 4:00 and had the rest of the day to chill in the courtyard, have some pops, and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately for some who will remain nameless, food was NOT high on our agenda and it came back to bite them

That does not look like a bed

 Now I won't disclose who this is, but it rhymes with "Mason". So the trip was off to the races. Shane decided to fall down. Fish and Matt entered a stein holding contest in which they both "lost" but won the free beers they were holding

Fish "trying" to win the contest

Matt also giving his best effort

 Friday

"Hey let's walk across the Brooklyn Bridge". Great idea!!! OK well it wasn't sweltering in New York but when you're baking in the sun for a while it seems a bit toasty. But we walked anyway and it was pretty cool and something we'd never done before so yeah another new experience.

Other tourists

Oh look, cars! 

Yes, we walked across that

Following the bridge, we walked to Little Italy and had a good, albeit expensive, lunch. Then we meandered around the neighborhoods looking like total tourists.

After this it was off to Shea-errrrrr Citi Field in beautiful Queens/Flushing. If you have been to Shea Stadium in the past you know the place was hot garbage. I mean the last time we went we couldn't see the whole field from our seats. And not that we were blocked by pillars or columns, we were blocked by the roof over our heads. It was terrible.

Citi Field, however, is a palace. It's easily one of the best "new" parks we've been to. It's definitely nicer than the new Yankees Stadium. So we sampled the fare, watched some baseball, and left before the mad dash to the train.

Hey, it's Citi Field

View from our seats

The boys: Matt, Jeff, Shane, Fish, Jason, Paul

Saturday

Super low key. Took the Staten Island Ferry because, well, we had never done that before. We spent literally no time on the actual island. We got off the ferry and immediately went around the corner and boarded the ferry coming back to Manhattan.

After that, we had lunch at Shake Shack (another first!), visited Times Square, then hung out on a supposed "roof top" bar...which had a view of nothing. I think by this time we were done. We're getting old so we can't just go go go anymore. So sad.

Winding down, we had some BBQ back at the courtyard by the hotel and called it an early night due to the impending 10-hour return trip to Cincinnati.

And that's about it for the 2017 version of the DLBT.

Next year is our 20th trip and we're attempting to return to Boston for the first time since the very first ball trip...way back in 1999. Unbelievable!!

Note: I'm well aware this blog is not aesthetically the prettiest thing to look at. I'm aware it gets about 5 views per decade. It's more about writing down the details of the trip for us to look back upon down the road. And I'm cool with that. But hey, thanks for stopping by.