While we still live in New York State... Part 1

While we were still official New York residents, we thought we would enjoy some of the state's famous sites. So we left for "The City" (which, for your non-NY residents, means New York City) to grab a few more NY memories. We started at the Empire State Building and Time Square on our first evening.

K&V on the observation deck of the Empire State Building

(Please forgive my flying hair -- it was windy)

It's amazing how small the Statue of Liberty is from up so high!

She's on Ellis Island which is the island to the left in the picture

Time Square

The NASDAQ on Time Square

On day 2 we walked around the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) for a few hours, then went to Little Italy for famous Lombardi's Pizza. After walking around Little Italy for a while we went to Chinatown. Then we had to go back to Time Square for Kenta to glare through the NASDAQ windows to watch the taping of his favorite show 'Fast Money' (it's on CNBC for you non-stock obsessed folk). Then we went uptown a bit for our first and last baseball game in the House That Ruth Built. In a little twist of irony we drove 6 hours to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays, a team that is only a 3 hour drive from our house. It was a packed day, but we had a blast!

Virginia in front of the Met

K&V in front of the Egyptian temple shown in more detail below

Can you tell I had spent the previous 2 weeks packing and organizing my house? I'm looking just a little drowsy.

Previously mentioned Egyptian temple

A beautiful Japanese garden in the Asian section

Lombardi's Pizza

This was the very first pizza restaurant in the US.

I'm excited!

Kenta's ready to eat too.
A picture taken through the window while the show was being aired live. Kenta was as giddy at this point in time as I was in the pizza picture above. So cute.
The new Yankee Stadium (still under construction)

Don't worry; you're not seeing things -- they have fashioned this stadium after the Roman Coliseum. I feel that's a more than little bit pompous, but I guess that's just a statement of Yankee pride.

Joba Chamberlain warming up. He's a Yankee pitching phenom who started his first game that day.

(He allowed several runs in three innings and lost the game... everyone has to start somewhere, right?)
Because of the way tickets sell so quickly at Yankee Stadium, we were out in the nose bleed outfield despite buying our tickets weeks in advance. Unfortunately that area seems to draw a pretty rough crowd. Luckily, because of problems in the past, there is no alcohol allowed in that section. We heard a lot of heckling, swearing, yelling at just about anyone, throwing things at fans of the opposing team, etc., etc. I can't image what it would have been like with a higher blood alcohol level! I was glad we didn't have any kids with us. However, we did have a great view of the American flag which flew very nicely on that windy day.

Famous Yankee players, including Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, etc.