Live from New York...it's Monday Night!

Whew, we finally made it. A while ago John-John and I heard that UH was playing the Florida Gators at the Swamp and we decided that if all possible we should go to that game. Well, one thing led to another and we also decided that since Shea Stadium (home of the Mets) and Yankee Stadium (home of the Yankees) were being torn down at the end of the year to make room for new ballparks we only had one chance to see baseball games at those legendary stadiums. So here we are in New York.

Now, I have never been to New York before so I was very excited to come and see the sights. But before we could come to New York we had to get there (right?). Unfortunately for us ATA went bankrupt and we were forced to make some pretty crappy flights. By crappy, I mean we left Hawaii at 3:00pm and arrived in Phoenix at midnight local time. Then, we had a 6 hour layover and we had to sit in the airport for 6 hours. But wait, it gets worse. There's no real place to lie down and the air conditioner was only partially on (by which I mean it was really hot). So as we suffered in the heat we were also tired. Then we caught a 6:00am flight and arrived in New York at around 2:45pm local time.

Then it took another 45 minutes to get our bags. Don't ask me why it just did.

So here are my first impressions of New York:
1. There are many differences in the way things sound.
2. There are many differences in the way things smell.

Seriously. If I had to say what the two most notable things are, it would be the sounds and the smells.

Firstly, everyone says that Hawaii is a melting pot (and it is) but New York is a completely different type of melting pot. I've heard more different types of accents and languages today then I've heard in my entire 32 years in Hawaii! Also everyone looks really different. In Hawaii there is a lot of brown skin. Over here there's white all the way to dark. It's kind of like a black and white cookie (which incidentally I had today, it was very good), with every shade in between.

Secondly, it's the smells. From the moment we landed at JFK, to the taxi, to our hotel room, to our hotel bathroom, it all smells. And it doesn't smell good. But wait, it gets worse. We go outside and it's even stinkier! New York is full of unpleasant aromas. Oh well, that's the breaks I guess.

But anyway, we did see some really cool things. Shea Stadium is right across the street from the USTA headquarters which is hosting the US Open this week. That means it was really crowded near the stadium.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, home of the US Open

I think the first thing I noticed about Shea Stadium is that it's really big. I mean I've been to RFK and Petco Park, but Shea seems mammoth.

Home of the Mets since 1964

At the end of this season, the Mets are moving to Citi Field, which is being built right next door. In fact there are only 16 more regular season home games left (I know because they do a countdown before every game)

Shea is to the immediate left

There are sad reminders everywhere

The game itself was rather unexciting. The Mets jumped to an early lead and they never looked back. Carlos Delgado hit a pair of home runs. Guess how they honor him?

Who knew they speak Japanese at Shea?

Well, I'm exhausted due to a lack of sleep and a funny sleeping schedule. I'll try to update everyday as we go along. Tomorrow we head to the Bronx (we're actually trying to visit all five boroughs) so we'll see you on the flipside!

To view more pictures from today, click here