Away Team

MARVELOUS METS: In my seemingly never-ending attempt to recount our recent trip, I continue with the final activity of our last full day in New York, attending a New York Mets game.

We'd packed Mariners jerseys with this event in mind. So often when we go to Mariners games here at home, we'll see a family or people dressed in jerseys of teams that aren't even playing that night, and we've always supposed them city-proud travelers. It was our turn to be those people. ;)

We had looked at tickets ahead of time on Stub Hub and they were dirt cheap ($7 or so for the cheapest ones), but we had no way to print them out, so we went to the game without tickets.

The subway took us right to the stadium. How I love me some subway. ;)

We thought we might hit up a scalper, but as we approached the venue it became clear that the scalping laws in Seattle and New York are VERY different (there, it's apparently illegal). No scalpers near the stadium, and just one guy at the subway station whispering to us about tickets.

Let me tell you, we were treated like ROYALTY by everyone we met. Seriously. Everyone was SO darn nice. They saw our jerseys and took immediate interest in us and the fact that baseball fans so far from home were turning out for a Mets game. It was amazing.

Case in point, we were fumbling with the buy your own tickets kiosk and a Mets worker came up and tried to help and then quickly advised us NOT to buy four tickets, that kids were free that night. He walked us to a ticket window, introduced us to a customer service man, told him to get us the least expensive seats for four (that's what we wanted), and that's what we got. It was around $20 total.

It's worth noting, the stadium was absolutely lovely as we walked up. Picture perfect, you might say!

Once inside, a greeter had an inking we were new there, and mentioned highlights of things we should check out, including the Mets' Hall of Fame near the main entrance. We went right over.

There, we got to ogle TWO championship trophies. (That's two more than the Mariners' have.) They are gorgeous hardware, to be sure. Here's the Miracle Mets' trophy.  Isn't it pretty?

Annabelle noticed that one of the flags said the Seattle Pilots!

There was also a big statue of Mr. Met in the museum. My, what a big head he has!

Back out in the main entry area of the stadium, in the rotunda, there was a huge tribute to 42, Jackie Robinson. Nice!

We started walking around the stadium and taking it all in.

One of the first places we stopped in was little market that was like a mini grocery store in the stadium, with drinks, snacks and even (gasp!) fresh fruit. How refreshing!

Out in centerfield, there was a playland for kids. CJ and Annabelle were the only kids there, so they had the run of the place. ;)

They played wiffle ball ...

and there was even a dunk tank. The young man sitting in the tank was so confident he wouldn't go down, he was eating his dinner as the kids threw balls at the target. ;)

Out in centerfield there was a food stand (the popular Shake Shack) with a super pretty marquee.

Planes out of LaGuardia would fly right over its skyline.

As we wandered the outfield, we had a number of ushers chat us up and offer to let us sit in their section, though our legit seats were MUCH worse. That was nice.

One of them suggested we head back down to the 100 level to try to get a batting practice ball from the Nationals, who were still taking BP. That sounded like a good idea to me, so down we went.

We hung out by the left field foul pole for about 3 minutes when I said to Christian, "I guarantee you, if you take the kids over there (along the 3rd base line), this guy (a Nationals player, in left field) will throw you a ball, because you're not wearing Mets gear."

It took about 2 minutes for my prediction to come true. CJ caught the ball with his bare hands and was SO proud!  The player who threw it to him is right over Annabelle's shoulder.

We continued to make our way around the concourse and when we got about even with third base, a 'friendly' usher suggested the kids take the ball down to the fence line to get it signed. Christian went with them, and about a minute later, they returned with a ball autographed by Gino Gonzalez, a Mets' pitcher!

That same seat usher 'generously' offered to let our family upgrade our seats to the front row for just ($10).  I'm pretty sure it wasn't part of a FORMAL Mets' ticketing program. Nonetheless, we gave him $10 and enjoyed front row seats. :)

Before the game, there was a long and thoughtful 9/11 ceremony.

During the game, we were almost uncomfortably close to the action since their right field line basically terminated at our feet before jogging a bit and continuing to the outfield fence.

 Hello, Eric Young, Jr., Mets' left fielder.

 And here's the Nationals' Denard Span.

Of course, the Mets had their own flavor of during-game silliness, just like the Mariners have the hydro races, Captain Plastic, and a Moose.

During one inning, there was a contest to spot the Dunkin' Donuts dude. He was out dancing in left field, not far from us.

Dunkin' Donuts are ALL OVER New York.

About the only thing that wasn't picture perfect at the park was this view of a nearby auto repair (?) business. Guess when they don't need parts any more, they throw them on the roof!

Here's CJ's review of the Mets' game ...

On September 11th, 2013, we went to see the New York Mets game. Outside of the stadium, there was a statue of an apple, (which resembles the one in the stadium) which we took a picture of. At the game, the Mets were playing the Washington Nationals, who came from the District of Columbia. Inside the stadium, there was a baseball museum. Inside the museum, there were many baseball artifacts, such as an old baseball trophy. During the game, the Mets played, and they, unfortunately, did not score a run. Though, I did get to catch a ball with my left hand (and get it signed!) During the game, we also got to see a descendant of the "Survivor Tree", that survived the fall of the Twin Towers. Overall, I think that the Mets game at Citi Field was awesome.

HOOK UP:  One very cool thing we did while in England was go to Science Museum London.  There, we perused their amazing collection, and then met up with some space-y friends for conversation and maybe a beer or two.

Whilst in the cafe, one friend reminded us all that it was darn near time for Orbital Science's Cygnus launch atop an Antares rocket.  It marked Orbital's first attempt to launch a cargo-carrying capsule to the ISS.

Our friend was able to pull the live coverage of the launch up on her phone, and geeks that we are, we six huddled around and watched it go. The launch went off without a hitch.

However, a couple days later when it came time for Cygnus to berth with the ISS, there was trouble. The ISS crew received what was characterized as "unexpected data" from the vessel.

When you're in space, and something with 6,000 pounds of cargo is approaching you with "unexpected data," you tell it, 'No thanks.'

So Cygnus was sent away. Can you imagine how disappointed the astro- and cosmonauts on board the ISS were? No fresh fruit for them!  Meanwhile, Elon Musk of Orbital Sciences' rival SpaceX was probably smiling somewhere, as his Dragon capsule made it AOK on its first attempt. And the second. And the third ...

Initially Cygnus was waved off for a couple of days, but then that turned to a week and a Russian Soyuz mission (Expedition 37) bearing real live humans had a docking date with the ISS on Wednesday.

And so, the unmanned Cygnus has a new ISS berthing target of 4:15 a.m. Pacific time Sunday morning. NASA TV coverage will begin at 1:30 a.m. Pacific time.