You Give Us 22 Minutes and We’ll Give You a Trip to NYC (DAY 1)

So Mr. and Mrs. Bloggerman took a trip up to NYC to see our beloved Metropolitans play their final season in the open-air toilet bowl otherwise known as Shea Stadium. I’ll spare you most of the minutia to include the entire playlist on the radio on the drive up from DC (although I will say that we did get to hear the Schmoozer, Steve Somers, on WFAN when we crossed in to Jersey)

The Sign
The trip up was good and relatively traffic free (save the BQE) and we made it up to meet with some friends in Queens a little after 1230. After a really good Eggplant parm sandwich with all the orthodoxy walking back from shul we crossed the street to one of the best signs I’ve ever seen.

This is in response to a spate of pedestrian accidents in the crosswalk. Talk about signage that “tells it like it is”. Now all we need is the sign to sit next to the red light that says, “Hey Dumbass…you in the car…the red light means STOP and is not optional!”

The Rain Delay
We headed to Shea at 530p on Saturday for a 710p game in order to catch batting practice and tour around the stadium. It had just begun to rain but we were told that the storm would just be a summer thunderstorm and pass quickly. Not so fast. Come 645p the tarp was still on the infield and the rains hadn’t let up yet. About that time we took the time to appreciate the finer points of Shea that we might have overlooked in the past. This includes some of the area around the stadium including the old World’s Fair grounds. We also took interest in finding the “Most Obscure Player’s Jersey” that a fan was wearing. Plenty of folks have David Wright, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana jerseys but what about the Alan Zinter, Tony Clark, or Tim Tuffel’s of the world? Well we didn’t any of those but did actually find someone with a Danny Heep. What’s even better then that? She had it signed! BTW: This guy wearing the Dave Kingman was a close second place on our list! Around 715p the rains lightened up and we checked out our seats. Upper Deck but right over home plate….near perfect! The only problem was that the rain started to kick up again and we had lighting to boot. Instead of retreating back into the now crowding concourses we decided to hoof it up some 20 rows to the top of the upper deck that is protected by overhead awning. While up there we managed to pass the time by:

A: Taking in the car fire out in the parking lots in right field.

B: Hanging out with Cowbell Man

C: Watching the visiting Texas Rangers use the infield for the worlds largest slip and slide

Finally the team canceled the game around 830pm. We trudged down through the rain and out of the stadium stopping to pick up some additional free swag commemorating the final season of this dump.

Chinese and a Cookie
Since we were soaked we headed back to the hotel, changed, grabbed the car and headed to downtown Flushing where we heard there was a meca of Chinese food. We weren’t disappointed and were referred to a very modern looking place called Sunway Café. As somebody on a food board said (I read today) it looks like a Chinese Howard Johnsons.

They weren’t wrong but the food was really good and a huge variety of mostly good and greasy Cantonese fare (the kind of food I’d equate to a really good greasy spoon/diner when you’re up at midnight). We split a few dishes (Rice w/ omelets and raisins, baked chicken with black pepper, and then something I don’t remember the name of but is described by one critic as ”… an order of crispy noodles, said material wrapped in squishy rice noodle, served with a dollop of syrupy Hoisin sauce. Mellow greasy vibe.”

Finishing off the meal, a watermelon juice and bubble tea for the misses. Now to find a good cookie to finish off the night.

Not as simple as it sounds! You see evidently the rain has forced the shut down of some roads (with 5 ft of water!!) and the rerouting of others. After driving around and sitting in traffic we end up at a Pathmark over by our hotel. They have a wonderful looking bakery case but not a single fresh baked (today) cookie to be found as midnight rolls around. Bloggerman was starting to get huffy and the Misses was doing her best (G-d bless her) to calm me down. Alas, we found a diner nearby and dug into a very soft and pillow-y (thus good) chocolate chipper and dozed off for the night.

Tune in later today for Part II and updated pics here.