NEW YORK STATE: DAY 4! PLAAAAAAAAAAAAY BALL!

(MOVIE PLANNING VIEWING: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, NEW YORK STORIES)

Chapter 1: Flying the Coop to 30 Rock
Everybody Zumba! I'd never been to a Zumba class, Kelly & Barb go regularly so when Barb's weekly class rolled around, off the three of us went to check it out. At the gym, Barb told them; "they've come from Australia" so we managed to take the class for free! It was fun! I may look it up when we get home! After the class, Barb had some work to catch up on so she handed over her metro card, drew up some directions and threw us duckies out of the nest to venture through NY on our own. Actually she did say she was quite confident about letting Kelly & I out, but she wasn’t too sure about Justyn! As today, Tuesday 8 June was our last day in New York, we had a few bits and pieces that we wanted to do. So we caught the bus uptown to Rockefeller Plaza to shop in the NBC store for some souvenirs of our Jimmy Fallon experience. Unfortunately at exactly the same time we made it to the store, a zillion school kids decided to go berserk in there too! And some more bad timing – we were approached in the store to go to a preview session to listen to the opening jokes written for Jimmy Fallon later that afternoon but as we were going to watch the Mets play, would be on a train to the game at that time! Oh well, win some lose some!
We decided to lunch in the Cafe at Rockefeller Plaza which is around the fountain and on the square that becomes the skating rink in winter time. It was a really nice afternoon for us to while away an hour in the sun enjoying a early cocktail with our lunch.

Chapter 2: Lets Go Mets, Lets Go Mets! Sang Mr Mets and Justyn...
We were to meet Barb out in Queens in Flushing Meadows at the new Citi Field which was opened last year as the new home field for the Mets baseball team. Now many of you have probably heard of the Yankees – the big baseball team based in New York, but many may not be aware of the Mets. For those baseball virgins, the Yankees play in the American League where the pitcher does not bat. Whereas the Mets play in the National League where the pitcher must bat. But I guess NY is such a big place that it can support two baseball teams, two football teams (Giants and the Jets), one basketball team (Knicks) and one ice hockey team (Rangers). Most everyone we encountered were Yankees fans – perhaps because they have won the most titles – Barb is a fan – but she agreed to be a Mets fan for the evening.
Earlier in the day, we all shopped at Modells to buy some fan supporter wear and bought Barb her own special Mets hat that she promised to wear all night! The new Citi Field replaced the old Shea Stadium which had been the Mets home since 1964. (FYI, Flushing Meadows is home to the US Open which was a highlight for Kelly as at this point in time; the train station was the closest she will ever get to the actual US Open!) The new stadium is very impressive – high definition score boards, cup holders for your beers, cushioned seats in the premium seating area, unobstructed views and a full bar! Kelly had margaritas at the Mets game! Now that is cool. Coming up now is Justyn’s account of the game as this was his thing that he really really wanted to do as he has been fan of the Mets since the 1980’s when they had a pitcher called Dwight ‘Doc’ Gooden who had an odd pitching style. And he likes to back an underdog (where will the Roosters finish up this season??). So over to Justyn...

It was a pitchers game, San Diego went ahead early 1 – 0, but the Mets bats were making good contact through the game, a homer in the middle innings to Reyes tie things up. The Mets continued to look likely winners but San Diego’s bull pen (the most successful in MLB thus far this season) held the scores even at the bottom of the ninth. Extra innings was a struggle given that the bars closed in the 7th! After a few anxious moments in the top of the 11th Davis “knocked one outta here” to see another Mets win ”We like Ike!”.

After the game, we headed to the Cargo bar on Staten Island to have a last catch up drink with Soul Joel (and dessert). As a point of interest the Cargo bar is where they filmed a scene in School of Rock between Jack Black and Joan Cusack. We sank a few more margaritas and beers, had a lot of laughs (Judy, Judy, Judy) and farewelled New York until next time.