Spring Break Days 2 and 3

view out our "fancy" window

Day 2 was Sunday. We slept in and then hit the road for New York City. This was a short leg - about 100 miles from our Holiday Inn  (on the edge of the parking lot at Citizens Bank Park. Yay for walking to the game) to our "fancy" hotel in New York.  It wasn't really that fancy, especially considering we stayed in midtown ... but the girls have varying opinions on what makes something fancy. There was a revolving door (affectionately called a "spinny door" by A, which was a huge hit, and the room had 2 bathrobes. And the shower had a cool pattern in the tile. And the bed headboard had a light on it for reading in bed. Big win in their eyes.  The view was excellent - as far as if you are surrounded by tall buildings.  Location: 28th and Madison.

Ben and the girls with the famous library lion

This was super convenient for our walking adventures on Sunday afternoon as well as for our subway adventures on Monday. Sunday afternoon, our Nats twitter friend Ben met us in the lobby to be our tour guide. The weather was perfect for a stroll through the city. We went to Macy's to see the flower show displays. (and a couple of bonus turns through the spinny doors there). We continued on to the Public Library. This was a huge hit with everyone. We remember the scenes from one of our favorite books ("From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler) that happened in the library.  We went all the way to the 3rd floor and checked out the reading rooms. Both girls (and Ben and I) were impressed, but A maintained that we had better hustle her out before she got stuck to all those amazing books.  After that we wandered up to Rockefeller Center to watch the ice skaters and take a gander through the gift shop for 30 Rock. Lots of fun photos there.

Next up was the American Girl store. This isn't always somewhere we would go, however we had some surprises in store.  1 - Ben got to learn all about American Girl dolls and why the kids love them. He was a trooper.  2 - some friends from home in Virginia (unbeknownst to my girls) were in NYC with their dad catching a show at Carnegie Hall. They met up with us at the American Girl store (SURPRISE!!) and we went to dinner together.  The girls loved that.  The adults did, too, as the girls were immersed in sharing their adventures and we were able to enjoy a delicious meal.  We ate at Playwright, on W49th near 7th Ave.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel (the friends were staying about 7 blocks from us) and window shopped on the way back. Paused for a photo with the Empire State Building also.

Monday morning we met with the friends for breakfast in Herald Square. There's a waffle stand called "Waffles and Dinges" and it was wonderful. The girls paired off at little bistro tables and left the dad and me to sit "ostracized" a few tables away. They had an animated conversation over breakfast and then we walked to Bryant Park together. The girls enjoyed exploring the park for a little while before we went our separate ways. The friends from home headed south toward Philadelphia, and my girls and I hopped on the D train towards the Bronx. "WOO MAMA THE SUBWAY AND IT FEELS DIFFERENT FROM METRO".  They had an interesting chat all the way to 161st St Station. The other passengers were amused at the details being described as they discussed our plans for that day and the other ballparks still on our agenda. Mostly the conversation was dominated by talk of for which team we would cheer ... the Yankees (with former National Tyler Clippard) or the Rays (with former Nationals Steven Souza Jr and our beloved Buffalo, Wilson Ramos). They landed on the Yankees since they were the home team and Wilson is for now on the Disabled List.

We exited at Yankee Stadium, with an observation that we didn't need to "swipe our subway passes" to get out of the station (unlike DC where you scan going in and coming out). Exit the station, and Yankee Stadium is right there. This was the first visit to Yankee Stadium for all 3 of us. There was a huge crowd, as it was the home opener. The girls did ok with the crowd, but it was a little hard for us to maneuver our way around at first. We stopped in Monument Park, per a recommendation from someone on the subway, and I am glad we did. There's a lot of baseball history out there. My favorite spot was with Phil Rizzuto (nickname scooter, same as what my daddy calls me).  We got a few fun photos, took a peek at the field, and then headed over to get our passports stamped.

In the offseason, apparently the Yankees moved their stamp. (I don't know why). We had to wait in the team store until they could move it from the secret location back to the stamping desk. This was a lengthy process, but we had already bought a bucket of popcorn, so we just munched and waited. After stamping our passports, we went up to our seats. We had seats in the 300 level directly behing home plate. The girls were impressed that they were cushioned. (This was a nice feature). The opening day festivities were lovely and then we were treated to 6.1 innings of a perfect game from Michael Pineda and the Yankees. After he gave up the hit, we wandered on to the kids play area and met up with a childhood friend of mine (Yankees fan) and his son. The kids played together on the playground and Frank and I caught up on news while we watched the end of the game on the TVs in the play area. It was a warm sunny day and by the end, the girls and I were hot and tired.  We hopped the subway back (another easy ride) and then walked back to the hotel. Since it was an afternoon game, it was about dinner time when we got back. We had a low key evening, and ordered in from the cute Italian restaurant around the corner. The girls got in PJs and we sat on the bed and watched a movie on my laptop together while we ate.  We snuggled into bed for one more night of sweet dreams in New York, and ready to continue north on Tuesday morning.

Day 2 mileage: 200 miles when we left Philly, 300 miles when we arrived in NYC.  Day 3 mileage: 0.  Next car leg is day 4. I should probably go find our step count for those 2 days, but suffice it to say we walked forever and the girls were troopers.

fun bathrobes

Macy's flower show (window display)

more flower show displays

 

library reading room - ceiling

library reading room

the Today show with S and A and Flat Stanley

 "Nats News in the morning with Ben and Jen" 

the girls were so glad to see each other

we live less than a mile apart at home. went all the way to NYC for a meet up

Bryant Park

Flat Stanley and A ride the subway

Scooter and Scooter

Jen and Frank

J and A

A, J, and S

dinner and a movie

farewell NYC

Spring Break Day 1

This year for spring break, we decided to take a baseball road trip adventure. Over the winter, I gave the girls the choice of a staycation - where we would get a nice hotel in DC and tour the smithsonians and do Nats games, or a baseball road trip. The road trip won hands down.  We even picked a hashtag to accompany us. Welcome to our #FieldOfSpringBreakDreams

Our plan:
Philly
NYC
Boston
Niagara Falls
Toronto

Day 1 we drove north to Westchester PA to start with some old timey baseball. Our friend Mr Swampy and his team play baseball that matches the rules of the 1864 era. We've seen them play once before so the girls and I were glad to go back. I learned a little more about the nuances this time. Including the tidbit that 1864 is sort of relished as the sweet spot for highlighting old rules. This was the first year that balls were called in addition to strikes, so walks became a thing, instead of pitching forrrrreverrrrr.  And yet the fly ball rule wasn't change until 1865, so you still have the bounce effect.  (Swampy may groan at my summation of the rule here... ) The way it works is: if you catch a ball on ONE bounce, it's still an out. But, the tag up (as we see on flies today) only applies if the ball does NOT bounce. One bounce, and runners can advance without tagging. Caught in the air - you still need to tag up. It makes for some interesting base running and also some creative fielding strategy. The other fun rule I learned this time was about batting order. You need to know the player on the batting team who makes the last out of an inning ... because it's the next guy in the lineup who leads off the next inning. Example: if there are runners on 2B (4th in the lineup) and 1B (5th in the lineup) and the guy at bat is 6th in the lineup.  There's 1 out.  The batter hits a one-bounce to left field (taht's out 2) and then the guy on 2B is thrown out trying to get to 3B (that's the 3rd out). The player who was on 1B would lead off the next inning. Even though the 6th guy in the lineup already hit in this inning. (He'll get to go as the 2nd batter next inning).   These rules are fun (although it does add to the challenge of teaching my girls the game, since they're not the same as now).

After we watched a few innings (it was cold and WINDY), we headed for our hotel. The evening agenda was the Nationals-Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park. Our first of 5 games in 9 days. We met up with some wonderful friends, and had terrific seats down the 3B line. 5th row. Too bad the game was not as excellent as the view. Although, we did witness history - the Nationals had their worst inning in franchise history, which yielded a deficit of 12 runs at the end of the first inning. WOOF. The final score was 17-3. Not excellent baseball, friends, but still fun.   See below for some photos from Day 1. We walked back to the hotel (hooray for convenience) for a good night of rest and then the start to Day 2.

Day 1 mileage: trip odometer read 0 miles when we pulled out of the garage.  171 miles when we arrived at old timey baseball.  200 miles at Citizens Bank Park.

ready to roll out!

Mr Swampy!

hotel room view

meeting up with our friend Mike

the line up lady. She was at the desk where we got our MLB passports stamped. 

with Mr Eric

fading fast with a lopsided score

rally beard! (we managed 3 runs.)

part of the crew! 

this was a slice of the between inning entertainment. it was ... odd
also, you can tell how close our seats were ... it's a no zoom photo. 

passport stamp day 1. yes I still need to fill in the details. and no, I cannot figure out how to turn this photo right side up yet.