Day 9: Major League Baseball Trip

DATE: Monday, September 9, 2013. Day 9.
LOCATION: Manhattan and Citi Park, home of the Mets.

We got up at 5:15 AM in order to get to the NBC TODAY SHOW by 6:30 . We walked to NBC studios, it was about a mile. I was really excited as I watch it every morning. It was on my Bucket List to go to the TODAY SHOW once in my lifetime. When we got there Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie were already in there chairs. Natalie Morales and Al Roker showed up about 6:45. It was so interesting to see what happens when they are not on camera or they are on commercial break. For instance, the make-up people come up to the four of them and dust their faces again with make-up and Natalie and Savannah get more lipstick put on plus their hair is combed again. And Al got up and walked the fence line talking to the visitors, unfortunately I was not in the right position. Another thing that was interesting was Natalie and Savannah had blankets over their legs which were hidden by the desk - it was chilly that morning, They do not read their lines from a written script  in front of them - instead they read their lines from the autoscript cameras they are staring into. We got to see Dr. Oz being interviewed plus comedian Steve Harvey. There was a man and a woman who were the producers and giving the orders. They gave the countdown starting with 60 seconds, to 30 seconds, to 15 to 10 to 5 and to zero = You're on. Brad and I tried hard to get on camera. Brad was more successful than I was. Brad's friend, Rusty in Kansas City, said he saw Brad several times and me a couple of times. Ruth Ann did not see Brad or me. It was so interesting. Seeing the TODAY SHOW was   was one of the highlights of my 17 days.

Later in the morning we began our tour of Manhattan Tour on one of the double-decker buses you see on TV. We toured lower Manhattan in the morning and upper Manhattan in the afternoon. Some of the highlights we saw were:
- penthouses, condos, and apartments that were rented or owned by the rich and famous such as: Jackie Kennedy, Seinfeld, Frank Sinatra, Dale Carnegie, the Vanderbilts, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paris Hilton. The guide said Paris moved to LA because it was easier to spell. The guide said rents ran from $5,000 a month to as high as $40,000 a month.

- Other sites were: Norman Vincent Peale's church, Madison Square Garden, Soho, Greenwich Village, Battery Park, Chinatown, Little Italy, United Nations, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Natural History, Central Park (it is really big), Harlem (we learned Harlem is a Dutch word. They settled it first in the 1600s and named the settlement New Haarlem, after a town in the Netherlands), the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, Columbia University (this is where Lou Gehrig went to school), John Lennon's apartment and assassination site, Empire State Building, and then we went by Wall St, again, Ground Zero and One World Center, Statue of Liberty plus many other interesting sites. It cost $55.00 plus I gave a $5.00 tip to the two guides - it was worth every penny.

We got back to the hotel by 4:30 . We walked to the subway, about 4 blocks away and went to Citi Park, home of the Mets. The highlight was in the subway when we happened to sit by an Italian guy. He was in his 50s, a salesman by profession, a devout NY Giants fan, a big time gambler and a big big big loudmouth. But he was a funny guy. The Giants had lost to the Dallas Cowboys the day before and he let us know he didn't like Tony Romo, the Cowboys quarterback. He kept calling him Tony HOMO. He said he was a bigtime gambler and had played $5,000 a hand at the blackjack tables. He would go to casinos with $60,000 to gamble with. He said he had been married three times and said his wives didn't like his issues with other chicks. But he did admit they were all good housekeepers - all three wives got to keep the houses. We had some good laughs listening to this guy.

Citi Field is great. It deserves in an A to A+ in all of my rankings - from restrooms to wide steps to railings to friendly workers to wide concourses to a B for the price of beer (I'm still going by Anamosa prices).  Wesley took the train and subway from McGuire Air Force Base to join us again.  I think Wesley really enjoyed his three visits with Grandpa Pete (age 72), Great Uncle John (age 70), and Uncle Brad (age 52) - even if he is only 22 years old. He was a delight to have with us.

 One friendly employee was Anne, who was working  by the bullpens in centerfield. We were walking around the concourse and wanted to get close to the bullpens and watch the pitchers warm up. At first, she said we couldn't walk down and look over the railing. But then we told her about our baseball trip - she loved the story and that's when she relented,. She opened the gate and said "go ahead." So we watched the Mets pitchers warm up. That was very nice.  I say Thank You Anne.

The Mets played the Washington Nationals, often times called the Nats.  The Nats won by a score of 9-1 on a one-hitter by a pitcher named Geo.