Quick Trip to the NYC with my Pops (and two sisters, and one brother-in-law)

I spent the past weekend indulging in some of my favorite things not involving California: Hanging out with my Dad, going to baseball games, attending famous sports events, and visiting cool cities.

On Friday my Dad and I took the train from DC up to New York. I have to say, the train is a way better way to get to New York versus driving, although it is a bit more expensive. After we dropped our bags off at the hotel, and met up with my sister Amy, who had gone up on Thrusday to hang-out with some college friends, my Dad and I went up to Yankees Stadium to pay our final homage to the "House that Ruth built." (side note, this is the last year that the Yankees will be playing at the original Yankee Stadium, they are building a new stadium right across the street, and will start using that in 2009.)

We had pretty decent seats (this was my present to my Dad for his upcoming 56th - he's old! - birthday) in the lower level, down the right field line. This was my second time going to Yankee Stadium (first time was with Mike and Scott back in 2001), and it is pretty cool to think of all the history that has gone down there. Although I know that he is a die-hard Giants fan, I think my Dad is also a closet Yankee fan. (which goes further to prove me theory that there are no real A's fans.) We rode the subway out to the game, had some hot dogs, and enjoyed a nice Yankees win over the Blue Jays.

On Saturday, my sister Brittany and her husband Brian joined us in the big apple. Brian had tickets to the US Open for the evening session, so we spent most of Saturday wandering around the city, window shopping and being tourists. I also went for a four mile run in Central Park/Upper East side, which made the run more enjoyable then usual (still hate running if a sport isn't involved).

After eating at the Rockefeller Center, Brittany, Brian, and I took the Subway out to Flushing Meadows to the US National Tennis Center. My Dad and Amy went and saw the musical Mary Poppins. Last year was my first year going to the US Open (go find the old post about our attendance, and my appearance on Center Court) and we had a lot of fun, so I was excited to go again this year. We had improved on our seats from last year (where we were up in the very last row!) by one entire row! For the Saturday night session, we saw one womens match and then the mens match-up between two Americans, James Blake and Mardy Fish. I was rooting for Blake, but he got beat in Straight Sets. Turns out, we weren't that dissapointed that it was straight sets because the match didn't end until after midnight, and we still had to take the subway back. Because people had been at matches all day we were slowly able to work our way down, and ended up sitting in the second tier, mabye 30 rows up, versus our initial starting location of 100 rows up! If you enjoy really cool sporting events, even if you aren't a huge fan of tennis, it is really fun to go to one of the "grand slams" events. The speed and power of the tennis they play is amazing, and its fun to be in Arthur Ashe stadium, which is the largest tennis specific stadium in the world. If you are ever in New York during late August, early September, I would highly recommend going.

All-in-all it was a good time, and it's always good to see my Dad (and Mom even though she didn't come out on this trip). I took the train back today while everyone else was staying until Monday. I would have stayed, but while everyone will be barbequeing tomorrow, I get to go to work. Hooray! Plus I wanted to hang out with Lorena, who originally thought she had a cross-country meet this weekend, but didn't so - she was stuck home alone.

P.S. sorry for the less then stellar picture quality, but I forgot the camera so I had to use the one on my phone.