New York City ... August
11-13, 2017
Mel Busler is a Watertown television
station sportscaster that David has known since they
worked together at WATN radio in Watertown back in 1977.
His wife Rose coordinates trips and tours all over.
One of their annual adventures is a trip to New York
City each summer to see a Yankee game.
This year we were able to get on the
roster to attend this trip. We picked our friends
Gary and Carol Wilcox up shortly after 7 AM that Friday
morning and arrived at the pick up point well ahead of
the 8 AM departure time. Unfortunately, when we
got there, we were told that the bus had a mechancial
problem and the driver had called their dispatch in
Lisbon. He had headed back north to meet the other
bus. We didn't ge underway until about 10 AM.
We arrived at Yankee Stadium around 4 PM
and lounged at the Hard Rock Cafe until the doors opened
at 5. We were escorted to our seats. We're
not talking bleachers here, or even box seats.
Yankee Stadium has something called the Audi Club.
Sponsored by the automaker, it is an air-conditioned
lounge/bar with tiered seats and more food than you
could possibly eat in a week. The food was part of
the package and was available until around the seventh
inning.
The club is located straddling the left
field foul line in the upper area. The front
enclosure is a huge pane of glass and you could
literally see everything throughout the stadium.
If this wasn't all great enough, the Yanks were playing
the Boston Red Sox this night. At this point in
the season, the Yanks were in second place, five games
behind Boston. It was a pretty ho-hum game for the
first seven innings. Boston had a two-run homer in
the first and then another run in the fifith. They
led 3-0 at the middle of the eighth. Then the
Yankees woke up. They had a five run eighth
inning. Boston was only able to get one in the
ninth so the Bombers were victorious 5.4.
We didn't get to our hotel until afer
12:30 AM. It was in Secaucus, New Jersey and it
was a suite. It would have been a great room if we
were staying a month but was really more than we needed
for the few hours we were there the two nights. A
complete breakfast was included both mornings. On
Saturday, we headed into Manhattan and walked around.
In addition to Gary and Carol, our group included their
daughter Laurie and her husband Matt, Carol's two
sisters and their husbands and our friends Dale and
Julie Call. Several of us went to see Bette Midler
in Hello Dolly at the Shubert Theater on 44th Street.
All of the gals in the group attended the show, as did
David. The other guys went drinking!
The show was phenominal! In
addition to Midler, the lead male was David Hyde Pierce
who was well-known as Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom
Frasier. The whole cast was exceptional. In
the second act, when the cast started singing the song
Hello Dolly for the first time, the audience came
unhinged! Applause, hooting, standing ovations ...
and laughter throughout the performance. We had
both forgotten that the show was a comedy!
BTW ... David had a some of the guys
tell him that if we attend next year and go to a show,
they will go to it too!
|
