Well blognation I'm back from my personal mecca, Yankee Stadium. This an accurate account of the events that took place this memorial day weekend. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Friday 1:30pm CT: I arrive at Bush Intercontinental with what I thought was only a hour before take off. My wife and I join the hundreds of others in the security line and I'm rocking back and forth like a 2 year old who's about to wet himself. She's apologizing for making us late and I assure her that I'm not upset, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking 'if i miss this flight this could be grounds for divorce.' We finally make it through the security checkpoint and begin the mad dash to the last gate at the farthest terminal at this particular airport. This is when I realize how out of shape my wife really is. I was about to fireman carry her ass because I refuse to miss this flight. As we are rounding the corner to our gate I notice on the board that our new flight time is 3:00. Typical. 4:35 we board the plane. I'm pissed as all get out because I had already finished reading my Golf Digest before we even boarded and there was news that it was raining in New York. Great, I guess this is how the weekend is going to turnout.

Friday 8:35pm ET: We collect our 135lbs suitcase and head out of La Guardia to the curb to catch our first New York Cab ride. Cab #77 pulls up, which is ironically the same number on my personalized Yankees jerseys, a young man who barely speaks english tosses our bag in the trunk like it's a paper weight and we hop in. He didn't even acknowledge our presence which I guess was expected. I mean to tell you that was the ride of my life. Apparently the stripes in the middle of the roads in New York mean absolutely nothing to New Yorkers and although we were only doing on average 50 mph it felt like a hundred. We darted into the Manhattan tunnel and all I kept thinking was 'Don't hit the wall". We pull out onto 34th street and his speed never really reduced even when people were in the road. We pull up to our hotel,The New Yorker on 34th and 8th, it was an older looking building on the outside but it had that old New York appeal.

Friday 9:15pm ET: After checking in and getting a free upgrade on our room to a suite I start to think things are going my way.  For some reason the only place in the hotel that has A/C is the rooms themselves. I mean to tell you that the elevators felt like minnie ovens. We make it to the 22nd floor where our room was, 2212, and drop our bags. It was a nice room and it even had a terrace which I could see Madison Square Garden, The Empire State Building, and some rich guy making out with a chick in his luxury apartment. After peeping the show for a while my wife and I decide to go out on the town. We walked approxiamtely 3 blocks before a turential downpore commenced. I guess we weren't ment to party that night. We head back to the room to catch some Z's. (To add insult to injury the Yankees lost to the Royals 7-6 in a weather delayed game which snapped the Royals 13 game losing streak)

Saturday 8:00am ET:  My wife and I enjoy a light and "free" continental breakfast in the hotel lobby. After breakfast we decided we were going sightseeing before the game, which by the way was the sole intention of this trip. We walked to time square where there were several Marines outside the recruiting station doing a demonstration on their weapons systems among other things. It was nice to reminisce about the old days as a Devil Dog but that was another lifetime. We caught the Red Bus tour which if you don't have lot of time to spend in the city it's a quick abbreviated way to see Manhattan. We saw just about all of the major landmarks of downtown Manhattan. We shopped on Canal, we walked around Battery Park, we visited Ground Zero, and that was about it.

Saturday 2:30pmET: It was time to make our way to the subway to catch the D train to 161 St. in the Bronx. A lot of people warned me about taking the subway but it wasn't that bad. Most of the people on the train were headed to the game. Once we arrived in the Bronx we made our way above ground and there it was, glistening in the sun like the Temple of God. It was amazing, the Big Ball Park in the Bronx, the House that Ruth Built, Yankee F'ing Stadium. Right in front of the stadium was Yankees Tavern home of the best Corned Beef sandwiches in the Bronx (so the sign said). We moved with the crowd to Gate 2 they were handing out Yankee helmet banks to all those 14 and under. I almost jacked one but I thought better of it. I purchased the Yankees Yearbook as well as a program and we made our long journey to Tier 21. As I walked out of the tunnel to our section I was met by the most beautiful scene that I could have ever imagined. The grass was a bright jade color with diagonal cuts. The field crew was grading the infield and spreading some dry pack. Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Cairo, and Melky Cabrera wer doing some light stretching in right field. This was one of the greatest days in my life. We made our way to row L seat 14 and 15 and waited in anticipation of my first Yankee game.

Saturday 3:45pm ET: Bob Sheppard begins the public address and the Color Guard from Bravo Co. 2nd LAR march out behind second base. My eyes welled up and I was just taken back at this spectacular moment. The National Anthem was sung, the lineups were read, and it was time for baseball. Chieng Meng Wong was on the hill. He has been pretty decent this year considering the struggles that the Yankees starting pitching staff has had but they were playing that day like a determined team. Wong dropped them in order to start the game and the onslaught of offense began. Alex Rodriguez hit two homeruns but the standout in my mind was Kelly Stinnett who hit a single, a double, and a homerun. The game was filled with highs. The drunken fans in the further Tiers were starting the wave by the 6 inning and by the end of the inning they finally got it all the way around. There were a few crap sox fans at the game sporting there gear one of which sat about 6 seats from me. He got razzed a bit but nothing out of the ordinary. At the end of the game he and I took a boxing posed picture together which is classic. 15-4 was the final score and my journey was complete.

Sunday we slept in, checked out, ate at Gray's Papaya, went to the street fair on Broadway, ate another hotdog off of a street vendor (which is kind of funny because that was my main staple this whole trip), caught our private car to JFK, and flew back in to H-town. This trip was quite a whirlwind and if I had the funds I would have much rathered spend more time there but it was fun while it lasted.

(interesting side note) I forgot to mention this earlier in my posts but I have never been anywhere where I heard that many car horns.Everytime a car honked my wife and I would laugh because it just seemed so absurd. Literally when I was on the toilet handling my buisness i counted at least eight horns that I heard. It seemed as if they didn't know what else they were going to do so they just honked. When I got back to Houston and I was driving home from the airport I just started honking for no reason whatsoever. We laughed all the way home.