Day Two of New York found me waking up in Stephens awesome king sized bed in the W hotel while Nate daddy and C skittles cuddled on the floor. Collin and I have quickly found that Nathan (supposedly unbeknown to him) during the nighttime will take the blankets and rip them off of us ( when i say rip i mean he gets the blanket in both hands, fully extends his arms, and does a 180 violent rip and tug move like he is trying to flip some bad guy in a Jackie Chan movie or what Collin likes to call it an Alligator death roll) and then wrap himself up in them to the point where we can't get them back.....sounds premeditated to me. Thus, Collin had woken up with a tiny blanket and Nate daddy all warm and cozy (as cozy as a floor can be) in the giant down comforter. Needless to say Nathan's future wife is going to have to be either really huge or really strong to stay warm at night. Okay off my rant lol. We all showered up and headed to this park called high line Stephen and Cody told us about. As the name suggests the park is above street level. NY overhauled an old subway line and turned into a really nice park. It provides a nice view of the city and on one side of the park are some food vendors. We decided to try the taco place out which turned out to be very good! We scarfed down our food and headed back to Stephens place, for it was to time for us to switch to our hotel. We drove a few miles to the Comfort inn and suites in Lower East Village. Got up to our hotel room and man was it small....we were staying in one of the nicest hotels In Lower East. I would hate to see what a bad one looked like. There was literally two beds with maybe two feet of walking space! The bathroom was almost as big as the room. Don't get me wrong we didn't care cause we were in NY, but i had never seen a hotel room this small. We struggled to get ready but finally did and all headed our separate ways. Nate to see an old friend from high school, Collin to meet up with Cody for happy hour, and I met up with Stephen and Chris at one of the bars we had gone to with Chris a few nights earlier. So from 6-9 we separated and here are the separate stories
Nate Daddy-
Back in middle school, my friends and I did one of two things: do hoodrat things around the CYP or play basketball at one of our cribs. Well it just so happened that one of my friends that I haven't seen since 9th grade is working in NYC for the next year. And this is a man named Shwetabh. His family has had to move all over the world for his fathers job with the most recent stint in Bombay, India, where his family grew up. Shwetabh and I have tried to keep in touch as much as we could over the years but with both of us being in college (he went to Ohio State) it has been difficult. Once I posted on Facebook that we would be in New York City for a few days, he contacted me right away that he wanted to grab some dinner. So around 7:30 on the second day, we met up for some Thai food with his friend Cameron and Janna (my first Thai experience). We got the menu and I was so confused on what to order. Eventually, I just ordered some curry with chicken and bamboo in it. It was surprisingly delicious. During dinner, he mentioned that his mother was in town with him because his sister (who I haven't seen since she was in elementary school), was at UPenn doing an engineering summer program. Man did that make me feel old. So we went over to where he was living and I got to chat with him and his mom for a half hour or so before I went to go meet up with the guys again. It was awesome to see my man Shwetabh again. Just gotta hope that it is not another 7 years before we run into each other again.
Josh- Mine is pretty simple. I met Stephen at his hotel and we headed over to the bar to meet Chris. We shared a few drinks and Chris ate. We had a good time talking about college memories, and I learned more about Chris's girlfriend. Had a blast there and then Stephen and I headed to meet up with Collin and Nate. Chris had to head home but would join us the next night.
Collin- I took this chance to meet up with my buddy Cody after work. He suggested this sports bar type thing that was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We met up and enjoyed a nice happy hour and some half price nachos (fantastic). I also got to talk with one of his friends from work, Alex, who met us there. We all talked about college, Alex about his school Georgia, and Cody and I about the greatest university in the country. We relived some of our old college days and talked about our future education that we are about to get rolling into (med school and law school). It was fun to watch people walking around right off of the patio we were sitting on. Overall, we had a nice time hanging out and catching up and got ready to meet up with everyone else.
Collin Continued: So Cody and I met up with Josh and Stephen while Nate was with his buddy and went to this little Italian food place to eat. We were seated and introduced to our cute, nice, and British waitress. This was the worst case scenario, and if you know Josh very well, you know why. Somewhere in Josh's head is the thought that he can speak in an English accent. That is to say that he tries and fails miserably at speaking with an English accent. You mix that with a couple of happy hour beers, and a cute British girl, and you spell disaster. It didn't take long for Josh to bust out his trade. The girl came up and first began asking us what we want to drink and I saw his eyes light up. I knew we were in for an awkward encounter. "YOU SOUND LIKE YOUR FROM LONDON!!" Josh exclaimed in quite possibly the worst accent ever heard. Martin Tyler, the FIFA announcer would've put his face in his hands and disowned any allegiance to the Queen. David Beckham would've claimed to be a US citizen, and Winston Churchill would've let Hitler take over England... Too far? Well, in most cases, absolutely, but in the case of Josh's terrible accent, no way. The waitress was taken aback because [she surely has never heard anyone try to impersonate her accent ever in her entire life] <-- sarcasm brackets. However, she was a good sport and had some very cheeky humor for Josh and the rest of the table. The dinner continued with more English-accent-laden Josh pick up lines and laughs and looks from our waitress. Turns out she was an actress and could do a Texan accent fairly well. We enjoyed our meal, and laughed our asses off while Josh continued to talk to this girl with phrases like "OH HELLO!" and "YOU'RE A BIT CHEEKY!". The ordeal ended with Josh writing his number on the receipt and telling her he was doing so and was expecting a call later on. Another point I would like to make is that when Josh speaks in this accent, he slows everything down like she was slow, or hard of hearing. She just smiled and laughed and walked away. Needless to say, she didn't call. Sorry buddy.
Insert Josh: First off in my defense i know my British accent is terrible and second she would have called but clearly my 0 looked like a 6 lol.....i know denial. After dinner we headed to a place called 13 step. It was a lot of fun. Stephen and I dominated some locals at some college games while Collin and Cody met girls from Texas and tried to woo them. We all hung out there for a few hours and then called it a night. We had a blast hanging out with all the New Yorkians and our friends. Great Food, Great Drinks, Great Laughs, Great Success.
Day Three- this day was filled with a lot of fun activities. Starts around 10 when we woke up and got ready to go meet Miranda and Katy our Team Fox Representatives. These ladies have helped us so much in getting everything setup for our events and donations. I cannot say enough about both of them. We hopped in a cab and followed our GPS to Wall Street where we thought their office was located....fail. Glitch in the GPS had us in the complete wrong part of NY, so we got back into a cab and 40 dollars in cab rides later finally found our destination. We felt like VIP's when we entered and gave our names to the attendee at the front desk, and she said they are expecting you. We went up the elevators to an awesome office. Everyone was so nice and led us to Miranda. We spoke with her for awhile and she gave us a tour as well as a lot of Team Fox Apparel. Katy came in a little later and we all shared stories and took pictures. We were so excited to meet the two ladies that have helped us so much. Honorary Aggies for sure.
After Team Fox, we headed to the 9/11 Memorial for our 12:30 reservation. The Memorial is not quite finished as the new even bigger Freedom Tower is still under construction SIDE NOTE: I love that the new Freedom Tower is gorgeous and even taller. Makes me feel like America is holding up our classy and proud middle finger to all Terrorists, stating you may hit us but we will come back bigger and stronger and will never hide or coward...just some Patriotism coming out. Back to the memorial- it was truly a humbling experience and gave all of us goosebumps. It's setup with a huge beautiful park right next to the new tower and has two big waterfall fountains that instead of being built up were built into the ground for a very unique look. The fountain walls had all the names of the victims that perished during the 9/11 attacks. It was very sad but really cool to see at the same time. It's a feeling that I truly cannot put into words. It's a must for everyone to go to when visiting NY.
We finished our tour and headed back to the hotel before heading to the Yanks game. After relaxing for awhile, we took a cab to Stephen's hotel where he led us through the NY subway system towards the Bronx. On the subway ride Collin made friends with a little boy who had a lot of energy and character. Collin with good intentions asked him if he liked subways and the little child exclaimed yes.....this to me was fine until he asked creepily do you like parks... We all laughed and the rest of the night kept asking Collin if he liked going to parks. Needless to say he has failed with his talking to children. Anyways if you have ever been to the Bronx you know it's not the best part of town. I had been to the old Yankee stadium but was excited to see the new one. We got our pictures outside the stadium and headed in for our free hats. The inside was really nice. I will admit I miss the old small hallways of old Yankees stadium. We headed to the outfield for the Angels batting practice. We watched for awhile and never saw a ball our way until the epic moment arrived...a moment that will go down forever in all of our memories as a moment that brought Collin, Stephen, and me so much happiness and laughter and Nathan haunting memories forever. A ball hit long and deep right towards us better yet right towards Nathan. He leans out but for some reason thought it was going to be short and go into the bullpen. It wasn't short and hit the top of the wall, bouncing up almost hitting Nate in the face. He was able to get his hand up in an awkward defenseless motion and batted the ball of his hand onto a guys arm. The ball then propelled to the top of the wall rolling towards the edge. Nathan lunged forward for one last ditch effort to save his dignity and manhood but was too late the ball rolled into the dugout.....gone forever.... The best part was the ruthless Yankee fans starting booing him booooo boooooo well of course Stephen and I reacted accordingly and started booing to. We all started dying laughing as we had just seen an epic fail attempt at catching a ball. Nate was devastated and probably said two words the rest of the game.
We left the scene of epicness and headed towards our seats. We had pretty good seats for being at the yankees game. Second deck 3rd row. Unfortunately, we bought Stephens ticket late so he was two rows behind us. About the second inning a foreign Asian man sat right below us. He loved Americans and baseball clearly. He took video on his phone for most of the game and took a ton of pictures with his camera. Everyone loved him and were taking pictures with him including us. He got himself a beer and took some funny pictures with it. He just loved being at the stadium.
Enter Collin: This Asian guy was awesome. Like Josh said, he was enthralled with the game. You could tell he had never seen anything like it. He was definitely a fun addition to the game and took pictures of everything you could think of, and lots of things you wouldn't think of. Anyhow, Yankee Stadium was amazing. Even though it was not the original house that Ruth built, it was still filled with the aura of baseball and the history of the franchise. The game itself was a stunner. Early in the game, while Josh and Stephen had gone to get some food, boom: a ball was hit me and Nate's way. We were on the second deck but we knew we had a chance of getting a ball if someone really got ahold of one. Now hopefully all of you realize the traumatizing effect that the missed HR during BP had on Nathan. And then the curse continued... This ball was ripped by an Angels player and made it all the way up to our seats. We knew right away that he ball was coming right to us but it hit off of a guys hands two rows above us then ended up in the hands of a large man directly behind Nathan. To be fair to Nate, this one was really out of his (and my) reach. After some pressure from the entire stadium, the big guy ended up throwing the ball back. But still, as many games as I've been to, I've never had a ball come that close to me. It was pretty awesome. The game continued and became a really good one. We saw some great defensive plays by Teixeira and a robbed HR by Nick Swisher, as well as some salty plays from Jeter at short. The Yanks were down in the 8th, but Tex hit a bomb to tie it up (his second of the game). Also, I will say that Josh called it, pretty sweet. I must say that I have never experienced such great yet ruthless fans at a baseball game. They were loud and very supportive; I have never seen or felt that kind of energy at a baseball game in the middle of July. However, in the next breath they booed A Rod after he sucked at the plate. It was kind of funny. Anyhow, Russell Martin, who had been terrible all season, doubled in the 8th after Tex's HR and gave the Yanks the lead. The game ended weirdly, as we seem to attract weird endings to ball games. There were 2 outs in the top of the 9th, man on 1st. The ball got away from Martin and the runner tried to advance to second but got gunned down. All in all it was a blast. We went to have a couple of beers with our friends in the Bronx after the game before we headed down to the Subway to head back to East Village. Once we got back around our hotel, we headed out with our friends and enjoyed some drinks and some good company. NYC was a ton of fun, but we were definitely ready to get out of the small, crowded city.
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| First view of High Line Park |
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| Basically its an old train track that isn't used anymore |
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| Above the streets of NY |
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| I don't know how many times we took pictures of the Empire State Building but there were just so many different views |
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| Random |
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| View from the end of the park |
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| View from the other end of the park |
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| Freedom Tower from a while away |
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| Met up with my long lost friend Shwetabh (second from left) |
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| Skittles and Cravens |
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| Team Fox headquarters |
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| This is the view they get every day when walking outside on their balcony area |
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| Thanks to Miranda and Katie for helping us out through our journey! |
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| Team Fox! Whaddup |
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| Freedom Tower up close and personal |
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| Let's just say this building was quite large |
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| First view walking into the 9/11 Memorial |
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| South Pool. Such an amazing design to this |
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| The names of the 9/11 victims are on the memorials |
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| Building was so large that it was hard to fit Collin and the building in it together |
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| Definitely one of the coolest experiences we had on the trip |
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| North Pool |
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| Standing right under Freedom Tower pretty much |
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| The pools were humongous. The diameter of the old World Trade Centers |
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| A Gig Em and Team Fox. Needless to say, good representation |
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| The one tree that survived the 9/11 attacks |
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| Was only an 8 foot stump that they got to grow back. You can see that here |
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| The new Yankee Stadium |
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| I can now tell that A&M's Blue Bell Park is designed after this after seeing it up close |
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| Nodding Donkey |
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| Probably the best franchise in sports history |
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| Dude was decked out in America stuff. Couldn't understand him as all he did was mumble but AMERICA! |
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| View from our seats |
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| Left field out near where we were watching batting practice |
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| View from our seats to the field. Great seats |
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| Stephen got a ticket late but was still only two rows behind us |
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| He pretty much saved the game for the Yankees: took away a HR and scored the winning run |
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| This guy.... Cracked us up the entire game |
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| Took a picture with the die hard Yankees fan |
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| Building that Collin really liked |
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| Food vendor place at the end of the park. Got some delicious tacos |
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| Pretty sure Collin wants to tweet this at Arian Foster |
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| Our room was so damn small.... |
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| With suitcases, we couldn't even walk along the floors |
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| Old Ale House Collin and Cody went out to |
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| Had lots of fun at this bar the second night in NYC |
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| IMO, the best part besides the baseball of the trip |
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| All the historical figures of the Yankees past |
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| Collin was the only one who actually liked the Yankees a fair amount |
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| Must have been after I let that HR ball fall into the bullpen. NOT my best moment |
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| No idea what Josh was doing. probably making fun of me for failing to get the HR ball |
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| Large man that snatched the actual HR ball from me before it fell into my hands |
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| Throwing it back... I definitely would have kept it |
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| Bro got a picture with everyone and everything around him |
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| The die-hards |
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| Crazy Yankees fan who was so intense |
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| After the Teixeira HR to tie up the game in the 8th inning |
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| Yankees win! |
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| THHHHEEEEE Yankees win |
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| Now batting, number two, Derek Jeter, number two |
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| Brought back the pitch counter but didn't really keep up with it |
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| Only time I will ever wear a Yankees hat |
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| The old Yankees field. The stadium was torn down |
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| Josh thought he could hang |
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| Yeah... He might say he did but lets face it.... |
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