a HILL of a good time.........: The Hills in NYC -- Day 2 of 4: The Big Game!

Day two we were up and around fairly early in order to get to the game early. We jumped on the subway and headed towards the Bronx. The closer we got to Yankee stadium the more pinstripes, Yankee blue, baseball hats got on the subway. Soon we were four little red shirted people in the middle of a sea of blue.. Oh, did I mention that we are all University of Arkansas grad and we decided WAY beforehand that we would be supporting our boys back home who were playing Tennessee tech for opening weekend. GO HOGS!! We had to get the tourist picture, of course!

Did I mention we had PRIMO seats?? The tickets were absolutely beautiful. I know...beautiful tickets??? Well they were!

When we arrived at the stadium we stood there in a daze. It was beautiful. I am not necessarily a Yankees fan (GO CUBS!) but this place was amazing. It is a holy place of baseball! We decided to soak in every moment of the experience..

We then needed to find our gate.. I guess Ryan figured it was his day to "tour guide" so he went up to the nice lady in the "How may I help you?" booth and ask for directions. This is where Jeff coined the wonderful catchphrase #2 "The man doesn't mind pesterin' people."

It got us there.. To this SUITE entrance... What is the "Legends suite club" you may ask?... click here to see what PRIMO means.... go ahead, do it.. Sarah sent me the link about a month before we left for our trip. I gawked, I gazed and I tried to imagine what it was going to be like to live the high life for this day. I mean people in the sports world call these some of the "most coveted tickets in sports" Again, I tried to prepare myself.... but I had no idea what was ahead of me... From the moment you walk in you are treated like royalty. There are lux accommodations, food galore, people waiting on you hand and foot... I could go on and on and on

What is that blue wall in the background of the above picture??? Yankee glass.. yep, Yankee glass. I need the Razorback version in my house!

We were given wrist bands to signify that we did not sneak in, we were not lost, oh no, we belonged in this lap of luxury! Our first stop was the huge dining room.. It too was beautiful. Those glass NY Yankee walls were all around. There was lobster, crab legs, steak, sushi, breakfast food, salads, desserts and probably many things I didn't even get to! Note: that little wrist band I mentioned before meant all this was FREE! As much as your belly could hold. Now, the alcohol wasn't free but after seeing the $12+ beer tag we opted out on drinks.

Once we were stuffed as stuffed could be (for the time being) we headed out to find our seats. All the way there were staffers about every 4 feet to assist you in any need that may arise. Sarah and I joked about how many people work at the stadium and especially in the Legend Suites, insane amounts! As we were heading out the door to find our seats we came upon this... SNACK BAR! Peanuts, M&M, Cracker jacks, twizzlers, Swedish fish, chips, skittles and almost any other candy/treat you could think of was on the shelves.. It didn't matter that we were not hungry at.all.... it was FREE! So we took full advantage.

PRIMO.. cush seats, nice wooden armrests...

and behind those cush seats was this sign.. on.each.and.every.seat. I just love how this reads.. Not only should you be alert for bats but also balls.. hence that and/or thing..

and this..THIS..was our view! Absolutely amazing. The sun was shining, Earl was dead, 8th row/third baseline, a waitress that came around to get us food/drinks and we were happy campers..

Oh and did I mention that a Baldwin brother was sitting right in front of me?? Ok, not really but look at that nose, the profile, the hair!! He is a long lost brother for sure!

and then at the end of the second inning the boys decided they should go looking for better, closer seats. Is that even possible??

Why yes, yes it was possible! Front row, a few sections closer to home plate and right behind the Toronto Blue Jay's dugout! Good job boys, good job!

and although the weather was great, it was a little on the warm side...so I welcomed my friend, the cloud. Thanks cloud!

and remember those pretty teak armrests mentioned in the Legends link.. well, Sarah managed to break hers. I was laughing so hard I just had to take a picture.. a few additional bonuses to note in this picture: the highly coveted orange armband (which equals all things are free!!) and the multiple Gatorade bottles under my chair.. Yep, free!

and yes the seats were as wonderful as I described above and yes we did actually watch (some) of the game (when we were oogling at the luxury) How else and where else could I get shots like these?!?! Yes, yes folks.. that is the Derek Jeter!!

Love this girl!!

And then we tried to get a group shot. Sarah placed her camera on timer and quick shot (which rapidly takes 5 or so pictures) and sat it on the top of the wall in front of us (something you are not suppose to do!) The boys were not having it! We got about 20 of me doing things like this... I love Ryan's smug grin in this one. It was like the boys were out to get us. They has definitely been over exposed by our cameras.

But we finally got them to comply.. Thanks boys!!

This is the life! Feet up on the dugout.

after the game we had to get all of our nostalgia pictures. Yes, we completely over exposed our boys. They were beyond tired of our snapshots and posed pictures. Nevermind the fact that Sarah and I both had our cameras and both insisted on getting multiple shots of each pose, just in case someone blinked or looked weird. They were good sports about it!

We got right behind home plate. VERY cool!

The view from front row behind home plate. You know if we are ever here again I figured we should scout it out to see where we would want to be.. HA, Yeah right. The boys were very clear that the ONLY way we would ever be in these seats again would be if one of our boys hit the big leagues.. it could happen *wink*

Yes, we are weird.

By this point I thuoght we had maxed out the free stuff but clearly that wasn't possible. We had about 30-35 bottled drinks, a GIANT loaded nacho, an uncountable number of hotdogs, peanuts, candy bars, cracker jacks, icecream and just the "standard" lunch mentioned above--AND I am sure I missed at least 5-10 other things that were consumed. As if that wasn't enough, after the game the boys insisted on eating more hot dogs "because they could." I think they scarfed down 3 more a piece! Ryan literally stood in front of the hot dog man and ate. Geez!! Before we left we also shamelessly stuffed our pursed with bottled drinks and snacks--They have this stuff sitting around for the taking...so we took!

As previously mentioned we were in the city to do as.much.as.possible. So still pumped from the Yankees game we hopped the subway to go to the Brooklyn Bridge. Note: The ultimate goal was to maybe, somehow find some SEC football in a dive bar--Lofty goal but we were going to try.. The subway had different plans for us...There was a section of the subway closed the weekend we were there..What are the odds??!?!

Despite the excellent Day 2 skills of our tour guide Sarah we had to do just a little backtracking.. So, quick stop at Grand Central Station! Why not?!?

After what seemed like hours.. oh wait I think it may have been! We made it to the bridge. It actually worked out great because the sun was setting and it was beautiful!!

Yes, it really was THIS beautiful! You really just had to stop, stare and take it all in.

So this is Ryan standing in the bike lane. Why you make ask? Well the pedestrian traffic on the bridge was insane. I never knew that many people walked the bridge. I also did know the bridge was THAT long. Oh, back to the picture. Ok, so as we were walking the pedestrian side began to get very congested so we would stray a little into the bike lane, just for a moment in order to get around the slowpokes.. Well, at one point Ryan was just an inch or so over in the bike lane and received some not so nice words from a bicyclist. Welcome to NYC! We later saw a sign that said "Bikes -- Yield to Pedestrians" Needless to say we felt vindicated.

After a LONG walk across the bridge it was becoming dark. So Ryan after asking a parking attendant (insert catchphrase #2) and using his wonderful app Yelp, we were off to a little dive bar area of town and we stumbled upon a quaint little place -- O'Keefe's. As soon as we had one foot in the door we knew we were in the right place --- Bud Light on tap, college football on TV and very few people in the place.

Something came over us -- Hog fever -- and we decided to ask the bartender if he could find the Razorback game. This was VERY wishful thinking as 1) we were in a dive bar in Brooklyn, NY 2) the game was on Pay Per View at home......But he found it!! Seriously, this was our lucky day. We were able to kickback, drink a few cold ones, get a bite to eat and watch the Hogs win their first game.

and it was all thanks to this guy! Thanks O'Keefe's bartender! You made our night!!

Needless to say we stuck out like a sore thumb in our Razorback red in this little Irish pub in Brooklyn Heights NY. We were asked many times if we were lost and why we would WALK to Brooklyn if we were staying in swanky SOHO. We made friends quickly! There was this nice couple at the table behind us-- well he was nice, she was off the reservation! Anyways, he was Army and home on leave. He was originally from Brooklyn and told us that on our way out we must go to the water and look at the skyline at night. Good advice Brooklyn kid, good advice!!

We were completely "subwayed out" for the day so we decided to cab it back to the hotel. Best decision ever!! and of course we had to bust out the iPhone for pictures on the way home.. Jeff was up front in a plexiglass box --literally. While Sarah, Ryan and myself were being super goofy in the backseat of the taxi. Ryan's eye is making a camio in this pic :)