I Love Hoops

We got up fairly early this morning, 8:45 am and went to get manicures. This was fun because the boys, Jesse and Becca’s boyfriend Shawn, went with us too. When we walked in all of the workers greeted Becca. Clearly she is regular and again not 14 years old anymore. With all of our fancy nails, we next headed to a diner for breakfast, Have I mentioned that I love diners and breakfast? I had an omelet with a side of pancakes and was one happy camper.

After breakfast we went back to apartment to clean up for our day of adventures. No one had anything they were super set on doing, so I asked Shawn, a native New Yorker if we could hoop hunting. As I’ve noted before I like to take pictures of basketball hoops when I travel. Shawn likes basketball and I figured he might have some good ideas in places to look them.

Our first stop was Rucker Park. The park was way smaller than I had imagined it to be but fun to see nonetheless. It didn’t have any great site lines to New York landmarks but Yankee Stadium was nearby so we decided to go check for hoops near it.

As I’m sure most of you know the Yankees opened a new stadium last season. I wasn’t sure if the old stadium had been taken down yet because the plans were to convert it to more parking. It turned out upon arrival that approximately half of the old stadium was down. In between the old stadium and new stadium a park was being constructed. The park was about 95% done, the unfinished part happened to be basketball courts. The basketball courts also happened to have a great view of not only New Yankee stadium, but not long for this world Old Yankee Stadium as well. My only problem was the courts were surrounded by chain link fence and a guard. Construction guys were feverishly working on the court, so I knew there had to be a way in, the question was just how could I sneak through the fence and by the guard.

After assessing the situation I determined there was no way to get in without having someone “let” me. I decided to approach one of the construction workers and ask him. He suggested I enter in one of the gates that I had spotted before. The problem was even if I made it through the gate there was a second layer of fencing that I couldn’t get through.

I went back and told the crew that I didn’t think my plan was going to work. At which point I saw the the guy I was talking to previously telling one of the guys he works with about what I wanted. The gentleman he was talking to looked like he might have a little more authority, so I decided to approach them again and ask him if he would let me in. I told him that I was a crazy Oregonian who travels the world searching for hoop pictures with cool backgrounds and that I was hoping to get a shot with Old Yankee Stadium. I explained how I wouldn’t be back until long after the old stadium was gone and that this was my one and only chance to take THIS picture. I think he got a kick out of me and low behold he decided to let me in the secret side entrance!

It took a while to walk all the way around so I got a chance to chat with my partner in crime. His name was Victor Clarke, he was originally from Ireland and still had his accent. He had lived in New York for 20+ years and knew all about the old stadium. For instance, during the demolition work crews had just in the previous day or two removed one of the newer facades from the exterior of the facility to reveal some super cool old stuff. This stuff included an old painted sign with Joe Dimaggio’s famous quote, “I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee.” I ended up quite pleased with my hoop picture. The best part, is of course, that this truly is a picture I will never be able to replicate again.

After Yankee stadium I was more than pleased with my hoop hunting but Shawn had one more place he wanted to take us. We went to Riverbank Park which featured a decent view of the George Washington Bridge.

With our NY side hoop hunting complete we headed for an area near Madison Square Garden. There was a neat art instillation that featured a ton of copper statues. The statues of 6’ish naked guys were placed all over the rooftops and exteriors of buildings throughout the area. I don’t know how many statues were included in the exhibit but we must have spotted at least 20 of them.

It was now time for Ilsa and me to leave the group and head for the Nets game. The Nets are terrible this season. The only good part about this is it makes getting tickets to games super easy and super cheap. I managed to get a couple of fourth row “court suite” seats for way under face. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but I was excited to see.

Our drive to the stadium had one planned stop at the Newport Ferry Terminal. After viewing this place on Google Maps I thought it might have a very cool view of a hoop and the NYC skyline. Unfortunately it took us forever to get though the Holland Tunnel, so it was darker than I would have liked. The hoop looked like it was in the process of getting removed, so I may not get an opportunity to take this shot again, which definitely makes what I did get, better than nothing.

From the Newport Ferry Terminal we headed to the Izod Center. Mertle (my GPS) took us an interesting way. Sometimes she takes random shortcuts. Usually they work out great. In this case, not so much. She took us through an incredibly industrial area, which was fine, until we got stuck waiting for a train. This was the slowest moving and longest train I have ever seen. We literally sat at the crossing for 25 minutes. This wouldn’t have mattered if we were a little earlier or if I didn’t have to pee my pants. About midway through our waiting time Ilsa came up with a nickname for the train, from this point forward it is known as the “F’in train”.

Upon our arrival at the Izod Center we ran straight for the bathroom. I don’t think I’ve ever peed for three minutes straight but I swear I did. I was halfway concerned that the toilet was going to overflow but man it felt good. Okay... I’ll stop over sharing now.

After completing our bathroom stop we spent a bit of time wandering around the the facility. First we did a lap of the main concourse. Then we decided to try and find our seats. That proved to be a bit of challenge. We cruised around the bowels of the Izod with barely anyone saying boo to us. Ilsa even had the opportunity to climb on top of a Zamboni. It was awesome. I have a picture. Eventually we found the two all-you-can-eat clubs to which our tickets granted us access. The grub wasn’t great (it paled in comparison to the Blazers all-you-can-eat seats) but there was a giant projection screen, along with a bunch of 42” plasmas that were showing the end of the Butler Michigan State game, which was awesome.

We eventually made it to our seats slightly before halftime. We had our own little box like thing. It was a row of seats but the row in front of us had a little table like thing and a TV. This again was an amazing stroke of luck since it allowed us to watch both the NBA game in front of us and the Final Four.

My favorite part of the Nets in-game entertainment was the mascot. They had a regular mascot but they also had a mini-mascot! No joke, I think it was a little person. Watching it run was so dang funny. It was sort of like a little ewok. Ilsa and I were fascinated by it. We decided at the end of the game we would go hunting for “mini-sly” to take a picture with him. Needless to say we were successful and the picture is awesome.

Getting back to Becca’s apartment took a while because there was an accident on one of the highways. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to apartment. It was a great day but it’s time to call it a night.

Katy