Pho and Baseball
One thing I knew for sure on my recent USA trip: when I was there I would absolutely be seeing a Baseball game.
Some feel this way about Basketball, others Broadway. Childhood years spent watching The Sandlot Kids and A League of Their Own over and over again cemented my fascination with Baseball.
I previously mentioned my visit to Fenway Park in Boston with Denita and Tim to see The Red Sox play. As it would turn out, this team would become my favourite. It's a shame I didn't see them play first, before I had gotten all excited and purchased Yankee hats for Ben and I. But that's alright, I do still love my hat. I feel far too vanilla to wear it out and about, but around the house hanging out and watching A League of Their Own it does just fine.
.....
Take me out to the ball game...
The girls and I were very keen to see our first US Baseball game. A little incident prompted us to cover up and protect ourselves from the evening downpour (lucky for us it only rained for a couple of days while we were in NYC). The heavens opened up and the rain came upon us all of a sudden, very very rapidly. As we were crossing the road a truck zoomed past and splashed an enormous puddle all over Peta. Yep. She. Was. Saturated. And shocked, clearly. In truth we all found it rather hilarious. And it was just too funny to not share, Peta agreed. A complete movie moment.
We went back to Bhey's apartment and emerged dry and prepared. Bhey even brought out her gumboots, as she so gracefully demonstrated for me...
Before the game we had a little Pho Date in Chinatown. Rain = soup, no matter what country you're in. That's the law, right?
It was gooooood. Quite peppery!
We then caught the subway to The Bronx, where we met Russ, Bhey's fiance, at Yankee Stadium.
It was quite surreal to be there.
Geeks in hats, clearly new 'fans'.
Another 'must do'...eat Cracker Jacks. Aka, caramel covered popcorn and peanuts.
I'm pretty certain that I had seen this in the movies before, either way the name rang true as something I needed to try. My tastebuds did not really agree initially, but man, this stuff is addictive. I should have brought a bag home for Ben, he's mad for caramel popcorn. He lived in Hong Kong for a year when he was 8, and tells grand tales of fantastical flavoured popcorn at the Pacific Place Cinemas back in the day.
I'm so pleased I got to see a Baseball game at Yankee Stadium. Massive tick off the wish list there! And even though the Yankees lost to The Los Angeles Angels, it was a really fantastic night.
One of my favourite parts of the game was the heckling! These fans are incredibly loud and...expressive of their opinions. They booed a fan wearing a Red Sox hat right out of the bleechers. And when a man turned up in a suit and tie, two Yankee clad fans yelled right up in his face, "Buy Buy Buy, Sell Sell Sell". It was beyond hilarious. These fans are intense. Passionate, let's say.
Talk about atmosphere.