Sunday, May 14, 2006
Travel Log - Day 9 (Best NHL Game Ever!)
Upon waking up on Day 9 we discovered that our New York hotel room was still shithouse - and the early morning (noisy) construction work didn't help. When we originally went to Statue of Liberty on day 3 we decided it was too busy - and I'm glad we did. We ended up encountering very few lines - and it was a much nicer day weather wise this time around.
We shared the ferry over with around 100 school kids (the coolest excusion I can remember was Parliament House - wow!), and I tried my first authentic American pretzel. I really didn't like it - but I don't know if that had something to do with the fact that I bought it from a canteen on a ferry.
I was bitterly disappointed to discover that the tour wouldn't involve going inside "Liberty Enlightening the World" - but I had already assumed that it would be the case. The museum in the pedestal turned out to be really enjoyable - but if they ever open up the inside of the statue, I'll be back there in a minute.
The original torch. "Hey lady - you got a light?"
A full-scale replica of the face - I'm sure I'm not the only one that found this a little freaky (and sexually appealing)
For some reason this picture reminds me of Sarah Ferguson. "... noone's watching"
The photo didn't come out too good - but this was a nice cross section of the statue
There was windows on the roof at the top of the pedestal - so we could see the staircase we weren't allowed to climb
Been a while since washing day me thinks
I was amazed that I was so close to an icon that I had seen all my life
After getting back into the city - we bummed around for a bit. While shopping at Virgin we noted that Paris Hilton was doing a book signing. I'm not 100% - but I'm pretty sure she did a similar thing at Eastland a few months ago.
I also marked off another "must eat in America" item when I found some Philly Cheese Steak (in pie form - thankfully it was delicious). Onion, green peppers, steak, cheese - lovely! I might have to look for recipes! Then, after a brief nap at our hotel, we walked down to The Garden.
Finally - an NHL game!
I was so pumped to be going to a hockey game I didn't mind that most of the good vibes around The Garden was directed towards the Rangers. I wore my Penguins away jersey and I bought one of the Rangers' third jerseys (I love the logo design) for Bell to wear - which just happened to be what the Rags were wearing that night. I figured that at least Bell wouldn't be beaten to death my the mad New York fans. We got there very early, but I didn't want to miss a minute of the game (or warmups etc), so I stared at an empty rink for a fair while.
Our viewing angle - not too bad, but I had hoped we might be a little closer
Then, without much fanfare, the two teams took to the ice for warm ups. My mouth was gaped open for around five minutes while I watched players that I've idolised skate around the rink. The start of warmup probably got more of a reaction from me than the start of the game, as it's was the first time I'd seen NHLers take to the rink.
Warmups - Fleury's yellow blockers make him easy to find
Warmups - Caron was backing up - and you can see Crosby skating in (on the right)
Warmups - Bell like this bit, when they were all taking many shots from in close, it did look kinda funny
I'm sure the full description of the game would be boring for most - so I'll go bullet points:
Just before the puck was dropped
Whitney's first NHL goal
After watching my first complete game - I would estimate that the NHL is about 1000% better in person than on television. Even if I wasn't a hockey fan, I'm sure I would have enjoy watching an NHL game in person. Bell really enjoyed it too, and got into the game a little more than I did (I was grumpy because we were losing).
We shared the ferry over with around 100 school kids (the coolest excusion I can remember was Parliament House - wow!), and I tried my first authentic American pretzel. I really didn't like it - but I don't know if that had something to do with the fact that I bought it from a canteen on a ferry.
I was bitterly disappointed to discover that the tour wouldn't involve going inside "Liberty Enlightening the World" - but I had already assumed that it would be the case. The museum in the pedestal turned out to be really enjoyable - but if they ever open up the inside of the statue, I'll be back there in a minute.
The original torch. "Hey lady - you got a light?"
A full-scale replica of the face - I'm sure I'm not the only one that found this a little freaky (and sexually appealing)
For some reason this picture reminds me of Sarah Ferguson. "... noone's watching"
The photo didn't come out too good - but this was a nice cross section of the statue
There was windows on the roof at the top of the pedestal - so we could see the staircase we weren't allowed to climb
Been a while since washing day me thinks
I was amazed that I was so close to an icon that I had seen all my life
After getting back into the city - we bummed around for a bit. While shopping at Virgin we noted that Paris Hilton was doing a book signing. I'm not 100% - but I'm pretty sure she did a similar thing at Eastland a few months ago.
I also marked off another "must eat in America" item when I found some Philly Cheese Steak (in pie form - thankfully it was delicious). Onion, green peppers, steak, cheese - lovely! I might have to look for recipes! Then, after a brief nap at our hotel, we walked down to The Garden.
Finally - an NHL game!
I was so pumped to be going to a hockey game I didn't mind that most of the good vibes around The Garden was directed towards the Rangers. I wore my Penguins away jersey and I bought one of the Rangers' third jerseys (I love the logo design) for Bell to wear - which just happened to be what the Rags were wearing that night. I figured that at least Bell wouldn't be beaten to death my the mad New York fans. We got there very early, but I didn't want to miss a minute of the game (or warmups etc), so I stared at an empty rink for a fair while.
Our viewing angle - not too bad, but I had hoped we might be a little closer
Then, without much fanfare, the two teams took to the ice for warm ups. My mouth was gaped open for around five minutes while I watched players that I've idolised skate around the rink. The start of warmup probably got more of a reaction from me than the start of the game, as it's was the first time I'd seen NHLers take to the rink.
Warmups - Fleury's yellow blockers make him easy to find
Warmups - Caron was backing up - and you can see Crosby skating in (on the right)
Warmups - Bell like this bit, when they were all taking many shots from in close, it did look kinda funny
I'm sure the full description of the game would be boring for most - so I'll go bullet points:
- New York got out to an early lead - scoring while Dick Tarnstrom was serving a double minor for High Sticking. The first ever NHL goal that I witnessed was by Maxim Kondratiev - I hope he's proud!
- Early in the second period Fleury made an incredible save, and I could sense that the Penguins took a bit of jump from this. Shortly after, Ryan Whitney scored his first NHL for the Penguins - tying the game at 1. It was good to be able to see the way a play develops, something I wouldn't have picked up on TV.
- New York scored later in the 2nd period, to stay in front for the rest of the game.
- Fleury was incredible to watch - some of his saves were awesome!
- Unfortunately both Crosby and Lemieux were pretty much non-factors in this game. Crosby was shaking off a foot injury from a few games ago.
Just before the puck was dropped
Whitney's first NHL goal
After watching my first complete game - I would estimate that the NHL is about 1000% better in person than on television. Even if I wasn't a hockey fan, I'm sure I would have enjoy watching an NHL game in person. Bell really enjoyed it too, and got into the game a little more than I did (I was grumpy because we were losing).
# posted by Joel Dixon @ 12:59 PM 
