subway, stadium, steak

the next morning, we got up at a decent time and headed out to grab breakfast at the bean’s new favorite place - ess-a-bagel.

and then we made our way to the nearest subway station to hop on a train to our first activity - a tour of yankee stadium.

even for someone who isn’t a yankees fan, the tour was interesting and full of fun memorabilia and commemorative plaques and statues to look at.  i love a good historical tour, and i think sports history is really cool.

i never knew the story of thurman munson, a catcher for the yankees in the 70s.  he was learning how to become a pilot so that he could go home regularly to his family in ohio, and unfortunately died while practicing landings.  the team retired his number and preserved his locker, moving it to the museum in 2009.

this was funny - i totally remember buying this candy bar a couple of times back in the day.

there’s a display of baseballs signed by every yankee player, and while i don’t know a ton of them i at least recognized this one:

we walked through the stadium, heading towards monument park down on field level.

monument park memorializes people who have passed on and were important parts of the team’s history.

it was cool to see the view from the fancy suites and premium seats.

and the last part of the tour featured a great photo op down on the field.

it was a fun tour, and if you’re into baseball at all i’d say that it’s totally worth a visit.

and of course, we stopped in the team store before we headed outta there.

then it was time to hop back on the subway and head back into the city for more exploring and shopping.

we’d been trying to get into FAO schwarz for days, and we finally timed it right.  the store was still open for hours and the line to get in wasn’t too long. 

the draw for us was the jellycat cafe, where they were “serving” up adorable food-themed plushies with little kawaii faces on them.

of course, there was a pretty good-sized section devoted to barbie.

and the bean stopped for this too.

meanwhile, the hub had secured some warm drinks for us.

then it was time to head back to the subway for our dinner reservation at peter luger in brooklyn. we were treated to a mini concert as we made our way to the platform.

the hub had recently been to the newest location in vegas, so it was kind of a novelty for him to visit the brooklyn location.

it was delicious, every bit of it.

this was the side…SIDE of thick-cut bacon.  so good.

and they handed us these chocolate coins with the bill.

the hub and the bean did some browsing online to find something for dessert, and we ended up at mochidoki for some delicious, fresh mochi ice cream treats.

and here was my final step count for the day. not too bad, yeah?