Sorry, for no report last night, yes we did crash hard, but starting at 3am and getting back to the hotel by 10p, we were a bit tired. Hopefully, this helps your morning drink of choice.
All photos to follow after Shannon wakes up.

Waiting for the 3a train was a bit rough, but we were in good company of a half-a-dozen other travelers and an overnight-shift DC cop. The train station was real clean, and they kept cleaning it most of the night, but we got a couple of shut-eye moments. We all slept pretty good on the ride to NY and looked forward to breakfast in the city.
We arrived a little after 6am and found breakfast on a corner diner right outside Penn Station, then retrieved our bags from 2 days ago just outside the station. The city was pretty quiet that early on a Sat morning and our 2 block radius excursion for the bags didn't put us into any elbow to elbow situations. It was impressive though to know that the train station building has all the trains switching in and out, plus has the Madsion Square Garden sports facility on a different floor of the building. You really can't tell when you're inside, but the external building oval appearance gives away the purpose of the the upper floor arena functions. It was also pretty impressive to take 20 steps out to the street corner and look south down 33rd to see the Empire State building.
We headed out on NJ transit immediately to find our hotel for the next 3 days over the river in NJ. Turned out to be a 70min train ride due to the milk-run every-township-stop route. We arrived to a thunder storm hitting and wondered if it was going to make it east to the ballpark for another rain-out. After a little trouble with mis-communication with the local taxi service we found our temporary resting place. Darin found a couch and Shannon and Dad hit the pool until our room was ready by 11a. We took a quick snooze, and headed back out at 1p for the excursion to the Mets game, a reverse ride back to Manhatten, then switch to Long Island RailRoad, locally known as LI-double R. We never saw how crowded the subway option was, but this train was packed with Mets fans and we pulled into the stadium station a little before game time. One lady told me the LIRR was a much cleaner option and probably was quicker due to no stops on Manhatten, and just the second stop on Long Island.
Not sure where the original Shea Stadium was in this park but the new Citi Field was a impressive structure. We were also treated to an outside view of the US Tennis center at the same train stop. I imagine it will be real crowded for that tournament in a few weeks.
The steps to the park were across an elevated wood plank walkway over a train yard, over the subway stop, with all sorts of vendors and scalpers. Shannon thought there might have been water underneath someday in the past because it reminded her of a pier. We got a tip to go around the in-going crowds to the back left-field gate to avoid the lines in getting to our 3rd base side seats. Those lines were impressive to me though as the spiraled out from the home plate sign of the field.
We were on the TOP row for seats (I remember booking it that way as we saw very few good seat options so we pushed for the top) which turned out to be great for the needed breeze and an awesome view back onto the city skyline, and would have been a great option if and when the expected showers hit NY. Every one coming up to that row chuckled when they realized where row 17 actually was. We could see everything though and the fans up there had a good sense of humor. They booed a few Atlanta players, some reasons we knew (ex-Yankees and the sort) and some we'll have to investigate later. One of the best lines I heard came from a hidden Yankee fan: "oh come on, all he did was just play for your Varsity team!", referring to the Mets as the JV team in the city. Not too many laughs, but Dad liked it.
The field layout was real funky with the outfield fence meandering in and out to accomodate the seats. That seems to be more common than not in this new stadiums. Call Dad old-school, but a nice arc, 320 down the lines, 375 in the alleys and 400 deadcenter suits me better, oh like Dodger stadium! One of the caverns here was named after the local sporting goods company. Anything for the advertising dollar. The scoreboards and the diamond itself was impressive.
The Mets pitcher dodged all kinds of bullets until 5 consecutive hits in the 5th (for a total of 12 against him). Reminded us of Fridays game where the Giants let their starter get 11 hits and 7 runs off of him before they took him out. What up? Don't these teams have bullpens they trust? And with All-star break coming, they shouldn't be concerned about them getting tired?
Anyway, all 4 runs in the game were scored by the Braves in the 5th, and the Mets had 3 of the 4 hits by the leadoff guy, meaning no consecutive hits to produce any runs. Pretty boring ball, except for the drinking Mets faithful trying to start rallies and us watching the home plate umpire fighting exhaustion?/heat stroke?/?/? while being tended to by the Mets trainer between every half inning. Pretty uneventful game.
Back across the plank, I mean pier, to the train station and packing in like sardines again for the short ride back to Manhatten. No dinner in the city, just falling asleep and back on the 70min run to the hotel. Lights out, finally crash, and no sign of activity until just before the 10a closing of the continental breakfast, as Darin and Dad bolted over before it closed. Shannon still asleep 90min later and counting.
We are going to pass at trying to join Troop-church history in Hershey PA, not sure how and how-long it takes to get there anyway. Resting until they join us this evening. Probably going to find a sports bar somewhere to watch the 1:30pEST soccer final match.
Take Care, and again photos to follow when Shannon wakes up.