NYC Vaca 2023 - Day 3 - Part 1, Metlife Stadium & the fights

This day, quite frankly, is a bit of a blur.  My memory is a pile of poo but if I recall correctly, we had to be at Metlife stadium at 1pm (maybe 2pm?) for our scheduled tour.  We didn't do a pile of stuff in the morning so it was kind of relaxing.  But, we had a new path to learn on the subway to get to Port Authority, for a crazy-arsed bus ride to the stadium in New Jersey.  What an experience and frankly speaking, one that I hope to never experience again, although the seats were comfortable and there was air conditioning, so I shouldn't complain too much!

When we were getting close to the stadium, I noticed that the bus driver put on the wipers as it was starting to rain a bit.  Hmmmm...  Interesting development.

Let's get on with the start of the poo-show that ended up being pretty fun.

This is a google maps pic of where the bus dropped us off at a mall named American Dream.  I was feeling somewhat bad on this morning but I hadn't eaten much due to my illness on day 1. We were dropped at the bus stop in the pic that is Red blob in the lower right quadrant of the pic. We went into the mall to get some bottled waters which helped me quite a bit.  So we set out to walking over to the stadium.  Lesley's is our guide and her phone had some crazy directions go way up to the upper right of the photo and around, which seemed highly illogical since the stadium was right in front of us.  We walked towards that goal for a bit until it looked like there was no option, so we turned, looped, cussed, debated, wished we were home with the dogs (ok, that may have just been me!) and whatever else...  We finally figure out how to get to a elevated crosswalk over a major highway (10 lanes of traffic!) and start nearing the stadium.  Lesley's phone says to go right while Caleb's phone says the entrance that we want is not very far away, but it's too our left.  We start walking to our left and can see the friggin' entrance when we meet a couple who were in the same boat.  They had spoke to security who told them that they had to go the other way to get to the entrance due to the f'ing NJ State fair.  We had to walk around the f'ing stadium that I now wished was engulfed in flames and hoping for both NY teams to never win another game in my lifetime.  By the time we got to the official entrance, probably 100ft, from where we had been, I was enraged and truly hoping that there was someone that would draw my ire and I could unload everything onto them with no mercy whatsoever!  Who designs and lays out this b.s. is absolutely STUPID!!!   So?  What happened next?

Well, that kid obviously did the same walk we did...

They do pre-game field goal kick competitions over there.  It's hard to see.

Momma chaos got me involved even tho I was ready to kill!  Then the dude whose leading the tour shows up.  He starts asking where everybody is from.  Les told him we're from Iowa and he starts naming people & our president whoaare popular from Iowa. Oh, and he has the super loud, obnoxious laugh and he's the only one laughing at his jokes.  I'm hiding behind other people because I'm SO pissed at the nonsense of getting to this point that I know I'll go off on him if I'm pushed just a bit.  Rob's doing a great job of standing in front of me.  He goes around everybody who is joining the tour and some peeps join from some remote place in Britain and the guide starts naming obscure stuff from their region.  It was at this point that we're suspecting a autistic genius.  It didn't stop there but as you got used to it, it got to be more fun to where it eventually became funny as crap!

He is like Rodney Dangerfield's autistic child.  I do NOT mean that as any type of cut down, but the dude would pause after telling us meaningful info and do a, "Alright...  Uh.  Ok...  alright...  Yeah".  It was crazy to watch as you thought he might have a medical episode at any moment.

Tunnel to the lower level seating.

In the Hall of Fame room.

Eli Manning's locker as it was when he retired.

The 50/50 club... or something like that.

Hmmm... yep, that was probably right.

That's our guide that you can kind of see thru the trophy case.

Largest SB ring created thus far.

There was something signifigant about that ticket stub, but damned if I can remember.  Possibly the first game played in the new stadium and gen ad tickets were sold for $9 or something like that.

The oracle wasn't sure why they were pulling up some of the field turf covering.  I believe he said that there was a recent concert... possibly the Swift name Taylor.

Meadowlands Racetrack from the deck of Metlife.

Inside the press box.

He explained the thing that I've always expected and that is that the tri-colored seats are done so that when a game is not sold out, it looks much more full on a tv broadcast.

The hallway outside of the press box.

Craft beer bar...  I have my doubts about this as NYC was absolutely woeful in their respect for good beer.  Shameful really.  Shut the whole damn place down (and make EVERYONE shower!!) before trying again.

Relaxing in a private box.

Relaxing outside of a private box.

By this point, our guide has become funny.  Not because he's changed his approach to how he tells stories.  He cannot.  But everybody is catching on to his quirkiness and more people are giggling instead of rolling their eyes.  At this point he told us that it's his fav place in the stadium as the architect designed it to mimic the steel work on the Brooklyn Bridge.  He told a detailed story of the dude and it ended with, "he fell off a boat".  LOL  We have no idea if he died in the incident by drowning, eaten by a shark or whale or some other fate.  That is how this dude told stories.

That's my backside and the tour guide is over my left shoulder drinking water.  He was truly fascinating and while Rob and I were out playing a game of P.I.G. tonight, he came up as a subject of conversation and Rob said, "I truly hope that he has an amazing end to the rest of his life".  I could NOT agree more.  What an enigma.

I forget what this area is called but the enigma said that when Jerry Jones toured the new stadium, this was the only part that he was jealous that the Cowboy's stadium didn't have.

When this wiggle worm of energy looks exhausted, we're all exhausted!

Selfie alert!

Tuckered...

Traffic from my seat in the bus back to... uh, the other side of crazy?

The buses are RUTHLESS in this situation which is where you go thru the checkpoints before heading back into NYC. Cars are within inches of the sides of the buses and yet, the buses just keep moving forward.  The people in the cars just seem to creep forward at a snails pace and don't seem to get mad. I do not get this way of life, at ALL!!!!

Huge escalater...  I don't recall is we were going up or down.  I think we're going back to street level whether that's a good thing or not.

Supper at Brick Iron Burgers.  Their burgers were amazing! So juicy but yet the burgers were done perfectly.

Selfie queen again, with the Chysler building in the background.

Grand Central again...  and you may have guessed that the elevated road/bridge might figure into the KISS related post coming up later!  It may have something to do with 1980.

 

Rob's major caveat for this vaca was that he was NOT to have anything scheduled during the UFC fights that he would normally be at Buffalo Wild Wings with his buddies for.  Not sure that Caleb and myself were suitable replacements, but we had a LOT of fun watching the fights.

And that brings Day 3 to an end!