Baseball in New York

A night at the Yankee Stadium watching the New York Yankees playing the San Francisco Giants was certainly a fantastic experience.
We had pre-purchased the tickets online in Singapore and caught the packed subway train from Times Square to the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The stadium was easy to navigate and was was able to cope with the 40,000 fans easily.
The prematch entertainment included presentations to players past and present. The National Anthem was sung and the coin toss was conducted with a returned serviceman tossing the coin.
 Throughout the match, certain members of the crowd would be featured on the big screen scoreboard as well as messages to encourage cheering for the teams. Also during the break on the seventh innings a song from 1908 - "Take me out to the Ball Game " was played and to which most of the audience sung along to. At one stage the ground staff came out to sweep the diamond and dance to the 'YMCA ' which was very funny.
The Yankees won on the night 5-1.

Yankee stadium

Entrance to the stadium

Photos of baseball greats in the stadium

The scoreboard

Advertising

The view from our seats

The Giants batting

On the scoreboard !

The Yankees batting

Groundsmen doing the "YMCA"

High Line Park, New York

Having visited the newly opened High Line Park in New York in 2009,  we were keen to revisit the park on our latest visit to New York. When the park first opened it stretched from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking district to 20th Street which is in the Chelsea district. The park has now been extended to 30th Street. The final phase will see the park extended to the Rail yards on 34th St and this section will be opened next year.
High Line park was created on a disused railway railway line that had been marked for demolition. A non-profit group was formed to preserve the structure and return it to the public as open space. The New York City Government committed 50 million dollars to establish the park. The park is maintained by volunteers from the Friends of the High Line group.
Certain areas of the gardens have the old train track incorporated into the planting design and various artists have sculptures throughout the park. The park has certainly come a long way in the 4 years since we last visited and an increase in new apartments can be seen facing the park.

The area near Gansevoort Street

Birch trees amongst the railway tracks

" Pan" sculpture at Gansevoort Street 

Artwork on the wall

Lounges to relax on

Flowering sage

View of traffic and buildings from the High Line

Mixed plantings

Artwork called "Walking"

Cone flowers 

Mixed planting

"Broken Bridge II "

"Broken Bridge II "

One of the many murals on nearby buildings

Just a reminder

A narrow stretch of the park

Empire State building from the High Line

View from the street

The end of the park for now

Plantings amongst the old tracks

A new apartment block facing the High Line

Artwork on the side of a building