After a botched attempt to have my dad and step-mom visit for Thanksgiving, I was always looking for a time when they could come up. The stars aligned for a visit over Father’s Day weekend. Neither my dad nor my step-mom have ever been to NYC, so I knew it would be an exciting visit for both of them. Not to mention, we hadn’t seen each other since Christmas.

As an added bonus, I scored 4 tickets to a Yankees game that weekend versus the Cubs. Dad and Mary (that’s my step-mom) are avid baseball fans and were very excited to hear that we had gotten tickets. It was my Father’s Day gift to my dad. I think the only thing that could have made it better had it been the Yankees versus the Rangers, but alas, I couldn’t control the schedule of MLB.

We set all this up sometime in early May, so the countdown began and my excitement kept building. I think I was driving Maggie fairly crazy with it, but she understood. I had gone from seeing my dad every weekend to seeing him once in almost a year.

The only hitch of the trip was the morning of their flight when they got held up a security and missed their initial flight out of DFW. Luckily, there was room on the next flight and they only lost an hour. It could have certainly been much worse. So instead of meeting them at JFK and taking the Subway back to NYC and then the PATH to our apartment, I met them at LaGuardia and we took a cab to Times Square.

One of the things I try and have guests do while they are here is to enjoy a nice lunch of what I lovingly call “Street Meat”. It’s served by vendors all over the city and it’s nice and spicy chicken over rice with a side salad. They top it with “white sauce” which is just yogurt and mayonnaise and they also put some hot sauce on it if you want. There’s a particular vendor I really like that’s on the corner from where I work and I’ve always tipped them and they’ve always taken care of me when I needed it. On this day, they went out of their way to welcome my dad and Mary. They gave them drinks on the house and they also gave us all a taste of lamb (they normally add a small piece for me because I usually ask, but it was very nice of them to throw it in for my parents as well). We took our lunch and ate it at Bryant Park which is across from the other corner from where I work and I think they enjoyed it. At least, they told me they did.

Now that we had full stomachs, it was time to make our way to my apartment with the luggage. This wasn’t so bad and they handled the Subway and the PATH very well. To get home, I always have to pass through the World Trade Center site and they were moved when they saw it. The walk from the PATH station to the apartment is about 8 blocks and well, my dad has bad knees. So we had to stop a few times, but he really enjoyed the view of New York from our side of the Hudson.

Finally we got home and then they relaxed while we waited for Maggie to get home. Once she did, we made them dinner and then we took another walk to look at the city from across the Hudson. It as a nice night.

The next day was the day of the baseball game, so after breakfast and piddling around for a little while, we started making our way to the game. Luckily we got on the 4 train early on the way to Yankee Stadium because by the time we got there, the train was packed. We were running a little later than we expected and I thought we were going to miss the first pitch. As we were walking down the train platform, there was a fly over with F-15s which would have been during the National Anthem.

We got inside rather quickly and found our seats in the bleachers. Amazingly, we hadn’t missed the first pitch. The game was pretty good, although the Yankees killed the Cubs (none of us like the Yankees much). The best highlight was seeing Derek Jeter hit his first career Grand Slam. (Even seeing a Grand Slam is amazing, let along the first by a player you would have thought had hit one before.) We did have to leave the game a little early because dad was getting a headache from the kid sitting behind him constantly screaming. It was starting to annoy me too and make my head hurt as well.

So we got on the Subway and headed to Grand Central. From there we took a cab to Times Square, which royally ticked off the cab driver since it was like only 3 Avenues over, but I told him to shut it and gave him a generous tip to make it worth his while. Once in Times Square, we decided to eat at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. location there. It’s a Forrest Gump themed restaurant that was a tasty meal. After that, we decided to head to the Empire State Building and waited a couple of hours in line to go to the top. It was a nice view, but even being warm on the ground, it was still cool up there. I just wonder if it ever gets hot up top? We wrapped up the day with a cab ride home and everyone came home and passed out.

For Sunday, we went into the city and went on a Circle Line tour of Manhattan. We took the 3 hour tour that goes all the way around the island and we all learned a great deal of NY history. After pushing them hard for a couple of days, we decided to take Sunday a little easier and headed home.

Monday was their last day and we mostly spent it getting into the city and then the Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch a bus to the airport. I hung out with them and had lunch and then waited for them to go through security at the airport and then I started my way home on the bus.

I think a good time was had by all and it was a great visit but over way too soon.