New York , Day 1

We met some friends at a place called the Shake Shack at their suggestion. I went to their website to see what I could find out about it. It's a little place in the middle of Madison Square Park (not to be confused with Madison Square Gardens) and it specializes in burgers, fries, and of course, shakes. They even have their own beer called the ShakeMeister Ale and a couple of unique wines as well.
If you know me, then you know that, for me, there is nothing greater food-wise than a good burger. I am always excited to try new burgers and yesterday was no different. And my excitement was not in vain. The food was amazing! If you're ever in New York (or Miami) you need to make a trip to the Shake Shack.

The rest of the afternoon was spent meandering Manhattan with our friends as they showed us some good places to shop (including an awesome comic book shop). They have a nine-month old child so they left eventually to get her settled down and we went to Cafe 28 to dinner and to meet our other friend for the evenings activities.

Once she got there, we made plans to go to ground zero (which isn't really ground zero anymore) then the Staten Island ferry to ride by the Statue of Liberty and end with going to the top of the Empire State Building.

The only thing we didn't get to do was the Empire State Building because we felt it would be too cold and windy so we're going to try again today.

To make up for not going up we went to Times Square and meandered around for a while (I was slightly creeped out by the faux Mickey, faux Batman, and faux Elmo that were there for pictures). Again, we'll be returning later when more places are open.

We ended up back at the apartment and about 2 and basically passed out.

Squashed Penny Count: 2 today, 2 total

Mighty Casey

In Rock Hill, SC, there are quite a few odd statues around town. The Civitas statues represent four goddesses as well as the four pillars of the town and they act as a gateway to the city. One of the more obscure statues we have is the "Casey at the Bat" which greets the visitors to Cherry Park.

What's obscure about having Casey welcome people to a park with multiple baseball fields?

Well, Casey's statue is a reference to a poem that was written in 1888 by a guy named Ernest Lawrence Thayer about an arrogant baseball player (Casey) who strikes out and ends up losing the game.

So, why does Cherry Park bare the resemblance of a player who costs his team the game because of his arrogance?

I don't actually have a answer. I tried to do some research and find out but came up with nothing.

My first stop was wikipedia of course. Among the things I learned was the history of the poem and that Disney made a cartoon back in the day based on the poem as well as a sequel with a more positive ending (you know Disney and Happily Ever After).

But nothing that made me understand why Rock Hill chose Casey as the mascot for Cherry Park.

Rock Hill's website also didn't enlighten so the mystery remains, why is Casey at bat in Cherry Park? Like the number of licks to the center of a tootsie pop, the world may never know.

photo by voigti fox behind the lens