Posts Tagged: baseball

Our trip to Colorado in August was a bit of a last-minute thing. I (Harlan) had been offered a job at an agency in the metroplex, and it afforded us the opportunity to take a mini vacation between employment. We couldn’t decide initially where we wanted to go, but plane ticket prices eventually landed us in sunny Denver, Colorado, home to the Colorado Rockies. With the short-notice, we didn’t have a ton of time to prepare for the trip, which in the end proved an asset, as we spent a lot of time simply relaxing together and taking in the outdoors. (Except for the Duck Dynasty marathon we got sucked into, despite never having seen an episode prior to the trip.) During the trip, we explored a hiking trail, found a hidden castle, ate wild raspberries, fought off a bear (not really), explored the sanctuary of rock (Red Rocks Amphitheater), ate a stupid amount of gourmet pizza, and spotted the purple mile-high seats at Coors Field.

It was a great getaway before starting a new job. The only complaints we ever have about our baseball trips is that we won’t get to come back for a while.

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We’re all caught up…thanks for following along with all of these. We’ll get back to regular posts soon.

The day we visited Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona was a packed day to say the least. We woke up in Las Vegas, about halfway toward the final ballpark in our 3 park journey that took us to San Francisco, Oakland, and Tahoe before landing us in Sin City. Our plan for the day was to get out of town early, so we could make it to the Grand Canyon before trekking to Phoenix for our 6:40 first pitch. We hopped in the car and drove off to the desert, to see the sight I hadn’t laid eyes on since I was a boy, the Grand Canyon. The best word I could use to describe the place would be disorienting. I know that’s not the word most people would use, but it fits for me. I think it’s because it’s just so vast, it becomes difficult to judge distances and depth. The view becomes a sort of painting; a two-dimensional space in a three-dimensional world. It’s about as awe-inspiring as any natural wonder I’ve seen. (Now that’s the word most people would use.)

The final part of our journey led us from the Grand Canyon south another 200+ miles to the Arizona capital of Phoenix, and to Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Chase Field is an indoor oasis in the Sonoran Desert. Thank God for the invention of the retractible dome in sports, because it was a closed roof day.

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On our anniversary, 8 years after visiting our first park (Boston on our honeymoon), we hit the halfway point on our journey toward visiting every Major League park.

As I said in the last installment, the roadtrip to San Francisco was quite the undertaking, spanning over 4000 miles and visiting the likes of San Fran, Oakland, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Phoenix. Five of us packed into our Explorer and headed for the coast. San Francisco is a great city, full of history. We truly enjoyed our time there, and marveled at some of the sights we had only seen in photos and on television. We trekked across the Golden Gate Bridge, saw Alcatraz (though only from the boat), braved the curves of Lombard Street, and even got in some catch at Fisherman’s Wharf. But obviously this trip would have been incomplete without a visit to AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants.

AT&T Park is an impressive structure, sitting right along the San Francisco Bay featuring an incredible waterfront and views of the Bay Bridge. The park opened in 2000, and has featured an exceptional amount of history along the way. Perhaps the biggest is the home run prowess (*asterisk*) of Barry Bonds, who hit 500, 600, 700, and ultimately 756, which put him on top of the home run records above Hank Aaron, all at AT&T Park. He also hit 71, 72, & 73 in the park, which gave him the single season record in 2001. In addition, it hosted three World Series Championships in 2002 (lost to the Angels), 2010 (where they beat the Rangers), and 2012 (won over the Tigers). The park itself is spectacular. From our perch in the second deck on the first base side, we had a bay-view into the water on the right, the Bay Bridge straight ahead in left-center, and a great view of the field. The weather was chilly, but manageable, and we had a great time. Cheers to Giants fans, you have an incredible park for baseball.

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It’s pretty great that I get to do these posts so close to the actual game. I’ve got three to do that I’ll try to post over the next week. Then we’ll be all caught up and ready to start planning the next trip!

We set out in the early Summer of 2013 toward the West Coast, a trip that would take us to San Francisco, Oakland, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Phoenix, before arriving back home. Three ballparks and over 4,000 miles of open road for myself, Yvette, Baron and my parents, Bob and Kathy. And what a trip it was. We saw things and made memories in some of the most unique and awe-inspiring places in the country, and got to spend some great quality family time together. The whole trip will have to wait for another blog post, because this post is intended to feature the first installment of this trip’s park visits, Oakland Coliseum (or O.com Coliseum if we’re being technical) in Oakland California, just across the bay from the gorgeous hills of San Francisco.

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