Game 29: Giants 2 - Dodgers 1

Our final game on the road (park #29) came with our very splendid outing in Los Angeles to Dodger Stadium. For this game we were hosted in regal fashion by our friends Randy and Laura.

Randy and Laura picked us up at our hotel, chauffeured us across town (through LA traffic ... tremendous feat) and to their favorite ballpark. We so appreciated their care.

Having been built in 1968 (the third oldest in MLB) and with the largest capacity of all the parks (~56K), we found the stadium to feel remarkably open and perfectly suited for baseball.

It was a perfect evening for baseball and the pre-game festivities were delicious. We enjoyed some spectacular seating, courtesy our hosts.

And, Laura took lots of pictures. Some with signs (which I will not comment on further).

The only damper on the evening was the late score by the Giants to provide them with the 2-1 victory. On the plus side we did see a traditional bench-clearing broo-ha-ha with two players ejected. Gotta love the third-best rivalry in baseball.

It has been a fabulous time on the road! But, it is time that we head home and complete our process with a visit to Chase Field (scheduled for mid-september when the Cubs are in).

Editor's Note: I plan a couple more posts before I wrap the blog for this outing, so stay tuned over the coming weeks. I plan to provide some trip metrics, a review of the state visit challenge and some random final thoughts.

Game 28: A's 7 - Angles 1

Angles Stadium is functional, but showing its age. Nevertheless, we had a nice time visiting our 28th park and enjoyed the outing despite the lopsided nature of the contest.

It was a warm day in Anaheim and first pitch was scheduled for 6:07 PM. As usual we arrived early to explore. How comforting to immediately encounter our old friend! Wow, he gets around.

We had nicely shaded seats in the upper deck, at the rail (row 1) which provided a great view of the action. However, unfortunately for the Angles, the action early was all A's. After four inning, the A's had jumped out to a 7 run lead and never looked back.

This gave us a great opportunity to connect with our friend Jeff. Jeff resides in Anaheim and just happened to be at the game (free tix). He is an avid Cubs fan an is a seat mate for Spring Training. It was so fun to see him and catch up.

The best part of our seats and the experience was our opportunity to view our fourth set of post-game fireworks. Angels Stadium put on the best firework show, by far, of any of the post-game shows we experienced over the summer. So fun!

Our final park (#29) outside Arizona will be Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. Until then, our posse will pretty much look like this!

Game 27: Padres 2 - Phillies 0

Having spent a few more days working our way down the lovely California coast, we made it to San Diego for ballpark #27.

I just had to include the picture of this stout squirrel who was hanging out, watching the waves.

It was warm in San Diego for the opening of the series with the Phillies. We walked through the park, which was a bit of a maze, but managed to find spots for some photos.

We then settled into our seats.

It was a low scoring, but fun game. The Padres scored first and added a second run later for a 2-0 run lead. The Phillies threatened throughout. However, they could not manage to get any across the plate in the end.

Petco Park is in a fabulous downtown setting and will be an easy draw for us to return ... perhaps when the Cubs are back next year.

Off to LA ...

Game 26: Dodgers 4 - A's 2

Working on our first (for the trip) two-game/two-park in one-day exercise, we hoped on BART (the commuter train and headed to Oakland for the night game).

The Oakland Coliseum was very different from any of the other parks we have visited.

First of all, it was round! Not diamond-ish or square-ish. Round. This is the only one of the dual use (baseball/football) parks that we have had the privilege of including on our journey. It felt great!

We had fabulous seats.

About 10th row.

It was a great game. With lots of participation from the large contingent of Dodger fans.

However, in the end, the A's could not keep up and the early 3-0 deficit turned into a 4-2 loss.

Nevertheless, the A's fans earned out love and admiration. They are real baseball fans and choose activity to be A's fans. Respect!

We hope to return soon and will certainly be back after the Raiders depart and they have a new part to enjoy. The A's and Oakland deserve it!

Game 25: Astros 2 - Giants 1

We took in our 25th ballpark outing on a beautiful (and the warmest) August afternoon in San Francisco. AT&T Park is snug. The concourse is narrow, but the setting of the park is beautiful.

We sat on the rail of the upper deck, enjoying sunshine the view of the Bay.

Our view of the Park was nice too.

It was a low scoring close game. The Giants led 1-0 much of the way. However, in the top of the 7th inning, the Astros connected on a two run shot and the game ended in their favor.

I will say that it is nice when the home team wins.

As this was an afternoon game, we are going to head across the Bay for our next baseball park and outing #26.

Going Coastal

We stayed a second day (Friday) in Seattle and lunched with some long-time friends, Cam and Kristen. We have known Cam and Kristen since college and only failed to attend each others weddings because we married on the same day (5.28.1988).

They hosted us for lunch at their home, a lovely affair and it was great to catch up. Sorry, I failed to gather a photo.

We enjoyed dinner Friday night with Jacob, a second opportunity to visit and he took us for delicious ice cream as our desert treat ... a new, very trend shop only open in Portland and Seattle.

Saturday we began our trek down the Pacific Coast. Crossing into Oregon, we joined the coast highway.

The Oregon coast is beautiful. However, it is August and the outside temperatures are between 56 and 64 degrees. The coast is shrouded in low grey cloud cover, which disappears when you travel 20-30 miles inland. And, to top it all off, you still really can't pump your own gas in Oregon. As a result, I am actually looking forward to crossing into California.

All that said, our meal at Tony's Crab Shack in Bandon was amazing. Maybe the sole reason for coming back to Oregon soon!

We visited the most westerly point in the continental US, Cape Blanco.

Once in California, and having pumped my own gas ... big relief ... we found bigger trees and sunshine.

Finally, we crossed the Golden Gate heading into San Francisco.

We met Brooks, one of our God sons who is in the doctoral program at Stanford, for dinner. He is doing super well, mostly at being smart.

Dinner was fabulous and as a bonus we ate at the Los Altos Grill, managed by a long-time friend of ours, Micah. It was great to catch up with him, as well as learn about he and Holly's planed move. Their little one, Josh is so cute and with one on the way, they definite have a lot on their plate.

Having made it to the Bay Area, time for our primary purpose, baseball!

Game 24: Blue Jays 7 - Mariners 3

We made it to the west coast (Seattle), and ballpark 24. We rolled into town about 4:00 PM (Thursday) and were met shortly thereafter by Jacob!

It was great to see him for the third time this summer! We headed to Safeco Field and the contest between the Blue Jays and the Mariners.

After an hour of traffic, we made the four mile trek across town and were joined by a throng of Blue Jays fans heading into the park. I would estimate that the Blue Jays fans came close to numbering the Mariners fans and that there were more Blue Jay's fans at this game than the June game we attended in Toronto.

Having found all the Canadians here in Seattle, we toured the park and found our seats.

Safeco is a nice park. We had some delicious sandwiches and Beth caught a great photo of the event as the sky cleared just a bit.

The game was entertaining, but in the end, due to poor defense, the Mariners came up short ... boy those Canadians get a little "bold" when they are on the winning end.

 All in all, a great evening and so nice to spend time with Jacob.