Chicago White Sox - June 18, 2012

 When Lee and I were at the University of Chicago, we went to more White Sox games than anything else.  It was an easy train ride from the U of C campus.  I loved hearing the White Sox announcer say, "Robin Ventuuuuuuuuura!" every time Ventura came to the plate.  (Lee would later get me a baseball signed by Robin Ventura.)  So we were really excited to see the White Sox and to show the kids a bit of our dating history.

Unfortunately, U.S. Cellular field (which I will always call Comiskey) was horrible.  There were two bright spots.  Owen and Lee went to batting practice while Aliyah and I scoped out the food (a tradition that would become common in future ball parks).  Owen caught a ball!  He was so excited.  It was his first of many.  The second bright spot was that Scottie Pippen threw out the first pitch.  It was another slice of early 90s nostalgia. 

Outside of that, U.S. Cellular was pretty grim.  The upper deck was a ghost town.  Hardly any of the food areas were open and it had the feel of the Pontiac Silverdome at the end of its days.  The food was just standard ball park fare - nothing special.  We were a little sad to see the decay.  We had such great memories, but nothing lasts forever.

At the end of the day, we still got to be together watching baseball.  And that's a pretty great way to end any day.

St. Louis Cardinals - June 17, 2012

 The St. Louis Cardinals game was memorable for lots of reasons.  We had the most amazing seats we have ever had for a baseball game because my mom spent a small fortune to buy them for Lee for Chanukah.  She bought the tickets just after the Cardinals won the World Series and really wanted him to have something special.  Nothing makes Lee happier than baseball.  (Well, nothing I'd want to blog about. *grin*)

There was no batting practice that day because it was Father's Day and the players were walking in with their kids.  It was adorable to see all of these MLB players holding their kids hands, carrying them or watching the teens separate themselves while the dads tried to hold on for just one more moment of childhood. 

Unfortunately, the day was a prime example of the brutal, humid, summer days that St. Louis can experience.  It was 100 degrees outside and probably 60% humidity.  Our amazing seats were in the bright sunshine.  Normally, that is a total blessing and wonder, but today it was like being in an oven (or steamer).  The stadium was giving away free water and ice and we made countless runs to the First Aid tent to get both.

 

We had a dinner for my mom's 50th birthday planned.  We didn't think it would be a problem to get to the dinner because the game was in the afternoon and the dinner was in the evening.  At the bottom of the 9th, the Cardinals were up 3-2 with two strikes.  I was certain that the Cardinals pitcher had this in the bag, so I put on my purse and gathered our things.  Instead, the Royals batter got a hit and the Royals ended up tying the game.  The kids both blamed me for putting on my purse.  They were certain that putting on my purse shifted the cosmic balance just enough that we were being taught a lesson.  From then on, whenever the game was tight and the kids were ready to go home, they would turn to me and say, "Mom, DO NOT put on your purse!"

We had to leave after the 13th inning so that we could get showers (which we desperately needed) for my mom's birthday dinner.  The game ended up going to 15 innings.

St. Louis has a beautiful field and a gorgeous stadium.  We would like to go back to St. Louis in the spring or fall when it's not so brutally hot and humid.

Cincinnati Reds - June 14, 2012

Our trip to the Cincinnati Reds was a part on an epic week-long road trip that started with Cincinnati and would take us to St. Louis (for Cody and Lindsay's wedding) and to Chicago. We would end up driving 1,166 miles.


Cincinnati has a beautiful park.  It feels like a cathedral to baseball.  The river view is amazing and the park feels like a slice of America itself.  The concourse is lined with statues of Reds' greats.

Aliyah celebrated her birthday at the stadium.  We had her name put on the scoreboard.  Unlike other stadiums, where the birthday names are huge, Cincinnati has the tiniest font on the smallest screen.  It was a little disappointing.

The game was packed, the fans were enthusiastic and it was a gorgeous, sunny day!  Aliyah got a new hat to go with her beautiful birthday smile.

The best thing about Cincinnati was that we started a new food tradition.  We get the ballpark guide and check out the regional or local favorites.  Any ball park can sell hot dogs, brats, nachos or popcorn.  But how many places can offer FRIED KOOL-AID?!?  Aliyah and I saw this in the ball park guide and we were determined to try some.


We took the escalator down to the food court area, which looked just like a state fairground.  We found the fried Kool Aid stand.  It turns out that fried kool aid is a cake donut batter mixed with cherry Kool Aid and deep fried.  Then the outside is dredged in a sugar and unsweetened Kool Aid powder mix.  The Kool Aid powder is sour and red.  The sugar makes it sweet.   From then on, we always checked the stadium guide and sought out the oddest, most regional, most unique ball park food in every place we visited.

Pittsburgh Pirates - May 26, 2012

 Our Pittsburgh Pirates trip was a part of a birthday surprise that I planned for Lee.  We stayed at the Splash Lagoon Water Park in Erie, PA, then drove on to Pittsburgh for a tour of the stadium and the game.


The stadium tour was amazing.  We got to visit all of the places where the players go - the batting cage under the stadium, the dugout, the press box and the field.  Our tour guide was amazing and clearly loved the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Pittsburgh wasn't really a team that either Lee or I followed as a kid, so we learned a lot about the history of the organization.  The Pittsburgh ball park felt a lot like Comerica.  We learned during our tour that it was built around the same time. 

They took us down to the field so that we could sit in the actual Pittsburgh Pirates dugout.  The kids loved seeing the view of the field that the players get.  It was really sweet to see some of of the grown men on our tour look around with child-like wonder at the field and the stadium.  Pittsburgh was clearly their team and they were so excited that it was contagious.

One funny thing happened while we were down on the field.  The tour guide told us that we could walk on the on deck circle and anywhere in the sand, but he asked us please DO NOT STAND ON THE GRASS.  The groundskeeper was fierce and protected every blade of grass so that it was just perfect for the players and the game.  It was the first time we got to see how much work goes into maintaining a grass field and how much pride the groundskeeping staff at Pittsburgh takes in their home field.


The funny thing about Pittsburgh is that we really don't have any memories of the food at the stadium (and believe me, we are food people).  I think we had standard stadium fare.  It wasn't really until we went to Cincinnati later that year that we perfected our art of ferreting out the best food in the stadium.

That weekend, we also got to take in another Pittsburgh classic - Primanti Bros. I wish I had taken a picture of our food.  Imagine that God decided she wanted a sandwich after a hungry day.  She would order from Primanti Bros.  It was the food of heaven - a HUGE sandwich stuffed with handmade fries and cole slaw.  To this day, I consider driving from Michigan to Pittsburgh just to order a Primanti Bros. sandwich.

Toronto Blue Jays - September 5, 2011

Although we have been to many Tigers games, our family goal to visit the ball parks of every Major League Baseball team officially kicked off with our visit to the Toronto Blue Jays in August of 2011.

The kiddos at Niagara Falls - our stop on the way to Toronto

A view of the stadium from the CN Tower

The sculpture on the outside of the stadium

Toronto Blue Jays home stadium The Rogers Centre (known more popularly as the Skydome)

My made to order pasta dish with veggies

Toronto had the most AMAZING food, including this dish - a made to order pasta dish that came in a cardboard container that made it easy to eat in the seats.  It was heaven for a vegetarian at the stadium because there were so many awesome veggie-friendly eats.

Some of us were more drawn to traditional ball park food

Did I mention the seriously amazing foodie culture at this ball park?

A beautiful ball park that was largely empty and devoid of fans on Labor Day weekend.

On the way out of town we dipped our toes into Lake Ontario so that we could say that we had officially visited every Great Lake.

OUR SPECIAL MEMORIES OF THIS TRIP:

• Toronto has a massive and beautiful stadium, but it was like a ghost town in there.  My Canadian friend Cheryl says that this is common, but that I really need to see the fans at a Maple Leafs game to see where Canadian hearts are really invested.
• They had the most amazing food scene.  In addition to all of the traditional ball park favorites, they had a pasta bar, a huge fresh food area, salad area, grab-n-go healthy food section and lots of cuisine options.  My favorite was the made to order pasta bar that is cooked in a pan in front of you.
• We had to leave the game (which went into extra innings) in the 11th inning because we had to drive back to get the kids ready for school.  The game ended shortly after we left.  
• We visited the CN Tower for spectacular views of Toronto and saw that the CN Tower offers the opportunity to strap into a harness and dangle on a catwalk over the edge of the observation deck.  
• We collected some Lake Ontario sand for the son of our friend so that he could have sand from all of the Great Lakes.  We also put our toes in Lake Ontario.  
• We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto.  It was cool walking over there, but the skies opened up and we had to take a cab back to the hotel. 

Chicago Cubs - July 14, 2011

 CHICAGO CUBS VS. FLORIDA MARLINS - July 14, 2011

Taking the kids to a Chicago Cubs game was a home away from home experience.  Because Lee and I lived in Chicago for years during college, we had been to many Cubs and White Sox games.  And Wrigley Field has that magical quality of old time stadiums - where you can feel the history shimmering in the air.

We took an Amtrak train from Ann Arbor to Chicago and went without a car the entire weekend.  Tickets on Amtrak were dirt cheap and the train has SO MUCH room!  Owen was still young enough to love trains and we walked many times from our car to the snack car, just because he thought it was cool.  The first few hours of the train were magical.  We had TONS of leg room (think first class on an airline and add a few inches) and lots of storage space for our gear.   But the train had to stop or slow to a crawl every time a freight train passed by.  The drive to Chicago would have taken a little under five hours.  The train took seven hours.  The last two hours were brutal.  But we made it!  And the kids loved pulling their suitcases down the sidewalks of Chicago to our hotel.  They felt like real urbanites.

 

We spend our entire trip walking around Chicago and hitting some of the highlights (including the Willis Tower, Millennium Park, the Aquarium, Gino's East, Water Tower, a boat taxi and Lake Shore Drive).  We wanted to continue our Chicago vibe with the el.  We boarded the most crowded el car I have ever ridden.  We were completely packed and the kids were squeezed between us so that we could absorb the jostling for them.  They still talk about it.


The Chicago Cubs was the first time that we learned that you could get a certificate if it was your first game.  There was a huge sign announcing this and a long line of people there to collect their certificates.  This became a tradition at every ball park we visited and most ballparks had a certificate.  You just had to ask.

This game was also a bobblehead giveaway game.  Both kids receiving a bobblehead.  Between the bobbleheads and the certificates, we didn't have to spend anything on souvenirs. 

Chicago fans didn't disappoint.  They had incredibly rabid and involved fans and there was a collective gasp when things went well and a collective sigh (or shout) when things didn't.  This culminated in the 7th inning stretch.  Literally, the entire stadium sings (shouts).  It's so much fun.  We rate the Cubs as the best place in Major League Baseball (so far) to do the 7th inning stretch.


All of the excitement and walking in Chicago took its toll on Owen, who fell asleep halfway through the game.  He was so exhausted.  Lee carried him as we boarded the much less crowded el on the way home.  The trip was amazing and if you ask Aliyah about her favorite ball parks, Wrigley Field ALWAYS makes the top three. 

 

 

Cleveland Indians - April 30, 2010

Although we have been to many Tigers games, our official baseball tour began with the Cleveland Indians game on April 30, 2014.  The tickets were a Chanukah gift from my mom and dad.  It was such a wonderful surprise!

THINGS WE REMEMBER ABOUT OUR CLEVELAND TRIP:

• Every employee in Cleveland was incredibly warm and friendly. We felt welcomed from the first moment we stepped in the door.
• Cleveland was the first stadium that we saw with veggie dogs and gluten-free buns.  
• We won a bottle of Stadium Mustard in a giveaway game on the concourse.
• There was a really cool play area for kids that Owen enjoyed.  On our way there, even though we were wearing Tigers shirts, an employee stopped and gave Owen free Indians baseball cards.  
• The stadium (and the city) were super clean.  I actually joked that it looked like Cleveland was trying to compete for a Tidy Town award.
• We also visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where we learned that an adult's capacity to read all of the information in an exhibit does not match a child's.  The kids zipped from exhibit to exhibit and touched every button and listened to every music sample with headphones.
• We had the most amazing meal at the Greenhouse Tavern, which is just a few doors down from Michael Symon's restaurant Lola.  The duck fat poutine was amazing!