Baseball Roadtrip - Day 5

So Day 5 began with a trip to the Phoenix airport. As we waited for our plane, the person I was traveling with began complaining about how much she wanted to go home and how tired she was and how she thought part 2 of the trip was a bad idea. We got on the plane, I fell asleep immediately and apparently my companion started getting real anxious to the point of almost being sick. Luckily she fell asleep and when she woke up, we were about an hour from landing and she had a change of heart about the trip, she was excited again.

When we landed in Chicago we got a text from Mike saying he had just landed. As we walked to his gate, we passed a restaurant and it smelled like old cheese. Cindy said, "Mike must be here because I can smell his feet."

So we got Mike and headed to the Trains. After a 30 minute ride we were in downtown Chicago at one of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in, The Marriot on The Magnificent Mile. We pretty much dropped our bags off and headed back to the trains to go to Wrigleyville.

We got to the game early, Cindy & I bought Cubs shirts to wear at the game, Michael opted to not purchase anything Cubs related since they were playing the Braves.

As the gates opened we went in and found our seats. It was so awesome to see the field and the stadium, basically empty. After a few minutes we went down to get some food. I grabbed a beer and we were walking around looking at the different food options. As I walked behind home plate, a guy approached me and said, "Hey do you want to be the Old Style beer drinker of the game." I asked what I had to do, he said just meet me at Aisle 16 at 6pm. So as we waited until 6pm, Michael inhaled his first Chicago dog.

At 6pm I was seated down near the field and given an Old Style Beer batting practice jersey with the Cubs logo...the problem is that it was a large, which is a size I havent seen since the Cubs last won a World Series. So I called Cindy and told her and Michael, I was going to be going on the field to have my picture taken (with my name on the centerfield scoreboard); I also told her Michael lucked out because I had a shirt for him.

After I had my picture taken I returned to our seats and the game began. The atmosphere was the best of any game I have ever been to (except Game 1 of the '06 World Series.) Every fan was into the game, there is no videoboard to distract you from the game, no cheerleaders shooting shirts into the stands, everyone waits until between innings to go get food or use the bathroom. And there is no better moment than the 7th inning stretch when everyone stands and sways back and forth singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. The game itself also did not disappoint. It was a 2-1 Braves win, but in the bottom of the ninth the Cubs had 2 outs a runner on 1st and the winning run at bat.

Other random info:

-I offered Mike all the Coors Light he can drink tonight at MILLER Park if he runs full speed into the window in our hotel room on the 36th floor. We were debating whether it was double-paned or not. (and for those of you that are slow this morning, Miller Park only sells Miller Lite and MGD)

-The Mexecutioners have somehow acquired Matt Garza for the small price of Chone Figgins.

-Michael ate 2 Chicago dogs, I had one (mine was with everything on it)

-Cindy forgot to bring her camera to the game, the one time I am on Wrigley Field. (Lucky for her the Cubs are mailing me a picture they took of me in about 2 weeks.)

-Before the game we all entered a bean bag toss for a chance to win a HP printer and enter a drawing to throw out the first pitch at a future Cubs game. Mike made one bean bag, Cindy made 0 (although she almost hit a kid), and I made 2. So no printers were won, but Mike and I are in the drawing for the First Pitch and Cindy got a lollypop.

-So we needed internet for Mike to do his work at the hotel. Cindy was given a coupon at check-in for either a day of free internet or a drink at Starbucks. Keep in mind internet is $15/day, coffee is $5 and Cindy is pregnant and not drinking any caffeine. It still took me 15 minutes to convince Cindy to use the coupon on the internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So today we are going to shop in Chicago and then head to Milwaukee...

Baseball Roadtrip - Day 4

So today was Day 4, Chase Field in Phoenix for the Diamondbacks/Padres. Since we were already in Phoenix, we went and had lunch with my grandma and Aunt Grace. It was 109 degrees all day, which is ridiculous. I don't want to hear about dry heat, because it was hot and miserable.


As we left my grandma's house, I got lost again. The best part is I got lost despite Cindy telling me twice within a minute to continue straight on the road I was about to turn on....I still decided to turn again! As we got to the stadium, Cindy asked her best question of the trip.....WHY ARE WE THE ONLY TEAM WITH A STADIUM NOT IN DOWNTOWN? (stay tuned for her worst question of the trip.)

From the outside the stadium it is really nice, especially when you see that the roof is closed!



Inside it kind of felt like Minute Maid Park a little bit, but it was a weird shape, and the upper level was like 100 rows and extremely steep (luckily we were in the left field bleachers about 5 rows off the field.) The food was great though, they had a lot of $1.50 options like hot dogs and corn dogs, etc; and their nachos were the old school round tortilla chips which the Rangers have some how distanced from. They were so much better than anything the Ballpark in Arlington has to offer.

The game was pretty boring, until the 6th inning when they did the kiss cam. The first couple they put on the screen was a hispanic couple, my guess was she was in her 20s and he was in his 30s. They refused to kiss and she was laughing and covering her face; after a few seconds the camera went to another couple, and everyone booed the hispanic couple. After showing several other couples they went back to the hispanic couple and once again she covers her face laughing...then in a truly priceless moment, she mouths "He's my dad." The entire stadium erupted in laughter.

Now on to Cindy's worst question of the trip. After standing and singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame for the 7th Inning Stretch; we sit down and Cindy asks if we are in the Top of the 7th inning.


After the game we decided to return our rental car, which we did and successfully avoided the $180 drop off fee. We then took the car rental shuttle to the hotel shuttle place at the airport, then caught the Radisson shuttle. On the way back to the hotel, I convinced the driver to take us to Del Taco for a late night snack. I offered to get him something, he declined, but at least we were able to eat Del Taco one more time before getting out of town.

Baseball Roadtrip - Day 3

Today's trip was to San Diego with a connecting trip to Phoenix. Too bad all the drives can't be like LA to SD. The views were awesome and it was 90 minutes, somehow Cindy had to go to the bathroom more in that drive than any of the 7 hour trips!

The weather in SD was awesome, 70 degrees and sunny. The stadium was equally as awesome. (It is definitely top 3 of the stadiums we have seen so far). Petco Park has tile work on the exterior of the building making it look real upscale.

The best thing about the stadium was the 5 for $5 deal they had. Someone please forward the following to Tom Hicks: for $5 you get a full size hot dog, a 22 ounce drink, a cookie, a bag of popcorn, and a bag of peanuts! A hot dog by itself is $4.50. The other crazy thing about this stadium is that it had buildings on the stadium grounds, an old warehouse, a hotel, and a condo building. So those people can watch the games for free on their balconies. Also out in center field behind the seats there is a grass area with a large tv and a sign that says come here to watch all SD road games.

As for the game, despite it being 70 degrees, we were sitting in the direct sunlight; so Cindy had to keep getting up and cooling off in the concession area. And I was embarassed at myself for wearing a Rangers Kinsler jersey with a Tigers hat. How could I let something like that happen? To protect C from the sun and me from any further embarassment, once we got to the bottom of the eighth, Dodgers up 6-1 and the Mexecutioners 13-2-1 week already wrapped up; I made the call to leave the game. Turns out the game got a lot more interesting when we left....going 13 innings! Dodgers still won, so we didn't really miss much.

After the game, at around 3:45 we headed for Phoenix. We headed straight into the mountains...great. I have decided I like the mountains better from afar. Driving through them you have no railings, no radio, your ears pop, and everyone is flying by you. To top it off, some idiot decided that a 300 ft bridge was a good idea up there 4000 ft in the air! Anyways we drove 2 hours before making our first stop in El Centro, CA....it was 112 degrees!! We arrived in Phoenix around 9:30; and now we have all day Monday to relax before Monday night's Padres/Dbacks game.

Scatter-shooting while driving to Phoenix:

• It is fun to drive while imitating fake Greggo, saying things like "Oh boy" and "Man I'm getting bored with this"
• Singing the entire song 99 bottles of beer on the wall is more exhausting than you might think. (for the record I only messed up once, Cindy twice)
• Why are there 100 mexican radio stations but no country ones between SD and Yuma?
• It took us 5 seconds to get through the Border Patrol check. They took one look at Cindy and said, nope no Mexicans in this car.
• Why do we celebrate a "birthday" every year but a wedding day only once?
• Del Taco restaurant is pretty dang good but they need to take credit cards
• Snickers ice cream bars are underrated

Well that's all folks until tomorrow.....

Baseball Roadtrip - Day 2

We started Day 2 of our baseball roadtrip in San Francisco, leaving early for Anaheim. It was another long day of driving, and not quite as scenic as the day before. We did have a short period of driving through mountains (up to 4400 ft.) where Brad's hands were sweaty and he was scared. But soon enough we caught a beautiful view and it made it all a little better. Here's a glimpse of what we saw:

The drive was fairly uneventful, except for the moment when I was blogging about Day 1 and Brad mentions he's going North instead of South. We remedied that fairly quickly and got back on route to Anaheim.

We arrived in Anaheim around 3 and settled into the hotel, just a mile or so from Angel Stadium. We drove over to the ballpark and were greeted with $5 parking, which is always a nice surprise! Here's a pic of our entrance into the stadium:

The weather during the game was unbelievable! The sun was out for a while but it was nice and cool. Brad caught a batting practice home run ball, so that was pretty exciting! We also got to experience a fly over before the game, while Michael Johns from American Idol sang the Star Spangled Banner. (Is it us, or is there something wrong with a non-American singing the national anthem, especially on Independence Day?) The fly over was cool - not like one I've seen before. Very slow and quite - but a pretty huge aircraft. Here's a pic.

It was a pretty long game, 3 hours and 15 minutes, but the weather and atmosphere really made it enjoyable. The night ended with a fantastic July 4th fireworks show in the ballpark...there's nothing like a watching a firework show in 70 degree weather!

AT&T Park and Angel Stadium are by far the top two ballparks of this trip so far!Just for fun, here are a few highlights of the day:

Question of the day (from Brad): Could a bear catch Callie?
Food of the day: Found a Baja Fresh on the trip to Anaheim (my favorite!)
What Cindy learned from Brad: when he says "Sounds good" it basically means "I don't care"

Hometeam Record: 2-0

Baseball Roadtrip - Day 1

Well the day started out great! We went to pickup our rental car at Dollar and were told that if we were able to locate a car with an Arizona license plate, we wouldn't have to pay the $180 drop-off fee when we leave the car in Phoenix. We rented a Compact car, which is typically like a Dodge Caliber or Chevy Cobalt - pretty small cars. So, not only did Brad find a Compact level car with an Arizona license plate, but it is a candy apple red 2008 Mustang. It was in the Compact section because it's out of state. Nice!

So we were on our way from Los Angeles to San Francisco at 7:00 AM. The trip took about 7 hours but went by fairly quickly (besides having to listen to Brad's earthquake and Scott Peterson line of humor). We drove up the coast and enjoyed our view the Pacific Ocean for a while. It's beautiful to see the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. Here's a pic of our initial drive into the mountains.

Once we arrived in San Francisco, and after a failed attempt to check in early to our hotel, we made our way downtown and drove around the city streets. Our first stop was Lombard St. The line of cars waiting to drive it was endless but we got a great glimpse of the landmark and still got to experience driving some steep streets.

Our next stop was Ghirardelli Square - yes, it's just what it sounds like. We parked and went up to the shopping area with the intent to have a warm brownie sundae. However, we got distracted by Kara's Cupcakes and went in to pick one out for each of us. I had Sweet Vanilla, Brad had S'mores. Yum. But....Sprinkles wins that battle. We made our way to the chocolate shop and shared a Ghirardelli warm brownie sundae. That's the point where we realized we probably didn't need a cupcake.

Finally, we headed over to AT&T Park for the Giants game. The weather was sunny but cool and felt great! We arrived a couple of hours early and walked around the park while watching batting practice for both teams. As the game started, the sun was still out but it started getting colder. By mid-game, the Giants were up by 13 and the temperature was down to 57 degrees. BRRRRR! I made my way over to a t-shirt stand and bought a long-sleeved shirt to keep me warmer. Brad also got us some hot chocolate - there is something not quite right about drinking hot chocolate at a baseball game in July. Needless to say, we stuck it out and enjoyed the game! The Giants won, obviously, and we headed out. Here's a pic BEFORE it got too cold!

To end the night, we got a little lost trying to leave downtown. But after just about 15 minutes of trying to navigate with my iPhone and figuring out which direction we were going (no compass in the 'Stang), we found our way to the hotel.

So far -- AT&T Park is the #1 rated ballpark of this trip! :)

23 Weeks

This week is going good - getting hotter every day, though. I'll be traveling next week on business - first trip since I found out I was pregnant. I think it will make time fly by and hopefully everything is good. Brad is then meeting me out in L.A. and we're starting an 8-day baseball roadtrip. Should be a blast! Here are a few updates on me and baby B:
How far along? 23 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +20 lbs. - yikes! I got "the talk" from the doctor and will be watching what I eat a litle bitter...bye bye Bueno!
Maternity clothes? Yes
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Tossing and turning but reasonable
Best moment this week: Shopping for a baby girl
Movement: Finally yes! Several times a day
Food cravings: Nothing really
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: NoneBelly Button in or out? somewhere in between
What I miss: laying on my stomach
What I am looking forward to: Brad feeling the baby move
Weekly Wisdom: watch what I eat (as if I didn't already know this)
Milestones: started working on the nursery - paint is 90% done; hopefully Brad will finish next week while I'm out of town on business (hint-hint)!

22 Weeks

It's been a good couple of weeks. It's getting really hot though and I can't imagine how in the world I'll be feeling in August. Ugh! Today I bought the paint for the nursery. It's very "lavender" but it matches perfectly with the color I was trying to match in the bedding. I painted a little bit of the trim, but I'm sure until it's all painted, we won't get the full effect. Let's hope I love it!

How far along? 22 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +11 lbs. (probably more now, but I'll find out at my next appt.)
Maternity clothes? Yes and XL t-shirts
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Much better; 1-2 potty trips per night
Best moment this week: Hearing baby's heartbeat on a home doppler
Movement: I felt a few "flutters" then my first kicks/thumps while listening to the doppler (kinda cool to hear and feel them at the same time!)
Food cravings: Anything with nacho cheese (nachos, cheese fries, queso...)
Gender: It's a Girl!
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In but slowly becoming kinda flat
What I miss: being able to walk around for hours without a back ache
What I am looking forward to: Feeling regular movement/kicks
Weekly Wisdom: Don't go outside! It's too hot!
Milestones: hearing heartbeat on the home doppler, feeling first real movements, and getting used to saying "she"!

Crib & Bedding

So the crib and mattress arrived last night. The bedding came in on Friday. We put it all together today and it looks great! We did have a little mishap as the headboard arrived damaged. But the store was helpful and replaced the damaged part(s) right away, and I didn't even have to take the damaged parts to them! I love the way the bedding looks and am excited to decorate the rest of the room. Next, I will have to figure out where to pull the wall unit that will house the changing table... Thanks for your help Mike!

20 Weeks

This has been a very eventful week. As you know, we found out we're having a little girl. I thought I'd post another message to share my milestones for this week since so much has changed.

How far along? 20 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +11 lbs. (whoa! 5 pounds since week 16!)
Maternity clothes? Yup
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Not so easy; I toss and turn every night because my hips/back hurt!
Best moment this week: Seeing our baby GIRL on the big screen!
Movement: still waiting
Food cravings: Nothing really
Gender Ideas: It's a Girl!
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
What I miss: not having aches and pains (but they're worth it!)
What I am looking forward to: Feeling munchkin kick!
Weekly Wisdom: With pregnancy, comes aches and pains...
Milestones: big week - found out we're having a girl, bought crib and bedding, and started registries!

It's a Girl!

Today was our big ultrasound - and it's a girl! Talk about shocked - I couldn't be more surprised, or happy. Everything looked normal, movement was good, and she measured a week ahead (for the 2nd time!). The sonogram tech is thinking the dr. will definitely change my due date this time, since she measured a week ahead at 12 weeks too. I'll find out tomorrow, as I go in for my 20 (now 21) week check-up with my doctor.

My Mom and I took the afternoon off and went shopping and starting registering - what a process! I must admit it's hard to not pick pink - but we've decided to not have pink in the nursery, at least not as a main color. It's not so easy to find things that aren't pink in the girl section. But it was fun - we bought a handful of "hard to refuse" outfits, and made a good dent in the registries. What a great day!

Here's a picture of how I announced the news to close friends and family: