Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals 4-15-08

Busch Stadium is a very nice park in downtown St. Louis. It gets extra points for a spectacular center field view of the St. Louis skyline and the Arch. According to the stadium thermometer, the temperatures were in the low 60s at gametime and dropped to the mid-50s by the end of the game. I think they lied. It was cold enough to wrap ourselves in the Astros blankets. I bought Club Level seats ($60), glass enclosed area behind the seats with premium concessions, so we could have a warm area to sit if we needed it. WE NEEDED IT!

The game was close till the 8th inning. The Cards won 6 – 1 using good base running and lots of singles to score their runs. They got surprisingly good pitching from Braden Looper. It was Jackie Robinson Day throughout the Major Leagues today, so all the Cardinals wore 42. It made it hard for us out-of-towners to tell who the players were even with a scorecard.

Here’s a link to the boxscore:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_04_15_milmlb_slnmlb_1&mode=wrap

Here’s a link to the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

The hot dog rating – an “8” mine was a “7” and Nancy’s was a “9”. Lots of veggies, fresh bun, mustard in a gravy boat to spoon it on. Mine got downgraded 2 points because the hot dog was a bit on the cold side. Nancy went to a different vendor and heat wasn’t an issue.

Toronto Blue Jays @ Texas Rangers 4-13-08

We left Houston early yesterday (Sat 4/12) morning and stopped by Steve and Pam Bell's home in Tucker, Texas. It's a very beautiful home in the middle of nowhere ... just the way they like it.

We stopped in Plano to see our friend Joan Pennella.

We arrived in Dallas (actually Mckinney) late yesterday and stayed with our friends, Ted and Pat Baumgartner.

Onto the game. We heard nightmarish stories about the traffic at the Texas Rangers stadium primarily due to the construction of the new Cowboys stadium. Not true. Easy in; easy out! We did, however, have the worst ticket seller ever. It took him 20 minutes to figure out how to use the computer to get our tickets. We ended up with great seats ... 4 rows from the field behind homeplate.

It was a gorgeous day and a great game, too! Toronto won 5-4 in 10 innings. An aside --- the Star Spangled Banner was sung by kids from the Levine Academy, a Jewish Middle School; which was only fitting since the Rangers' starting pitcher was Scott Feldman. For you Reds' fans, Josh Hamilton (ex-Red) hit a homerun and made several nice plays in right field.

Here's a link to the boxscore:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2008_04_13_tormlb_texmlb_1

Here's a link to the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

The hotdog --- I rated mine a "6", good, but nothing special. Nancy rated hers a "3" -- it was cold, as was the Coors Light!

Florida Marlins @ Houston Astros 4-11-08

Minute Maid Park in Houston is a beautiful and distinctive stadium in downtown Houston. Easy to get around, plenty of parking. The stadium doesn’t look like a stadium except for the numerous, bright lights. It’s gorgeous inside as well. Wide aisles, comfortable seats, lots of food choices. Two distinctive features …. The train that runs along the left field wall and an office building past left field that allows rooftop viewing of the ball game (and there were about 100 people watching this game from there). Oh, and they’ve put up a sign on the office building showing it is 422 ft from home plate. Very cool.

They had a giveaway at this game. We are now the proud owners of 2 Astros stadium blankets

It was an absolutely gorgeous night. A beautiful sky; temps in the 70s at game time. The game was a homer fest. The Marlins out-homered the Astros 6 to 2 and won the game 10 – 6. Roy Oswalt, the Astros ace, gave up a career high of 4 home runs. My favorite was a Jorge Cantu (the ex-Red) shot that went out of the stadium over the left field wall. The left fielder never moved. The blankets came in handy as the temps dipped into the 50s by the 8th inning (I’d like to thank the Houston Astros for being so considerate).

Here’s a link to the box score:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_04_11_flomlb_houmlb_1&mode=wrap

Here’s a link to our pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

Now, for the all important hot dog rating: "8" -- lots of goodies, grilled peppers and onions. Slight downgrade because my bun fell apart and I had to eat the dog with my right hand and the veggies and bun with my left.

New Orleans 4-10-08

On the way to Houston, we stopped in New Orleans to recapture the memories of too many Mardi Gras weekends so many years ago. Nancy and I walked the French Quarter and the riverwalk. We heard some calliope music from the steamboat Natchez (I’ll bet most of you didn’t know I love calliope music – there’s just something about the sound that reminds me of summer and it’s just so light and bouncy). We stopped at Café Du Monde for coffee and beignets – the best. We then went to Pat O’Brien’s Piano Bar, our favorite haunt during Mardi Gras. Nancy had a Hurricane; I had a Sprite (how times have changed). The old “trayman”, Eddie Gabriel, is no longer there. He passed away in 2005 at age 95. He’s been replaced by Alvin Babineau, so the tradition continues.

We then went to a new place, Café Beignet, an open air place for jazz and jambalaya and gumbo. We had a great time just sitting and listening and eating. I love New Orleans.

Here’s a link to our pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/photolibrary/t_=98074769

Bellingrath Gardens 4-10-08

If you ever pass thru Mobile, Alabama, take the time to stop at Bellingrath Gardens. Walter Bellingrath was one of the original Coca-Cola bottlers. He purchased land along the Fowl River. His wife decided to create the gardens. He later decided to build their home on the site.

There are 3 parts to the tour --- the acres and acres of gardens (very pretty); the home (well done with lots of antiques and surprisingly modern appointments); and a riverboat tour of the Fowl River (lots of native wildlife). The whole tour took about 4 hours.

Here’s a link to some pictures (an aside to my son, Rob --- I’ve decided to put the pictures of the museums and such on Snapfish and the baseball stadiums on Flickr so I don’t exceed the download limits on each site):
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=208649539/a=98074769_98074769/t_=98074769

Seattle Mariners vs. Tampa Bay Rays 4-8-08

Tropicana Field was sold out for opening day. It happens so infrequently that they weren’t prepared for the crowd. Too few ticket takers and security guys. It took us 20 minutes to get into the stadium. Once inside, it was hard to navigate the narrow walkways. But, once we got to our seats, it was ok. We sat behind 3rd base on the first level for $26. A bargain. The Trop is a domed stadium so it was nice inside despite it being a hot Florida night.

Nancy enjoyed the Ted Williams museum at the field and the aquarium filled with Stingrays (get it?)

The game was actually pretty entertaining. It was close all the way. A couple of questionable umpire calls riled up the crowd. We saw our first ejection of the tour (TB manager Joe Maddon for arguing an out call at 3rd base (BJ Upton beat the throw, but Adrian Beltre blocked the base – I thought he was out).

Seattle won 6 – 5. Here’s a link to the box score:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2008_04_08_seamlb_tbamlb_1

Here’s a link to our pictures (the non-baseball pictures are from the pier in St. Petersburg):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

As for the hot dog – an “8”. We had a footlong with sauerkraut. Good taste. One extra point for the freshest bun ever.

Ringling Museum 4-7-08

As part of the Mayflower Compact and the "Agreement de Baseball Stadium Trip", Nancy agreed to go on this trip if we also stopped at museums and National Parks. Today, on our travel towards Tampa, we stopped in Sarasota to see the Ringling Museum. This is actually a compound with the Ringling Estate (Ca d'Zan), the Circus Museum, an Art Museum (with John Ringling's extensive art collection), and Mable Ringling's gardens.

Given Nancy's penchant for roses, we spent a lot of time in the rose garden. The circus memorabilia was spectacular; the grounds were beautiful; and we enjoyed the 22 large galleries of art (the Grandma Moses exhibit was especially good). It was a very worthwhile stopover.

Here's a link to some pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=208633098/a=98074769_98074769/t_=98074769