Well, I guess I'll start off by answering Jacqueline's question. We've run into a few good food stops at the ballparks, like Sheriff Blalock's Nachos in Houston and the Brave's Chophouse in Atlanta. Every stadium seems to have one unique thing, which is pretty fun to look at. As you can imagine, we're on a tight budget so we usually don't get the luxury of eating all of those specialties, but that we aren't very disappointed because of it. I mean, they had garlic fries in San Diego and Los Angeles, but I didn't even bother with them because once you've had Gilroy Garlic Fries at Pac Bell, everything else is just an imitation.
The one thing we have eaten at every ballpark is hot dogs. Now, we can all agree that hot dogs are not really gourmet food items and you don't have to do much to make a decent hot dog. But in our travels we have discovered that there are a lot of things that you can do to screw up a hot dog. Maybe we're just picky eaters, but Dan distinctly remembers the Dodgers Dogs were not up to par. They had been sitting under heat lamps for god knows how long which made for soggy bread and bland taste. I hope that gives you all a good sense of food at the ballparks.
Right now we're in St. Petersburg, Florida, home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Our time in Florida has been interesting so far. After our 9-hour drive from Atlanta we checked into the Days Inn. We were pretty excited about the hotel because we got it at the very reasonable price of $50. But we quickly came to find out that the room was worth no more that $50. The first room they put us in hadn't been turned over from the last occupants, and the second room had iffy plumbing to say the least. And yesterday we left the Clearwater Threshers game early went the game was postponed at the end of the 8th inning due to thunderstorm warnings. So we stayed long enough to get our Ryan Howard bobble heads and a couple souvenir cups, and then hit the road.
And our weekend is probably only going to get more interesting as we drive 250 miles to make it for the 1:00 AM first pitch tomorrow in Miami and then drive another 350 miles to the Florida border after the game. That means in the next thirty some hours we are going to drive 600 miles, watch to baseball games, and try to get some decent rest.
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4 comments:
florida is a good place to be able to check off your list and never return. just no good reason, really. if you end up with cooties from that cheap hotel, i promise i won't say i told you so. i'll just say i thought i raised you with a more discerning eye.
enjoy the ride, you fortunate young lads!
anonymom
I got a tiny taste of your odyssey - 500 miles down to see the Padres and the Red Sox play at the new Petco Park on Saturday night (they lost) and Sunday afternoon (they won). Petco Park, while pretty, had no easy way to get up and down the levels - a little baby escalator, lots of stairs, maybe a ramp somewhere. The food was also extremely mundane, mostly hot dogs and variations thereof - strange in California. The park has a little of the feel of ATT Park because of the closeness you feel to the diamond, even on the third deck.
I know the tickets Steve won the opportunity to buy in the lottery were valuable. One guy was offering $400.00 for a pair but he had no takers. The crowds made the games interesting. On Saturday night it was a beer fest - yuk. I think half the capacity crowd on both days wore Red Sox gear. The Padres fans were undecorated, mostly. Whole sections would boo if they saw a Yankees cap go by and interesting enough, the wearers would jeer back!
On Sunday the game was much more normal although it was a fashion show for infant and toddler Red Sox gear. I think Red Sox Nation starts on their young at about 3 months of age. We drove back on Sunday night, arriving around 2:00am.
A highlight of the games was watching Manny and Popi play mostly because I was making dog associations and Steve thought of another very viable Red Sox dog name, Tek. I did pay enough attention to not read my mystery novel, cleverly hidden in a program.
So ends my baseball odyssey.
Dan,
Looking forward to seeing you in Boston. I'll email my phone number to you and maybe we can get together on Monday night, 7/2, and have you guys over for dinner. I'll give you the tickets to the Sox/Drays game that night.
Hope all is well.
John
Thanks for putting my food questions to rest. Glad to hear you are still faithfull to SF garlic fries. I totally understand eating on a budget...try it when you have to worry about the Euro-dollar conversion rate. Ekks. Hope you're not sick of baseball yet...jk I know that isn't even possiable...
-Jacqueline
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