That 70's Vacation - Railriders Game

My father's favorite baseball team is the NY Yankees. Up until recently, their AAA minor league affiliate team was the Columbus Clippers based in Columbus, Ohio. As of 2007, the Yankees are using the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team, who are currently called the Railriders, as their Triple-A affiliate.

So when we were going through Scranton, my father checked their game schedule. We saw that they had a home game the night we'd be there!

We didn't buy tickets in advance online as we weren't sure if we'd all go as a family or if just my father would go.

About 30 minutes before the game started, my mother decided she would come with him, so I had to tag along as well. Apparently it's illegal to leave a 3 year old by herself in a strange hotel in the state of Pennsylvania.

So we pulled up to PNC Field and paid the $2 for parking. Despite it being a minor league baseball team, the parking lot was full.

We forgot to recognize that Scranton/Wilkes-Barre isn't exactly a hotbed of nightlife so the Railrider games are probably the biggest activities going on here. Unfortunately, all the tickets for regular seats were sold out.

But fortunately, we were able to pick up a few Lawn Seats for $9/person. So we entered PNC Field and walked around a bit before finding our seats on the grass in right center field.

Around center field, they had a kid's play area with a bunch of inflatable activities, like bouncy houses and slides. For $5 per kid (free for adults), we spent a good hour here together. I didn't make any lifelong friends with the local Scrantonians, but there were tons of other kids (ages 3-12).

After it started to get dark, my father decided he wanted us to enjoy the actual game. So around the 4th inning, we went to grab some seats on the homerun side of the outfield wall where there were other couples and families relaxing on the grass on a perfectly cool summer night.

The Railriders won that game 12-2 over the Buffalo Bisons and clinched the International League North Divisional Title. Congrats, Railriders!

My First Mets Game

My parents are Yankees fans, especially now since there's a Korean rookie on the team, but last night, we took advantage of some cheap tickets for the Mets vs. Dodgers game.

Our seats weren't that great (upper, upper deck in far right field), but for less than $20 each, that's a great deal for major league baseball in New York City. Since they were so affordable, we decided to bring my grandmother too.

We decided to take the 7 Train out to Citi Field so that we'd arrive just before the first pitch. Tip: Definitely wait for the Express 7 Train as it's a lot faster than the local 7.

We entered around 6:45PM, so we had some time to visit the Mets Museum and the Team Store where I posed for a few pictures with a Mr. Met statue.

We then went over to the food court area out by center field. We skipped the Shake Shack and Blue Smoke options and went instead for the Pat LeFrieda Meatball sandwich ($14).

Our seats were in the upper deck and facing the setting sun, so we decided to take our time enjoying Citi Field and its amenities before taking our seats. I was able to take a few swings at the Kids ballpark near the food court.

Then we found a hidden little snack that was pretty unique in all our travels. Bacon on a stick by Pig Guy NYC. Not the cheapest bacon out there, but absolutely delicious.  We went with the Salted Caramel ($8.50).

Finally, we took our seats in Section 502, Row 11. While the baseball game was nice to watch, spending time with your family on a beautiful summer night was the real experience.

Mission Accomplished

Despite a crazy morning full of silent alarms, missed flights and frequent flyer miles, we made it safe and sound in Kansas City early Saturday afternoon.

So around 4:30PM Saturday, after we had a delicious BBQ lunch and checked into our hotel, my father and I decided to check out the hotel lounge for some afternoon refreshments. On the elevator ride up to the 41st floor, we ran into a couple dressed in Royals gear.

"Going to the game tonight?" my father nosily inquired.

"Yeah, we'll try to see if we can get a few innings in before the storm comes. They say it's not supposed to rain hard until later tonight," they politely responded. "We just bought tickets a few hours ago when we saw it was going to be clear for the first part of the game."

Lucky for them.

Unfortunately for us, the weather forecast was still ominous for our 2PM Sunday afternoon baseball game. There was a major thunderstorm (and flood warnings) due Saturday night, lasting through Sunday night.

That was a huge disappointment for my father. After all, the KC Royals game versus the in-state rival St. Louis Cardinals was the entire reason we came to Missouri in the first place.

So we head back down to our room and my father hopped on the computer. He wanted to see if there were any Saturday night tickets still available. Unfortunately, they weren't selling online anymore (this was 5:00PM before a 6:10PM game time).

Undaunted, my father asked my mother if we could all drop everything and rush over to Kauffman Stadium immediately. The plan was to try to buy scalped tickets in the parking lot assuming that there would be people not showing up given the weather forecast.

My mother said it wasn't a good idea to bring a 3.5 year old (no matter how adorable), so she suggested my father go alone. After all, it would be easier to get a single ticket than 3 together and if it started raining hard, they wouldn't have to deal with a drenched toddler getting sick.

Within seconds, he was on Uber.com looking up a fare estimate from our hotel to Kauffman Stadium. It came out to just $11-15 for UberX.

So he decided to go for it. 

Within 10 minutes, he was on his way down I-70 to see a game in the final Major League Baseball city on his list.

He told the Uber driver to drop him off across the highway by the gas station so that he wouldn't get stuck in the parking lot traffic. You can make out the gas station in the upper left corner of this photo next to the Four Points hotel. 

Eventually, my father found himself in front of the Right Field Gate and walked up the line asking if people were selling an extra ticket. He started to get worried as the Missourians just stared oddly at this short Asian fellow begging for a ticket to a sold out Royals-Cardinals game on a holiday weekend.

But then, my father spotted 4 guys just standing by themselves, not in line... He walked up and asked if they had an extra ticket. They did. In fact, they had a bunch of extras, as they bought a group package for a bachelor party, but not everyone could make it.

At first the scalper asked for $30. My father asked where the seat was. Section 427 (nose bleeds). He made his normal Asian face void of any emotion, which was interpreted by the white Missourian as an expression of disgust.

So then the scalper said he'd take $20, and my father hit the bid and even paid cash! The face value was actually $18, so not a bad deal at all.

After getting back in line, he was inside beautiful Kauffman Stadium. His first stop, the Gift Shop to see all the Royals merchandise. It's my father's way of jumping into the heart of the stadiums he visits. 

Soon after immersing himself in blue and white, he then looked for his seat in the upper, upper deck..

But what it lacked in visual detail of the actual players, the seat made up for it by giving you such a grand view of the beautiful Kansas City stadium.

So now my father has been to a Major League Baseball game in every single one of the 30 MLB cities. In case you don't have them memorized, they're shown below:

In approximate order:

1. New York Yankees
2. New York Mets
3. Chicago Cubs
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Milwaukee Brewers
6. Los Angeles Angels
7. Arizona Diamondbacks (Phoenix)
8. Houston Astros
9. Baltimore Orioles
10. Philadelphia Phillies
11. Boston Red Sox
12. Texas Rangers (Arlington)
13. San Diego Padres
14. San Francisco Giants
15. Pittsburgh Pirates
16. Los Angeles Dodgers
17. Seattle Mariners
18. Oakland A's
19. Toronto Blue Jays
20. Washington Nationals (DC)
21. Cleveland Indians
22. Detroit Tigers
23. Minnesota Twins (Minneapolis)*
24. St. Louis Cardinals
25. Cincinnati Reds
26. Tampa Bay Rays
27. Miami Marlins
28. Colorado Rockies
29. Atlanta Braves**
30. Kansas City Royals

* While my father has seen a Twins game at the old Metrodome, the Twins have a new stadium Target Field that he has yet to visit.

** Atlanta has announced they will build a new stadium to replace Turner Field in the next few years.

Bad Forecast for KC

This upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, we're supposed to fly to Kansas City, Missouri to catch a KC Royals game at Kaufman Stadium.

For you new Lap Child Diary readers, one of my father's lifelong goals (in addition to having an amazing daughter) was to watch a baseball game at each Major League Baseball stadium.

Here's a few posts from the past few years after I was born: Miami Marlins (2012), Colorado Rockies (2013), Atlanta Braves (2014).

After last year's trip, we were only missing two - Target Field in Minneapolis (Minnesota Twins) and Kaufman Stadium (Kansas City Royals). However, since my father had already seen a game at the Metrodome (former stadium of the Twins) back in 2008, Kansas City was the last MLB city he hasn't visited.

A few weeks ago, we purchased tickets from SeatGeek.com (sort of like an Expedia search engine for event tickets). That weekend was the in-state rival series with the St. Louis Cardinals, so tickets were pretty tight (and expensive). Plus the KC Royals are the defending American League Champions in the 2014 World Series and currently in 1st place in their division, so a sell out was very likely. We paid $37/person for the three of us to sit in the upper deck (section 420).

Normally, we'd try for better seats, but this is the first year I had to have a paid ticket to go with my parents, so that definitely played a factor in our seat selection, as we didn't want to spend $200+ for a (non-Yankees) baseball game.

However, as we check the weather, we're getting a bit worried that there's a good chance (60% according to weather.com) of a rain out on Sunday afternoon, which would really be disappointing considering the game was the primary reason for our trip there. I was starting to get pretty upset (being 3 years old and all).

That being said, my Asian father reminded me that 60% equates to a D- in school, so hardly meaningful. Plus, he's never been fond of weathermen. As he says, "I don't know of any other profession where you could be wrong so much of the time and still have a job."

That's my dad for you.

2015 Travel Plans

Apologies about not posting very much the past few months. We've actually been pretty busy as a family.

My father's been working a lot on a few different fronts, including his actual day job, the painting business (Five Star Painting IL) and his charity's big fundraiser coming up in April.

My mother's been taking some extra classes to improve her English reading and writing.

And I've been busy getting ready for the next 13 years of actual school.

But while we've been staying off the LCD Blog, we have been pretty active on Starwood's and United's websites. For the next few weeks, we've got some trips planned, including:

(1) Chicago Business Trip - We're going to visit my friends Jack & Connor while our fathers meet up for their business meetings over Easter Weekend. I'm very excited to see my Midwest besties. I haven't seen them for a few months when we were all down in Orlando.

(2) Toddler Spring Break - After the college and high school spring breaks finish up, Cancun goes back to "normal," and my family can enjoy the powdery sugar beaches and turquoise blue ocean. People always seem to make a funny face when my parents tell them we go to Cancun. Perhaps it's because Cancun has a trashy reputation for being a Girls Gone Wild/Spring Break cliché, but it's just so close and convenient. We much prefer it over the Caribbean islands. I haven't been since December 2012 when my father's side of the family all went down for Christmas. Wow, #TBT indeed.

(3) Daddy's Birthday Baseball Trip - As you long time readers know, we go away each Memorial Day Weekend for my father's birthday to a different MLB town and tick off a new stadium off his list. Last year, we were down in Atlanta to catch a Braves game. This year, we're heading to Kansas City to visit the defending AL Champion Royals at Kauffman Stadium. And it looks to be a great weekend, because they're playing their in-state rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mother's Day Weekend in Atlanta

Our weekend trip to Atlanta was three-fold.

First, my father wanted to knock off another Major League Baseball stadium off his list - one of his major personal goals in life.

During my first year of life (2012), he took me to my first baseball game in Miami's Marlin Park. Then last year (2013), he took my mother to Colorado's Coors Field, home of the Rockies. So on this trip, he went to see a Braves game at Turner Field - but without me and without my mother!

This time, he decided to take his friend John Mark instead of us. Our friend John Mark and my father went to the Braves-Cubs game on Friday night along with John Mark's sister Jenn who lived nearby.

Despite having a first place team, Atlanta fans weren't that into their hometown Braves, so tickets were somewhat easy to come by and at reasonable prices. For $45/ticket, my father and his friends sat Terrace Infield Section 205 in Row 12. As you can see from the photo here, they were pretty great seats. The same seats at Yankee Stadium in NYC would run at least $100+ each.

The game was pretty great (or so I heard) with the Cubs rallying in the 9th inning against the Brave's All-Star closer, Craig Kimbrel, to tie up the game and send it into extra innings. Then in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Braves' Freddy Freeman singled home the winning run from second to earn a walk off victory! So now, after Atlanta, my father has now been to 28 of the 30 major league stadiums. The only remaining ones being Minnesota and Kansas City, though since Turner Field will be replaced with a new stadium in a few years, we'll probably have to come back to Atlanta in 2017.

The second major reason we went down there was to experience Red Neck culture. For those of you who don't know what a Red Neck is, check out this Urban Dictionary definition.

So we could have driven around looking for wanna-be Honey Boo Boo families in the local trailer parks, but figured they wouldn't appreciate us driving up and taking photos of their double-wides. So instead we decided to go to Stone Mountain, so that we could get to see some Georgia sights as well as scope out the locals.

Stone Mountain Park is a park out in Dekalb County. Stone Mountain is the site of a famous giant carving commemorating the military leaders of the Confederacy (Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis). In case you can't appreciate the scale of the carving, it's 90' x190' in size (roughly the size of 2.5 football fields), making it the largest bas relief sculpture in the world.

In addition to looking at the relief from the ground, you can also take a trip to the top of the rock and get a 1,686 foot perspective over greater Atlanta. It costs around $10/person each way for the 2 minute ride, but it was pretty cool to see everything from the top.

  

Then during each evening at 9:30PM back on the ground, they have a laser light show set to Americana music using the Confederate Leader sculpture as the background. Unfortunately, that night it was pouring rain, so my father took me back to the car while our friends and my mother stayed out with umbrellas to watch the show. No that's dedication (if not a recipe for pneumonia)!

The next day, we were off to see the third reason we came down to Atlanta...