Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Play Ball!

To continue the saga of our Dallas trip, after perusing the livestock, hitting the bar and two-stepping, we piled into the truck and headed for Arlington to see the Texas Rangers play ball.

I love this stadium. It is about thirteen years old and was one of the first to adopt the "old-time" ballpark look, similar to how the new Busch Stadium was constructed. The new Texas Stadium, where the Cowboys play, is currently under construction near the ballpark. Hopefully the City of Arlington will be more successful at implementing their business and condo construction plans than St. Louis' Ballpark Village turned out (fishing in Lake DeWitt, anyone?).

Ahem.

Anyway, as you enter the stadium, they have games for the kids to play. Of course, Maddy tried them all. We also had our picture taken with the Nolan Ryan statue. He's my favorite ball player. I named my greyhound for him. Ironically, Nolan Ryan owns a minor league team named The Rockhounds. Coincidence?

We headed to the seats, which were on the second level, second row, overlooking first base. They were decent seats. My Uncle Tony was eyeballing a group of better seats over on the third base side, so after the third inning, we headed over there. We're seat pirates, we're not proud.

He has a "connection" into the Jose Cuervo Club, so after the fourth inning, and before the imminent rain started, we headed to the club. Luckily we grabbed a table just as another group was vacating it. I was hoping they all hadn't decided to head to the bathroom at once. That would have been awkward.

My uncle also knew one of the ushers in the VIP section, and she was kind enough to let Maddy stand over out of the way and watch the game through the big window. Eventually, the VIP seats started to clear out and Maddy was able to sit in the leather recliners up on the glass. I even brought her a soda. Such service for the princess!

After the game was over, (we lost), they had fireworks. We went back down to the seats and ooohed and ahhhed over the fireworks. I need to learn how to photograph fireworks, because out of the 945 pictures I took, 5 were clear. Craig asked if I'd like to watch the actual fireworks instead of seeing them through the viewfinder. I am a dork.

We were hungry post-game, so my uncle took us to my favorite place, Whataburger. Sadly, they're only in the South. Dang it. They are fantastic. I don't know what makes them so special, other than I don't eat them once a week, so maybe that's the attraction.

We headed back to the house, ate our Whataburgers, and hit the hay. It had been a long day.

Tomorrow, Sunday's trip to the Galleria and our flight home. Good times.

Pics up on Flickr.

6 comments:

Liz said...

Nolan Ryan is also my husband's favorite ball player.

Beth said...

We had our picture taken in front of that same statue in 2006! And yes, I agree the games for kids were awesome!

Jill of All Trades said...

What fun. The Hubby took me to see the St. Louis Cardinals for my 50th birthday...um 2 years ago...it was my first professional baseball game and was AWESOME and they won that day and took the World Series. Very awesome.

Anonymous said...

Whataburger to you is what In N Out Burger is to me. They're only in California, and whenever we visit my sister, we hit them up three or four times. I don't know what it is about them, but their burgers are so good. Simple. No frills, like a frickin' prime rib burger with onion peels on it or some crazy shit like that. And they are heavenly.

Sounds like a fun trip.

MamaB said...

I totally hear you on the Whataburger, I would stop at them when I was storm chasing with the Mizzou crew in college. Now that I'm in Reno, I yearn for Steak n Shake like you do for Whataburger.

Andrea - We have In and Out Burger in Reno, and it is our favorite burger place here. Fantastic!

Kim - If you get to San Diego this summer see if they have one close by it is work the trip, just ask to have your onions grilled because they won't offer.

Zookeeper said...

We love Whataburgers too! My grandma lives in Texas, and we go there at least once or twice every time we visit. Mmmm...it's making me hungry just thinking about it!