They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but I’m not sure how much truth there is to that statement, especially when it comes to me and my mom. She’s awesome- selfless, patient, affectionate- and I’m… not. She decorates her house for almost every holiday and/or season, and I had a Christmas tree this year for the first time in four years (because she came over and put it up when I was out of town). Another area where we differ is travel- she has her spots she likes to go to and will go back whenever she gets a chance and won’t fly over water. I, on the other hand, had a conversation with Joel the other night where we agreed we have a lot of places we need to go before we go back to Boston (which is easily our favorite spot) and am planning a trip to Europe next summer.
Taking into account my mother’s travelling preferences, it’s not surprising that a lot of our vacations growing up were to landlocked places we’d repeat, and Seattle was not on the list. So despite it being a direct flight or a terrible but doable drive, I found myself at 27 years old never having been to the Emerald City, and I probably would have made it to 28 or even beyond if not for my younger sister, Bailey. She’d traveled with us on our long Boston/New York trip, so I knew she could hang for a trip with Joel and I, and an adventure seemed like a fun gift for her 18th birthday/graduation. (Remember that note about my mom being selfless? Yeah, a lot of the gifts I give also involve me doing the gift with them. I don’t even leave the “no truly selfless act” argument up for debate). I gave her a few options and thought she would for sure choose concert/Padres game/zoo in San Diego, but she surprised me and opted for a Red Sox series in Seattle. She’d actually been to Seattle before, but as a baby for a heart surgery, so Joel, a frequent Seattle visitor and reformed Mariners fan, was in for a long weekend with a couple of Seattle newbies!
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If a stadium changes names, does it now count as a different stadium? I did not factor in this possibility when making my corny stadium chaser rules, but alas, here we are. Safeco Field is no more. Instead, as of this winter, we now have T-Mobile Park. How much changes when a stadium name changes? Obviously, the signs promoting Safeco will change, but beyond that, is there more than your basic upkeep renovations? This is a real conundrum.
Have you found your vacation-length sweet spot? When planning a big trip, I often find myself landing on 9-10 days. Fly out Friday or Saturday, come home the following Sunday. Leaving Montana is expensive no matter where you’re heading, so I always feel like that’s the best way to make it worth the money. At this point we’d done a couple 10-day-ers, namely Mexico for our honeymoon and Boston and New York for our first big Red Sox Road Trip, and the signs were there that I had started playing with fire. I love Joel and always love doing fun things with him but going from hopefully seeing him for a few hours at night during a work week to spending every moment with him in an unfamiliar city and, more importantly, unfamiliar bed, things tend to get a little dicey around day 9. This is exacerbated by my obsessive need to plan every moment of the vacation and irrational anxiety around straying from said plan. Mexico had ended with a less than fun sushi dinner, and Boston/New York ended with tears at the airport, albeit not from Joel or me. Still, I probably should have known that a 10-day trip spanning 4 cities and 11 games (plus a bunch of other stuff) was too much. But if my inner voice was trying to warn me, I didn’t listen and instead proudly handed Joel our jam-packed itinerary at the beginning of the trip without a thought of anything going any way but perfectly.
To be completely honest, the trip was great. We saw great games, great cities, and ate great food. By Sunday, however, we were exhausted, missing our own bed and shower, and comparing every living creature to at least one of our dogs. Add in the fact that the breakfast place I’d planned had a 2-hour wait by the time we got there so we had to adjust our schedule (blasphemy!) and the Raiders (Joel’s team) lost an absolute heartbreaker on Sunday Night Football, and you had all the ingredients for a crappy last day of vacation. Still, though, we got to make our third trip to Little Caesar’s Arena and see how they dressed it up for the pre-Blake Griffin Pistons during Star Wars Night. |
AuthorJust a couple of sports fans touring the world, one stadium at a time. Archives
March 2023
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