28 June 2012

Go 'Stros

On our last full day in Texas, we played on the beach by day and in the afternoon, we headed to the big city of Houston.  Houston really is big.  I was surprised at the size of the buildings and the amount of traffic.  Of course, it was late Friday afternoon and the Houstonites were all on the move.  In the downtown area, there were shadows, but no trees.  The buildings were all so tall they made canyons for the streets.  I wouldn't want to live in a big city, but, it was fun to visit.
Once we found our parking space, we made out way into Minute Maid Park.  The ballpark is pretty new, and I was impressed with how airy and spacious it was.  We found our seats, got some ballpark food for supper and we settled in to watch the game.  The Astros played the Cincinnati Reds.  I think I actually sat and watched about three at-bats.  Most of the game I spent walking around with Charlotte and Josephine.  Rachel and Samantha weren't interested in the game at all, so after they ate, they walked around and checked out all the decks.  They actually sat and watched about half of the game, asking questions and getting into the music and filler stuff that live baseball games use to keep everyone entertained between batters.  The "Kiss Cam" showed a guy asking a girl to marry him and she said yes.  Rachel and Samantha decided that's cool if you're a baseball fan, but, it's not how they imagine being proposed to!  Jay Michael was entranced by live baseball and was great company for James, who really wanted to see the game itself.  While I was exploring with Charlotte and Josephine, we found the play area - amazing.  It was a huge indoor playground with a baseball theme, of course.  It was about four stories high, full of slides and bridges.  It closed during the seven-inning stretch, so we headed back to watch the last play of the game.  Reds over Astros - 4-0.  Oh well. 



This is our view from behind the right-field pitcher's warm up area.

The whole ballpark is air conditioned, but, the roof is retractable.  At the end of the game, the next show began - fireworks!  In this picture it's hard to tell, but, those lights are on the top layer of the stadium seating and the roof rolled along the very top until it disappeared into itself like a collapsed telescope.  I went up to the higest level to take this picture and it doesn't do it justice.  This place is huge!

0 screams from the fans...: