Friday, August 27, 2010
Typical Day In SF
So this day was crazy as hell, and way drunker than I thought it would be. Mr. Carl Morse and I head out to the game against the hated Dodgers. I’ve got a sign that says 11,435 miles, 30 stadiums, 1 place called home!!! We start out at Java house right behind the ballpark for PBR’s and hotdogs at 11in the morning. It’s $8 for that special. Not the greatest but its some substance and cheap beers. If you ever get there early go to Delancey Street, cheap and good food. We pound back a couple beers and I still have some vodka left over from Chicago and my flask is filled with Makers. Not a great combo but its Giants/Dodgers!!! We buy the cheapest tickets which are to damn expensive but this premium pricing makes all good games cost a shit ton. We are gonna sit in the bleachers anyway. We sit down and keep getting moved from seat to seat. For some reason the usher keeps seeing us move but doesn’t seem to care. We buy some soda to help with the shitty vodka and Makers. The damn soda is almost as expensive as the beers here. We start pounding back booze by the 2nd inning. Grabbing $8 beers and mixing it with booze is working for the buzz but not for the Smurfs (Dodger or Dodger fans) around us. I was figuring there would be a lot more but Giants fans are holding it down today. We start getting our ass kicked and Carl and I would rather walk around the stadium smoking and yelling at Smurfs. We post up in the Arcade and I hold my sign up. Every Smurf who passes us by, adult, elderly, kid or child in a stroller I roll up my sign and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Most took it well. They know they are in our stadium and them winning wasn’t helping my case. But we get some help from people walking by and they stand with us. A couple Smurfs end up taking it well and stand next to us to boo us. But being as fucked up as we are and booing kids in strollers, them talking doesn’t really mean much now does it? The game ends we lose like 8 – 1 or something, I stopped caring after the flask was gone. We head to the bathroom and run into this big fucking dodger fan. Not like he likes them a whole lot, which I’m sure he did but this guy is probably about 6’6 400 and we start yelling at him in the bathroom. Nice friendly banter. We tell everyone in there he is buying drinks at Momo’s, he didn’t like that to much or follow through with it. LOL I run into Kyle the hostess from works bf, and he is about as drunk and happy as we are. I know a guy at Momo’s so we decide to meet there, cause we haven’t had enough to kill the pain of the sweep. I didn’t think that my bad luck watching the Giants would go against us today. I thought I had statistics and my home winning percentage on my side. But my bad luck prevails. I have now seen them lose 5 times in 4 cities. Let’s go drown our sorrows. We head over to Momo’s and I see the guy I know. Beers and shots of Fernet. Blah!!!! Fucking Fernet. The worst liquor ever. What is the fascination?? It’s never made my stomach feel better after drinking it. We stick around a little and have more shots and beer and one more shot and beers. The day has to be over right?? NO!!! My sorrows are still around. To Tres Agave it is. We meet Amanda and Kyle there. Clarissa, Carl’s fiancé arrives and pitchers of tequila and shots of margarita’s flow. Well that’s how it felt. I stopped remembering most of this place as soon as we got our first pitcher of Margarita’s I was filled in by Amanda a couple days later about, shots?, breaking glass?, some girl I was talking to, who was a bitch? And wearing a Panda hat. After the refresher course it all started to come back. Pictures didn’t hurt either. Well they did cause WOW!!! They were some ugly pictures. It’s looked like they were taken out of a bad drunken movie. These are ridiculous. Apparently after the pitcher or glass or whatever broke we left. But finished?? I think not. We jump on reliable MUNI to get closer to home. It breaks down somewhere downtown and I have the great idea to go with my thoughts on the rest of the trip…”We were supposed to get off here and go to Gitane.” Of course, why not go to a really nice restaurant dressed in Giants gear, liquored up from 10 hours of drinking. I had to ask the owner a week later if we were ok. Apparently we were, ok. Not bad but not good, he could tell it had been a long day. We at least had the presence of mind to eat a little, since all we had had all day was chips from Tres. A beer later and we get the fuck out of there and head home!!! I show up at the parents house and it’s like being in high school. I can’t talk and I need food bad. My mom cooks me up something, I truly can’t remember. Thank God for good parents. I think I hit my pillow at like 12. Crazy ass day and night. But this is mostly a typical drinking day in SF with my friends and I. Damn I missed it. I love SF more than anything. Nobody can ever tell me there is a better city than this, at least not in this country. We have it all, and most of it is good. I have my qualms with the politics and some of the people here but everyone has their dislikes in their town. But I live in the best city in the world and I beg you to try and convince me otherwise. I have one more stop, and that is to go back to Detroit to go see the game I was rained out of, on my way to Canton to go see Jerry Rice get enshrined into the Football Hall of Fame.
Joke Land
There is a reason I don’t go across the bay all that often. Cause it is horrible. But at least I’m a short drive away from home and I don’t have to stay in this God awful town. I call up Steve and plan on getting over there and having some drinks and then tailgating before the game. We drive up and try to give the guy some money for parking, he says hell no man it’s free parking Tuesday. Well awesome!!! At least something is going well in Oakland so far. We park in all of our Giants gear for the A’s, Reds game. And as we get out the first thing we hear is “Hey did you guys make a wrong turn??” HAHA so hilarious. We crack open some beers and listen to the Giants games at full blast as A’s fans pass us by. We have some degenerate crack-head asshole come up and sell us tickets we pay $15 for 2 tickets. We get in their and walk around trying to pick out perfect $7.50 tickets. We have some Coors Light in our pockets and are ready for a shitty ass A’s game. We sit around booing the A’s as much as we can. I think they can hear us on the field since there are about 22 people in the stadium. We take a walk around and find a place upstairs that has $5 beers. We get a round and at this point we’ve spent more money on the 12 pack than we have at and for the game. People don’t much like us but fuck them they are Oakland fans. They of course ruin my home field win percentage. And all in all a wasted day as I knew it was going to be. This is almost as bad as Detroit but I didn’t have to stay in Detroit this long. We head back to the house and then back home. Was pretty fun doing a little tailgating and hanging out drink but I hate Oakland. This is probably the shortest blog I’ve written.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Sleepless in Seattle (Well Close)
What a great little big city they have here. It wasn’t anything amazingly fun packed like the rest of the trip but a good part of the trip nonetheless. Pops and I flew in on a Friday and we stayed outside of the city near the airport in a podunk ass town pretty much like South City here. The flight up was quite cool. The pilot got the OK to take the scenic tour out of town. We went all around the bay being able to see The City with a birds eye view. Would have gotten some better pics but the windows were disgusting. I did get some decent ones though. They also gave us a complimentary beer on the flight to our transfer in Portland. I thought that only happened on your way to Europe. We got up to Seattle and jumped right back into trip mode. Going to the hotel bar and grabbing a quick bite and drink, before we go get ready and go head out to see the town and get some good food. The city was about 15 min out but not too bad of a drive in. A little traffic and apparently getting worse by the year from what the locals say. We went to a steak house in downtown Seattle named Metropolitan. The Lakers – Celtics game 7 was on so it was pretty well packed. Apparently Bostonians aren’t only in SF they are in Seattle also. Why don’t they just stay in Boston??!! We of course had some good steak and drinks. The bartender was helpful, telling us which places I had picked out were good to go to. So we headed around town. Unfortunately it is quite hard to get my dad’s walker around in this town. There are a lot of steps and no elevator and not much room in these places to put his gear. So I had a chauffer for the night. We first headed to a place called Zig-Zag Café. They had some really cool drinks in there and it was more like a restaurant than a speakeasy where you would expect to find really nice drinks. The only problem with that is that more people are around and more people want drinks, which means that 10 min cocktail turns into a 20 min cocktail. This wasn’t as bad as that, but I kinda get scared walking into places like that, but just assume you are gonna have to wait a while for a drink. I had a few drinks, mixing it up between Bourbon and Tequila. The bartender bought me the drinks cause he is coming into SF soon and was hoping for some places to go. I dropped a 20 which is cheaper than 2 drinks and a tip. I’m gonna take this time to instruct people… If a bartender buys you a drink it’s not cuase he doesn’t want a tip. Well for the ladies he might want to give you a tip, but as a good rule whatever the drink would have cost you drop him half maybe 40%. $10 drink means $4 or $5. I jumped in the car feeling very good. We headed to the Bathtub Gin and Co. This is a 2 level spot but still only holds like 40 people. Nice little place very good drinks but not a huge drink list. I go with whatever the bartender wants to make in situations I find I don’t really like the drinks on the list. At this point I’m sloshed, hammered, fucked up. I have to get out of here. Jump in the car and pops drives us back to the hotel. I’m barely able to move. Its nice having someone there with you, you can kinda relax even more.
The next day is a rough one. I need water, water, water!!!! We head to the ballpark to get tickets and we see people already sitting in front of the stadium for a 7:05 game. We find out its Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro bobble head day, so the game is almost sold out. The Pyramid Brewery which is right across the street from the stadium with parking looks like a good stop for lunch and to wait for the game to start. I need Pepsi and can’t think about having a beer just yet. Sugar seems to help in this situation. I’m chugging water and soda. Finally I get the courage to have a beer and things start to get normal. Pretty decent food and the beer is the same as it is everywhere else I’ve had it. The smell of brewery isn’t the best for someone very hung over. About 5 hours before the game the line is getting very long and I figure I’m this close I might as well stand in line and get the bobble head. But I find out I didn’t need to. With my dad have his little walker we go straight to the front of the line. But then it’s 3 hours of sitting in the stadium with not much to do and still not feeling that much better. The game looks to be a good one. We get to see Cliff Lee in one of his last starts as a Mariner. And it was a doosey. He pitched very well, a complete game shutout. Very cool to see. It takes us a while to get out of the stadium, and we get to the car and we got a ticket for not paying enough for the parking spot. But we paid what was marked and apparently at some point they changed the sign to $40 instead of $10. Small problem so we get moving and go check out the Space Needle, take a couple pics and then head to the Knee High Stocking Co. It is a really cool spot that you wouldn’t know it was anymore than a broken down house. But you ring the bell and they take your name and number. They don’t allow people to stand at the bar, so they give us a call when they are ready for us. We walk in and it’s a 20 seat place with 6 at the bar. A huge dink menu and a small food menu. The drinks are off the chart, the food on the other hand needs a lot of help. More Mac and Cheese, that needs a lot of help to be even close to below avg. They also have a cheese platter that has cheddar and blue on it and just not well put together at all and not very tasty. Very hard to do with a cheese platter. But it’s about booze there not food. We find out the reason why the place is called Knee High. Apparently the owners went to Asia and one of the bars that they went to was run by people who were knee high (midgets), and I think that place was also called Knee High. They liked it so much they called it that in homage. We finish up close to 2 and head to bed. We head home in the morning. I’ve never ran into the same guy working at the airport before but the bartender coming in was the same as going out. Very small airport in Portland.
Very cool city and would go back. It gave me a lot of business ideas for my next bar. And a lot of ideas for drinks now and later. Very clean city as well. I do have to go down to Pikes place and see all the seafood stuff happen next time though.
The next day is a rough one. I need water, water, water!!!! We head to the ballpark to get tickets and we see people already sitting in front of the stadium for a 7:05 game. We find out its Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro bobble head day, so the game is almost sold out. The Pyramid Brewery which is right across the street from the stadium with parking looks like a good stop for lunch and to wait for the game to start. I need Pepsi and can’t think about having a beer just yet. Sugar seems to help in this situation. I’m chugging water and soda. Finally I get the courage to have a beer and things start to get normal. Pretty decent food and the beer is the same as it is everywhere else I’ve had it. The smell of brewery isn’t the best for someone very hung over. About 5 hours before the game the line is getting very long and I figure I’m this close I might as well stand in line and get the bobble head. But I find out I didn’t need to. With my dad have his little walker we go straight to the front of the line. But then it’s 3 hours of sitting in the stadium with not much to do and still not feeling that much better. The game looks to be a good one. We get to see Cliff Lee in one of his last starts as a Mariner. And it was a doosey. He pitched very well, a complete game shutout. Very cool to see. It takes us a while to get out of the stadium, and we get to the car and we got a ticket for not paying enough for the parking spot. But we paid what was marked and apparently at some point they changed the sign to $40 instead of $10. Small problem so we get moving and go check out the Space Needle, take a couple pics and then head to the Knee High Stocking Co. It is a really cool spot that you wouldn’t know it was anymore than a broken down house. But you ring the bell and they take your name and number. They don’t allow people to stand at the bar, so they give us a call when they are ready for us. We walk in and it’s a 20 seat place with 6 at the bar. A huge dink menu and a small food menu. The drinks are off the chart, the food on the other hand needs a lot of help. More Mac and Cheese, that needs a lot of help to be even close to below avg. They also have a cheese platter that has cheddar and blue on it and just not well put together at all and not very tasty. Very hard to do with a cheese platter. But it’s about booze there not food. We find out the reason why the place is called Knee High. Apparently the owners went to Asia and one of the bars that they went to was run by people who were knee high (midgets), and I think that place was also called Knee High. They liked it so much they called it that in homage. We finish up close to 2 and head to bed. We head home in the morning. I’ve never ran into the same guy working at the airport before but the bartender coming in was the same as going out. Very small airport in Portland.
Very cool city and would go back. It gave me a lot of business ideas for my next bar. And a lot of ideas for drinks now and later. Very clean city as well. I do have to go down to Pikes place and see all the seafood stuff happen next time though.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Rocky Mtn High: Home Sweet Home
I want to get to Denver pretty early since it is a Saturday, and there haven’t been many weekend nights I’ve been able to hang out. I have a place picked out for dinner already. So we are ready to go we just need to pull into town get dressed and head out. The drive is long but goes by pretty quick. Which is shocking since, we had to drive through the desolate land that is Kansas and the eastern part of CO. There is less than nothing here. It’s not as bad as New Mexico, but it’s bad. Grass fields all around. We drive right though, grabbing some convenient store food. We arrive in Denver around 6. Perfect time to get dressed and get dinner. I ask the consider about a place to eat that has some exotic meat, maybe not exotic but more like buffalo, or more gamier meats. He gives us one that is called the Buckhorn, which is one of the oldest places in Denver. It has the 1st liquor license in Denver. But they are so he makes us a reservation for tomorrow. I tell him what I have planned and he tells me different places to go, which is a bad idea. I’ve been going on my own this whole time, I go where I’m kinda pushed to (karma, God whatever). But it works when I choose stuff for myself. This guy tells us that the Capitol Grille is a chain kinda like Morton’s and if you want to go to a place that’s more family owned go to Prime. What he doesn’t tell us is that there are 2 Prime restaurants within a lock and a half of each other. And of course we go into the wrong one. Not really a shit hole but nothing greatly average. And who is behind the bar?? You guessed it. I don’t know what to do with myself here. It really sucks to feel like this. And to see this happen time after time. The fact that I’m not deterred from going in to a place that has to say something, I keep trying and hoping for the best. It’s not much different in the city either. Anyway the food turns out better than I thought just looking at the place. We eat and pops and I part ways. I want to check out downtown and walk around to a bunch of bars and the district we are in is that kind of place. It’s got a piano bar, clubs and Irish pubs. Walking around I find that this isn’t my scene. Not by myself at least. It’s another one of those Jager types of towns. College town type with jager and cover charges. And I don’t go to places with cover charges. There are way too many places to go, that are just as good if not better than the places you spent money to go to. I go into bar after bar, looking for a cool place. There are a lot of places but on a Saturday night everyone is either on a date or out with a bunch of friends. So to strike up convo with people is a little harder. I took in the city and went to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Waking up early and driving long distances can really take it out of you.
Now the only thing I care to do in Denver is see the game and go to the brewery that has mad either beer I’ve been drinking for over a decade now. Jesus!!! A decade?? I wish I could say I’m getting old but I still feel like I’m 18. And once I get back to work and my brain starts to work again, I’ll feel even better. Not many people hope to get back to work. But when you serve booze, food, get to talk to a bunch of people, and get tipped to do it, there’s no better job in the world. Especially when I get to go back to 1300 and make up my own drinks, or maybe steal a couple from this trip and put it on my drink list. We drive to Golden where the brewery is and its majestic LOL. The tour quite boring and uninformative but they give you a sippey cup of Coors leaded or Coors Light half way through your tour. And at the end they give you up to 3 10 oz beers, that’s if you want to stand in the 10 – 15 min line to get a free Coors Light, instead of go to downtown Golden and get one for $1.75. I’ll spend the money. Even though I did stand in line twice. I had to try the Blue Moon, which I didn’t know Coors made and I’ve loved it for a long time. And I needed to try a Coors Light straight from the source. It taste’s the same. I don’t know what I was expecting. We go into Golden for lunch and the trend of niceness, and good food for close to nothing continues. Little bite hear and take the rest to the room cause we are having at least buffalo tonight if not something a little more “exotic”. We head over to it after more relaxing at the pool which is up on the 6 floor and outside. Little windy up there but the 95 degree sun makes that point almost moot. This place is tucked away in a long forgotten part of town. It looked like the only business within at least a 10 block radius. This place is covered in heads body’s of animals. There is even a stuffed seal!! I wasn’t expecting that one at all. They have a special that is elk and buffalo. Awesome 2 things I wanted in one. The elk is really good, but gamey. As it’s supposed to be. A little tough but still delicious. It’s got a peppercorn crust on it that is delightful. The buffalo was so tender and what was on it escapes me but was one of the best pieces of meat I’ve ever eaten. You almost only need a spoon to cut it. I drank a drink that was called the Buffalo Bill. They have been drinking it there for over 100 years. Fucking lairs. It was bourbon and apple juice. Once they finally brought it out he tell me that it used to be apple cider and bourbon not apple juice which makes sense but don’t put on your menu this is what has been drank here for over a 100 years when it has not. The place was a good tourist thing to see, so at least grab a drink in history. We head out to a couple different places. This city isn’t a great cocktail city. We stop at an Irish bar called the Pourhouse. Great name BTW. Meet a couple people. Who tell me a couple different places to go, but most of them are just local places to hang out and have a beer. They are coming to SF next week and since ill be working on June 14th I think I was able to pull a bachelorette party for my one say working. It’ll be an interesting night if they actually show up. We also go to a place called Lola’s that has some decent drinks and a whole bunch on tequila. That’s a nice change up. Everything during the week here shuts down at 10 -11 so not much time after a dinner to get around town. We head back to the hotel bar and relax there for a couple. Tomorrow is the game and I’m stoked for the last game on the road trip.
Another day of relaxation ahead. All we need to do is be at the game by 6:40. So a little lunch and go get the tickets. If you are interested though I did find out that there is a micro-brewery tour. Apparently there is a ton of breweries in this town. We went to one of them. Some decent beer. Had a honey agave one, and a pilsner. Pops had a porter which is way too dark for me. Good food to. It was like a Mexican food and American food restaurant. Nice little change. I didn’t have Mexican when I was in SD, and finally had a burrito. It was about as big as my leg. We grabbed our tickets and went right back to the hotel and the pool. After more relaxation we drove over to the game. The stadium is almost downtown. We run in there and are sitting right behind the plate, upstairs. But not even 1 foul ball even close. The stadium is quite large. It has a nice forest in center field. And the only place I know that has stands in centerfield and they are up there. The top of them is almost a mile high. Also cool, the mile high line seats are purple. It’s a very cool looking stadium. There isn’t much to it. It was one of the first new stadiums built in this new era of stadiums. I think this one came after the Baltimore one. We sat down and Pedro Feliz came up to bat and I always boo him but I think a Rockies fan thought I was booing the Rockies, so I got my first ever thing thrown at me. It was just a half a peanut but still, I wasn’t expecting that in Denver. The game is what I expected though. They were playing the Astros so knew who was winning this one. I was hoping for 3 home losses in 3 games but that didn’t come close to happening. The Astros got like 5 hits and the Rockies came out swinging. There were a good amount of fans at this stadium. For a Monday night game against the Astros I was surprised at that many people. They win making the road trip come to a close with a 22 – 6 for home teams. That’s ridiculous. That’s 79% winning percentage and I still have 3 games left. I end up trying to find a cocktail bar after the game but in this town not gonna happen. I do the hotel bar again and need the bed cause it’s a 17 hour drive to SF!!!
We wake up, and get out of town at 9:30; the drive through CO is beautiful. I just kept taking pictures throughout until it got dark. The salt flats, the mountains, and the snow just gorgeous, we end up stopping in Salt Lake City for dinner. This city is weird. I was expecting a very clean cut, city but it was like Reno, Sacramento put together. And then you have yourself Salt Lake City. That’s not a good combo at all. We grabbed a quick one and got the fuck out. We drove fast as we could trying to get as far as we could. We ended up in Winnemucca, NV which is a shit hole. It’s like my toilet and Chernobyl mutants put together. Again not good. We asked for a room at Economy hotel and dude freaks out and starts swearing at my dad tell him to get out of here we don’t have and ADA room. It was weird as fuck. So we took his advice and I drove to right outside of Reno, which means only a 3 hour drive home tomorrow which is today as I write this part. I am crossing the Bay Bridge as I type and can’t wait to be in my city finally. I miss my city!!! No fog this is awesome. I’ve never come back from a vacation and there wasn’t fog waiting for me. It’s 64 and great. On our way to the Double Play on 16th. I’ll be in Seattle in 2 weeks and an A’s game within this time and the Giants vs. Red Sox at AT&T on the 27th. Can’t wait to watch my team win at home. I’ll keep you updated with those games and stadiums as well. So just cause I’m home doesn’t mean this blog is over.
Now the only thing I care to do in Denver is see the game and go to the brewery that has mad either beer I’ve been drinking for over a decade now. Jesus!!! A decade?? I wish I could say I’m getting old but I still feel like I’m 18. And once I get back to work and my brain starts to work again, I’ll feel even better. Not many people hope to get back to work. But when you serve booze, food, get to talk to a bunch of people, and get tipped to do it, there’s no better job in the world. Especially when I get to go back to 1300 and make up my own drinks, or maybe steal a couple from this trip and put it on my drink list. We drive to Golden where the brewery is and its majestic LOL. The tour quite boring and uninformative but they give you a sippey cup of Coors leaded or Coors Light half way through your tour. And at the end they give you up to 3 10 oz beers, that’s if you want to stand in the 10 – 15 min line to get a free Coors Light, instead of go to downtown Golden and get one for $1.75. I’ll spend the money. Even though I did stand in line twice. I had to try the Blue Moon, which I didn’t know Coors made and I’ve loved it for a long time. And I needed to try a Coors Light straight from the source. It taste’s the same. I don’t know what I was expecting. We go into Golden for lunch and the trend of niceness, and good food for close to nothing continues. Little bite hear and take the rest to the room cause we are having at least buffalo tonight if not something a little more “exotic”. We head over to it after more relaxing at the pool which is up on the 6 floor and outside. Little windy up there but the 95 degree sun makes that point almost moot. This place is tucked away in a long forgotten part of town. It looked like the only business within at least a 10 block radius. This place is covered in heads body’s of animals. There is even a stuffed seal!! I wasn’t expecting that one at all. They have a special that is elk and buffalo. Awesome 2 things I wanted in one. The elk is really good, but gamey. As it’s supposed to be. A little tough but still delicious. It’s got a peppercorn crust on it that is delightful. The buffalo was so tender and what was on it escapes me but was one of the best pieces of meat I’ve ever eaten. You almost only need a spoon to cut it. I drank a drink that was called the Buffalo Bill. They have been drinking it there for over 100 years. Fucking lairs. It was bourbon and apple juice. Once they finally brought it out he tell me that it used to be apple cider and bourbon not apple juice which makes sense but don’t put on your menu this is what has been drank here for over a 100 years when it has not. The place was a good tourist thing to see, so at least grab a drink in history. We head out to a couple different places. This city isn’t a great cocktail city. We stop at an Irish bar called the Pourhouse. Great name BTW. Meet a couple people. Who tell me a couple different places to go, but most of them are just local places to hang out and have a beer. They are coming to SF next week and since ill be working on June 14th I think I was able to pull a bachelorette party for my one say working. It’ll be an interesting night if they actually show up. We also go to a place called Lola’s that has some decent drinks and a whole bunch on tequila. That’s a nice change up. Everything during the week here shuts down at 10 -11 so not much time after a dinner to get around town. We head back to the hotel bar and relax there for a couple. Tomorrow is the game and I’m stoked for the last game on the road trip.
Another day of relaxation ahead. All we need to do is be at the game by 6:40. So a little lunch and go get the tickets. If you are interested though I did find out that there is a micro-brewery tour. Apparently there is a ton of breweries in this town. We went to one of them. Some decent beer. Had a honey agave one, and a pilsner. Pops had a porter which is way too dark for me. Good food to. It was like a Mexican food and American food restaurant. Nice little change. I didn’t have Mexican when I was in SD, and finally had a burrito. It was about as big as my leg. We grabbed our tickets and went right back to the hotel and the pool. After more relaxation we drove over to the game. The stadium is almost downtown. We run in there and are sitting right behind the plate, upstairs. But not even 1 foul ball even close. The stadium is quite large. It has a nice forest in center field. And the only place I know that has stands in centerfield and they are up there. The top of them is almost a mile high. Also cool, the mile high line seats are purple. It’s a very cool looking stadium. There isn’t much to it. It was one of the first new stadiums built in this new era of stadiums. I think this one came after the Baltimore one. We sat down and Pedro Feliz came up to bat and I always boo him but I think a Rockies fan thought I was booing the Rockies, so I got my first ever thing thrown at me. It was just a half a peanut but still, I wasn’t expecting that in Denver. The game is what I expected though. They were playing the Astros so knew who was winning this one. I was hoping for 3 home losses in 3 games but that didn’t come close to happening. The Astros got like 5 hits and the Rockies came out swinging. There were a good amount of fans at this stadium. For a Monday night game against the Astros I was surprised at that many people. They win making the road trip come to a close with a 22 – 6 for home teams. That’s ridiculous. That’s 79% winning percentage and I still have 3 games left. I end up trying to find a cocktail bar after the game but in this town not gonna happen. I do the hotel bar again and need the bed cause it’s a 17 hour drive to SF!!!
We wake up, and get out of town at 9:30; the drive through CO is beautiful. I just kept taking pictures throughout until it got dark. The salt flats, the mountains, and the snow just gorgeous, we end up stopping in Salt Lake City for dinner. This city is weird. I was expecting a very clean cut, city but it was like Reno, Sacramento put together. And then you have yourself Salt Lake City. That’s not a good combo at all. We grabbed a quick one and got the fuck out. We drove fast as we could trying to get as far as we could. We ended up in Winnemucca, NV which is a shit hole. It’s like my toilet and Chernobyl mutants put together. Again not good. We asked for a room at Economy hotel and dude freaks out and starts swearing at my dad tell him to get out of here we don’t have and ADA room. It was weird as fuck. So we took his advice and I drove to right outside of Reno, which means only a 3 hour drive home tomorrow which is today as I write this part. I am crossing the Bay Bridge as I type and can’t wait to be in my city finally. I miss my city!!! No fog this is awesome. I’ve never come back from a vacation and there wasn’t fog waiting for me. It’s 64 and great. On our way to the Double Play on 16th. I’ll be in Seattle in 2 weeks and an A’s game within this time and the Giants vs. Red Sox at AT&T on the 27th. Can’t wait to watch my team win at home. I’ll keep you updated with those games and stadiums as well. So just cause I’m home doesn’t mean this blog is over.
More of MO.
We pull into Kansas City about 7:30 and after some Steak n’ Shake, which is apparently fast food in?? It took like 10 – 12 to get some burgers. Now I don’t know how you have a drive through when it takes that long, but many things have been very confusing on this trip. Between driving and parking signs, laws, and people I wonder about this world, well at least the country sometimes. As we pull into our exit the stadium in on our right and I can count how many people are in the stands. We check in and get ready, to head out. I did more research for cocktails and this city has a ton!!! And KC is also known for their BBQ. I find well thought I found a place with both cocktails and BBQ. Cocktails were defiantly not up to par. Drinks with orange vodka with orange juice, Cosmo’s, and appletini’s are not a proper drink list. That is someone who has no knowledge of cocktails, and puts the most popular things they’ve heard of in list form. The drinks might not have been great but when you walk into a place and you know you’re walking out smelling like smoke you know it will be great. The place is Jack Stacks. It’s a chain of sorts but online it didn’t look like a typical chain. It was but the BBQ was still amazing. They make everything in house. I have fall off the bone baby back ribs and beef rib, and what they call burnt ends. These don’t sound appetizing but they are phenomenal. They are so tender and tasty. If you have the chance, try them. Pops and I are not fans of beef ribs, usually they are to fatty and either taste burnt or tasteless. This came with baked beans and cheesy corn. And cheesy corn is what it is. When they drop it off it looks like Mac and cheese but instead of pasta it is corn. MMMMMM mmmmm tasty. Every bite made me want another quick, but not knowing which I should have the next bite of. My pops had a hickory smoked prime rib. Now I’ve had some awesome prime rib before but never smoked. I can imagine how long this took. Everything about this was great. The smoke all the way through. It’s like they injected the flavor. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat the regular prime rib again. All the food is top notch. As we are sitting at the bar I look outside and start laughing because there are about 6 older guys outside dressed ridiculously for their age. Between all of them they had woman’s pants and boots, leather pants and jackets, and piercings up and down their heads. I poke pops and he says they have to be in a band. I can’t believe that, they are too old and dumb looking. But it was the guys from Styx, Journey and Kansas. It was only a couple of them but I hate them more now because they just look so damn ridiculous. We finished up dinner and pulled out my list of cocktail bars. And we start driving around. The first stop is called The Foundry. This is a hipster looking bar, with some interesting drinks and a beer menu that’s about 60 long. The drink I order was Buzz Aldrin. This had vodka, Chambord, lime juice, tang and a honey rim of pop rocks. She drops it off and says “the women really love this drink” Awesome LOL. Very cool place, very cool bartender and door guy. But I want to try a couple places, so we head to this place called The Drop. No one in it but it’s got bourbon and anytime there is more than Makers and Beam on the wall I’m pretty happy. I wanted to make sure they were open, I walked in and asked. They were walk back to tell my dad that they were but there were 2 problems. 1. There was no one in there and 2. A women bartender who was cleaning the bar. Only one of those seems to be a problem. Guess. I really am hating that this is a trend. I wish I wasn’t so serious about each of these times but this is getting stupid. We stop in pops asks for Tom Collins, Gin and sweet and sour with some soda water. But she’d rather stand there and tell us a story of why she refused to learn how to make them!!!! Seriously!!! The list that I peeked at online wasn’t as great as I had thought. So I ordered a Sazerac. So I sip mine and it taste a tad weird. I had to ask what kind of absinthe they used. “Ohh we don’t use Absinthe in our Sazerac’s because it’s not the real stuff, we use sambuca”. Not the real stuff?? It’s not?? It tastes like absinthe, has 63% alcohol and wormwood. If it smells like shit and taste like shit and has corn in it, it’s probably shit!!! And Sambuca isn’t absinthe!!! So why not use something close (I guess) to what it’s supposed to be rather than a completely different ingredient??!! You don’t pour someone a vodka tonic with soda instead because it’s how you make it!!! You tell me you make it this way and let me make the decision on if I want it your dumb ass way. Fuck!!! I can’t believe I have to get angry about this shit. The good part is this was the worst thing that happen in this city. We went home after that the day game is tomorrow and Grienke is going up against Weaver. Should be an awesome pitcher’s duel. Oh on the way to the hotel we cross this street not called El Paseo but The Paseo. Had to take a pic of that. Spanglish at its best.
We jump out of bed and head the 2 blocks to the stadium. Awesome looking stadium. From what they told us it was built in the 70’s and revamped in the late 90’s. It looks brand new to me. Probably because when you have less than 500,000 fans a year it’s not gonna get warn very quick. Very kid friendly stadium, beautiful fountains, and a huge video screen in the shape of the Royals emblem. There are only a couple seats in the outfield though. Most of the outfield is fountain and grass rather than stands. They don’t need any more but it looks weird to not have many stands in the outfield. I was really hoping to see Greinke pitch but he disappointed me. He was last year’s CY Young and this year he already has like 7 losses and today will be another. The Angels are smoking the ball. Connecting with everything and hitting it far. Weaver is pitching a gem he ends up going 4 hitter. But the home team record doesn’t fail all the way... They stated getting blown out early but 9th inning they start coming back. Too bad it’s a little late and 5 runs in an inning isn’t very easy. At this point to I was hoping for them to lose fast cause it was like 95 degrees and I am baking. I’m just trying not to keep one part of my body exposed for too long. Last thing I want is a sun burn. They end come up a run short of tying and lose the game. 2 home losses in 3 days. This is unheard of. We head on back to relax before going out for dinner. Looked at this place called the R bar. No relation to the one that smells like Fernet off Polk. BTW I think 2 people on this trip have known what Fernet is. Are we hording it all?? I think we should let other cities have some. We head on over to the R bar and YES!!!!! YES!!!!! This is what I love. This place has booze!!!. Chartreuse, a bunch of bourbon, tons of bitters, and more. The food is looking amazing. Pork rinds, which I’m not a huge fan of but hell let’s try. Way to salty and hard to eat. If I never ate another pork rind I wouldn’t be sad. I had a hanger steak that was cooked perfectly, it was so tender and the sauce that came with it, motto benne. Pops had veal and of course great again. We sat there and ate and drank and talked to Shawn the bartender who was a really nice guy, and knew his booze and food. I got some more ideas for drinks and probably gonna steal a drink from him. You’ll have to wait and see, then come by and try. It’s a great summer drink. We finished up and needed to get to other bars, there is too many in this town to see. My list had a place called Re: verse. This was in the Plaza district and like the Marina District. Very yuppie but the scenery is amazing. I just have a couple bourbons and take in the scenery. Then we go to another one of my new favorite places called Bluestem. Again, the people are nice as hell and really there to help you out. And that’s not just the people who work there but the people who live in this town. Everyone gives you advice on where you can go and just want to lend a helping hand. We grab a bunch of drinks from this place. Another place I stole a menu from. I haven’t stolen 2 menus from 1 city in a very long time, if ever. A place that has Aperol is a friend of mine. We take it in and meet some people who give us some advice on where to go, and invite us to where they work for food and booze tomorrow. After R bar and Blue stem I’m DONE!!! LOL. We need to do nothing tomorrow so I need sleep lol. We are starting way too early in the night drinking.
We get out of bed kinda slowly but when you don’t have to go anywhere for any reason then slowly is the best. But we are still in KC so BBQ for lunch it is. We had been told about this place called gates in St. Louis but the people in KC are not a fan anymore, apparently it has gone down in the last couple years so someone tells up about L.C.’s. And thank god. Wow this stuff if great. I had a beef sandwich and pops had a homemade smoked sausage. The beef was so tender. I’ve never bit into a sandwich and it felt like I was eating a cloud. It all fell apart in my mouth. Just dissipating like cotton candy. So amazing. The place is very southern though. Family owned and the owner is sitting at a table with all his business stuff and talking on the phone to an employee, yelling at him about coming to work on time. I don’t usually care about chatter between people at work, most time it’s funny. This time it sucked. There’s a place to do business and it’s not at a table in the dining room. But whatever, food is awesome. The sausage is spicy and smokey. I could eat here every day for a month. Well maybe I would just get it to go. HA. We take a ride to Kansas to grab a glass of wine at this French place this girl from last night works at but we miss it being open by about 30 min. So we just drive around taking it all in. And need to buy socks cause I’m running out quick and I don’t feel like doing anymore laundry. There’s only a couple more days left, and I have everything else clean but socks. We look around KC and head back to the hotel to do some more relaxing and find some more places to eat. This is a vacation. Eating, drinking and relaxing on your own time. Not rushing just going with the flow. Sometimes on this trip it hasn’t been like that. It’s get up and go, kinda like a job. I jump on the yelp again, and look up the power and light district. As I scroll down I see “Makers’ Mark Restaurant” Holy shit!!! Why did I not know about this? This was an easy choice for dinner. Was there even a question where I was going?? We head on out a couple hours later. And the first thing we see in the Power and Light District right outside of Makers’ was 3 trannies. It’s a weird feeling when you’re in another city and you see something weird like that but it doesn’t shock you at all. So we head into Makers’ and right out the back door is Pride Festival, LOL. This I wasn’t expecting in KC. I was expecting cowboy hats and cows walking down the street. This city is the most surprising of them all. I go outside to check it out and it’s very tame. It’s like a concert pretty much. No one spanking anyone with a heart shaped crop like I’ve seen at Bay to Breakers. There’s not even anyone naked thank God. We sit at the bar and I see a ton of bourbon. I ask for a list and I hear harp’s playing, and a bright majestic light comes from the menu. The selection is amazing and you can buy flights, which is a half shot but the way these guys pour it’s a full shot. And its half price. So I get to try twice as many bourbons. Heavenly, hence the harp’s playing and the light...Anyone get that?? Pops isn’t that hungry and really nor am I but a beef skewer in a Makers’ glaze is screaming at me. I try a good 6 different bourbons and I’m ready to head back to Bluestem. I want to try more of their drinks and some of their food, hoping I’ll be hungrier a little late. If I have more booze with no food it can end up ugly. We get there and there are people there from last night including the bartender Van, who remembers both of our names. If it was me and I didn’t think I was ever gonna see 2 people again, the names go right to the garbage. Hell most time when I probably will see you I still forget names. I’ll know what you’re drinking though. The apps list is delicious looking, and decently priced for what we thought we were expecting. Not even close. I have steak tartar. Now I’m expecting a little hand full of steak and a couple pieces of bread. This thing comes out with spinach salad all around it 5-6 crustini’s, and a quail egg on top of it. Huge, beautiful, and delicious. This was more than enough food for me. This place keeps getting better and better. Now the day before the girl sitting next to us offered us some Mac and cheese that looked amazing, so of course we had to grab a one of those. Did not disappoint. So cheesy, and bacony (not a real word so I don’t know how to spell it). I think behind steak, Mac and cheese is 2nd on things I’ve eaten on this trip. And that’s probably why that all the weight I lost working out before I left is now back on, with probably plus a couple. Gonna need to hit the gym hard when I get back. We drink a couple more drinks and am good and toasted, so we head on home. Denver, CO tomorrow. It’s an 8 hour drive.
We jump out of bed and head the 2 blocks to the stadium. Awesome looking stadium. From what they told us it was built in the 70’s and revamped in the late 90’s. It looks brand new to me. Probably because when you have less than 500,000 fans a year it’s not gonna get warn very quick. Very kid friendly stadium, beautiful fountains, and a huge video screen in the shape of the Royals emblem. There are only a couple seats in the outfield though. Most of the outfield is fountain and grass rather than stands. They don’t need any more but it looks weird to not have many stands in the outfield. I was really hoping to see Greinke pitch but he disappointed me. He was last year’s CY Young and this year he already has like 7 losses and today will be another. The Angels are smoking the ball. Connecting with everything and hitting it far. Weaver is pitching a gem he ends up going 4 hitter. But the home team record doesn’t fail all the way... They stated getting blown out early but 9th inning they start coming back. Too bad it’s a little late and 5 runs in an inning isn’t very easy. At this point to I was hoping for them to lose fast cause it was like 95 degrees and I am baking. I’m just trying not to keep one part of my body exposed for too long. Last thing I want is a sun burn. They end come up a run short of tying and lose the game. 2 home losses in 3 days. This is unheard of. We head on back to relax before going out for dinner. Looked at this place called the R bar. No relation to the one that smells like Fernet off Polk. BTW I think 2 people on this trip have known what Fernet is. Are we hording it all?? I think we should let other cities have some. We head on over to the R bar and YES!!!!! YES!!!!! This is what I love. This place has booze!!!. Chartreuse, a bunch of bourbon, tons of bitters, and more. The food is looking amazing. Pork rinds, which I’m not a huge fan of but hell let’s try. Way to salty and hard to eat. If I never ate another pork rind I wouldn’t be sad. I had a hanger steak that was cooked perfectly, it was so tender and the sauce that came with it, motto benne. Pops had veal and of course great again. We sat there and ate and drank and talked to Shawn the bartender who was a really nice guy, and knew his booze and food. I got some more ideas for drinks and probably gonna steal a drink from him. You’ll have to wait and see, then come by and try. It’s a great summer drink. We finished up and needed to get to other bars, there is too many in this town to see. My list had a place called Re: verse. This was in the Plaza district and like the Marina District. Very yuppie but the scenery is amazing. I just have a couple bourbons and take in the scenery. Then we go to another one of my new favorite places called Bluestem. Again, the people are nice as hell and really there to help you out. And that’s not just the people who work there but the people who live in this town. Everyone gives you advice on where you can go and just want to lend a helping hand. We grab a bunch of drinks from this place. Another place I stole a menu from. I haven’t stolen 2 menus from 1 city in a very long time, if ever. A place that has Aperol is a friend of mine. We take it in and meet some people who give us some advice on where to go, and invite us to where they work for food and booze tomorrow. After R bar and Blue stem I’m DONE!!! LOL. We need to do nothing tomorrow so I need sleep lol. We are starting way too early in the night drinking.
We get out of bed kinda slowly but when you don’t have to go anywhere for any reason then slowly is the best. But we are still in KC so BBQ for lunch it is. We had been told about this place called gates in St. Louis but the people in KC are not a fan anymore, apparently it has gone down in the last couple years so someone tells up about L.C.’s. And thank god. Wow this stuff if great. I had a beef sandwich and pops had a homemade smoked sausage. The beef was so tender. I’ve never bit into a sandwich and it felt like I was eating a cloud. It all fell apart in my mouth. Just dissipating like cotton candy. So amazing. The place is very southern though. Family owned and the owner is sitting at a table with all his business stuff and talking on the phone to an employee, yelling at him about coming to work on time. I don’t usually care about chatter between people at work, most time it’s funny. This time it sucked. There’s a place to do business and it’s not at a table in the dining room. But whatever, food is awesome. The sausage is spicy and smokey. I could eat here every day for a month. Well maybe I would just get it to go. HA. We take a ride to Kansas to grab a glass of wine at this French place this girl from last night works at but we miss it being open by about 30 min. So we just drive around taking it all in. And need to buy socks cause I’m running out quick and I don’t feel like doing anymore laundry. There’s only a couple more days left, and I have everything else clean but socks. We look around KC and head back to the hotel to do some more relaxing and find some more places to eat. This is a vacation. Eating, drinking and relaxing on your own time. Not rushing just going with the flow. Sometimes on this trip it hasn’t been like that. It’s get up and go, kinda like a job. I jump on the yelp again, and look up the power and light district. As I scroll down I see “Makers’ Mark Restaurant” Holy shit!!! Why did I not know about this? This was an easy choice for dinner. Was there even a question where I was going?? We head on out a couple hours later. And the first thing we see in the Power and Light District right outside of Makers’ was 3 trannies. It’s a weird feeling when you’re in another city and you see something weird like that but it doesn’t shock you at all. So we head into Makers’ and right out the back door is Pride Festival, LOL. This I wasn’t expecting in KC. I was expecting cowboy hats and cows walking down the street. This city is the most surprising of them all. I go outside to check it out and it’s very tame. It’s like a concert pretty much. No one spanking anyone with a heart shaped crop like I’ve seen at Bay to Breakers. There’s not even anyone naked thank God. We sit at the bar and I see a ton of bourbon. I ask for a list and I hear harp’s playing, and a bright majestic light comes from the menu. The selection is amazing and you can buy flights, which is a half shot but the way these guys pour it’s a full shot. And its half price. So I get to try twice as many bourbons. Heavenly, hence the harp’s playing and the light...Anyone get that?? Pops isn’t that hungry and really nor am I but a beef skewer in a Makers’ glaze is screaming at me. I try a good 6 different bourbons and I’m ready to head back to Bluestem. I want to try more of their drinks and some of their food, hoping I’ll be hungrier a little late. If I have more booze with no food it can end up ugly. We get there and there are people there from last night including the bartender Van, who remembers both of our names. If it was me and I didn’t think I was ever gonna see 2 people again, the names go right to the garbage. Hell most time when I probably will see you I still forget names. I’ll know what you’re drinking though. The apps list is delicious looking, and decently priced for what we thought we were expecting. Not even close. I have steak tartar. Now I’m expecting a little hand full of steak and a couple pieces of bread. This thing comes out with spinach salad all around it 5-6 crustini’s, and a quail egg on top of it. Huge, beautiful, and delicious. This was more than enough food for me. This place keeps getting better and better. Now the day before the girl sitting next to us offered us some Mac and cheese that looked amazing, so of course we had to grab a one of those. Did not disappoint. So cheesy, and bacony (not a real word so I don’t know how to spell it). I think behind steak, Mac and cheese is 2nd on things I’ve eaten on this trip. And that’s probably why that all the weight I lost working out before I left is now back on, with probably plus a couple. Gonna need to hit the gym hard when I get back. We drink a couple more drinks and am good and toasted, so we head on home. Denver, CO tomorrow. It’s an 8 hour drive.
To Nice To Be True
We start this story out by driving down to St. Louis. And now Iowa is I the way of Minn and St. Louis. Another state that is the south. I don’t know if I’ve said this before but everything under NY and Michigan, and some parts of Illinois is the South. This shit is ridiculous. Confederate flags, no teeth, and incest lol. We stop in BFE Iowa and this is a ding dang do part of the country. We walk into this small ass place off the freeway. Pops and I walk in a the hick at the bar turns and looks and already knows we aren’t from around here. And duh it isn’t to hard. Because of the SF stuff I’m wearing and the fact that everyone knows everyone in this town. I don’t really want to have anyone pay attention to us, again pretty hard to do, but I don’t want to have someone go down their beer list so I see what the other guy is drinking at the bar and order 2 PBR’s. We order our burger and fried pork sandie. Apperently with me and my pops drinking 2 per and this guy next to us drinking PBR, they might run out. Not many people drink this beer often. I say I usually drink it just cause it’s pretty cheap. And the guy sitting next to us says “cheap? This stuff is expensive here” Holy Shit these hicks are funny. I try and get out of this place quite quickly and we head the rest of the way to St. Louis.
Now we pull into St. Louis about 9 and we need food and a drink, but it’s a Monday and it’s hard to find place to eat at 10 on a weekend let alone a Monday and it being Memorial Day. I punch in a couple things in yelp and we start driving fast. And every place we drive by is closed. We make the decision to just go back to the hotel, but on the way we see a place with lights on and people in it. Amazing. I throw my dad out of the car, and tell him to get in there make sure we can get some food. We run in and we make it by 4 min. Already liking this place. Great bar and you can smoke at the bar, but not at the table’s right behind the bar. The rules in some places are ridiculous. But whatever. They are giving us food and drink. They know how to make an old fashion and pour a happy shot. We have some great steaks and caesar salad. Pops is thinking of getting dessert but doesn’t want to bother them since they did let us get food quite late. But as he says that I see food coming out and I point and say, don’t worry about it see they are still doing food. But then I see who they are dropping the food off to. It’s Dusty Baker. The coach of the Cincinnati Reds. They are in town against the Cards this week. It was awesome seeing a celebrity, especially one I’ve hated for 8 years for losing us the World Series. But we buy him a drink anyway. After he’s done eating he gets his drink and raises his glass to us and we tell him we are from SF. He gets up and comes over and starts talking to us. His friends end up getting up and coming over and sit with us. We are sitting at the bar talking to Dusty Baker for about an hour. He turns out to be a nice guy. He buys us drinks and chats about baseball, and SF. He lives outside of Sacramento. It was awesome to have someone who is a celebrity that was really nice. So it was really hard to stay angry with Dusty after all these years. He’s just too damn nice. We finish up a bunch of drinks and close down the bar with the staff, who are ridiculously nice. They are done but need to clean up so they let us have one more, like we need it, lol and we head to the hotel. We are staying at the Millennium Hotel which from out hotel room you can see the Arch. But the hotel is absolutely shit. They windows are dirty as hell, there is nothing to the room, the TV screen is as big as my laptop screen and the shower head is spitting on me, and $10 for internet. For an expensive place it looks like a 15 story Comfort Inn. The paint job was even bad. It looks like when there was a crack in the wall they just painted over it. It was bad. I’ll never stay at one of those again. After looking for some BBQ places for lunch tomorrow I hit the sack.
We wake up and make our way slowly out of the hotel. I found this place called Pappy’s on Yelp and apparently voted best BBQ in the city many times. And they didn’t disappoint. I’ve been waiting for BBQ since I left Raleigh, NC. We had baby back ribs, pulled pork sandwich, baked beans, potato salad, and sweet potato fries. While I was standing in line there is a picture of Adam Richman, who does Man v. Food. If you haven’t seen this show, watch it, it’s great. The picture says “thanks Pappy; I’ll never be hungry again.” I thought it was cool, but just a line. He wasn’t joking. We finished up and I could barely move. The food was top notch, the people and service were so nice, and the food was cheap to. Everything seems cheaper in St. Louis. All that food plus 2 drinks cost us like $25. The only bad part is we are going to the top of the Millennium to eat at the rotating restaurant for dinner and feeling like I am now, I don’t think I’ll be able to eat tomorrow let alone tonight at 5, before we go to the game. We lift ourselves up from the table and head to the Bud brewery. I’m not to stoked on Bud, this crap beer gives me the worst drunk and hang-over. I can drink 14 Coors Light’s and be great I can drink 13 Coors Light’s and 1 Bud and I’m falling over and waking up with my head pounding. I think it might be the rice they put in their beer. I don’t know, maybe it’s just that it sucks complete ass. The tour takes about 45min, and wasn’t too bad. But didn’t really tell you anything significant. “Here is the horse stables, let’s go, here is the bottling part, let’s go.” Really kinda boring but they do give you 2 free samples on the way out, which I guess is cool, but if you hate their beer then it’s more like torture, LOL. I found on called Beach Bum, which is good and like a wheat beer. They did have Stella but I wanted to try something new. We head back to the hotel to relax and try and let the BBQ settle and digest and hopefully be able to eat something at the top of the hotel. My dad was smart he only had a couple bites of the BBQ, but you put BBQ in front of me I can’t stop till it’s all gone. We take a nap, and kill some time before dinner. 5 comes to fast for my stomach, but we go to the top anyway, cause you have to sacrifice sometimes you know. It is gorgeous up there. We get sat right as it is in front of the stadium. You can see them taking batting practice. Our waitress is a tad bit slow in the head, and on her feet. We continually wait way to long for everything. It rotates around to the Arch, and we are taking pics and there are greasy hand prints all over the window and a leak from the roof onto the window. These are not from today, cause there are 4 other tables sat at the time and it opened when we got there. It’s just not taken care of like it should. If it was just a window that looked out, it would be different but this is your shtick. If you want people to look out your windows onto the city and they are nasty and make me not want to look out the windows, we have a problem. The food is pretty good, I just had some duck tacos, and dad had the duck breast. I ask for a beer and that never comes, and she stops coming around and now it’s getting close to game time and we need to get going and she is gone. It was a bad experience at this place. I’m sure if I went up again it would be different but it rubbed me the wrong way today and had the wrong waitress and then things just started piling up. She was really nice but just not a good waitress. If I was with someone who had never been I’d go again, but other than that not a chance. We head over to the ballpark. The second you walk in you know this park is great. The outside looks amazing, you walk out to see the field and you are in awe. They have the Arch cut into the field, and the real Arch is right behind the stadium. Great view great looking stadium and everything is close to you. I get up to go get beer and of course I had to be the asshole and ask the beer guy if he had any Coors Light. I thought it was funny, LOL. He liked it to but after meeting many people in this city he was probably just being nice and had probably heard that one once or twice before. Last night Dusty wasn’t too happy at me after I told him about my record with home teams. He told me not to come that night, and I told him I was going to be in Seattle in 2 weeks and he wasn’t too happy at that either because apparently I’ll be there when the Reds are in town. LOL he tried to get me to change my plans. Awesome. But even with my killer record, the Reds pull it out. There was like 6 homeruns, 17 runs and a bunch of ties and lead changes. A great game all together and having talked to Dusty last night I was happy to see him win. I had tried to find good cocktail bars in this city and couldn’t so we are gonna go back to Mike Shannon’s the place we were last night. When you find a cool place, go back when you can if you don’t find anything really special, it usually works out very well. And it did. We sat there and the same bartender from the night before was there, very good looking girls, and then Dusty walks in again. And right when he walks in he comes right over and says hi to us, I think before anyone else. Just classy man, just really really classy dude. He gets a drink and chats with us some more. Even though I think he came over to us not only because of the night before but because their where really hot girls sitting next to us. He was just having a closer look. LOL. A couple min later 3 Reds players come in. 2 pitchers I couldn’t tell from a hole in the ground and Johnny Gomes. He’s the leftfielder, and a Petaluma guy. He is a really nice dude also. Chatted up with him for a couple min. We had our drinks and chatted with Dusty throughout the night and Evan and Jen the bartenders. Told us where to go in KC, and chatted cocktails. I had some interesting ones. That was a brain cell killing night though so I don’t remember, buts that’s why I took the cocktail list. That pile is getting bigger. While we are outside waiting for a cab, Dusty comes out and asks what we are doing, and he offers us a ride to our hotel. Are you kidding me!!!! My dad is freaking out. LOL. He can’t believe what is going on. I’m just taking it all in. It’s quite amazing how nice this guy is. He drops us off, and we are both in awe at this point. We are quite drunk so we can’t believe this shit just happen. In 25 other cites, and a month and a half nothing close to this has happened. And probably won’t ever happen again. Thank God I was drunk though cause I was so excited I don’t think I would have been able to get to sleep.
We get up the next day and we are gonna go up to the top of the Arch today. This is something I’ve been looking forward to. I’ve already seen the city from up high but to see it in this monument is so cool. I was expecting a regular elevator you stood in and it just kinda pulled you up sideways. I was expecting the elevator to be as big as the width of the Arch. It’s not LOL. You go into this space pod looking thing. I wasn’t expecting all the room on the side of the elevators. You get up to the top and get to see up and down the Mississippi, and so much of this beautiful city. It was a quick up and down. Once you look out and look down, that’s pretty much it. Then you head down and get out of town. I was looking forward to St. Louis because of the BBQ and got so much more than that. This is one of my favorite cities now. The people are so nice. And yes I’m the asshole who can’t take it. I was getting mad at people for being so nice and continually asking if I needed anything or help with anything. Between the BBQ spots, stadium, restaurants and just people walking down the streets, this place lands top 5 cites I’ve been to and will definitely be back sooner rather than later. I recommend this city to anyone and everyone!!! Go and go now!!! It’s cheap, fun and drunk. These people like to drink, eat and have a good time. I’ve only scratched the surface. *****, 2 thumbs up. I can’t say enough. Now it’s time to drive to the podunck ass town of KC, MO
Now we pull into St. Louis about 9 and we need food and a drink, but it’s a Monday and it’s hard to find place to eat at 10 on a weekend let alone a Monday and it being Memorial Day. I punch in a couple things in yelp and we start driving fast. And every place we drive by is closed. We make the decision to just go back to the hotel, but on the way we see a place with lights on and people in it. Amazing. I throw my dad out of the car, and tell him to get in there make sure we can get some food. We run in and we make it by 4 min. Already liking this place. Great bar and you can smoke at the bar, but not at the table’s right behind the bar. The rules in some places are ridiculous. But whatever. They are giving us food and drink. They know how to make an old fashion and pour a happy shot. We have some great steaks and caesar salad. Pops is thinking of getting dessert but doesn’t want to bother them since they did let us get food quite late. But as he says that I see food coming out and I point and say, don’t worry about it see they are still doing food. But then I see who they are dropping the food off to. It’s Dusty Baker. The coach of the Cincinnati Reds. They are in town against the Cards this week. It was awesome seeing a celebrity, especially one I’ve hated for 8 years for losing us the World Series. But we buy him a drink anyway. After he’s done eating he gets his drink and raises his glass to us and we tell him we are from SF. He gets up and comes over and starts talking to us. His friends end up getting up and coming over and sit with us. We are sitting at the bar talking to Dusty Baker for about an hour. He turns out to be a nice guy. He buys us drinks and chats about baseball, and SF. He lives outside of Sacramento. It was awesome to have someone who is a celebrity that was really nice. So it was really hard to stay angry with Dusty after all these years. He’s just too damn nice. We finish up a bunch of drinks and close down the bar with the staff, who are ridiculously nice. They are done but need to clean up so they let us have one more, like we need it, lol and we head to the hotel. We are staying at the Millennium Hotel which from out hotel room you can see the Arch. But the hotel is absolutely shit. They windows are dirty as hell, there is nothing to the room, the TV screen is as big as my laptop screen and the shower head is spitting on me, and $10 for internet. For an expensive place it looks like a 15 story Comfort Inn. The paint job was even bad. It looks like when there was a crack in the wall they just painted over it. It was bad. I’ll never stay at one of those again. After looking for some BBQ places for lunch tomorrow I hit the sack.
We wake up and make our way slowly out of the hotel. I found this place called Pappy’s on Yelp and apparently voted best BBQ in the city many times. And they didn’t disappoint. I’ve been waiting for BBQ since I left Raleigh, NC. We had baby back ribs, pulled pork sandwich, baked beans, potato salad, and sweet potato fries. While I was standing in line there is a picture of Adam Richman, who does Man v. Food. If you haven’t seen this show, watch it, it’s great. The picture says “thanks Pappy; I’ll never be hungry again.” I thought it was cool, but just a line. He wasn’t joking. We finished up and I could barely move. The food was top notch, the people and service were so nice, and the food was cheap to. Everything seems cheaper in St. Louis. All that food plus 2 drinks cost us like $25. The only bad part is we are going to the top of the Millennium to eat at the rotating restaurant for dinner and feeling like I am now, I don’t think I’ll be able to eat tomorrow let alone tonight at 5, before we go to the game. We lift ourselves up from the table and head to the Bud brewery. I’m not to stoked on Bud, this crap beer gives me the worst drunk and hang-over. I can drink 14 Coors Light’s and be great I can drink 13 Coors Light’s and 1 Bud and I’m falling over and waking up with my head pounding. I think it might be the rice they put in their beer. I don’t know, maybe it’s just that it sucks complete ass. The tour takes about 45min, and wasn’t too bad. But didn’t really tell you anything significant. “Here is the horse stables, let’s go, here is the bottling part, let’s go.” Really kinda boring but they do give you 2 free samples on the way out, which I guess is cool, but if you hate their beer then it’s more like torture, LOL. I found on called Beach Bum, which is good and like a wheat beer. They did have Stella but I wanted to try something new. We head back to the hotel to relax and try and let the BBQ settle and digest and hopefully be able to eat something at the top of the hotel. My dad was smart he only had a couple bites of the BBQ, but you put BBQ in front of me I can’t stop till it’s all gone. We take a nap, and kill some time before dinner. 5 comes to fast for my stomach, but we go to the top anyway, cause you have to sacrifice sometimes you know. It is gorgeous up there. We get sat right as it is in front of the stadium. You can see them taking batting practice. Our waitress is a tad bit slow in the head, and on her feet. We continually wait way to long for everything. It rotates around to the Arch, and we are taking pics and there are greasy hand prints all over the window and a leak from the roof onto the window. These are not from today, cause there are 4 other tables sat at the time and it opened when we got there. It’s just not taken care of like it should. If it was just a window that looked out, it would be different but this is your shtick. If you want people to look out your windows onto the city and they are nasty and make me not want to look out the windows, we have a problem. The food is pretty good, I just had some duck tacos, and dad had the duck breast. I ask for a beer and that never comes, and she stops coming around and now it’s getting close to game time and we need to get going and she is gone. It was a bad experience at this place. I’m sure if I went up again it would be different but it rubbed me the wrong way today and had the wrong waitress and then things just started piling up. She was really nice but just not a good waitress. If I was with someone who had never been I’d go again, but other than that not a chance. We head over to the ballpark. The second you walk in you know this park is great. The outside looks amazing, you walk out to see the field and you are in awe. They have the Arch cut into the field, and the real Arch is right behind the stadium. Great view great looking stadium and everything is close to you. I get up to go get beer and of course I had to be the asshole and ask the beer guy if he had any Coors Light. I thought it was funny, LOL. He liked it to but after meeting many people in this city he was probably just being nice and had probably heard that one once or twice before. Last night Dusty wasn’t too happy at me after I told him about my record with home teams. He told me not to come that night, and I told him I was going to be in Seattle in 2 weeks and he wasn’t too happy at that either because apparently I’ll be there when the Reds are in town. LOL he tried to get me to change my plans. Awesome. But even with my killer record, the Reds pull it out. There was like 6 homeruns, 17 runs and a bunch of ties and lead changes. A great game all together and having talked to Dusty last night I was happy to see him win. I had tried to find good cocktail bars in this city and couldn’t so we are gonna go back to Mike Shannon’s the place we were last night. When you find a cool place, go back when you can if you don’t find anything really special, it usually works out very well. And it did. We sat there and the same bartender from the night before was there, very good looking girls, and then Dusty walks in again. And right when he walks in he comes right over and says hi to us, I think before anyone else. Just classy man, just really really classy dude. He gets a drink and chats with us some more. Even though I think he came over to us not only because of the night before but because their where really hot girls sitting next to us. He was just having a closer look. LOL. A couple min later 3 Reds players come in. 2 pitchers I couldn’t tell from a hole in the ground and Johnny Gomes. He’s the leftfielder, and a Petaluma guy. He is a really nice dude also. Chatted up with him for a couple min. We had our drinks and chatted with Dusty throughout the night and Evan and Jen the bartenders. Told us where to go in KC, and chatted cocktails. I had some interesting ones. That was a brain cell killing night though so I don’t remember, buts that’s why I took the cocktail list. That pile is getting bigger. While we are outside waiting for a cab, Dusty comes out and asks what we are doing, and he offers us a ride to our hotel. Are you kidding me!!!! My dad is freaking out. LOL. He can’t believe what is going on. I’m just taking it all in. It’s quite amazing how nice this guy is. He drops us off, and we are both in awe at this point. We are quite drunk so we can’t believe this shit just happen. In 25 other cites, and a month and a half nothing close to this has happened. And probably won’t ever happen again. Thank God I was drunk though cause I was so excited I don’t think I would have been able to get to sleep.
We get up the next day and we are gonna go up to the top of the Arch today. This is something I’ve been looking forward to. I’ve already seen the city from up high but to see it in this monument is so cool. I was expecting a regular elevator you stood in and it just kinda pulled you up sideways. I was expecting the elevator to be as big as the width of the Arch. It’s not LOL. You go into this space pod looking thing. I wasn’t expecting all the room on the side of the elevators. You get up to the top and get to see up and down the Mississippi, and so much of this beautiful city. It was a quick up and down. Once you look out and look down, that’s pretty much it. Then you head down and get out of town. I was looking forward to St. Louis because of the BBQ and got so much more than that. This is one of my favorite cities now. The people are so nice. And yes I’m the asshole who can’t take it. I was getting mad at people for being so nice and continually asking if I needed anything or help with anything. Between the BBQ spots, stadium, restaurants and just people walking down the streets, this place lands top 5 cites I’ve been to and will definitely be back sooner rather than later. I recommend this city to anyone and everyone!!! Go and go now!!! It’s cheap, fun and drunk. These people like to drink, eat and have a good time. I’ve only scratched the surface. *****, 2 thumbs up. I can’t say enough. Now it’s time to drive to the podunck ass town of KC, MO
Minnesotah
Picked up my pop at his hotel in Minneapolis, then for a stop off at my cousin John’s place to see all the Minnesotahans. My pops got in last night after missing his flight. He is going to truck it with me the last 4 cites. I can’t believe that is so close to over. Only about a week and a half left. Then back to the real world and I getting more and more anxious. The drive in isn’t great cause my stomach still isn’t in the right place. I don’t feel like puking anymore but I need some ginger ale or something to settle the stomach. It’s only a 5 hour drive but again seems like it’s longer. I pull into Minneapolis at about 2:30 ish and within 15 min of picking up my dad we get lost. I’ve been driving over 8,000 miles and haven’t gotten to a point where I just don’t know where to go, but of course pop jumps in and ohh go left ohh I think you need to take this one. LOL it’s awesome though. Love having pops with me. We always have a good time. We finally get to my cousins and I can’t even really think about eating or drinking anything. I know how to cure a hangover. And gotten very good at putting down the hair of the dog. Before this trip, it was really hard for me to wake up and have more booze to cure the pain but I know it helps me a ton. But with being an upset stomach booze and spicy food is not gonna help. They have sausage, burgers, and a million types of salads it’s a great layout. I do try and have a little food hoping it will help a little, it doesn’t. I have a beer just to keep my rep up with the family lol. We catch up with the family meeting some, re-meeting others. When you have 1,000 cousins you tend to forget some here and there. Especially when you see them maybe every 3 years at our reunions and they change a ton. Kids having kids and kids growing up. We say our hellos and goodbye and head in for the game. We bought tickets before we left for the BBQ and the place was sold out. The only tickets we could get were standing room only. Very cool. The only place I’ve been where tickets were pretty much impossible. But they have bars inside with stools and I’m sure I can find something while my pops checks out the bar. We walk in and it’s better than what people had been saying. Its open, which I’m not a fan of cause it seems like they don’t want to play in October. I mean it’s cold there in April and October. I don’t think any new stadium should be without a retractable roof. It works out for everywhere and then you don’t have a kid driving around the country and it gets rained out…Detroit…..Anyway. It’s got the city behind it and the looks of new and old in one. It’s tall but still small. You are right on top of the field and can see everything from everywhere. The outfield you can stand next to a Captain Morgan Bar and watch the game or just stand there and watch the game. They give you a lot of room to watch from standing room only. After the first couple innings we moved to the bar and watched a couple there and had a little food. Good food, good people. The place is just put together so well. Great view of a little part of downtown. The stadium in 6 or 7 years when the people decide not to pack the place anymore is gonna look really big, casernes and empty. The Twins of course win upping my record again. We head out and I’m hoping my stomach starts to feel better, but even if it doesn’t I’m still gonna drink. We go to this place called the news room. It’s like 3 blocks from the hotel, and it’s really cool looking. We sit down at a bar that looks like a ship. And we are looking at each other wondering why there is a ship in the “News Room”. We had a couple drinks, pretty much just bourbon on the rocks. We had to ask why we were sitting at a ship, and the coolest answer came out. Since it’s called the News Room, each room in the place is decorated like a different part of the newspaper. The bar was the travel section; the dining room I think was entertainment. I went from thinking it’s the dumbest thing I ever, and wondering why the news room had a pirate ship to thinking wow that had a lot of thought and money in it. Very cool. Good food to. They had a little bit of everything. 4 kinds of cheeses, on great bread. The Bourbon is calming my stomach just in time to finish up and hit the hay before a 9 hour drive to St. Louis tomorrow.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
A Lake House Birthday
I needed to get up early today to get to the day game up in Milwaukee. It’s a 2 hour drive and Vinnie has scared me into thinking there’s gonna be hours of traffic. There’s a little traffic cause they are working on every freeway in America. And working on it right on the Illinois/Wisconsin border as well. So my plan to take a picture in front of the Illinois sign on my way out of Illinois is shot and the Wisconsin sign is too hard to get to because of all the construction on the side of the road. So another hit on my state sign goal. The closer I get to the stadium the more frantic I am about getting there on time. I get close to the stadium about 35 min prior to game time and I still need to park and get a ticket. I haven’t missed a first pitch yet. Well except for the 2nd game against in Boston I went to and that’s cause I didn’t know I was going to go to that game till the game had started. I walk into the stadium 15 min prior to game time. I have shitty tickets but I’m just gonna sit wherever I want. There are like 5 levels in this stadium, and I go up to what would be club level in ATT and just sit down. Great seats. I don’t know how much these are but in any other stadium there a good $25 - $30. I kick back relax and pull in this beautiful stadium. It’s huge retractable and open. It’s a very cleverness stadium but also very inviting and close. Weird but nice. The 30 small Miller lite’s from last night need company and of course I need a Miller in Miller Park. $6.75. The smell of brat fills the air and of course I’m getting one of them also. The game is lagging a bit but I think it’s because I can’t wait to get to Shelly’s. They are the funnest, yes I’m using the word funnest, nicest, and coolest. And it really helps they like to drink their weight in booze also. Their on a lake with a boat and sea-doo’s. Anyway more about that later. I take a walk around the stadium and I don’t know what it is but I keep hitting stadiums on either family days or kid’s days. Today it looks like both. Got kids that are from 8 – 18 and blue hairs all over the place. It’s a bit much for me. The 22nd home victory isn’t looking good throughout most this game. But the 9th inning comes around and the Brewers come back and tie it up. Now I had moved to the bleachers in the sun for the 8th inning. Thinking it would be over soon. So now it’s the 9th and I’m sweating my ass off and we are getting some free baseball. The 11th inning comes around and I’m baking. Now I don’t know if it’s me or the brat’s I smell cooking. Brewers finally give me my 22nd victory in the 11th, and I can now get up and wring out my boxers. LOL. It’s only about 20 min to Pewaukee so I jump in and get to it. As I pull up Shelly just got there with my cousin Andy’s 2 girls. Cutest little things ever. When they get older they are gonna do something really bad and just smile and get out of whatever trouble they were in. Hell they do that now lol. It’s one of the first weekends they are up at the cabin so we need to get things out and up, cleaned and stocked. It takes work to get a vacation house set up to party in. I think this is why I like hotels so much. We end up having a little dinner and the next door neighbors who are also nice as hell, take us out on the pontoon boat and we puts around the lake checking out these million dollar houses that are just gorgeous. It’s a pretty mellow night, which is never a bad thing when on vacation. On vacation your always trying to do something, since you are somewhere else and for me I feel like an idiot just sitting around when I could be doing something, but doing nothing is doing something on vacation. It just takes a while to feel comfortable doing that. This whole time I’m here was very nice and relaxing. Got some more sun, and had some fun on the sea-doo, did some drinking with fam and their friends. I was gonna go to Minneapolis Saturday but instead of driving for wings and not get to have much fun at either place I decided to stay one more day in Pewaukee. On my birthday. And I’m not a fan of telling people it’s my birthday till after the fact, that way there’s no annoying birthday songs, and someone wanting to slap you or hit you 28 times LOL. And it started so well. Sea-doo and junk food all day, and I don’t know if it was something I ate, or everything I ate, or everything just catching up to me a little but I got a bug of some sort and was not in a good place that night. I haven’t been sick like that in years. I haven’t puked from booze in years, and from being sick in even longer. At least it was memorable lol. I’ll remember this one no doubt. I’m glad I didn’t decide to drive to Minneapolis this night, it would have been bad. And showing up at another cousin’s house puking my brains out probably isn’t the best way to say hi. But I do need to wake up early and hit the road so I can pick up my dad and go to their BBQ before I go to the game. Horrible night and less sleep than I’d gotten in most cities. Doesn’t help with 15 people in the house and half are kids and they all wake up before the crack of dawn and I’m on the couch. Bad combo.
Family and the Chi-Town Burbs
Getting to see my family is always fun. I’m chilling and seeing family if they want to stop by. They know I’m in and my number. Driving to Illinois I need to grab Indiana’s sign but when I get to Indiana there are cops parked right next to it, so I’m not gonna stop their cause I don’t know how legal it is for me to stop on the side of the road for no reason other than taking a pic in front of a sign and I can see the cops being pretty upset with that. Bu I think I can get it when I get into Illinois. Wrong. As I pull into Illinois it starts to monsoon. Lakes are forming as I drive through. This isn’t going to stop me from getting a pic though. But the fact that both the Indiana and Illinois state signs are hanging on the overpass so not even a chance to get my pic in front of this one. And my state sign goal is diminishing quickly. I think I’m up to missing 3 states. I get into town and grab a subway sandwich and chill and catch up with gram for the night before I hit the sack. The second day I’m chilling all day and hang with my cuz Destiny. We go to a mall cause I’ve never seen one of those, lol. My other cuz Ethan calls up and tells us that he is gonna be at work for a couple hours and should come by. He works at a batting cage and hell yes. Lets smack the shit out of some balls, or try to at least. We jump into the softball pit and Destiny tries to kill us on numerous occasions, some coming close to my manhood some whizzing past my ear. I jump in and suck it up lol. This is the most activity I’ve done in over a month. I swing at 3 balls and start a sweat, lol. We finish off a couple buckets and head over to my Aunt and Uncle’s house and my cousin’s friend is by and I’m ready to do some drinking. We throw back a couple drinks at the house; eat a bite of food that we cook up. Chili dogs and such, and head out to a bar called Flip flops. Now I’m already kinda tipsy and I figure beer all night, cause Vinnie was just gonna have a couple. HA right. It’s like a class reunion, but that’s how it is in any suburb in any state. A couple beers turns into jager shot. YAY. BLAHHHHHH. Fucking jager needs to be discontinued. So to uhhh thank them? For the jager shots. So I order good bourbon. 3 shots of Makers. I take it down like a champ just like I did the jager, cause I’m a drunk. They wince and look like they are about to spit up for Christ sakes. They don’t like Makers!! Jim Beam is good though. Jesus, I have to teach these people how to drink lol. Good people though everyone of them. Couple more beers later another shot is coming and they are going for Irish car bomb. Now they don’t like Makers but will drink shit that curdles in your stomach. And I don’t like to puke pancakes (if you’ve ever had too much to drink and had a car bomb or 2 and puked on the floor it splats out like pancake in the morning), so I’m doing Makers again, and I’m getting called a pussy?? Whatever I’m gonna feel good tomorrow. We finish up drinking and Vinnie does what he said he was gonna do all night and walk out on his bill. But I forget to pay my tab so I go back in and sign it, and they are asking me where he is and if he left. I look her straight in the eye and say “I don’t know, my cousin is coming to pick me up”, drunk as fuck I think I did pretty well, but I’m sure she didn’t believe me at all. I walk outside and Vinnie is chilling smoking and we need to sneak past the window of the bar like kids coming back into their house past your parent’s room. Ridiculous. Get home fine thank God, cause he doesn’t remember getting us there. Always comforting.
The next day me and Uncle Wally get up and get my hung over ass down to the White Sox game. I’ve been before and I like it a lot but they pretty much shut out the back of the stadium. Most stadiums like to show the city behind the stadium. Chicago doesn’t want to show you the South Side. LoL and that’s understandable. Nothing to amazing is going on. Kinda a boring game. They played the Marlins in interleague play, neither team played very well but no big thing. This is another stadium that doesn’t let you downstairs if you have upstairs tickets. Which is such bullshit. We almost made an early exit. I go to take my top of the stadium pic and dude tells me I can’t stand there. I politely tell him I’m just taking a pic and will move in a sec. He repeats himself, I ignore and he repeats himself again. I in my polite way toward all people who are jackass’s tell him, “look man I’ve been to like 20 stadiums and taken this picture, you’re not gonna tell me I can’t take this picture.” He continues to tell me to move, and hes asked me 3 times. And me still being polite tell him that he could tell his fucking mother, I don’t care. I’m taking this picture and then I’ll move.” I was standing there for less than 2 min; I would have been gone in less if this piece of shit with a little power would have stopped talking to me. He offers to call security, I politely tell him to go fuck himself and I walk away. Fucking people. I go to my seat and watch the Sox win for 20 – 3 record. We grab some Portillo’s which I like heaven for people in the suburbs. Italian steak, hot dogs, burgers, salads, everything you can think of. The Italian steak is like their version of the Philly cheese steak, without the nasty cheese on it. After some food and relaxation, my cuz comes to pick me up again and it’s time for a house party of sorts. It’s Vinnie friends, mom’s 60th b-day party and they have been drinking all day. Apparently the birthday girl did a beer bong with a wine cooler. That’s ridiculous and gross!!! Always fun watching the elders get fucked up. By the time I got there, there was no catching up. They were on a different level and seeing the 2 tables of beer pong and hearing of people play flippy cup I know why. Quick note: If you ever want to win at beer pong don’t ask me to be on your team. Everyone there was at the bar last night and now start referring to me as Tim Lincecum. My hair is getting long, and I do have a Giants hat on, but I don’t have the fucked up teeth and I don’t look 13. But being called Timmy is way better then what I’m used to getting called in the Midwest, when people find out I’m from SF. Did you know everyone from SF is gay? It’s news to me. LOL. Hours of drinking and a couple of beer pong games later we call it a night and hit the hay. Not as overly ridiculous as I thought it was gonna be. And everyone couldn’t have been nicer. I love the Midwest.
Today is the Blackhawks game, and some of the family is coming over for food and booze and to watch the game. Now I can care less about hockey but the further it gets into the playoffs, the more its keeping me interested. We have more Italian beef for lunch/dinner. Why is there still no word for lunch/dinner?? Why is no one working on this? I’ll give someone a dollar if they come up with a name for lunch/dinner. And I digress. The Blackhawks win cause I’m ion town and home team wins everything. Kinda sucks watching the Sharks lose again. I’d be making fun of everyone in SF if I was there but here I wanted them to win. At least a game. Eating, drinking and much needed relaxation all day was nice.
Monday was much of the same. Less drinking and eating but sitting around grams house and watching TV and just enjoying doing nothing, and building up hate for the Dodgers that are coming into town. My baby has gone about 8,000 miles and needed a much needed bath. I wish there was a way to count how many bugs I killed cause I think I’d have the world’s record. I’m prob gonna need a tiny detailing when I get back to get all the bug splatter off my grill. I get that all done and head to Uncle Steve’s for a nice cook out with more of the fam. There are like 1,000 of them out here. It’s hard to keep track of everyone. But nice to see them, since no one ever comes out to see us. Yea, that’s right family that is reading this. Any way good food, good company and more sitting around relaxing being made to watch the Bachelorette. What a shit show.
Tuesday the Dodgers are in town, and Ethan and I are gonna head into town on the train and hopefully keep my good home team record in tacked. We walk in the overly hot sun, and probably about 90 degree weather to the train station. I’m already regretting not bringing beer, but I’m not thinking you can drink on the train. You can. Cuz!! You dropped the ball on this one. On the way to the train we run into one of his friends dad’s who also says I look like Timmy. That’s kinda weird. We jump on the train and right away there is a Dodgers fan. And I did what I have to and that’s give her shit. Like a real rivalry goes!!! The other people in her group almost immediately offer us a beer. Awesome!!! Too bad we didn’t bring our own beer CUZ!!!! Damnit. It’s only about 45 min on the train into the city, but then you have to walk 10 min to another intercity train station. Wasn’t really stoked on that part of the Metro. You think they’d have this figured out and it would connect. At least I get to see where some of Batman was filmed. It takes another 10 min, and I want to get tickets and get some food and booze. Easier said than done. We walk around trying to find a scalper. We run into 1 who tells me the price and gives me the tickets then takes them back. Which worked out well. But what kind of scalper sells you a ticket then takes it back?? Bush league. We end up going to the window and its 3X more cause the Dodgers a premium team. As we are about to buy cheap tickets in the nose bleeds, or what is considered the nose bleed tickets a guy comes up and offers us the better tickets then the scalpers for the same price. We then try and eat but no one in Wrigleyville lets underage kids into the bars, and since he has no fake yet we have to beg one place to let us sit outside and eat. Goose Island thank you and awesome. Deep fried pickles, big ass burgers, good house brewed beer and cheap shots or whisky. Of course I order myself Makers and the kid ain’t that sophisticated and will drink piss if it’s got alcohol in it. I remember those days. So he gets a cheap shot of whisky as he downs it. We smarten up here and need a bottle of vodka for the game. I can only imagine what beers are in Wrigley. But they aren’t that bad. I think I remember like $7.25 of something. So the norm. The stadium is awesome, of course. They have the same kind of walkway around the stadium as the Indians. You get to walk around the stadium and still watch the game. The concession and bathrooms are a little hard to get to, but whatever you’re in a 100 year old stadium and its awesome. It looks like there is only room for about 30,000 people if that. It’s just so tiny. The rooftops look cool as hell. The only negative is that there isn’t a video board. I’m used to keeping up with stats and pitch count and all those things but you can’t really do that. I think that’s why the Cubbies fans just get drunk the whole time and don’t really pay attention. Wrigley is more of a party with a baseball game going on than a baseball game with a party. The Cubbies thank God win. I don’t think I could take the Dodgers winning again. 21 – 3. We jump on the train and take what seems like a 4 hour trip back home. That’s what not keeping your buzz going will do. Knock you right out.
OK so today I needed Chicago pizza. I’m gonna drive back down to Chicago and hit up Uno’s which apparently is where one of Chicago’s best pizza is. And Bocci’s which is a regular pizza but very good. But after driving down to the South Side for the Sox game and the 2 hour ride back home after the game I’m not really looking forward to the traffic. Apparently there are 4 freeways that take you into Chicago and they are working on 3 of them. They only have 6 month to work on them, cause then the weather gets bad and the concrete doesn’t settle right. And if I do the math right, there are 6 months of shitty weather, which mean traffic, and 6 months of working on freeways, which means traffic. 2hr 30min to go 45 min. That’s fucked Anyway what else do I have to do today. Uno’s is right downtown, which sucks cause there’s not gonna be any parking. But there are loading zones and signs that say put your flashers on and you get 30 min and everything will be ok. Uno’s pizza takes about 25 min to cook, so I’m cutting it close. I have a beer and chat with some folks, and grab my personal size pizza. I go to my car cause I don’t want a ticket, but too late. I get my first ticket on my trip. Oh well, we will see if I get anything in the mail. I cut off the first piece of pizza and ohhh yea!!! Buttery, flakey crust. Amazing ingredients. Great sausage, fresh mushrooms and peppers. DELCIOUS!!!! For those of you in the city go to Little Star Pizza. They do it right there to. These pizza’s always take a little longer but well worth it. Usually the sausage is what makes the pizza. It always fresh and herbaceous. And not to sound gay but I love sausage. I don’t care how many jokes from that one. Rousamande on Haight St. in the city is awesome. I take a few more bites and head back up to Wrigleyville for Bocci’s. I would have grabbed it last night but I was still full from the Goose Island food. I run into this place and as I’m looking at the pizza this girl says excuse me. I turn to her in my Giants shirt and hat and she asks are you a huge Cubbies fan? I laugh and point to ummm me. No, I politely respond and go back to starting at this pizza. The full pizza is about 3 feet in diameter; I ask for a slice of, of course sausage and pepperoni. Now looking at the pizza I know it’s gonna be kinda big slice but he slides his shovel underneath the slice and him and 2 other guys lift the slice from the board and put in a garbage bag and give it to me to throw over my shoulder like Santa Claus. And I am getting to look like him more and more. Especially when everywhere I go for a special food I get 2 and go back and forth from one to the other. What I’m trying to say is that this pizza is fucking huge; no joke the size of my head at least. Now when I open it up I’m assuming big can’t be good also. I’m wrong. The crust is fluffy and sauce is happening, and the pepperoni and sausage great. This behemoth of a slice of pizza cost me $5. I’m eating a bite of the Bocci’s then a bite of Uno’s and back and forth. I only get about ½ done with Uno’s and its small it’s like 6in in diameter. And I get about ¼ probably less of the Bocci’s. I’m in heaven. But that’s enough of the city, I have to get back before the traffic gets worse. I get to go by the beach, there are a ton of people out since it is like 90 out again. But that water still has to be freezing. This is such a beautiful city. I get about 5 min from Gram’s house and I drive right into a monsoon, again. I just washed my car for Christ’s sake. I can’t see out of my window, I don’t even want to get out of my car, knowing I’m going to be drenched in 4.5 sec. It is amazing how rainy it can be and how hot it can be at the same time. I run into Aunt Sandy and Uncle Wally’s house dodging lightning bolts and trying to slip and fall in a lake. I chill, digest and dry out. Gram calls with plans for dinner with the fam again before I leave tomorrow for Milwaukee. We head over to John’s, this place isn’t that good. But it’s cheap and where my gramps loved to go when he was alive. People are nice of course and there is beer so I can’t complain too much. We head back to the house with Dairy Queen. I swear I’m gonna be Santa Claus by the time I get back. I was close before I went on this trip. My other cuz Justin wants to go to this dive bar for a couple and I’m always down. Especially when they are .75 per cup. Granted the cup is like 6 or 8 oz. We head there and pound back 20 – 30 each lol I don’t know how many, but was a lot. They kept dropping them off dozens. We only spend a little bit there. I head back to Grams and pass out so I can get up early and go to the day game tomorrow in Milwaukee and then head to Shelly’s.
The next day me and Uncle Wally get up and get my hung over ass down to the White Sox game. I’ve been before and I like it a lot but they pretty much shut out the back of the stadium. Most stadiums like to show the city behind the stadium. Chicago doesn’t want to show you the South Side. LoL and that’s understandable. Nothing to amazing is going on. Kinda a boring game. They played the Marlins in interleague play, neither team played very well but no big thing. This is another stadium that doesn’t let you downstairs if you have upstairs tickets. Which is such bullshit. We almost made an early exit. I go to take my top of the stadium pic and dude tells me I can’t stand there. I politely tell him I’m just taking a pic and will move in a sec. He repeats himself, I ignore and he repeats himself again. I in my polite way toward all people who are jackass’s tell him, “look man I’ve been to like 20 stadiums and taken this picture, you’re not gonna tell me I can’t take this picture.” He continues to tell me to move, and hes asked me 3 times. And me still being polite tell him that he could tell his fucking mother, I don’t care. I’m taking this picture and then I’ll move.” I was standing there for less than 2 min; I would have been gone in less if this piece of shit with a little power would have stopped talking to me. He offers to call security, I politely tell him to go fuck himself and I walk away. Fucking people. I go to my seat and watch the Sox win for 20 – 3 record. We grab some Portillo’s which I like heaven for people in the suburbs. Italian steak, hot dogs, burgers, salads, everything you can think of. The Italian steak is like their version of the Philly cheese steak, without the nasty cheese on it. After some food and relaxation, my cuz comes to pick me up again and it’s time for a house party of sorts. It’s Vinnie friends, mom’s 60th b-day party and they have been drinking all day. Apparently the birthday girl did a beer bong with a wine cooler. That’s ridiculous and gross!!! Always fun watching the elders get fucked up. By the time I got there, there was no catching up. They were on a different level and seeing the 2 tables of beer pong and hearing of people play flippy cup I know why. Quick note: If you ever want to win at beer pong don’t ask me to be on your team. Everyone there was at the bar last night and now start referring to me as Tim Lincecum. My hair is getting long, and I do have a Giants hat on, but I don’t have the fucked up teeth and I don’t look 13. But being called Timmy is way better then what I’m used to getting called in the Midwest, when people find out I’m from SF. Did you know everyone from SF is gay? It’s news to me. LOL. Hours of drinking and a couple of beer pong games later we call it a night and hit the hay. Not as overly ridiculous as I thought it was gonna be. And everyone couldn’t have been nicer. I love the Midwest.
Today is the Blackhawks game, and some of the family is coming over for food and booze and to watch the game. Now I can care less about hockey but the further it gets into the playoffs, the more its keeping me interested. We have more Italian beef for lunch/dinner. Why is there still no word for lunch/dinner?? Why is no one working on this? I’ll give someone a dollar if they come up with a name for lunch/dinner. And I digress. The Blackhawks win cause I’m ion town and home team wins everything. Kinda sucks watching the Sharks lose again. I’d be making fun of everyone in SF if I was there but here I wanted them to win. At least a game. Eating, drinking and much needed relaxation all day was nice.
Monday was much of the same. Less drinking and eating but sitting around grams house and watching TV and just enjoying doing nothing, and building up hate for the Dodgers that are coming into town. My baby has gone about 8,000 miles and needed a much needed bath. I wish there was a way to count how many bugs I killed cause I think I’d have the world’s record. I’m prob gonna need a tiny detailing when I get back to get all the bug splatter off my grill. I get that all done and head to Uncle Steve’s for a nice cook out with more of the fam. There are like 1,000 of them out here. It’s hard to keep track of everyone. But nice to see them, since no one ever comes out to see us. Yea, that’s right family that is reading this. Any way good food, good company and more sitting around relaxing being made to watch the Bachelorette. What a shit show.
Tuesday the Dodgers are in town, and Ethan and I are gonna head into town on the train and hopefully keep my good home team record in tacked. We walk in the overly hot sun, and probably about 90 degree weather to the train station. I’m already regretting not bringing beer, but I’m not thinking you can drink on the train. You can. Cuz!! You dropped the ball on this one. On the way to the train we run into one of his friends dad’s who also says I look like Timmy. That’s kinda weird. We jump on the train and right away there is a Dodgers fan. And I did what I have to and that’s give her shit. Like a real rivalry goes!!! The other people in her group almost immediately offer us a beer. Awesome!!! Too bad we didn’t bring our own beer CUZ!!!! Damnit. It’s only about 45 min on the train into the city, but then you have to walk 10 min to another intercity train station. Wasn’t really stoked on that part of the Metro. You think they’d have this figured out and it would connect. At least I get to see where some of Batman was filmed. It takes another 10 min, and I want to get tickets and get some food and booze. Easier said than done. We walk around trying to find a scalper. We run into 1 who tells me the price and gives me the tickets then takes them back. Which worked out well. But what kind of scalper sells you a ticket then takes it back?? Bush league. We end up going to the window and its 3X more cause the Dodgers a premium team. As we are about to buy cheap tickets in the nose bleeds, or what is considered the nose bleed tickets a guy comes up and offers us the better tickets then the scalpers for the same price. We then try and eat but no one in Wrigleyville lets underage kids into the bars, and since he has no fake yet we have to beg one place to let us sit outside and eat. Goose Island thank you and awesome. Deep fried pickles, big ass burgers, good house brewed beer and cheap shots or whisky. Of course I order myself Makers and the kid ain’t that sophisticated and will drink piss if it’s got alcohol in it. I remember those days. So he gets a cheap shot of whisky as he downs it. We smarten up here and need a bottle of vodka for the game. I can only imagine what beers are in Wrigley. But they aren’t that bad. I think I remember like $7.25 of something. So the norm. The stadium is awesome, of course. They have the same kind of walkway around the stadium as the Indians. You get to walk around the stadium and still watch the game. The concession and bathrooms are a little hard to get to, but whatever you’re in a 100 year old stadium and its awesome. It looks like there is only room for about 30,000 people if that. It’s just so tiny. The rooftops look cool as hell. The only negative is that there isn’t a video board. I’m used to keeping up with stats and pitch count and all those things but you can’t really do that. I think that’s why the Cubbies fans just get drunk the whole time and don’t really pay attention. Wrigley is more of a party with a baseball game going on than a baseball game with a party. The Cubbies thank God win. I don’t think I could take the Dodgers winning again. 21 – 3. We jump on the train and take what seems like a 4 hour trip back home. That’s what not keeping your buzz going will do. Knock you right out.
OK so today I needed Chicago pizza. I’m gonna drive back down to Chicago and hit up Uno’s which apparently is where one of Chicago’s best pizza is. And Bocci’s which is a regular pizza but very good. But after driving down to the South Side for the Sox game and the 2 hour ride back home after the game I’m not really looking forward to the traffic. Apparently there are 4 freeways that take you into Chicago and they are working on 3 of them. They only have 6 month to work on them, cause then the weather gets bad and the concrete doesn’t settle right. And if I do the math right, there are 6 months of shitty weather, which mean traffic, and 6 months of working on freeways, which means traffic. 2hr 30min to go 45 min. That’s fucked Anyway what else do I have to do today. Uno’s is right downtown, which sucks cause there’s not gonna be any parking. But there are loading zones and signs that say put your flashers on and you get 30 min and everything will be ok. Uno’s pizza takes about 25 min to cook, so I’m cutting it close. I have a beer and chat with some folks, and grab my personal size pizza. I go to my car cause I don’t want a ticket, but too late. I get my first ticket on my trip. Oh well, we will see if I get anything in the mail. I cut off the first piece of pizza and ohhh yea!!! Buttery, flakey crust. Amazing ingredients. Great sausage, fresh mushrooms and peppers. DELCIOUS!!!! For those of you in the city go to Little Star Pizza. They do it right there to. These pizza’s always take a little longer but well worth it. Usually the sausage is what makes the pizza. It always fresh and herbaceous. And not to sound gay but I love sausage. I don’t care how many jokes from that one. Rousamande on Haight St. in the city is awesome. I take a few more bites and head back up to Wrigleyville for Bocci’s. I would have grabbed it last night but I was still full from the Goose Island food. I run into this place and as I’m looking at the pizza this girl says excuse me. I turn to her in my Giants shirt and hat and she asks are you a huge Cubbies fan? I laugh and point to ummm me. No, I politely respond and go back to starting at this pizza. The full pizza is about 3 feet in diameter; I ask for a slice of, of course sausage and pepperoni. Now looking at the pizza I know it’s gonna be kinda big slice but he slides his shovel underneath the slice and him and 2 other guys lift the slice from the board and put in a garbage bag and give it to me to throw over my shoulder like Santa Claus. And I am getting to look like him more and more. Especially when everywhere I go for a special food I get 2 and go back and forth from one to the other. What I’m trying to say is that this pizza is fucking huge; no joke the size of my head at least. Now when I open it up I’m assuming big can’t be good also. I’m wrong. The crust is fluffy and sauce is happening, and the pepperoni and sausage great. This behemoth of a slice of pizza cost me $5. I’m eating a bite of the Bocci’s then a bite of Uno’s and back and forth. I only get about ½ done with Uno’s and its small it’s like 6in in diameter. And I get about ¼ probably less of the Bocci’s. I’m in heaven. But that’s enough of the city, I have to get back before the traffic gets worse. I get to go by the beach, there are a ton of people out since it is like 90 out again. But that water still has to be freezing. This is such a beautiful city. I get about 5 min from Gram’s house and I drive right into a monsoon, again. I just washed my car for Christ’s sake. I can’t see out of my window, I don’t even want to get out of my car, knowing I’m going to be drenched in 4.5 sec. It is amazing how rainy it can be and how hot it can be at the same time. I run into Aunt Sandy and Uncle Wally’s house dodging lightning bolts and trying to slip and fall in a lake. I chill, digest and dry out. Gram calls with plans for dinner with the fam again before I leave tomorrow for Milwaukee. We head over to John’s, this place isn’t that good. But it’s cheap and where my gramps loved to go when he was alive. People are nice of course and there is beer so I can’t complain too much. We head back to the house with Dairy Queen. I swear I’m gonna be Santa Claus by the time I get back. I was close before I went on this trip. My other cuz Justin wants to go to this dive bar for a couple and I’m always down. Especially when they are .75 per cup. Granted the cup is like 6 or 8 oz. We head there and pound back 20 – 30 each lol I don’t know how many, but was a lot. They kept dropping them off dozens. We only spend a little bit there. I head back to Grams and pass out so I can get up early and go to the day game tomorrow in Milwaukee and then head to Shelly’s.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Midwest All In One
Barely waking up and being alive after Toronto, very, very , very slowly, move out of my hotel. Just trying to survive on the ride to Detroit. I’m running out of gad in Canada but there’s no way I’m finding out the conversion from liters to gallons and how much it’s going to cost me. It was .97 per liter. Now from what I thought was at least 4 liters per gallon. That’s almost $4 per gallon and go fuck yourself Canada. So I end up getting like a couple liters just to make me to the Great United States. And you know what is in between Canada and the U.S.?? That’s right duty free!!! And I ran out of Makers in like NY and I’m guessing cigarettes have to be cheap and boom they are. $34.99 for a carton and #30 for a bottle of Makers and a small airplane bottle come free. These cigarettes are plastered in non-smoking propaganda. I know there bad for me!! That’s why I smoke them God-Damn it. When I get to the border it takes 20 – 30 min to get across and it’s not cause of bomb checks, it’s just that they are slow as fuck, and I’m sure it’s because the people going through are just as retarded as the people letting us through. Anyway it feels like it takes me 3 days to get to Detroit but its only like 5 hours, did I mention I’m so damn hung over, and probably still drunk. I pull into town and find the cheapest parking lot near the park and go into an Indian food restaurant that’s also like a sports bar, which I’ve never seen. Kinda weird but good stuff. I just need a couple beers to feel a little normal. You ever been so hung-over that you think you will never be the same ever again!!! LOL. Those days are brutal as hell. If you haven’t ever experienced this, you need to do it just once but don’t try and do anything. Then you’ll just be thinking all day, “is this how I always do this?” After one of these days you now know what it feels like to actually be retarded. I eat a little and drink a couple and make my way to the park. The front of it is beautiful. There are huge Tiger statues out front guarding the stadium. There are Tigers’ outside because it’s the Detroit Tigers, for those people out there who didn’t know that. The inside of the stadium is just as nice as the outside. I was kinda hoping for a short porch on the right field side so they can hit it out of the stadium like the old one but it didn’t have that. But still good no matter what. I’m there early and need a nap. I sit in a seat and close my eyes. I get about 20 min of a good nap but am woken up by the worst thing I’ve heard on this trip. “Tiger fans this game has been postponed due to rain.” ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME????!!!!! I barely wanted to be in Detroit as it was now they just ruined my life. These poor old guys that were sitting in front of me look at me and say “eh what we will just gonna have to catch it another day” And I answer back “This just ruined my life.” Talk about a little dramatic. I just sit there distraught. I check the schedule for them and the Reds which is the game tomorrow, and looking at it I knew it wasn’t going to work out well for me. These are the games that I couldn’t miss, cause there was no makeup time for them. When I go to Canton, Ohio for the NFL Hall of Fame we are going to fly into Detroit watch the game and drive to Canton. So hopefully this works out ok.
I jump in my car and get the fuck out of Detroit. It’s pouring rain for a good 60 miles. I get about an hour outside of Cincinnati and I’m in Ohio, and wow oh wow, Ohio is not looking good for a state already. I grab some ice cream and get to my hotel room cause there no reason to be out in what I’ve seen of Ohio already. I jump up, and head into Cincy. Driving in, it starts to rain a little bit and I’m freaking out. If 2 games are rained out there is no way I’m making them both up. It’s drizzling on and off, I ask the people selling the tickets if there is gonna be a game, they seem kinda optimistic. Get into the park and it looks weird as fuck. It’s got a pontoon boat in centerfield, with a bar on it. It’s kinda nice. But looks very ummmm Midwest. It’s hard to explain, if you’ve been to the Midwest you might know what I’m talking about. I was told to have 3-way Chili in Cincy. And thank God they had it in the ballpark. 3-way chili is chili, cheese and pasta. What can I say about this. Besides its again very Midwest. They make the smallest most mundane things into large meals by putting a lot of things you would never think of putting together. Tater tots, chili and sour cream. Things like that. I’m trying to have a good time but it keeps drizzling and I’m freaking out thinking they are going to call the game at anytime. By the 5 inning I can relax cause it’s this far in the game and 1 more inning and it’s an official game. The Reds are down in the bottom of the ninth inning and Trevor Hoffman comes in to close the game out. Now people who know baseball know that normally this game is over. But what the Brewers don’t know is that I’m in the stands and the home team doesn’t lose when I’m there, He gives up 5 hits in 5 batters, letting the Reds tie up the game and then win. It was weird to see on the best closers in baseball history to give up 5 hits, not record and out and lose the game. I get out of Cincinnati as fast as I can. Pittsburgh is next and I’m there for 2 days and I want to get there kinda fast so I can go out and enjoy Pitt. Since everyone is telling me that the Pirate Stadium is the best ballpark in baseball, and I’m hoping it’s got some good cocktails as well since I haven’t had a really good cocktail since Boston.
I am sadly disappointed when I go out in Pitt. I am a block from Pitt College. So I know that it’s gonna be Jager and Miller Light. I need a little food, so I head out and end up at where the people at the hotel tell me to go. And it’s a college bar, but it’s got the Basketball and Hockey game on. I grab a seat at the bar. They give me a menu and say this part of the menu is half off. Now, on the half off menu the title says sandwiches. And under it, it says Rachel. So trying to break the ice I have to say “excuse me, where’s Rachel and how much is she?” This girl looked at me like I just punted her cat into a wood chipper as I called her a bitch. She didn’t understand why or what I was talking about. She turned to the other girl and starts to say something and I just told her it was a joke. I buried my face in the menu and the west side of Penn is looking like the east side on Penn in Philly. Badly!! I eat have 2 beers and want to get out so I don’t have to deal with these bartenders anymore. And I don’t know if many caught it on facebook but this is where I wrote “I’m about to give up on going into bars with woman as bartender’s” I think out of the many, many!! Bars I’ve been to , I’ve had 2 bartenders that were woman that were above average, and the rest shouldn’t even be let behind a bar at all. It makes us all look bad.
I get up the next day and run down to a corner restaurant. It looks like it’s got shitty greasy ass food. Mmm mmm mmmmmmm. I grab a hot dog with everything on it. And that’s chili for free also, and a small fry, which is bigger than 4 super sized fries at McD’s, and a chocolate milk shake. The milk shake sucked but the food was good. It was exactly what I expected. I go back to the hotel and relax for a bit then grab the free shuttle to ballpark. I walk around the ballpark and it is looking like how people had been telling me. It has beautiful statues outside and these yellow bridges lined up and down the river. I get into the stadium and it has a gorgeous view of the bridges and the city. But the park in general looks very bush league. It looks like I walked into a minor league stadium. Don’t get me wrong it is pristine, but that’s probably because there is less than 9k in the stadium. And apparently this is a big crowd. I understand how people think this is a great looking stadium but it was more about the view from the stadium than the stadium itself. Now I buy shitty ass tickets like I have done at 95% of the places I’ve been. I am walking around and find a ticket on the floor. It’s for a lower reserved which is awesome but I look where the ticket was for and it was in a group of kids. I walk around to the other side of the ballpark, and ask one of the ushers if I can sit down in his section instead of sitting next to a bunch of kids. And he understands and puts me decently close to the field. Very nice seats and good game. The shitty thing is, I’m trying to take a picture of me with the field behind me and as I’m doing that I hear the bat crack and I don’t know how I knew it was coming towards me but it was and fast. I try and reach forward with my hat and grab it but between trying to have my camera not fall and break and trying to catch a ball that’s on fire coming towards me I miss it by a 3 rows, it bounces off and goes 20 rows away. I do get to redeem myself though. To preface this next small story I have to say that they were shooting t-shirts into the crowd and people were falling over chairs and diving to get these things. So when a ball cracks off the bat and bounces off the mid section of the park and sails towards me. Light’s right behind it, and instead of doing what I’ve been trying to do for years and catch it with my hat, I put my hands out and try not to look directly into the lights and catch it with my hands. Everything in slow motion. It bounces off my hands and falls down right in front of me. Now I’m the only one in my section but there are a good 15 or so in the section next to me, and some of them college kids. The ball drops in front of the hand railing and thinking these people are gonna run over here and jump over 3 rows for this ball. So I dive over the hand railing legs flailing in the air, I grab the ball and try to push myself up. I get up and show the ball off of course cause I’m awesome. That will get your heart pumping. Which after all this food and booze I don’t think my heart can take the work LOL. Now even the Pirates are winning and upping my record to 19 – 2 for home wins. I try and go out after and I looked up s a couple places on the yelp and there isn’t a lot in downtown. I walk a couple blocks and end up at this bar that had some decent drinks and looked like some good food. But I wanted to check out another place and there is another place right down the street I want to try. I walk into it and another woman bartender. I sit there and wait 5 min for her to even give me a menu. I check out the list and find something decent but end up waiting a little over 5 min for her to come back, and she isn’t. And after last night I’m getting fed the fuck up. I get up and leave. I’m not gonna sit in an empty bar and have a bartender not pay attention to me. So I go back to the place I was at before which also has 2 women bartenders. And the service is again shit but it’s the only place within walking distance, and I’m not going back near Pitt College to eat and drink again, so I bite my lip and just have bourbon, and a small quesadilla. Just need to get something in my belly. I grab a cab and get to the hotel, a 2 hour drive to Cleveland is tomorrow, and then heading into the burbs of Chicago to hang with family for a week.
I get up and get into Cleveland for a day game. The park is right next to the now desolate Kings Palace. I don’t know, maybe it was in my head but driving around everyone just looked sad. They are not going to the NBA Finals, the King may be gone in a couple weeks, there football and baseball teams I don’t think have won a game since ’94. I sit down at a bar across the street from the bar grabbing a great pulled pork sandwich. Surprising since it was another sports bar, and the chick was hot but didn’t know what bourbon was. And not like all the little intricacy of it but didn’t know that it was whiskey. I got to chat with her for a couple min about how she was working 60 hours a week when the Cavs were playing but now less than 20 hours and making nothing. Cause no one goes to Indians games. I have also been asking many of the bartenders I talk to if they get the full min wage. And they do not!!! They get like $2 an hour. And most of those people don’t even get a pay check because of the taxes. And seeing the prices of things in all these states, I can completely understand why people are going broke in this time of recession. The food, booze, gas, cars, tickets, and pretty much everything else you can think of is about the same price as what I pay at home. And I actually get a paycheck. People say but your living cost is more right? Umm I don’t think it can be that much more. I mean $400 a month more for rent is the only expense I can see. Maybe taxes on registration for cars each year and maybe a little more a month for insurance? But I’d say $400 - $600 difference a month? I don’t think that is a huge difference. I need to talk to more people about this, but I think my City is just that much better. Anyway about baseball now. I get into the stadium and it’s gorgeous. I think it’s one of the best I’ve seen so far. And they have 2 sections to walk in. One is in back where all the concessions are and the other is in front so if you do want to walk around the ballpark you can do so while watching the game. Which is awesome. You’re not in anyone’s way and you can still see all of the game. The food here is good, the booze is like 6.75 for 16oz awesome!!! And the people that are there which isn’t many are interested in the game and are cheering. But as I said before these teams don’t win, and bring down my avg. bringing the record down to 19 – 3. Now it’s time to hang out with the famaglia in the burbs of Chicago. It’s about 5 hours and a week of relaxation.
I jump in my car and get the fuck out of Detroit. It’s pouring rain for a good 60 miles. I get about an hour outside of Cincinnati and I’m in Ohio, and wow oh wow, Ohio is not looking good for a state already. I grab some ice cream and get to my hotel room cause there no reason to be out in what I’ve seen of Ohio already. I jump up, and head into Cincy. Driving in, it starts to rain a little bit and I’m freaking out. If 2 games are rained out there is no way I’m making them both up. It’s drizzling on and off, I ask the people selling the tickets if there is gonna be a game, they seem kinda optimistic. Get into the park and it looks weird as fuck. It’s got a pontoon boat in centerfield, with a bar on it. It’s kinda nice. But looks very ummmm Midwest. It’s hard to explain, if you’ve been to the Midwest you might know what I’m talking about. I was told to have 3-way Chili in Cincy. And thank God they had it in the ballpark. 3-way chili is chili, cheese and pasta. What can I say about this. Besides its again very Midwest. They make the smallest most mundane things into large meals by putting a lot of things you would never think of putting together. Tater tots, chili and sour cream. Things like that. I’m trying to have a good time but it keeps drizzling and I’m freaking out thinking they are going to call the game at anytime. By the 5 inning I can relax cause it’s this far in the game and 1 more inning and it’s an official game. The Reds are down in the bottom of the ninth inning and Trevor Hoffman comes in to close the game out. Now people who know baseball know that normally this game is over. But what the Brewers don’t know is that I’m in the stands and the home team doesn’t lose when I’m there, He gives up 5 hits in 5 batters, letting the Reds tie up the game and then win. It was weird to see on the best closers in baseball history to give up 5 hits, not record and out and lose the game. I get out of Cincinnati as fast as I can. Pittsburgh is next and I’m there for 2 days and I want to get there kinda fast so I can go out and enjoy Pitt. Since everyone is telling me that the Pirate Stadium is the best ballpark in baseball, and I’m hoping it’s got some good cocktails as well since I haven’t had a really good cocktail since Boston.
I am sadly disappointed when I go out in Pitt. I am a block from Pitt College. So I know that it’s gonna be Jager and Miller Light. I need a little food, so I head out and end up at where the people at the hotel tell me to go. And it’s a college bar, but it’s got the Basketball and Hockey game on. I grab a seat at the bar. They give me a menu and say this part of the menu is half off. Now, on the half off menu the title says sandwiches. And under it, it says Rachel. So trying to break the ice I have to say “excuse me, where’s Rachel and how much is she?” This girl looked at me like I just punted her cat into a wood chipper as I called her a bitch. She didn’t understand why or what I was talking about. She turned to the other girl and starts to say something and I just told her it was a joke. I buried my face in the menu and the west side of Penn is looking like the east side on Penn in Philly. Badly!! I eat have 2 beers and want to get out so I don’t have to deal with these bartenders anymore. And I don’t know if many caught it on facebook but this is where I wrote “I’m about to give up on going into bars with woman as bartender’s” I think out of the many, many!! Bars I’ve been to , I’ve had 2 bartenders that were woman that were above average, and the rest shouldn’t even be let behind a bar at all. It makes us all look bad.
I get up the next day and run down to a corner restaurant. It looks like it’s got shitty greasy ass food. Mmm mmm mmmmmmm. I grab a hot dog with everything on it. And that’s chili for free also, and a small fry, which is bigger than 4 super sized fries at McD’s, and a chocolate milk shake. The milk shake sucked but the food was good. It was exactly what I expected. I go back to the hotel and relax for a bit then grab the free shuttle to ballpark. I walk around the ballpark and it is looking like how people had been telling me. It has beautiful statues outside and these yellow bridges lined up and down the river. I get into the stadium and it has a gorgeous view of the bridges and the city. But the park in general looks very bush league. It looks like I walked into a minor league stadium. Don’t get me wrong it is pristine, but that’s probably because there is less than 9k in the stadium. And apparently this is a big crowd. I understand how people think this is a great looking stadium but it was more about the view from the stadium than the stadium itself. Now I buy shitty ass tickets like I have done at 95% of the places I’ve been. I am walking around and find a ticket on the floor. It’s for a lower reserved which is awesome but I look where the ticket was for and it was in a group of kids. I walk around to the other side of the ballpark, and ask one of the ushers if I can sit down in his section instead of sitting next to a bunch of kids. And he understands and puts me decently close to the field. Very nice seats and good game. The shitty thing is, I’m trying to take a picture of me with the field behind me and as I’m doing that I hear the bat crack and I don’t know how I knew it was coming towards me but it was and fast. I try and reach forward with my hat and grab it but between trying to have my camera not fall and break and trying to catch a ball that’s on fire coming towards me I miss it by a 3 rows, it bounces off and goes 20 rows away. I do get to redeem myself though. To preface this next small story I have to say that they were shooting t-shirts into the crowd and people were falling over chairs and diving to get these things. So when a ball cracks off the bat and bounces off the mid section of the park and sails towards me. Light’s right behind it, and instead of doing what I’ve been trying to do for years and catch it with my hat, I put my hands out and try not to look directly into the lights and catch it with my hands. Everything in slow motion. It bounces off my hands and falls down right in front of me. Now I’m the only one in my section but there are a good 15 or so in the section next to me, and some of them college kids. The ball drops in front of the hand railing and thinking these people are gonna run over here and jump over 3 rows for this ball. So I dive over the hand railing legs flailing in the air, I grab the ball and try to push myself up. I get up and show the ball off of course cause I’m awesome. That will get your heart pumping. Which after all this food and booze I don’t think my heart can take the work LOL. Now even the Pirates are winning and upping my record to 19 – 2 for home wins. I try and go out after and I looked up s a couple places on the yelp and there isn’t a lot in downtown. I walk a couple blocks and end up at this bar that had some decent drinks and looked like some good food. But I wanted to check out another place and there is another place right down the street I want to try. I walk into it and another woman bartender. I sit there and wait 5 min for her to even give me a menu. I check out the list and find something decent but end up waiting a little over 5 min for her to come back, and she isn’t. And after last night I’m getting fed the fuck up. I get up and leave. I’m not gonna sit in an empty bar and have a bartender not pay attention to me. So I go back to the place I was at before which also has 2 women bartenders. And the service is again shit but it’s the only place within walking distance, and I’m not going back near Pitt College to eat and drink again, so I bite my lip and just have bourbon, and a small quesadilla. Just need to get something in my belly. I grab a cab and get to the hotel, a 2 hour drive to Cleveland is tomorrow, and then heading into the burbs of Chicago to hang with family for a week.
I get up and get into Cleveland for a day game. The park is right next to the now desolate Kings Palace. I don’t know, maybe it was in my head but driving around everyone just looked sad. They are not going to the NBA Finals, the King may be gone in a couple weeks, there football and baseball teams I don’t think have won a game since ’94. I sit down at a bar across the street from the bar grabbing a great pulled pork sandwich. Surprising since it was another sports bar, and the chick was hot but didn’t know what bourbon was. And not like all the little intricacy of it but didn’t know that it was whiskey. I got to chat with her for a couple min about how she was working 60 hours a week when the Cavs were playing but now less than 20 hours and making nothing. Cause no one goes to Indians games. I have also been asking many of the bartenders I talk to if they get the full min wage. And they do not!!! They get like $2 an hour. And most of those people don’t even get a pay check because of the taxes. And seeing the prices of things in all these states, I can completely understand why people are going broke in this time of recession. The food, booze, gas, cars, tickets, and pretty much everything else you can think of is about the same price as what I pay at home. And I actually get a paycheck. People say but your living cost is more right? Umm I don’t think it can be that much more. I mean $400 a month more for rent is the only expense I can see. Maybe taxes on registration for cars each year and maybe a little more a month for insurance? But I’d say $400 - $600 difference a month? I don’t think that is a huge difference. I need to talk to more people about this, but I think my City is just that much better. Anyway about baseball now. I get into the stadium and it’s gorgeous. I think it’s one of the best I’ve seen so far. And they have 2 sections to walk in. One is in back where all the concessions are and the other is in front so if you do want to walk around the ballpark you can do so while watching the game. Which is awesome. You’re not in anyone’s way and you can still see all of the game. The food here is good, the booze is like 6.75 for 16oz awesome!!! And the people that are there which isn’t many are interested in the game and are cheering. But as I said before these teams don’t win, and bring down my avg. bringing the record down to 19 – 3. Now it’s time to hang out with the famaglia in the burbs of Chicago. It’s about 5 hours and a week of relaxation.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Oh, Canada
Ha, I don’t set an alarm cause I’ve been getting up at 11 or before every day. But when you go to bed about 5am I guess you’re gonna sleep a little bit longer. I roll out of bed at close to 1 which means I’m gonna roll into Toronto hopefully by 10 which isn’t bad but I was hoping for a little bit earlier but as my dad likes to say “you want to play, you got to pay” And I am in time. I hit the road and drive a lot of Penn and through NY State which is a gorgeous drive. Upper NY is so pristine. It has rolling hills, and green everywhere. The sky looks amazing, the clouds plump. Everything is great. I stop at a small town about 5 min from the border of NY and have some home cookin’. Nice think pork chops, with a shit ton of gravy, some mash potatoes with what taste like 4 pounds of butter. Lovely. I did have some corn to give me some veggie. I wanted some homemade pie they had. It looks delicious, but I need to get on the road. But togo works for a snack a lot later in the night, or what I thought would be late. But strawberry-rhubarb pie doesn’t last long in my car. Lol. I think I ate it within an hour or 2. Niagara Falls is on the way and I can’t wait to see the falls. From the pictures I’ve seen it is spectacular. And it doesn’t disappoint. The pictures I took, I think were great. Showing everything from the part that brings it down to the falls and the falls lit up. I’m starting to see that most if not all of our monuments are so much better to see at night. I walk around to every possible shot of the falls on the American side. I was gonna go to the Canadian side but I’d rather get going and get to Toronto. It’s not too hard to get into Canadia. They ask a few questions. Where are you coming from, where are you going, how long you gonna be in town? Nothing out of hand. I jump on the freeway?? I think it might be called. They go 80 kmph. That is less than 60 mph. It’s so hard to go that slow but I’m not about to start breaking the law in Canada. I would have made it to Toronto a lot sooner but only going 55 – 60 mph it takes forever. And it doesn’t help that they have shut down their freeway close to Toronto to work on it. So it adds even more time to my trip. I finally get into Toronto to my 4 star hotel that is connected to the Rogers Centere, which is where the Blue Jays play. I get up to my room and it has a separate room for my bed, a desk, a conference table, stairs, a living room, 2 TV’s and a window that looks out onto the Space Needle. It’s right outside my window!!! I’m looking at the room wishing they would take all this away and just give me a fridge and a micro. What the hell do I need with a conference table for? Anyway it’s a great place. There’s a bar downstairs I never went to but the window looked out onto the stadium. Just a very cool place to stay in Toronto and it downtown, so not much around for a Saturday night, but some. I find a sports bar and jump in and have a couple whiskeys’ just taking in the Canadian way. In the first 2 hours and over the time of the trip I find that Canadians are a tad bid overly sensitive. Who kinda make small things into big things. It happened more than a couple times. It was a quick night, last call is at 2 and I got in and settled at 1, so tomorrow will have to be the night I get wild lol.
I take my time getting up since I have to go all of 11 floors down to the stadium. Have I mentioned my hotel room is connected to the stadium!!! The stadium is huge!! It holds the CFL team there to and I’m hoping that’s why it’s so big. Cause another stadium that has no one in it. It’s just way too big for a new baseball stadium. It is very nice and retractable but just too big. And I’m tired of places telling me I can’t go around the stadiums. There are so many rules. I can’t go downstairs where better food is and more of the stadium is!!! I walked down from the top floor to the bottom and got there and they tell me, get the fuck back upstairs you broke as Yankee. You can’t even walk around downstairs if you have tickets for upstairs. That’s God Damn ridiculous. Anyway after the Blue Jays won of course, I made my way to a place that had ½ off apps that I found last night. Met a couple people who were in the business and the bartenders. They told me a couple places to go, so I went back to the hotel and relaxed and then shot back to the same bar to have a quick drink and scoot off to other bars. But they were closing and going up the street. So I walked around and there is nothing open on Sunday night in Toronto. But you make due. I went to the place the bartender told me they were going. She saw me and pulled me to their table. Had a couple pitchers and her and her friend wanted to go to the club. Knowing I wasn’t getting into the club dressed in adidas, jeans, Giants shirt, and Toronodo sweatshirt and hat: I said F it let’s try. And yea not getting in. I send them in and go back to the bar I was just at and the fun starts!!! WOW I get back to the bar and meet a dude from Toronto, and then a couple guys from Ireland. We drink and chat about politics. They think we are kinda retarded and I think they are so we get along. Cause we all know that all of our countries are. They do last call and the Toronto guy says “do you play poker?” We all give an emphatic “NO”, but he comes back with “there’s booze” and we are in a cab and on our way to a random spot ill never find again. There is poker, beer and karaoke. One of the Irish guys jumps up and sings. There wasn’t much there anymore. No one was playing poker, and there was really no one there so we ended up going to another back ally place ill never find in Chinatown. We stand outside the place we don’t know why and the door swings open, and this Irish guy starts grilling us about where we had been drinking making sure we aren’t cops. Thank god he didn’t ask me cause I wouldn’t have been able to answer any question. We jump downstairs and it’s like right out of a movie. Dim lights, smoke filling the air, people playing poker, and an Irish bartender right off the boat who serves a mean shot of Jameson. LOL. We chat with him a while just about umm everything I think. All I know is that shots kept showing up and we kept drinking them. I’m not gonna tell this guy no. I’d like to meet the person who does. Anyway from 3 – 5 is a blur and all I know is that I owe The Canadian and Irish some drinks cause I didn’t get any Canadian money when I came into the country. I didn’t pay for anything after the real bar closed. I look at the time and its 5am and I need to get to Detroit tomorrow and I need to leave by 10:30. So I stumble out of the bar and its light outside. I almost puke at the thought of waking up in 5 hours. I barely got to my room, and I pasted out quickly.
I woke up the next day pretty much dead. I took a picture of me just rising from hell but that isn’t a postable pic.
I take my time getting up since I have to go all of 11 floors down to the stadium. Have I mentioned my hotel room is connected to the stadium!!! The stadium is huge!! It holds the CFL team there to and I’m hoping that’s why it’s so big. Cause another stadium that has no one in it. It’s just way too big for a new baseball stadium. It is very nice and retractable but just too big. And I’m tired of places telling me I can’t go around the stadiums. There are so many rules. I can’t go downstairs where better food is and more of the stadium is!!! I walked down from the top floor to the bottom and got there and they tell me, get the fuck back upstairs you broke as Yankee. You can’t even walk around downstairs if you have tickets for upstairs. That’s God Damn ridiculous. Anyway after the Blue Jays won of course, I made my way to a place that had ½ off apps that I found last night. Met a couple people who were in the business and the bartenders. They told me a couple places to go, so I went back to the hotel and relaxed and then shot back to the same bar to have a quick drink and scoot off to other bars. But they were closing and going up the street. So I walked around and there is nothing open on Sunday night in Toronto. But you make due. I went to the place the bartender told me they were going. She saw me and pulled me to their table. Had a couple pitchers and her and her friend wanted to go to the club. Knowing I wasn’t getting into the club dressed in adidas, jeans, Giants shirt, and Toronodo sweatshirt and hat: I said F it let’s try. And yea not getting in. I send them in and go back to the bar I was just at and the fun starts!!! WOW I get back to the bar and meet a dude from Toronto, and then a couple guys from Ireland. We drink and chat about politics. They think we are kinda retarded and I think they are so we get along. Cause we all know that all of our countries are. They do last call and the Toronto guy says “do you play poker?” We all give an emphatic “NO”, but he comes back with “there’s booze” and we are in a cab and on our way to a random spot ill never find again. There is poker, beer and karaoke. One of the Irish guys jumps up and sings. There wasn’t much there anymore. No one was playing poker, and there was really no one there so we ended up going to another back ally place ill never find in Chinatown. We stand outside the place we don’t know why and the door swings open, and this Irish guy starts grilling us about where we had been drinking making sure we aren’t cops. Thank god he didn’t ask me cause I wouldn’t have been able to answer any question. We jump downstairs and it’s like right out of a movie. Dim lights, smoke filling the air, people playing poker, and an Irish bartender right off the boat who serves a mean shot of Jameson. LOL. We chat with him a while just about umm everything I think. All I know is that shots kept showing up and we kept drinking them. I’m not gonna tell this guy no. I’d like to meet the person who does. Anyway from 3 – 5 is a blur and all I know is that I owe The Canadian and Irish some drinks cause I didn’t get any Canadian money when I came into the country. I didn’t pay for anything after the real bar closed. I look at the time and its 5am and I need to get to Detroit tomorrow and I need to leave by 10:30. So I stumble out of the bar and its light outside. I almost puke at the thought of waking up in 5 hours. I barely got to my room, and I pasted out quickly.
I woke up the next day pretty much dead. I took a picture of me just rising from hell but that isn’t a postable pic.
NY II
Early wakeup call since my car is parked on the street. This crappy hotel has a great breakfast. They have a make your own waffle maker, a bunch of toasts and jellies and such with OJ and milks, for such a shit hole, I’m impressed. Especially since I am finding out city to city that the worse the hotel the more you get for free and the better the hotel the more you have to pay for. This place had a kitchen in my room. Fridge, stove, micro all the things you may need. At ***’s hotels they have nothing extra. Most the time you have to pay extra for parking, and sometimes for internet and they don’t give you micros or small fridges. They do have great beds and killer bathrooms and views but you can’t bring back food of any sort or a 12 pack of beer back, which I’m assuming is why they do that. Anyway it’s on my way back to NY. I’m staying at the same place as I was last time. This time I will have a lot more fun. I plan on partying in Manhattan this time. I get into NY this time a lot easier than last time. No driving through Manhattan or over 6 bridges and under 4 tunnels.
After getting up really early in Baltimore and went to the hotel and pasted out for a while. Then I went into city. Walked around a bit just trying to take some pics and find a place to eat and drink. I got into Manhattan, and found the empire state building. Its looks closer than it actually is. It looks likes it’s right there but 5 NY blocks later there it is. I’ve been there before so no way am I waiting in the 2 hour line to see it again. But I wanted to go to the bars I was at 2 years ago that let me drink with them till 7am. I drop by and I figured it wasn’t going to be anything like it was 2 years ago, but went in had a drink and left to try find a good place to eat and drink. There are a ton of places out there and so hard to pick one. I tried going to Bond 45 which I went to 2 years ago but was just way out of the price range for what they had, but I was definitely coming back for dessert. They have a killer cheesecake. I went around dropping in and having a drink here and there. I find a steakhouse with a great deal. Salad and a steak with 2 sides for like $35. Can’t beat theat. Ohhh my what a steak. Tender and delicious. Kinda reminds me of like a Morton’s. Kinda small, old and tucked away a little. Even on Times Square. I eat a great meal and have a couple bourbons. I head over to Bond 45 to get their cheesecake. It was so much better last time. You have one thought in your head and it doesn’t go the way you think it will. It was good but not as good as I remember. Just different. Met a couple girls from down under, and it was one of their birthdays. Bought them a couple drinks at the bar across the street, then jumped on the metro and headed to the hotel.
SO I get up and take my time, but I am stoked to get to New Yankee stadium. I was at the old Yankee stadium and loved it. The history of the place was great and I’m afraid that the new one losses it all. No one except the teams that have been in there since last year. I get there a little early to get a ticket. The cheapest I can get is $50 at the gate. But scalpers can be good at any stadium. I grab a $75 tickets from $47. This seat is lower reserved, behind right field, right next to the bleachers…that doesn’t let you buy or bring in alcohol into them. That’s obscene!!! I step foot into the stadium and it’s the same feel. You are in Yankee Stadium. Whether it is new or old, it doesn’t matter. The team is history. They spend $200 million a year on salary. You walk out and it’s the same feeling I had when walking into Pac Bell when it first opened with my Dad. Just in awe. It’s a Roman Coliseum. I have been very angry about the fans in many stadiums. I have been angry at Giants fans for sitting on their hands from time to time. But after being at a lot of these stadiums, I know now that we have top 5 fans in the league. We are not as crazy as Philly but after being in NY we aren’t there either. They are great. There is no sign on the video screen telling them to cheer and clap and make some noise. They are up and yelling all the time. Swisher comes out and starts screaming at the fans. Getting him and the stands PUMPED UP!!! I’m not a Yankee fan but I was rooting for them after that display. And it keeps growing. They do “Roll Call”. Which is them chanting each player’s name on the field except the pitcher and catcher for good reason. Each player after their name being chanted tips a cap or waves to acknowledge the fans and their names. This I find is awesome. The fans are up and cheering all game. The Twins were up a lot of the game but 6th inning comes along and the Yankees break it open. They walk Tex, to get to A-Roid??? Bases loaded with A-Roid up. Grand Slam!!! This place went nuts. This goes up with the Manny homerun at the beginning of this trip. This is a baseball game. This is a baseball stadium. No sugar coating, no kid friendly crap. No F-ing seal as a mascot. One of the few reasons I hate ATT Park.
The crowd and I filed out of the park. Onto the subway down to Manhattan for hopefully a good night of drinking. Nothing to exciting cause you have to find the shitty dive bars off the beaten path and it’s really hard when you’re downtown in Times Square. But after much walking around and I found one. It was owned by a former boxing trainer. I keep thinking I’m going to have a drink at a lot of these places and just head home. But you run into someone from SF area and then another and then you get a long conversation going and you end up drinking till 4am and passing out. But you only live once and I’m doing as much as I can on this trip, not letting anything pass me by. I grab the train and pass out quick at the hotel.
After getting up really early in Baltimore and went to the hotel and pasted out for a while. Then I went into city. Walked around a bit just trying to take some pics and find a place to eat and drink. I got into Manhattan, and found the empire state building. Its looks closer than it actually is. It looks likes it’s right there but 5 NY blocks later there it is. I’ve been there before so no way am I waiting in the 2 hour line to see it again. But I wanted to go to the bars I was at 2 years ago that let me drink with them till 7am. I drop by and I figured it wasn’t going to be anything like it was 2 years ago, but went in had a drink and left to try find a good place to eat and drink. There are a ton of places out there and so hard to pick one. I tried going to Bond 45 which I went to 2 years ago but was just way out of the price range for what they had, but I was definitely coming back for dessert. They have a killer cheesecake. I went around dropping in and having a drink here and there. I find a steakhouse with a great deal. Salad and a steak with 2 sides for like $35. Can’t beat theat. Ohhh my what a steak. Tender and delicious. Kinda reminds me of like a Morton’s. Kinda small, old and tucked away a little. Even on Times Square. I eat a great meal and have a couple bourbons. I head over to Bond 45 to get their cheesecake. It was so much better last time. You have one thought in your head and it doesn’t go the way you think it will. It was good but not as good as I remember. Just different. Met a couple girls from down under, and it was one of their birthdays. Bought them a couple drinks at the bar across the street, then jumped on the metro and headed to the hotel.
SO I get up and take my time, but I am stoked to get to New Yankee stadium. I was at the old Yankee stadium and loved it. The history of the place was great and I’m afraid that the new one losses it all. No one except the teams that have been in there since last year. I get there a little early to get a ticket. The cheapest I can get is $50 at the gate. But scalpers can be good at any stadium. I grab a $75 tickets from $47. This seat is lower reserved, behind right field, right next to the bleachers…that doesn’t let you buy or bring in alcohol into them. That’s obscene!!! I step foot into the stadium and it’s the same feel. You are in Yankee Stadium. Whether it is new or old, it doesn’t matter. The team is history. They spend $200 million a year on salary. You walk out and it’s the same feeling I had when walking into Pac Bell when it first opened with my Dad. Just in awe. It’s a Roman Coliseum. I have been very angry about the fans in many stadiums. I have been angry at Giants fans for sitting on their hands from time to time. But after being at a lot of these stadiums, I know now that we have top 5 fans in the league. We are not as crazy as Philly but after being in NY we aren’t there either. They are great. There is no sign on the video screen telling them to cheer and clap and make some noise. They are up and yelling all the time. Swisher comes out and starts screaming at the fans. Getting him and the stands PUMPED UP!!! I’m not a Yankee fan but I was rooting for them after that display. And it keeps growing. They do “Roll Call”. Which is them chanting each player’s name on the field except the pitcher and catcher for good reason. Each player after their name being chanted tips a cap or waves to acknowledge the fans and their names. This I find is awesome. The fans are up and cheering all game. The Twins were up a lot of the game but 6th inning comes along and the Yankees break it open. They walk Tex, to get to A-Roid??? Bases loaded with A-Roid up. Grand Slam!!! This place went nuts. This goes up with the Manny homerun at the beginning of this trip. This is a baseball game. This is a baseball stadium. No sugar coating, no kid friendly crap. No F-ing seal as a mascot. One of the few reasons I hate ATT Park.
The crowd and I filed out of the park. Onto the subway down to Manhattan for hopefully a good night of drinking. Nothing to exciting cause you have to find the shitty dive bars off the beaten path and it’s really hard when you’re downtown in Times Square. But after much walking around and I found one. It was owned by a former boxing trainer. I keep thinking I’m going to have a drink at a lot of these places and just head home. But you run into someone from SF area and then another and then you get a long conversation going and you end up drinking till 4am and passing out. But you only live once and I’m doing as much as I can on this trip, not letting anything pass me by. I grab the train and pass out quick at the hotel.
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