I went to Boston to stay with a dear friend and mark Fenway Park off my list. Originally I hadn't planned on going to Boston this summer, but with my tax refund check I figured why the heck not?!
I flew up to Providence, R.I. and Kelli and her dad picked me up! I worked at Disney with Kelli so it was SO good to see her again.
We did a lot of fun things while I was there. We stayed at her nana's house in Cape Cod, went to the beach, got to see a friend from Brazil that worked with us at Disney (who we thought we'd NEVER see again obviously), saw Plymouth Rock, but the best was going to one of the nation's most historic and iconic baseball parks... Fenway Park: home of the Red Sox!
It was such a fun atmosphere outside the stadium in Yawkey Way! Kelli had talked me into wearing her "Green Monstah" shirt, but of course I wore my Braves shirt underneath!
It was so cool to think that I was sitting where people had sat enjoying the same sport as me 100 years ago! They still use the old-style hand turned scoreboard in left field. And of course there is the infamous Green Monster wall in left field! During the game it was just so fun to be part of the Red Sox nation, even if only for 1 game.
I got to see Big Papi hit a home run which was pretty sweet! We sang Sweet Caroline just like they do every game at Fenway and I also got a "Fenway Frank." Overall I LOVED my Fenway experience, but then again, who wouldn't?!
The next week, my family went to Chicago and Milwaukee. I was so excited about this trip because it was going to mark 3 ballparks off my list! Chicago was really cool. We'd never been there before so we explored the city. We hit up a ballpark each night! It was exhausting, but really neat to say I've done!
The first park we went to was Wrigley Field. This was definitely a big landmark! Getting to see Fenway and Wrigley within a week of each other was definitely something I will always remember! Wrigley was really cool! It was such a historic ballpark. I was really excited to see the original marquee sign out front.
Even though I'm not a big fan of history, I do love baseball history! Another cool thing about going to that game at Wrigley was that I got to see Boston play the Cubs there! Two of the nations most historic teams dueling it out in one of the nation's most celebrated and historic ballparks! It was truly a dream! Big Papi hit one out at that game... this means I got to see him hit bombs in both Fenway and Wrigley. Amazing!
After going to Wrigley, we went to U.S. Cellular Field the next night. Before we hit that up, we explored the city a little bit more. I even got to stand on the glass ledge at the Sears Tower! It was so cool!!
U.S. Cellular field is home to the White Sox. The neat thing about the game we went to was that it was the Chi-Town Classic, the Crosstown Cup, the battle of the Chicago baseball teams!! So cool to see the passion for baseball in this one city!
U.S. Cellular Field was alright, but it was in a sketchy part of town and just not very appealing to the eye. The fans weren't all that exciting either, but we did get to see a lot of home runs hit in this game!
It was crazy windy at that game! We had seats up at the top and it was incredible how big the gusts of wind were that blew through! It was hard to stand up when you were walking up and down the steps! I guess it held true to its name: the "Windy City."
Our last stop on our tour of the ballparks for this trip was to Milwaukee. We went for the day to explore the city before the game. There is absolutely NOTHING to do in Milwaukee. We couldn't even find a restaurant we recognized. However, their ballpark is fantastic! I loved Miller Park! It was really cool and the retractable roof just added to the look of the park! Even though Wrigley is so historic, I think Miller Park was my favorite out of the 3 we visited! I even caught a ball at batting practice!
We got to see several former Braves play while we were there. Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson both played for the Braves but now play for the Blue Jays.
We saw a ton of home runs hit in this game too! Overall for the 3 games we saw, we saw 15 home runs hit! That's incredible! We also didn't get
to see the home team win at any of the ball parks... kind of sad. The fans at Miller Park were more into the game and more fun to be around than the other two parks. I think we were able to get more into the Brewers game because we sat closer to the field as well.
These 4 ballparks were a great way to kick start my summer! I am enjoying this journey as I race to see a game at all 30 ballparks before I'm 30. Right now my count is at 10! I'm a third of the way there and I'm 24!! Still lots to visit and plenty of memories to be made! Next on my list for the summer are Cleveland and Pittsburgh in a little over a week when I go visit my friend Heather in Ohio!! Super pumped!
Living out my dream,
Katelyn
I have no idea what we were thinking when my friends John, Brooke, and Nathan decided a 40 hour road trip to Kansas City was a good idea. It was definitely a quick weekend! It really was a good weekend despite the total 19 hours of driving... yuck! It was the last ballpark of the summer for me. I was so relieved to finally have reached that last trip for the summer! It went by so quickly! I feel like summer just began and it's already almost over.
So about Kansas City... I had a blast! The ballpark was really cool and I loved the fans! They were passionate. I mean I guess you have to be when there is really nothing else out there in the middle of nowhere! We had a good time. They had some delish frozen custard at the park and there were these amazing fountains behind the outfield that really added to the unique atmosphere of the park!
What was really cool was the fact that they had just hosted the all-star game! They a lot of cool all-star game stuff left! Banners and everything we still hanging up too!
