Real baseball

It seemed like a good idea, back in March when it was announced: Boulder Valley School District night at the Rockies game! Come join with families from all the millions of schools in Boulder, sit in discounted seats, and watch real baseball (as opposed to t-ball). As soon as the Canon City house closed and we had some money, I bought our tickets.

I was a little concerned about it being a night game, but I've always preferred night games, and anyway, it started at 6:10 pm, that's not THAT late. We just had to be careful not to get too tired during the day. So, what did we do today?
1. Got up late (Mom and Dad, but especially Mom), watched too many videos (boos), had a lot of screaming fights (boos), finally got dressed and ate breakfast (everyone).
2. Swim lessons at 10:25, followed by a brief sojourn at the park.
3. Home for lunch, then-
4. Off to Broomfield to buy a used bike for Mom, so that we can all go riding as a family (Kid B can't ride yet, but he has a become an excellent coaster and I think riding will come soon). Here's my pretty, new (to me) bike:

5. Went to the Honeybaked Ham place in Westminster and got a small ham for tomorrow, plus some other stuff.
6. Went home and "rested" briefly (for boos, this meant running through the house screaming, but to each his own).
7. And then it was time to go.

We left at 4:15 to allow plenty of time (ha ha ha). There was supposedly a 30% chance of rain, but it was raining pretty darn hard all the way to Denver. Rocket Boy very kindly did the driving, which was awful and very slow. Kid A slept most of the way there, and I have to admit I dozed a bit too.

The hard part about going to a Rockies game is of course getting there, and also parking. You can buy a parking permit at the Coors Field parking lots, but I was too late -- they were all sold out. So that meant driving around streets looking for a private lot that wasn't charging $20. Finally we gave up and paid the $20. If we'd taken the bus it would have cost $30 for the four of us, so we still came out ahead, but ouch. Actually, the main reason we didn't take the "Rockies Ride" was that the buses don't return to Boulder until the game ends. We were pretty sure we'd be leaving early, so we wanted our car with us.

We walked the few blocks from the parking lot to the ballpark, rode a very steep escalator way up high, found our seats in Section 332, and surveyed the scene.

Pretty cool seats, no? Unfortunately, it was still raining. Not hard, just drizzle, but it drizzled and drizzled the entire time we were there. I can't think when I've been to a game like that. Kinda hard on boos, to have their first real baseball game be so damp!

Oh, but there were compensations. After we got settled, the boos and I went off to find some food. We returned with a hot dog, pizza, popcorn, crackerjack, and Dippin' Dots for both boos. Later we went back and got more pizza, and still later I relented and bought disgusting blue cotton candy for both boos. Rocket Boy declined the chance to get some food for himself, though he did munch on the popcorn.

There was a pretty good crowd, despite the weather. People kept coming and going. For a while there were half a dozen other people in our row, but then they all left. I pointed out the pile of peanut shells where they'd been sitting, and told boos about how my mother always liked to get peanuts at baseball games and would make a terrible mess with the shells.

I was full of stories tonight. I told boos about how Aunt Nonny and I used to go to baseball games together at Candlestick Park when we were in our 20s. We always went to night games and it would be absolutely freezing (in the middle of summer) and we would buy hot chocolate to drink (that tells you how cold it was -- I think most ballparks don't sell hot chocolate!). We rated the cold nights as one-, two-, or three-hot chocolate nights. I also told the boos about going to a baseball game once with Nonny and her friend Jeff and how Nonny ordered a beer and then spilled it on the people sitting in front of us.

It was a little tricky to get the boos to pay attention to the game, but not as bad as it would have been, say, a year ago. I kept trying to make connections between this game and their t-ball games. "See, the Rockies all have places where they stand, not like your t-ball games where everyone is just kind of in a muddle." There was only one home run, which was a little disappointing, but boos enjoyed singing "Take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. Also, we had some extra entertainment in the form of a squirrel which somehow ended up on the field and disrupted the game. I was sure Animal Control would come and remove the squirrel but they never did, and it ran around the field for several innings. When it came into the infield, the umpires would stop the game, but when it was in the outfield they tried to ignore it. Here it is in the infield (actually the warning track):

and here it is in the outfield:

I have never in my life (that I can remember) seen a squirrel on the field at a baseball game, so that made the night very memorable.

Kid A started asking to go home during the 1st inning, so I was proud of myself and them that we got to the end of the 7th. But in the top of the 8th the Rockies were about to change pitchers and there was a delay, and I thought "you know what? We can be done now." So I asked the boos if they were ready to leave and they said yes and we left.

The drive home was dreadful again -- lots more rain -- but we made it, and boos went to bed very easily, with 3 rabbit books for stories. And now the house is full of hidden eggs and rabbits and whatnot, and I am going to bed... because I want to wake up when two little people do! Happy Easter!