I took a baseball trip. And I’ll post some pictures soon. But yeah, I took a baseball trip.
What is that you say? Well, three of my friends (Larry, John Mc, and Mike D) have taken a few of these trips. They travel to a region of the country and see pro baseball games at a few different stadiums. They’ve asked me about going before and I didn’t go, but this time I decided, for various reasons, to go. For one thing, the trip was to Southern California so it wasn’t that far. In fact, we drove and made it a road trip.
Friday May 4
John got the rental car and picked up Mike and me, then we started south and picked up Larry in nearby Elk Grove. We had breakfast at an unremarkable place and then got on the road. Partway there we stopped at Anita’s Mexican Grill for lunch. As you may know, I’m a long-time vegetarian getting closer and closer to vegan. But the owner was understanding and made mine vegan and tasty. After lunch Mike took us to a nearby See’s Candies and bought us each a couple candies while explaining his one-time project to try and catalog all the different flavors. Hmmm. Then we took the rest of the l-o-n-g drive to San Diego. We got there in the evening and checked in to our hotel, The Westin. The nicer hotels charge extra for parking ($32) and extra for Internet, but the cheaper hotels give you those things free. The rest of the trip we took cheaper hotels and even some free accommodations. But once checked in, we walked a little and went to the Yard House, a pub with food, a had a beer and some snacks. It was really loud in there but it was a decent place with a huge number of beers on tap. They even had a “Gardein” section on their menu (that’s a brand of faux meat high in protein). After that it was getting late so we headed back to our rooms for the night.
Saturday May 5
We took a nice walk, maybe a mile or a little less, and had a great breakfast at The Mission. I had coffee and a fairly spicy dish with soy chorizo, potatoes, salsa, jalapenos, and a couple other things. Then we walked back to the hotel and checked out. We spent a good portion of the day driving to nearby La Jolla and Ocean Beach, finding a nice stop to admire the ocean and climb down some stairs to a cave at the waters edge. And later, after some searching, we found some ice cream that Mike wanted. We saw a bunch of the towns and some of the ocean and then headed back for the first baseball game of the baseball trip. We saw the San Diego Padres vs the Florida Marlins and it was a fun game. The three friends know more about baseball than I can even comprehend and I know only a little so it all evened out, sorta kinda. After the game we drove a bit and then got a hotel (Best Western) in Placencia.
Sunday May 6
We had the free breakfast at the hotel, which was slim pickins for a vegan-leaning guy but I found a little bit to eat. Today was the second baseball game and it was a day game, so we headed over there early to have time for the drive and to see the pre-game batting practice. It was the Los Angeles Angels vs the Toronto Blue Jays and it was another good game. Before the game, Mike’s sister, her husband, and the four of us got a “stern warning” from the security for having a beer in the parking lot. Well, it wasn’t that stern but it was a surprise. That will be in the pictures. We saw the Angels’ big star hit his first home run of the season and there was much rejoicing. After the game we wanted a beer and the other three guys chose Hooters. I told them the whole time that it exploited women and the I would never take my granddaughters there (There were young kids at the next table). I think it might have proved my point when one of us asked the buxom blonde waitress what she drank, and she said “you know, like, mixed drinks. Like, with alcohol.” Uh, yeah. After that we drove to Mike’s sisters house in Claremont where we were going to stay that night. We went to a nice Thai restaurant with her and her husband and then came back to the house, talked a bit, and called it a night.
Monday May 7
We walked a few blocks or so to a breakfast restaurant with a noticeable lack of vegan options, Oh well, hash browns and sourdough toast are pretty good. The we stopped in a nearby record store. Now we were in familiar territory as I am, of course, Obsessed With Music. They had more bootleg music at severly cheap prices than I had seen in one store. I bought four items (Beatles, Prince, Lennon, and XTC) but could easily have bought twenty if not for my enormous will power. Haha. After that, we drove a bit and met Mike’s friend to get the tickets for the next day’s game. No game today. We ended up in Westwood and had lunch at one of the Native Foods all-vegan restaurants. Seriously, vegan or not, this stuff is so good. I’ve eaten their food, from different locations, maybe 8-10 times and liked it every time. The rest of the boys seemed to like it too, luckily. Then we spent some time looking around the Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach areas, very walkable and a nice beach area. We had more ice cream too. After a while we met up with another friend of Mike’s and had dinner with him at a nearby sports bar. This place had more TVs per square inch than I thought possible, and they would tune the ones by your table to any game(s) you wanted. The food was limited, with a token gardenburger the only real option. Mike’s friend offered us his brother’s vacant house for the night, up in the expensive Hollywood Hills, and we took him up on it. The view was an awesome panorama overlooking the city and overlooking Griffith Park in the back. Way cool. And since one of us wanted a drink, we stopped for a bottle of Captain Morgan and a smidgeon of coke. We talked into the early hours.
Tuesday May 8
We left the house in the hills and went to a nearby It’s A Grind for coffee. Then we headed down to Long Beach to spend a little while with Mike’s son, Ian. We had lunch with him. I had a sandwich from a ma and pa market and they had pizza. He played us a bit of his roommate’s “pirate music” band. After leaving Long Beach, we tour Larry’s old hood, East LA, briefly, then stopped at Olvera St, to see the hispanic street booths and for a margarita and some chips. Then it was time for the third baseball game. It was the San Francisco Giants vs their arch-rivals The LA Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The Giants won and it was another good game. Afterwards we drove a little to Ventura, with a quick emergency Taco Bell stop (you gotta eat). We checked into the Comfort Inn (nice place) and that was the day.
Wednesday May 9
Time to head back home, so we checked out and drove a little, to a breakfast at Esau’s Cafe in Santa Barbara that was really good. Then more driving. And more. We took a pit stop at the Madonna Inn and then after a while we ended up at The Giant Artichoke. Than on to Santa Cruz where we dropped off Larry. The three of us headed on, stopping in Tracy at a taqueria for dinner and then on to home. It was a fun trip!
Find a typo? Have a comment? Let me know, leave me a comment below…
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I like the fact that the 3 friends know a lot of about baseball, and you know little, so it “kinda sorta” evened out,. 🙂 Oh yeah, and you are Obsessed With Music, so good thing you got to make that stop at the record store. I’m happy that you’re a vegan-leaning guy…. And very glad you had a good time. A nice break from the Misses and the grandkiddos….
A few typos; you’ll have to find those yourself.
The stern warning about beer was at the Dodger game, not the Angels game. They had everyone pour out the parking lot beer.
You cut Hooters a little short. It was a good time; friendly waitresses (didn’t seem to be exploited to me) and good Guinness. They even brought me an extra beer (because my friends were so good looking).
I hadn’t realized this was such a food trip. The tacos were great at Native Foods. The Mission and Esau’s were fantastic breakfast places.
Lots of music on the MP3 players. Always nice to be introduced to new stuff.
Great trip. Great company. Great games. Thanks to Andy, Alane and to George and Paul (for whom we toasted up in the Griffith Park hills with a little Captain Morgan). And, thanks to Petra for picking up the considerable slack with the grand kids so you could join us. Also great to see my favorite son, Ian.
Hey Mike, thanks for catching that error about which game it was.
Still don’t like Hooters Restaurant, but to each their own…
Yes, food is always important. We did some other stuff too though!
And yes, interesting music for the most part.
I agree – great trip. Big fun.
And John wrote to say…
“Looks good. My two cents. Steve is obsessed with MOST music. We did not seek going to Hooters, though some of us would have. It just happened to be in walking distance and we were tired of driving in circles. Or Karma.”