Colorado Rockies vs Atlanta Braves (Saturday, July 23rd, 2016)

It has been a gorgeous summer in Colorado this year.  We had a few early hail storms, which is very common, and now the weather has settled down into our warm summer pattern.  The mornings are in the low 60's, and the days are reaching the 90's.  We sit on our back deck each morning, and have our coffee and breakfast.  Some mornings I have to wear a jacket because it's just not warm enough to go without.  But by about 9:00, it's warming up and turning into a beautiful day.

We sleep with our windows open this time of year, and then close up the house at about 8:00 in the morning.  It stays cool all day, with no need to run the air conditioning.  Such a cool change from Arizona where AC is mandatory at all times of the day and night in the summer.

We called all of our kids earlier in the week, and asked them if we could all get together for a baseball game.  Everyone agreed that it would be fun.  So today our youngest daughter drove down from Fort Collins.  It usually takes about 80 minutes from her place to ours, but a beer truck had overturned on the highway, and today her commute took over three hours.  She was very glad and very hungry by the time she arrived.  So we quickly shoved some food into her and headed downtown.  Parking is usually $10-$20 on event days, but somehow we lucked out and found parking for $3. It was about a seven block walk, but it was a gorgeous afternoon, so no problem.  

We bought tickets at the ticket window and then waited for our oldest daughter and her husband to arrive.  While we were waiting, it started to sprinkle, and then to rain, so our youngest daughter and I headed into the stadium, out of the rain, and Steve continued to wait outside for them.  



After just a few more minutes, they arrived and we all headed up to the Rooftop Bar for some beers before the game started.  The Rooftop Bar sells 12 oz beers for $3 until the first pitch, so it was good cheap entertainment while we were waiting.  Once the game starts, the price of beer goes back to normal price stadium wide. Steve also grabbed us some nachos from the stand around the corner since it had been a rush for everyone to get to the stadium. We certainly didn't want any hangry (hungry-angry) children while we waited for the game to start.

View from the RoofTop

Before the game even started, we had a rain storm come through. They covered the field and waited for the game to start.

It's always kind of fun to watch them take the tarps off the field.  There's quite an art to it.

Our seats were on the third level, behind home plate, looking directly down the first base line.  


We hadn't really planned it this way, but they just happened to be covered seats.  We were only about five rows from the top, so we had the overhang to protect us a little bit.  That ended up being a good thing.  We had another rain delay during the game, and lucky for us, we really didn't get very wet.  The wind was whipping around, so sometimes we would get damp from the front, and other times we would get damp from the back, but for the most part, we were very comfortable throughout all of the rain storms.



It was Star Wars night at Coors Field, so they had a costume parade for anyone that wanted to participate.  We were amazed at how many people wore costumes!





It is always such a treat to get all of the kids together.  They have such busy lives that it's not that easy any more, so when we get the opportunity we have to take advantage of it.

The second inning score was 2-1 Rockies

Part way through the game we all decided to go find some dinner. Our youngest daughter looked up the location of the gluten free stand at the stadium and was planning on heading there for her meal, but as we were walking around the concourse, we saw a burrito stand that makes burrito bowls (similar to Chipotle or Qdoba), and that looked better than anything she could get at the gluten free stand (and it was still gluten free as long as you don't get a tortilla).  So we all had some wonderful burrito bowls for dinner, and they were only $8 each.  That was a bargain for Coors Field!

About 6 rows from the top of the stadium is a row of seats that mark one mile high.  They are purple instead of green and at this particular game, they were right in front of us, so we had to take the obligatory "Mile High" picture.




It was another really good game, considering that the Rockies have not had a great year.  It's always exciting to go to a game when your team is winning.  It was also fun for our oldest daughter and son (in-law) to see a Rockies/Braves game since he spent a year in Atlanta for all of his Army training.  About half way through the game, the thunder storms moved in again.  It went from clear to very rainy in a very short amount of time.

And the tarps came out again

So glad to be under our little cover!!!!

The stands slowly started to empty out as everyone looked for shelter

You can see exactly which seats were covered and which ones weren't.  There are a few brave people sitting in the uncovered seats, but most of them are gone.

But in the end, the weather cleared again, and the game resumed.  It turned out to be a gorgeous night at Coors Field, and the seats once again filled up for a great game between the Colorado Rockies and the Atlanta Braves!

And in true Colorado fashion, mother nature treated us to a beautiful sunset!  And it just kept getting better until it finally gave way to night fall.

The 6th inning was a definite turning point for the Rockies.

And in the end, the Rockies managed to take the game from the Braves.  It was a wonderful evening with our kids at a great venue in beautiful downtown Denver.

It just doesn't get any better than this!

Let's Play Ball, Phoenix (July 20, 2015)

It's our 30th anniversary today and Steve's official first day of no work. We got up early and went to the admin building here at Leisure world to try and take care of an insurance issue. We couldn't do anything until the computer lab opens at 10:00, so we went back and had a little coffee and gluten free banana bread for breakfast and waited for our youngest daughter to wake up then went to Recreation Center 2 for some swimming exercise and hot tub. 

Leisure World has two recreation facilities with swimming pools, so you always have a choice.  When the computer lab opened up we went back to Recreation Center 1 (where the computer lab is) to use their printer. We sat by the pool and filled out our paperwork (rough life) then went back to the admin building to fax it over. We had our leftover Thai food for lunch and still have more leftovers. 

Tonight we are going to go to a Diamondbacks baseball game in downtown Phoenix so we left after lunch so we would have time to explore downtown Phoenix before the game. As we got off the highway and approached downtown Phoenix, we were surprised at how small the downtown area was. We started looking around for an area with shops, little restaurants, etc. There are a lot of hotels, and some university buildings, as well as Chase Field and US Airways field but not much else. It appears they are trying to revitalize the downtown Phoenix area by making it a college town. There are a lot of Arizona State University (ASU) buildings going into the downtown area and they are currently building a new ASU law school there. But since it is summer, there are no students and the streets are deserted. There are a few small restaurants in the area, but not much else. So our idea of walking around the downtown area didn't work out very well.

It is mid day in downtown Phoenix and not a sole in sight.  People must hibernate during the heat of the day.

Chase field is a stadium with a retracting roof, and when we first came into downtown it was open. The stadium has real grass, so they have to leave it open to give the grass sunlight. But by the time we entered the stadium at 5:00, the roof was closed, and the stadium was nice and cool. 

You can see that the stadium roof is open as we approach

But closer to game time, they closed it and cooled it off inside.

The temperature outside today is about 108, so the air conditioning is a huge relief. At Coors Field in Colorado, there is always that chance that we will be either baking in the sun, or sitting in rain, but here at Chase Field, it is incredibly pleasant. We walked around the main floor concourse, to see what kinds of food they had for dinner. We had done our research ahead of time, and knew that they had a gluten free stand that sold GF hot dogs and nachos as well as snacks. We really enjoyed just walking around and talking to all of the nice people on the concourse. The most interesting thing we saw in the stadium was a Mountain Side fitness facility. You could look in through the windows and see people working out as we were walking around the stadium. They also have a beautiful pool and hot tub that you can reserve to watch the game if you want. 

Hot tub and swimming pool overlooking the field inside Chase Stadium

We finally decided on some yummy looking hamburgers, and our daughter had loaded nachos for dinner. We found our seats and enjoyed our dinner. 

During the 4th inning, our row of seats all won lottery tickets from the Arizona lottery, so that was a really fun bonus, and we had our moment of fame on the mega-tron. 

Sorry it's blurry, but our moment of fame on the Mega-Tron.

We ended the evening with the Diamondbacks beating the Miami Marlins 3-1. What a great way to end our night!