Thursday, June 10, 2010

Colorado Rockies Baseball Game

Ashley and I decided to go to a Colorado Rockies game today (Wednesday). They were playing the Houston Astros (who have the one of the worst records in the National League), so tickets were pretty easy to come by. I didn't work and Ash did, so I decided to walk to the light rail and meet her downtown. Here are some pics on my trip.

This is the front of our apartment complex. It's a pretty nice place.

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Just to prove I walked, I took this photo of my shadow as I walked on the sidewalk to the light rail station just up the road from our apartment.

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After about a 15 minute walk, I made it to the RTD Station. The trains there take me right to downtown Denver.

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After purchasing my $3.50 one-way ticket, I headed up to the train station.

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For a June afternoon, the temperature was pretty warm, so after taking this photo, I took shade shelter before the train came.

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The light rail stop had "door" painted on the ground to let its riders know where the doors to the trains are located. Very helpful!

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First one on the train.

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I wish I could tell you what this structure is, but I tried to Google it and couldn't figure it out.

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This huge blue bear appears to be peeking into the Denver Convention Center in downtown Denver. After researching the bear, I found it is a piece called "I See What You Mean", and it stands 40 feet tall.

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After getting off the train, I only had to wait a few minutes before Ashley came to pick me up and we could go park.

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I did have a quick second to take a photo two of the many very tall buildings in downtown Denver.

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Being from the Bay Area back in California, Ashley and I are partial to the San Francisco Giants and AT&T Park, but Coors Field is a close second being such a beautiful ballpark with downtown as a backdrop. This is shot from the top row of what they call the "Rock Pile". These are $4 tickets and if you don't mind getting baked in the sun, it's a great spot to watch a game.

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Two pre-game show dudes talking shop on FSN Rocky Mountain.

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You'd be hard-pressed to find a BETTER bullpen in the big leagues. And this is the VISITOR'S bullpen. What an awesome place to warm up and watch a game. You have real trees and a huge waterfall. Really cool!

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The Rockies bullpen is to the left, and has no special amenities or attractions.

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One really quick funny insider story...Back when I was at Arizona State going to school, I worked for the Arizona Diamandbacks as their bat boy (Ashley called it being a bat man, because I was in my 20's when I did it). So traditionally, the youngest relief pitcher in the bullpen had to bring the coffee and the snacks (ie. gum and sunflower seeds and candy, etc) out to the bullpen every day before the game started. But the players didn't make the rookie just bring it out normally, they made him bring it out in a bright pink bag so as to embarass him. Well, 10 years after I stopped working with the D-Backs, it's good to see that the tradition still lives on in Major League Baseball. Here you can see Rockies relievers Randy Flores (from left), Matt Bellisle, and Matt Daley walking out to the bullpen before the start of the game. Notice that Daley is wearing a nice pink HELLO KITTY backpack, surely loaded with game-time snacks for him and his teammates to munch on during the game. Hope you enjoyed that little side-story....

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It's very funny to me that it takes five groundscrew guys to water the infield prior to the start of the game. The reason they do that is because they don't want the hose to drag on finely manicured infield.

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Everything has to be perfect in the big leagues, even the pitcher rubber on the mound is cleaned with a rag prior to the start of the game. Sometimes, if it's really dirty, they'll spray-paint it white to make it look good for TV.

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Long gone are the days of using actual chalk to line the first and third base lines. Nowadays Major League Baseball teams use white paint, as seen here as the groundscrew paints the left hand batters box.

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And the Rockies take the field!

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The Rockies scored one run early, as Melvin Mora slid safely by Astros catcher Humberto Quintero.

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After three innings we decided to get some snacks (no I didn't have to wear a pink backpack) and we moved further down the third base line in the upper deck for a different view of the game.

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Rockies' Jonathan Herrera speeds around third base to score the tying run.

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The "Rock Pile" was packed because they did half off tickets, so they were only 2 bucks and lots of people took advantage.

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In the 7th inning, we moved down to the lower level and found some empty seats (they were not hard to find.)

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The game was tied going into the bottom of the 9th inning and the Rockies were threatening and during a pitching change for the Astros, this fan got up and danced hoping the hometown team would walk a way winners.

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Even the Rockies mascot "Dinger" got into the act trying to pump up the crowd.

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It wasn't to be though... In the top of the 10th inning, the Astros loaded the bases. Before the first pitch was thrown to Carlos Lee, I PROMISE I said to Ashley "Watch this dude hit a grand slam." No joke, the very first pitch, he lines a homer to left field and it puts the Astros up to stay 6-2.

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Lee is congratulated at home plate by the guys he just drove home.

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Colorado did get one runner on in the bottom of the 10th, but they went quietly and what was remaining of the crowd headed for the exits. (Most people started leaving before Lee's homer even landed in the outfield seats in the top half of the 10th.)

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A while back Ashley and I found this secret parking garage near the Pepsi Center that only charges a flat rate of $5.00 after 5:30, so we park there every time we go downtown to see an event. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone about it!

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We had a great time at the ballgame, even though the home team lost. Starting Thursday, I go to my regular night shift at the Boulder PD, working from 8:00pm - 6:30am. It's only 4 days a week, which will save me 80 miles per week in gas. I'm looking forward to my trip back home next week to see my fam and to go to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with my brother. It should be awesome!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Memorial Day in Breckenridge, Colorado

Ashley surprised me with a weekend trip Breckenridge for the long holiday weekend. I got off work at 4:30 on Saturday and we drove west. Minus a quick and intense hail storm in the Rockies, we made it to The Lodge at Breckenridge. What a beautiful view out of our room!

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Down in the lower left corner of this photo you can see where we ate our continental breakfast Sunday and Monday.

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Saturday night we crushed some food at the Breckenridge Brew and Pub. For a holiday weekend, there were a lot less people in town that we thought there would be.

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Sunday morning after we ate breakfast we walked around downtown Breckenridge. Even though it's June, there is still a decent amount of snow in the mountains. You can still see the runs at the huge Breckenridge ski resort.

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I just liked the way this small waterfall looked in the camera.

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Here you can see one of the lifts up to the ski runs at Breckenridge. It's kinda funny to see when there's not any snow on the ground. I didn't realize that there are several different locations that you can get on the mountain for skiing. This resort is A LOT bigger than the ones I'm used to back in California.

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Hey I'm ready to go! Now all I need is some snow and a board!

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Ashley and I really do want to get get some engagement photos done, but until we find someone to shoot them for us, we just have to settle for me setting the camera on a tripod, using the 10 second timer, and sprinting to get in the photo.

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Hanging out with a HUGE bronze dog outside of a store in downtown. The city itself is VERY dog friendly. Everywhere I looked people had dogs with them. It made me miss Cali but she was in good hands being watched by one of my co-workers.

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Snow was still fighting the losing battle against summer temps on the peaks of the mountains surrounding Breckenridge.

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Sunday night we ate a steakhouse in downtown. On the way we passed this bridge that had a steady stream running under it.

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Monday morning after breakfast we got somewhat dressed up to take some more photos of ourselves. More of me setting the camera up, and then running over to get in the shot. These were shot on the balcony of our hotel.

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Check out time was 11:00am so we headed back towards home. Before we left though, we stopped near this huge lake to take some more photos.

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After leaving Breck, we decided that we would drive to Black Hawk, which is in the mountains on the way back home. We thought it was just going to be a small town with one tiny casino, but it turns out it's like a mini-Vegas high up in the mountains!

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HUGE Ameristar Resort and Casino in the foreground.

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So Ash and I went into the Golden Gates Casino with about 9 bucks in cash between us and so I put $5 down on a blackjack table and won on the 1st hand! So we cashed out (now with $10) and walked over the Ameristar Casino across the street, fresh of my hot streak, we ended up winning $16 more bucks and walked away huge winners! Here's Ash holding all her benjamins!

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Overall it was such and awesome trip (even though it is REALLY hard to breathe up in the Rocky Mountains!). Ashley and I had a great time. This is going to be a busy month for the both of us. In two weeks I am going back to California to go the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with my brother and Ash is headed to Michigan for a friend's bachelorette party. We are still planning the wedding for next year, and I'm going to meet with a photographer and DJ.

We are still encouraging our West Coast friends and family to come visit us! Maybe a photo of the beautiful mountains can convince you to come see what Colorado has to offer!

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