Kansas City

"'If they can get there by automobile, they sure show up,' [Twins manager] Gardenhire said. 'It's fun. It's fun to see it in the city, walking around. That makes everybody feel good. We know the support. We know the following that we have. For them to come here, that's really exciting for us.'" -twinsbaseball.com

Last week I went on my big vacation. This year it was a 2-day trip to Kansas City with Chelleybutton for Twins games. (She's such a good sport. :) ) It was great fun. I swung down to her place near Des Moines Sunday night, we headed out Monday afternoon and caught the Monday night game, hung out around town Tuesday, hitting the Narnia exhibit at Union Station, went to the Tuesday night game, drove back to Des Moines, and I came back here Wednesday. We had been debating whether or not to go to the Tuesday night game, because of heat and hotel and all that, but the weather was perfect, and by driving back to Des Moines that night, we avoided the cost of another night at a hotel. I'm especially glad we stayed, seeing as we lost the first game and won the second one.

Hm...how to sum it up quickly for you non-baseball fans (seeing as Chelley was there, and I'm sure Hobbitsister will get more details later.)

I was very impressed with the Royals stadium. I had heard about how great it is, and it definitely lived up to the hype. (Although not a single hot dog vendor came to our section Monday night. I had decided that I was going to live it up and have the whole stadium experience, including buying from a vendor which I've never done before. Finally I just went and got a hot dog. Oh, and naturally, as soon as we sat down Tuesday night, when we had already eaten, a hot dog vendor came right past us.) With its waterfall and carousel and roomier seats and all that, it was just plain really nice. I also liked that it faced east, so we weren't blinded (or sunburned) by the sun (which is an even scarier thought, after hearing about the guy in St. Louis who fell off the upper deck onto some people when he fainted from the heat during the national anthem).

I was also impressed by the Royals fans. After going to the White Sox game at US Cellular Field last year, I was prepared for a little hostility. But as we all know, Royals fans are much nicer than White Sox fans, so it felt more like a friendly competition than a cut-your-throat evil fest. There were also tons of Twins fans there, so the cheering and the cries of "Let's go, Mauer" resounded loudly, which was nice. As were the cheers behind me after the game of "Number 5! Hey, number 5! I know you know what number you have on your back! Number 5!" until I finally raised my hand in acknowledgement.

The Narnia exhibit was good, as Chelleybutton so wonderfully documented. We went to California Pizza Kitchen for supper, which was also good. And we won the second game, which was more than good.

Mostly it was good to hang out with Chelley. I always like seeing that girl. :)

Fun times. :)