The Culmination of a Time
Wednesday morning in Seattle dad and I wake up so we can eat before the day game at noon. We found out that you could get into the field right around two hours early and we were going to go ahead and do that in case we could get some autographs. We weren't quite sure what to do for breakfast but I talked dad into hitting Starbucks on the way, and they had sausage breakfast sandwiches so dad was happy with that. I kept getting a kick out of him ordering "just regular coffee". I had my Brian McCann t-shirt on under my Chipper Jones jersey, and while waiting in line an older gentleman decked out in Milwaukee Braves gear was sitting down with his breakfast. He noticed our Braves gear and struck up a brief conversation.
He lived in Seattle and was a Braves fan from way back, and last year his son and him had made a trip to Milwaukee to see the Braves take on the Brewers for four games and he said he had loaded up on throwback Braves merchandise. He seemed to have a gleam in his eye talking Braves, and meeting two fans from Montana. Breakfast was good, and after enjoying our coffee we started heading towards the field. It was still too early for the gates to open so we weren't sure what to do exactly and we walked around the corner to find a surprise. A little restaurant in the field had outdoor tables and sitting at one were our friends from the night before. So we had someone to bullshit with as we waited, and since they had been to the games before and went for autographs, they were now our tutors. They also came through and had an extra sharpie they lent me.
The lines began to form behind us and once the horn sounded they started to scan tickets and let us in. I ran down to the field and got right up alongside. Unfortunately today they weren't doing batting practice today so it wasn't as lively, but we stood our ground. Plenty of conversation came about, guy to my left was a Braves fan down from Alaska, hundreds of Braves fans up the left field line waiting and hoping.
Finally a Brave appeared in the dugout and started signing autographs for those around there. Brandon Beachy our rookie pitcher who had won the game on Monday, awesome. He signed for a bit and then went into the outfield and started playing catch, something to keep him loose and his arm in shape. The really interesting part was when Eddie Perez, our bullpen coach, would hit the ball to him from the left field line deep in center field, Beachy would catch it and throw it back with seemingly no effort at all. After they were done he came over to us and started signing for everybody, literally everybody.
Beachy signed the back of my Chipper jersey and signed dad's hat bill, real nice guy too as he was going along small talking, look forward to him being on the team for a long while. We stayed around waiting as the relief pitchers came out and made their way towards the bullpen. Unfortunately we had to go to our seats as they were having a Softball homerun derby with the all stars from local leagues. I looked over to where we were going to be sitting and saw a lot of yellow shirts filling it in, then I saw that it was called Kings Kourt...crap we were going to be in enemy territory, we were going to be in the section that roots for Seattle's pitcher whenever he takes the mound, should be fun.
We got some cheeseburgers and onion rings and headed to our seats, I picked out really great seats actually. They were three rows from the left field fence, and the first row had two seats, second had four and then ours had five, so we had a great view of everything. With our tickets we could have gotten one of those yellow t-shirts for free, but no, I love free shit (that's one of my mantras) but I don't take stuff from the opposite team. Wound up having a Braves fan behind us so that was cool too, and we knew we could behave ourselves so that we wouldn't piss off the Kourt.
Braves won that game without having to come back from behind, and as we walked up the stairs one lady told us we were welcome for the help. So the Braves are undefeated when dad and I see them live, great percentages there. The walk from the field back to the hotel was great as well, great buildings all around, and people playing giant chess in the kind of park we walked through as well.
We got situated at the hotel and were deciding what to do when dad said that he wanted to check out these dried strawberries that he saw at Pike Place Market but we missed on our second trip through the day before. I was kind of surprised because dad isn't usually one to bring stuff up like that, so yeah, let's walk on over there again, besides I had seen some journals I wanted to check out. We found the strawberries and they were delicious, dried strawberries are the shit, just so's you know. I also bought a new leather bound journal that featured hand made paper, cool stuff, all of them original, hopefully my creativity can fill it up as well.
We then went exploring a bit more, we were going to go to the aquarium, but it was soon to close so we just hung out. Looking at the pier, the water, all that great stuff. Dad even said that it was kind of calming, this amongst him giving me shit for saying I could live in a city. haha Then I heard from Amanda, my friend, and she asked when we wanted to meet up for supper, suggested Cheesecake Factory and told us what street it was on. We headed back to the hotel and I used my phone to bring up google maps and see where the restaurant was. Eight blocks up and five blocks over, killed a little time and headed out. Amanda wanted to go there because it was a short walk from her job and she could park there for free, smart girl. We beat her there and a nice homeless man gave us eating suggestions in the area when we were looking at the menu outside. He was a nice guy, but the one across the street by the theater was pretty crazy looking.
A fantastic dinner and conversation followed by some cheesecake was a great way to spend some time. It was hard to get used to the brightness as time passed, that whole time change thing, but in a good way. Dad headed back to the hotel and I walked back to Amanda's car with her and went to her place to catch up more. After talking til about 2ish in the a.m. One of the best things about this drive back to the city, she lives north of Seattle, was coming into the city with the skyline lit up, that is a beautiful sight to see.
Sleep came easy after that day, and the next morning meant waking up and figuring out what we would do. See the flight we were on flew out of Seattle at 8:45 at night. We figured we would head to the airport just to see what we could do since we had such a long time before we left. Took the light link to the hotel and checked in so we could see if there was an earlier flight, no dice on that one, and we also found out that you couldn't check your bags until 4 hours before your flight, hmmm, what to do, what to do. Well there is a spot by baggage claim where you can pay to have your bags held, 16 bucks and we were free to explore the city again.
We headed back to our stop and walked around to get some food. We just kept walking, and the Hard Rock seemed good enough for me, so I took dad to lunch. Good food ate, and more time to kill I suggested the art museum, because the anthropologist in me wanted to walk into a museum in a city.
I won't say that I understood all the modern art, but I loved walking around in that building and just taking things in that you can't see here in Glendive....here's a taste of it all.
The angle on that one makes the mirror face actually look like it is a face.
Love the mouse.
That was made with individual dog tags
Blown and worked glass
It was a baseball trip after all
Ah yes, now we are into my favorite kind of tribal art, the Northwest tribes!
Then there was some great African and other culture art as well.
Then some classical art came around on the upper floors
Had to take that picture since ceramics inspired this trip.
Some African art returned around the corner.
These cars were hanging in the lobby with the lights and everything, kinda interesting.
While dad and I sat outside the museum resting for a bit we saw two cars get towed, man those guys work fast.
On the way back to the light link stop so we could get to the airport I was fascinated by the base of this building.
We made it back to the airport and picked up our bags from storage to go check them in. Headed through security and then hit up Starbucks before we went and sat for a few hours. I read up until the flight was ready to go, and finally that night we got up in the air and headed back east. I didn't drink the beer this time, passing it up for coffee since I was going to be driving us home from Billings. I was seated next to a nice girl that runs cross country for one of the colleges in Billings, talked to her off and on, and read on the flight. We finally arrived back at Billings at around 11 something, and I was feeling pretty good. Our bags came out on the carousel, and upon retrieval we went out to the car and headed to the gas station. Filled up, grabbed some grub, and caffeine and headed out on the road.
This is where it went pear shaped...
I felt great, took in some caffeine, ate a bit and hit the road. Driving was going well, dad was sleeping since he worked in the morning, and I didn't see anything bad about it at all. Well after about 45 minutes I started zoning out, shit was getting weird on me, I turned into a rest stop so that I could change the music on my ipod into something a bit better. Dad woke up and asked me if I was going to go or what, and I said I was just changing the music so that I wouldn't kill us. Maybe over dramatic, because I guess he didn't really sleep after that. Ooops.
Well driving along was fine, for a bit, but then I started getting tunnel vision, started to hallucinate maybe a bit. I couldn't figure it out that I felt just fine physically but I could not get my head to work with me on it. At one point when we were really close to home and going up a hill, the road looked like it went right up into the clouds and the shoulders disappeared completely. I got us home safe and sound, and wouldn't you know it, I was wide awake when we got here. Unpacking was quick and easy, and the trip was over.
Dad worked that day and then mom and him headed to the lake to stay with my aunt. I worked for three days and then on the 4th of July dad's dog and I headed to the lake so I could fish with him for three days. That was a great two weeks for sure, and there's something about going to ball games with your dad, and then going out on a lake in your dad's boat. Serenity can come over you if you undergo that combination of time spending.
Ben eat's ice when hot and thirsty, well I was going to hand him some but he just crawled right in there and helped himself.
One of dad's Northerns
Wednesday morning in Seattle dad and I wake up so we can eat before the day game at noon. We found out that you could get into the field right around two hours early and we were going to go ahead and do that in case we could get some autographs. We weren't quite sure what to do for breakfast but I talked dad into hitting Starbucks on the way, and they had sausage breakfast sandwiches so dad was happy with that. I kept getting a kick out of him ordering "just regular coffee". I had my Brian McCann t-shirt on under my Chipper Jones jersey, and while waiting in line an older gentleman decked out in Milwaukee Braves gear was sitting down with his breakfast. He noticed our Braves gear and struck up a brief conversation.
He lived in Seattle and was a Braves fan from way back, and last year his son and him had made a trip to Milwaukee to see the Braves take on the Brewers for four games and he said he had loaded up on throwback Braves merchandise. He seemed to have a gleam in his eye talking Braves, and meeting two fans from Montana. Breakfast was good, and after enjoying our coffee we started heading towards the field. It was still too early for the gates to open so we weren't sure what to do exactly and we walked around the corner to find a surprise. A little restaurant in the field had outdoor tables and sitting at one were our friends from the night before. So we had someone to bullshit with as we waited, and since they had been to the games before and went for autographs, they were now our tutors. They also came through and had an extra sharpie they lent me.
The lines began to form behind us and once the horn sounded they started to scan tickets and let us in. I ran down to the field and got right up alongside. Unfortunately today they weren't doing batting practice today so it wasn't as lively, but we stood our ground. Plenty of conversation came about, guy to my left was a Braves fan down from Alaska, hundreds of Braves fans up the left field line waiting and hoping.
Finally a Brave appeared in the dugout and started signing autographs for those around there. Brandon Beachy our rookie pitcher who had won the game on Monday, awesome. He signed for a bit and then went into the outfield and started playing catch, something to keep him loose and his arm in shape. The really interesting part was when Eddie Perez, our bullpen coach, would hit the ball to him from the left field line deep in center field, Beachy would catch it and throw it back with seemingly no effort at all. After they were done he came over to us and started signing for everybody, literally everybody.
Beachy signed the back of my Chipper jersey and signed dad's hat bill, real nice guy too as he was going along small talking, look forward to him being on the team for a long while. We stayed around waiting as the relief pitchers came out and made their way towards the bullpen. Unfortunately we had to go to our seats as they were having a Softball homerun derby with the all stars from local leagues. I looked over to where we were going to be sitting and saw a lot of yellow shirts filling it in, then I saw that it was called Kings Kourt...crap we were going to be in enemy territory, we were going to be in the section that roots for Seattle's pitcher whenever he takes the mound, should be fun.
We got some cheeseburgers and onion rings and headed to our seats, I picked out really great seats actually. They were three rows from the left field fence, and the first row had two seats, second had four and then ours had five, so we had a great view of everything. With our tickets we could have gotten one of those yellow t-shirts for free, but no, I love free shit (that's one of my mantras) but I don't take stuff from the opposite team. Wound up having a Braves fan behind us so that was cool too, and we knew we could behave ourselves so that we wouldn't piss off the Kourt.
Braves won that game without having to come back from behind, and as we walked up the stairs one lady told us we were welcome for the help.
So the Braves are undefeated when dad and I see them live, great percentages there. The walk from the field back to the hotel was great as well, great buildings all around, and people playing giant chess in the kind of park we walked through as well.
We got situated at the hotel and were deciding what to do when dad said that he wanted to check out these dried strawberries that he saw at Pike Place Market but we missed on our second trip through the day before. I was kind of surprised because dad isn't usually one to bring stuff up like that, so yeah, let's walk on over there again, besides I had seen some journals I wanted to check out.
We found the strawberries and they were delicious, dried strawberries are the shit, just so's you know. I also bought a new leather bound journal that featured hand made paper, cool stuff, all of them original, hopefully my creativity can fill it up as well.
We then went exploring a bit more, we were going to go to the aquarium, but it was soon to close so we just hung out. Looking at the pier, the water, all that great stuff. Dad even said that it was kind of calming, this amongst him giving me shit for saying I could live in a city. haha Then I heard from Amanda, my friend, and she asked when we wanted to meet up for supper, suggested Cheesecake Factory and told us what street it was on. We headed back to the hotel and I used my phone to bring up google maps and see where the restaurant was. Eight blocks up and five blocks over, killed a little time and headed out. Amanda wanted to go there because it was a short walk from her job and she could park there for free, smart girl. We beat her there and a nice homeless man gave us eating suggestions in the area when we were looking at the menu outside. He was a nice guy, but the one across the street by the theater was pretty crazy looking.
A fantastic dinner and conversation followed by some cheesecake was a great way to spend some time. It was hard to get used to the brightness as time passed, that whole time change thing, but in a good way. Dad headed back to the hotel and I walked back to Amanda's car with her and went to her place to catch up more. After talking til about 2ish in the a.m. One of the best things about this drive back to the city, she lives north of Seattle, was coming into the city with the skyline lit up, that is a beautiful sight to see.
Sleep came easy after that day, and the next morning meant waking up and figuring out what we would do. See the flight we were on flew out of Seattle at 8:45 at night. We figured we would head to the airport just to see what we could do since we had such a long time before we left. Took the light link to the hotel and checked in so we could see if there was an earlier flight, no dice on that one, and we also found out that you couldn't check your bags until 4 hours before your flight, hmmm, what to do, what to do. Well there is a spot by baggage claim where you can pay to have your bags held, 16 bucks and we were free to explore the city again.
We headed back to our stop and walked around to get some food. We just kept walking, and the Hard Rock seemed good enough for me, so I took dad to lunch. Good food ate, and more time to kill I suggested the art museum, because the anthropologist in me wanted to walk into a museum in a city.
I won't say that I understood all the modern art, but I loved walking around in that building and just taking things in that you can't see here in Glendive....here's a taste of it all.
The angle on that one makes the mirror face actually look like it is a face.
Love the mouse.
That was made with individual dog tags
Blown and worked glass
It was a baseball trip after all
Ah yes, now we are into my favorite kind of tribal art, the Northwest tribes!
Then there was some great African and other culture art as well.
Then some classical art came around on the upper floors
Had to take that picture since ceramics inspired this trip.
Some African art returned around the corner.
These cars were hanging in the lobby with the lights and everything, kinda interesting.
While dad and I sat outside the museum resting for a bit we saw two cars get towed, man those guys work fast.
On the way back to the light link stop so we could get to the airport I was fascinated by the base of this building.
We made it back to the airport and picked up our bags from storage to go check them in. Headed through security and then hit up Starbucks before we went and sat for a few hours. I read up until the flight was ready to go, and finally that night we got up in the air and headed back east. I didn't drink the beer this time, passing it up for coffee since I was going to be driving us home from Billings. I was seated next to a nice girl that runs cross country for one of the colleges in Billings, talked to her off and on, and read on the flight. We finally arrived back at Billings at around 11 something, and I was feeling pretty good. Our bags came out on the carousel, and upon retrieval we went out to the car and headed to the gas station. Filled up, grabbed some grub, and caffeine and headed out on the road.
This is where it went pear shaped...
I felt great, took in some caffeine, ate a bit and hit the road. Driving was going well, dad was sleeping since he worked in the morning, and I didn't see anything bad about it at all. Well after about 45 minutes I started zoning out, shit was getting weird on me, I turned into a rest stop so that I could change the music on my ipod into something a bit better. Dad woke up and asked me if I was going to go or what, and I said I was just changing the music so that I wouldn't kill us. Maybe over dramatic, because I guess he didn't really sleep after that. Ooops.
Well driving along was fine, for a bit, but then I started getting tunnel vision, started to hallucinate maybe a bit. I couldn't figure it out that I felt just fine physically but I could not get my head to work with me on it. At one point when we were really close to home and going up a hill, the road looked like it went right up into the clouds and the shoulders disappeared completely. I got us home safe and sound, and wouldn't you know it, I was wide awake when we got here. Unpacking was quick and easy, and the trip was over.
Dad worked that day and then mom and him headed to the lake to stay with my aunt. I worked for three days and then on the 4th of July dad's dog and I headed to the lake so I could fish with him for three days. That was a great two weeks for sure, and there's something about going to ball games with your dad, and then going out on a lake in your dad's boat. Serenity can come over you if you undergo that combination of time spending.
Ben eat's ice when hot and thirsty, well I was going to hand him some but he just crawled right in there and helped himself.
One of dad's Northerns
VIEW 25 of 25 COMMENTS
kas:
(crawls into your bed)
melx:
He looks like a real sweetheart. I just want to give him a great big hug. 