Growing Wanderlust

[eggwards]

It's Friday night, and I'm tired, and I really would like to be able to take a short vacation. Unfortunately all my time for this year is devoted, most of it to the Alaskan Cruise coming up in september (spaces may still be available!). Still, I often think of many places I'd like to visit, if not stay for an extended length of time.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know one way I'm working on seeing more of the country is to take in a ballgame at each Major League Baseball stadium. I've hit 10 of them so far, so I have several to go. I'll pick up a game in Seattle as a part of the Alaska trip this year. I'm thinking of making New York City my primary destination next year as I've never been there, it would be good to see Mikel again, and I'd love to see Yankee Stadium before they tear it down.

I also have to go back to St. Louis someday as they built a new stadium there, and I still need to go back to Chicago to see Comiskey Park and to Oakland. I really don't have a problem with visiting either city again.

I'm trying to convince Chris to do a baseball and coasters tour of Ohio, seeing the parks in Cincinnati and Cleveland, and then going to King's Island and Cedar Point. If were really daring, that would be a good time to pick up Pittsburgh as well or Detroit.

The ballparks I've see are, from west to east, San Francisco, Texas (Arlington), Houston, Kansas City, Chicago (Wrigley), St. Louis (old Busch Stadium), Baltimore, Philadelphia, Montreal and Boston. Lots more to go, and my rule is I actually have to see a game there, not just do the tour. This means I'll have to go to Phoenix again sometime.

This means there will have to be a Southern California tour eventually, and a trip to Miami, Tampa Bay and Atlanta (not necessarily together), and some sort of stretch that may include Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Somewhere there also needs to be another visit to Washington DC, and a trip to Toronto, and Denver. It's a lot of criss-crossing the country, but I'm hoping I can have it all finished before my 50th birthday. 20 stadiums in ten years - given if they don't add any more teams.

like I said, I've seen some of these cities, like washington DC, without hitting the stadium. I'm trying to decide if I want to wait until the new one is up, but since my sister's in the area, it's always easy to drop in.

I've been to San Diego and Los Angeles (and Anaheim) before, but that was when I was five and my grandparents took me to Disneyland, Sea World and Knotts Berry Farm. That's three more places i wouldn't mind seeing again as an adult. I've been to florida too, but the only cities I've visited were Orlando (Disney again) and Pensacola due to some family ties. I've not visited the other cities, and I hear Key West is an interesting place to visit.

Of course, not every dream of travel is ties to baseball, but it does define the closer to home, more affordable travel. If money weren't an object, and I had the time to really get out there, I'd love to visit Australia and New Zealand, Great Britain and Germany and possibly Japan. Those are much longer range goals, but hopefully I'll get to his some of them before I get to old to really enjoy them.

It's not something that I can do all at once, but it does me good to have a goal in mind with my traveling, and getting to discover so much more, beyond the baseball field, about the cities. I find it really life changing to travel and learn. My trips have involved getting to know people, like my trip to chicago a few years back, or my first trip with Chris to San francisco. Heck, one of the trips - to Montreal was the one to see baseball in the city before it lost it's team, but ended up being the trip I went to my first gay bar, and my first pride parade - safely far from home - that led me to where I am today.

Who knows where the next trip will take me? Still, I'll be happy to know the words "Play Ball" will probably be a part of it.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

That's a really good way to see the country! Seattle's stadium is fun. I worked temp for a law firm for a few months back in 1999-2000. The law firm sent a group of us to a game as a thank you for a job well done. I went on Barry White Night. So much fun!

I've also gotten to see many a stadium such as Detroit's old one as part of a group from Evita or Phantom. We'd be asked to sing the National Anthem and then get to see the game for free. YAY!

I share your passion for travel and what it can teach us. Keep dreamin'! You have a long way to go before you even consider hanging up your travelin' shoes!

HUGS!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to Seattle. i'd really like to stay longer (we only get a weekend after the cruise) as i like to really dig into a city, and learn about it's history. i hope we have time to see the "underground city".

Yeah, I missed out on some like Old Comiskey and Tiger stadium (and I totally forgot to count the Astrodome and old arlington stadium in my list). Getting to do show publicity must have let you get a few perks now and again.

Oh yeah, I have a long ways to go, and still I have cities I want to return to...it's a very full list.

[metacub.livejournal.com]

Oaktown Pride! :) I take it you're planning to catch a Mariners game before or after the cruise?

The baseball and coasters tour sounds like a lot of fun, and very apple pie, although it might require a sybaritic and urban day or two at the end to balance things out.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know much about the Ohio cities, so I'm not too sure about an urban day, but i have more freinds and aquaintences in Cincinati than Cleveland. I had to look up sybaritic - and yes, we would need that kind of day as well. :-)


We have the weekend after the cruise to do a little whirlwind touring of Seattle. we're seeing the game on Saturday, September 15th.

Oh, and I like apple pie!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I've been to four former parks, Busch II (as you said, raised) Arlington stadium (also raised and the parking lot to the Ballpark in Arlington), Olympic Park in montreal, and the astrodome - still there, for now.

Kauffman isn't much to see. It's a doughnut shaped park like many of it's era, many that have been torn down, like Vererans and three Rivers stadium. It does have the dancing waters in the outfield, though. Camden Yards is quite nice. My sister's office is in the warehouse in the outfield. She gets to see games all the time, of which I'm very jealous.

[gmjambear]

Like you, I think we share the same travel/baseball parks interest bug. I've been to 10 MLB parks. In order of appearance: Mets, Yankees, A's, Brewers, Cubs, White Sox, Blue Jays, Reds, Expos (RIP), Mariners. Five of the stadiums I've visited have been or will be demolished. (I promised my mom, who took me to my first Mets game at age 7, to fly back to NYC before Shea is demolished and after their new ballpark, CitiField, is opened.)

In addition, having lived in western NY for over a decade, I visited a few minor league ballparks: Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Batavia, NY and Augusta, GA. (Two of my favorite nicknames: the Batavia Muckdogs and the Augusta GreenJackets). Personally, Buffalo's Dunn Tire Park is one of the best baseball venues I've visited.

See you in a couple of months.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think next year I need to get to Yankee Stadium and Shea before they go into the record books. That's my goal. Not sure how fast I'll get to the rest, but i so start getting three weeks vacation next year, so that's a good thing.

I've only done a few minor leauge parks, all in Texas, including the Rough riders park near our house, and Nolan Ryan's Round Rock Express park near Austin.

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys soon!

[jeffdintexas.livejournal.com]

Man I would love to go on a ballpark tour as well. I love coasters too, but I gotta trim some of this gut first... LOL I have to ride the "special seat" on Batman at 6 flags in Dallas. It's a little embarrassing cause they had to make two rows of people move just to accommodate me. But with it all said and done I rode it at least three times... and the titan four times. It was a great time! I want to come back.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Trust me, being able to ride coasters again is one of the big motivators for me to loose weight. It's terribly embarasing to get on and not have the saftey harness be able to snap shut, no matter how hard you try to suck it in.

Seats at ballparks aren't much better.