Vacations Blog

We spent most of the recent Memorial Day weekend in the city of Davis, CA, attending the 23^rd Annual Davis World Cup Soccer Tournament, in which my son’s under-12 team was participating.

(davisworldcup.org)

In addition to plentiful fresh air and sunshine, it gave me the opportunity to do a little al fresco blogging, courtesy of my office laptop and a borrowed air card. Never having blogged al fresco before, I found it both invigorating and refreshing.  All I needed was a nice tall cocktail. Unfortunately there were no cocktail waitresses to be found at Sandy Motley Fields, so I had to settle for water and Diet Coke®.  Alas.

The City of Davis website describes Davis as a “university-oriented city with a progressive, vigorous community noted for its small-town style, energy conservation, environmental programs, parks, preservation of trees, red double-decker London buses, bicycles, and the quality of its educational institutions.”

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of college towns, and Davis is a good one.  Located 70-miles Northeast of San Francisco, and 11-miles West of Sacramento, Davis is home to UC Davis, one of the nation’s top universities.  

Like most college towns, Davis boasts its share of great bars and restaurants. On Sunday we lunched at The Graduate (affectionately known as “The Grad”), which is about as college town oriented as you can get. The Grad offers 55 different beers - 50 of them on tap - so you’ll be hard-pressed not to find something to quench your thirst. They also offer a Monday - Friday All-Day-Happy Hour, from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM, when all beers, well drinks, ½ liter Long Islands and Smirnoff Cocktails are just $2.79. Oh, and a free Nacho Bar. SCORE!(Wikipedia)

But we were there on a Sunday, so we didn’t score any of that. I did enjoy a ¾ pound Ultimate Burger and fries. It was quite tasty but in hindsight I think my man-sized hunger would have been happier with the ½ pounder. Lisa had the BLT, which came on a Sciambra Sweet Baguette.  I think she enjoyed it. Hold on a second….yes, she did…

The boy, a hot dog freak, had the hot dog, and the girl joined me in bovine delight. Our friends, KC and Jenny went the pizza route, ordering (I think) the Chicken Club Pizza - Grilled chicken breast-bacon-tomatoes (cooked)-green onions & ranch sauce. I managed to abscond with a slice and it was delicious, a nice change from your basic pepperoni with red sauce.

(davisgrad.com)

The Grad offers dozens of TV’s for all your sporting event needs, in addition to pool tables and various video games. In other words, feel free to bring the kids; just get them out before the Spicy Salsa Tuesday.

After lunch we were back at the fields for game #4. A win would have put us into the semi-finals and required us to be back for an 8:00 AM game on Monday. As such, we came prepared for the possibility of spending the night. We didn’t win so we didn’t stay, but had we stayed Davis offers numerous accommodations from which to choose.

(Hotelscombined.com)

One such accommodation is The Aggie Inn (and I’m a sucker for any place with the word “Inn” in it). Located adjacent to the university, it offers “an elegant combination of tastefully decorated rooms and quaint, secluded two-room Cottage Suites.”

Perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to stay there during the Davis World Cup Soccer Tournament 2010. 

Aggie Inn
245 1st Street
Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530.756.0352
Fax: 530.753.5738
Reservations: 530.756.0352
info@aggieinn.com

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“Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man’s Euclidean determinations and Nature’s beguiling irregularities. Its right field is one of the deepest in the American League, while its left field is the shortest; the high left-field wall, three hundred and fifteen feet from home plate along the foul line, virtually thrusts its surface at right-handed hitters.”

–John Updike, “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” (The New Yorker, October 22, 1960)

Fenway Park

Should you find yourself in Boston between April and October, a trip to Fenway Park is as much a requirement, nay a moral imperative, as walking the Freedom Trail, visiting the USS Constitution or sampling the fare at Ye Olde Union Oyster House. Regardless of your allegiances, Fenway Park remains a link to baseball’s storied past.

Fenway Park opened on April 20, 1912 and other than some additions over its 97-year history — the seats atop the Green Monster for example — the park is essentially unchanged and remains baseball’s oldest active ballpark. However, much like Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Fenway’s age does present some challenges as both parks have many obstructed view seats because of pillars supporting the upper deck. But, to much of Red Sox Nation, these seats, although a nuissance at times and the subject of much derision, are crucial to the park’s overall charm. Most “fans” have, at one time or another, found themselves craning their necks to the left or right to follow a play.

The Green Monster

In addition to the obstructed view seats, Fenway is home to many other quirky features that contribute to the park’s character. The Green Monster, soaring 37′ into the air, is both tempting and taunting to right-handed hitters, and is home to a manually-operated scoreboard. A little bit of trivia: on the scoreboard in Morse code are the initials of Thomas A. Yawkey and Jean R. Yawkey, who owned the Red Sox for some 60 years, 1933-1993. “Williamsburg” is the bullpen area located in front of the right-center field bleachers built for the benefit of Ted Williams (of whom Updike was writing in that article, by the way) to enable him to hit more home runs since it is some 23 feet closer than the bleacher wall. Speaking of The Splendid Splinter, the Lone Red Seat in the right field bleachers marks the spot of the longest measurable home run in Fenway, hit by Williams in 1946 and measured at an impressive 502 feet. Finally, not so much a quirk but a tradition, Neil Diamond’s classic, “Sweet Caroline,” can also be heard before the start of the bottom of the 8th inning. It started as a simple superstition when the Sox were ahead, but became a staple when new management took over in 2002.

If you’re looking for some pre- or post-game refreshments, the area around Fenway Park is loaded with good food and good beer. Boston Beer Works is a favorite of microbrew fans, with 16 beers on tap and located just across the street from Fenway. The Cask ‘N Flagon, whose sign you can see just over The Green Monster, is home to hundreds of black-and-white photos of Red Sox greats, walls lined with HD TVs and some of the coldest beer in Boston**. A new favorite of ours, The Bleacher Bar, lies beneath the bleachers in center field and has a garage-door-sized window looking directly onto the field. For those looking for more late-night entertainment, Lansdowne Street is loaded with clubs and bars: BIll’s Bar, Avalon, Axis and House of Blues are just a few of your choices.

Just a word of caution if you do decide to try and catch a game: Fenway Park currently holds the record for most consecutive sold-out games so make sure you check their web site for ticket availability. For those of you with an adventrous streak, there are plenty of scalpers in the area but buyer beware as scalping tickets is cough frowned upon cough by the local constabulary.

**It technically might not be the coldest, but it is when the temp reaches the upper 90s and you’ve spent four hours in the bleachers.

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Spring is in the air – trees are showing the first signs of green leaves, flowers are starting to bloom, and the days are getting longer. Perfect time for baseball! Although Texas is predominantly a football state, we do love our baseball too. It doesn’t matter where you’re at in the Lone Star State; you’re within easy driving range of a baseball game.

Texas boasts Major League, Minor League, and Independent professional baseball teams, not to mention the collegiate and even high school level teams that are well worth watching. So if you’re thinking of taking in a game, here is a listing of the professional baseball teams in Texas.

Major League:

• Houston Astros
• Texas Rangers

Pacific Coast League, Minor League Baseball

• Round Rock Express

Texas League, Minor League Baseball

• Corpus Christi Hooks
• Frisco RoughRiders
• San Antonio Missions
• Midland RockHounds

American Association, Independent League Baseball

• El Paso Diablos
• Fort Worth Cats

United League Baseball, Independent League Baseball

• Amarillo Dillas
• Edinburg Coyotes
• Rio Grande Valley White Wings
• San Angelo Colts
• Laredo Broncos

Personally, my family and I prefer to go to the Independent League games. Lower ticket prices, stellar baseball players, and the opportunity for everyone to visit with players before the game just make this a family-friendly choice. We’ve spent most of our time watching the San Angelo Colts play at Foster Field (yes, we’ve logged hundreds of games over the past 6-7 years.

Here are some insider tips for the Colts:

· Even though it’s normally better to buy tickets on the 1^st base side, you’ll want to get tickets on the 3^rd base side at Foster Field. The sun sets directly behind the 3^rd base side, putting it in your eyes for the first few hours of the game on the 1^st base side – very hot!

· Try and plan your outing for a giveaway or special event night. I highly recommend the fireworks nights as they put on about a 20-30 minute show that is just beautiful.

· You can get excellent seats, almost directly behind home plate, for about $12. Kids 2 and under get in free.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the baseball rundown for Texas. As you can see there is a variety of options for even the most die-hard baseball fan!

Until next time . . .

Paige aka PJsTravelinTexas

Some other great blogs to visit for more information on Texas baseball are:

1. The College Baseball Blog for a wealth of information on Texas College Teams
2. Minor League Baseball Blog contains everything you’d ever want to know about MiLB in Texas
3. Major League Baseball Blog will ensure you’re always in the know for what is happening in MLB in Texas

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So, for full disclosure, I should say a few things… first, I live in Tennessee. Second, I work blocks from the Stanford campus. Lastly, I work on the technical end of this blog. That said, it may not have made front page news, but the University of Tennessee ‘Lady’ Volunteers took on the Stanford University Cardinals for the 2008 NCAA womens basketball championship. The Vol’s won the game handily, but the Cardinals showed class. You don’t have to be a fan of sports to appreciate the accomplishment for the Lady Vol’s. It was their 8th National Championship under the leadership of Pat Summitt. The New York Times reported a story of her start:

Thirty-four seasons ago, after Pat Summitt had coached her first game at Tennessee, she phoned home.

“Did you win?” her father, Richard Head, asked.

“No sir, we got beat.”

“By how much?”

“One point.”

There was a long pause, and as Summitt feared that her father would blame her, he said: “Let me just tell you one thing, Trisha. Don’t take donkeys to the Kentucky Derby.”

There are a lot of directions you could take the story from here (remember, I said I live there :-)), but I’ll leave it at this… if you can appreciate the accomplishment of the Tennessee women or women in basketball, and if you happen to find yourself in the South East, you can visit the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in no other than Knoxville, Tennessee.

And, even though I live 3 miles from the UT campus, I don’t say this very much (my grass is blue), but go Vol’s.

David

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Clevelanders can feel it. Spring is in the air. And with spring, comes America’s favorite pastime: BASEBALL.

Save your comments about apple pie and lemonade. What any Cleveland Indians fan wants is a winning season. The bittersweet taste of last year’s season still lingers on the tongue of many an Ohioan, and hope always remains alive for a stellar follow-up in 2008. To fall one game short of winning the World Series is not something that is easily forgotten; however, Clevelanders are adept at manning up and moving on, so we face the upcoming season with anticipation.

The season lineup consists of Grady Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Ryan Garko, Casey Blake, Franklin Gutierrez, and Jhonny Peralta. While you won’t be seeing a barrage of home runs every night from this group, they have a thousand different ways to get the better of other teams with their combination of power and speed. Sensible hitting is what will make this one of the American League’s best lineups.

As far as pitching, C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona create a double-whammy impact and lead one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. This alone will hopefully be enough to lead the Indians into the postseason.

With manager Eric Wedge at the helm, there will be little excuse for the Indians not having a great season. This is Wedge’s year to prove that he’s a solid manager, so he will no doubt be focused on proving his ability for longevity. Combine that would a solid team with good chemistry, and 2008 should prove to be another exciting, if not World Series-bound season.

For season ticket info, visit The Official Site of the Cleveland Indians: Tickets.

Visit their Cleveland Indians: 2008 Schedule page to choose the home and away games you’ll attend.

To keep up with the active roster and injuries, bookmark this page.

If you are interested in an active forum in which you can discuss all things related to the Tribe, check out Cleveland.com’s board.

And last but not least, Go Tribe!

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My brother came to visit for the day on Saturday with his 9 year old son. I currently live in Palo Alto near Stanford University, and after lunch my nephew had just one request. He desperately wanted to see the Stanford baseball field. He has visions of himself playing ball there one day. Well, I was happy to oblige. However, I am embarrassed to say that I had no idea where the field was and we were forced to track down and study a campus map.

Once we found the field, we had a terrific surprise. There was a game going on! So, we bought our tickets and walked inside. Sitting in the stands, with the warm sun on my shoulders, I looked around at the energetic crowd. There were many pairings of fathers and sons, elderly couples wearing their Stanford colors and shouting words of encouragement to the team and kids running around on the grassy hillside, eating huge sticky towers of cotton candy. It has been years since I have been to a baseball game, but, I found that little has changed. Baseball is still as “American as apple pie”.

My memories of baseball were formed at the University of Texas in Austin. My father was a big fan and he wanted to share his love of the game with his children. I can still remember him belting out “The Eyes of Texas” along with a crowd full of fans, his voice filled with emotion and pride. The Longhorns have always had a strong baseball program and this year is no different. They are ranked #13 in the country! If you find yourself in Austin this spring, put on your burnt orange and head over to Disch Falk field for a great game.

Is professional baseball more your style? Then head just north of Austin to Round Rock, Texas. Here you can watch the Round Rock Express (farm team for the Houston Astros) play at the impressive Dell Diamond complex. Order a beer and a hot dog, listen to the crack of the bat as it hits a home run, and spend your afternoon “cheering for the home team”. Go with a group of friends or bring your family….one of the great things about baseball is its wide appeal.

I might not be able to take in a game of Texas baseball…but, after this weekend, I will be sure to attend more games at the Stanford field. Especially now that I know where it is!

Do you like baseball…what are some of your best memories?

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When I was asked to write about the Dodgers this week, I have to admit momentary panic set in. I’m not a baseball fan and don’t remember the last time I went to a Dodger game. In fact, I’m not even certain how the game is played. All I know is someone hits a little white ball with a stick and then runs like hell.

But then I realized that a trip to a Dodger game might be right up my alley. After all, it involves two of my favorite activities, sitting and eating. So, here’s how my ideal Dodger day might unfold:

One of the first things I would do is check out the parking situation on the Official Dodger Stadium website. Even though Opening Day in 2007 went down in the record books as one of the worst parking days in the stadium’s history, with 16,000 parking spaces I figure I shouldn’t have any problem finding a spot. Even if I take up the usual four spaces parking my minivan, that still leaves 15,996 spaces for the rest of you.

(I found this article that pointed out the absence of bike racks at Dodger Stadium. This doesn’t concern me, seeing as I drive my car even to the corner mailbox. But normal people and fitness buffs might want to take note.)

Next up would be tickets. I’m not a season ticket holder, so I would head down to Chavez Ravine (as all us Dodger experts call it) and buy a one-day ticket. They range in price from $130 for MVP seating all the way down to $11 for what appears to be a seat in the top section inside a stall in the men’s bathroom. I’d decide to splurge for a $70 seat, which along with having a great view of the field appears to be painted a pleasing orange color that would go great with my complexion.

Upon entering the stadium I would waste no time in procuring the most coveted of Dodger memorabilia – the Dodger Dog. Make no mistake – I consider the concession stand as important a location as home plate. In fact, I may not be able to tell you who the Dodgers are playing that day, but I guarantee I will have memorized the entire snack stand menu including the condiment bar.

Perhaps most thrilling is the new AmPm All-You-Can-Eat Pavilion. According to the Dodger website, for $35 you can get a seat in the right field bleachers and “unlimited Dodger Dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn and Coca-Cola products.” Just saying the words “unlimited nachos” out loud gets me more excited than a home run in the bottom of the ninth.

But I know the Dodgers aren’t just about the hot dogs, or the peanuts, or the Cracker Jack. It’s the excitement of being a part of a 50-year tradition, and I’m sure once the game got started I would get swept away by the smell of the infield and the roar of the crowd. Now if I could just get one of those big foam fingers to wave around…

Any baseball fans out there? What’s your ideal ballpark day that doesn’t involve your couch and a big plasma screen?

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My husband and kids can hardly contain their excitement - the NCAA tournament is right around the corner! And while we don’t have tickets to any of this year’s games, we are eagerly anticipating filling out brackets and watching as much college basketball as possible. The tournament is going to be all over the place, and I thought I would do a little blog roundup of things to do in some of the host cities…..

The Women’s NCAA Regionals take place in New Orleans, LA, Spokane, WA, Greensboro, NC and Oklahoma City, OK. The NOLA Jazzfest will be hosted in New Orleans this year too - great to see that the city hosting such a diversity of events.

For those of you considering taking the Coast Starlight train along the West Coast up to Spokane, the LA Times Travel has provided an update on service on this line - sounds like it has been a little sketchy of late.

Not knowing much about Greensboro, North Carolina, I was pleased to see that the “Greenest” hotel in America has opened there! Thanks to Sustainable Travel for the tip.

And if basketball is not your thing and you are looking for something else to do in Oklahoma City, Things You Should Do suggests checking out the National Cowboy Museum!

The Mens NCAA Regionals will take place in Charlotte, NC, Phoenix, AZ, Detroit, MI, and Houston, TX. Always looking for culinary adventures when I travel, I was pleased to see that Charlotte is the home of the Best Steamed Bagel Sandwich in the U.S. Can you believe? Neither could I.

In addition to hosting NCAA basketball, Phoenix is also right in the thick of things for another popular sport, baseball. The Family Travel Blog points out the Cactus League Spring Training program, with all games no more than an hour away from Phoenix. Wow, you could just camp out for the month of March in Arizona!

Intelligent Travel highlights an interesting part of Detroit, Heidelberg Street, which is doing its part to put a damper on urban blight. Definitely something unique to check out!

Since the only time I have ever been to Houston was for a conference, I am going to send you right over to the Visit Houston Texas site, for loads of ideas of how to spend your time in this state of greatness. Personally, I would go shopping for a ten gallon hat and a pair of purple boots….

The Women’s Final Four will be played in Tampa Bay, while the men will be a couple states over in San Antonio. Now, I have been to San Antonio, and I must say, the San Antonio River Walk is a great place to spend a couple hours - good restaurants and bars, lots of people to watch, great atmosphere.

In Tampa, you can of course spend time at Busch Gardens Africa, but LA Times Travel points out that if you live in California, you would be better off staying home. Fortunately, Things You Should Do highlights a fun annual festival in Tampa, Guavaween. Not until October (think Halloween), this very popular event (think 80,000 folks!) is sure to be a great way to celebrate!

Are you planning to chase the NCAA basketball tournament this year? Who is your favorite team? Let us know!

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