Memorial Day weekend I made the trip down to Southern California. I was staying in the horribly red Angel territory, but I made a day trip down to San Diego on Saturday to see the Padres play. My super awesome boyfriend wanted to show me his home town team, the team he grew up watching and rooting for, and knowing how much I love baseball, he knew this would be a totally special treat for me. So we made the trip down for the day. Some of you expressed some interest in seeing the pictures, so here you go!

First we walked through a bit of downtown. We parked few blocks a way from the park cause it would be cheaper and I would get to see some of downtown, which was just lovely by the way. Felt like a cleaner version of downtown San Jose. So we ended up walking in what we found out later was the back entrance to the park, if there really is such a thing.

This was my first view of the park!

We walked a little ways and we stumbled across the "Park at the Park" area. I thought this was super cute! There was sand out there and grass. It was so nice, I would have been perfectly happy sitting there for a game!

While we were down peering through the chain link fence, these were a few things I saw:

Once we got in, we decided to look around a bit and find a bar. We went up to the top of the Western Metal Supply Company Building and found a lovely little bar that was practically deserted when we got in there. We pulled up a seat near the TV that was showing the A’s game, Bay Area feed =) and had a couple of drinks. I thought the bar was fabulous! I really enjoyed spending time there. It was cute and friendly. There was memorabilia on the walls and a wonderful view from the balcony of the whole field. I hope we have something along these lines at the new ball park!

After Witasick threw up 3 runs to make the score 8-1, I took that as a sign that we should just start enjoying the Padres. So we headed on up to our seats. The view from our seats was gorgeous. My boyfriend had made a very direct point to get seats on this particular side so we would have this amazing view, and he was totally right!

First we stopped at the front of the stadium to take a few pictures.

This picture is a panoramic that he was able to paste together from the pictures I took.

Before the game started, the bull pen walked across the field to their hang out for the game! Trevor Hoffman waved to the crowd.

Then the Friar came out to get the first pitches rolling.

They had guys from the Navy there to throw out one set.

And it was Extreme Sports Night, so they let the riders throw out another set.

Time to Play Ball

The Sun Setting over the park was just wonderful.

Then it was Trevor Time. It almost wasn’t Trevor Time. They were winning 6-2. But at the last minute in the 9th, the reliever that came in just before him coughed up some walks, so I got really lucky!

GAME OVER!! WE WIN!!

One thing that really impressed me was that they posted a full game Summary on the score board after the game. Yet another thing I hope they do at the new stadium!

After the game they had fireworks. They were no where near as good as the Coliseum’s fireworks, but they were still fun. They started 5 minutes after the game ended and nobody was allowed down on to the field, so it just wasn’t the same, but I love fireworks! So I was very happy we went on a night when they had some!

All in all, I really like PETCO Park. It was very lovely and comfortable. It just felt like baseball. I look forward to going again! Hopefully next time when the A’s come to town, so I can wear the right colors! ;)