Last week I was off on vacation.
It was the ultimate road trip that took my dad and I down the west coast of the United States.
We started our trip in Seattle with a game at Safeco Field between the Mariners and my beloved New York Yankees.
I love Safeco Field. If you have not been down to Seattle to catch a game, you're missing out. I'm not a fan of the Mariners, but this is one of the prettiest ballparks around. The amenities are great, the crowd and atmosphere is to die for and it's a first class baseball experience.
The Yankees fell behind 4-0 before clawing back to pull out a 7-4 win. Our road trip was off to a great start.
It was then out to the parking lot where we hit the highway trying to put some miles between us and Seattle.
We stopped for the night two hours outside Portland.
Day two took us through Oregon and into California where we stayed in Vacaville, Calif., a community of 96,000 people about an hour outside San Francisco. The local paper, aptly named the Reporter greeted me as we checked into our hotel.
It's been in business since 1883. I can only hope that this Reporter has that kind of longevity too.
On Wednesday we caught a game in San Francisco between the Giants and the Colorado Rockies.
We were lucky as Vancouver product Jeff Francis took to the hill for the Rockies. It was great to see a piece of Canadiana down south. We even ran into a few folks from Vancouver who came down specifically to see Francis pitch. The Rockies lost 5-3, but Francis pitched a pretty decent game.
SBC Park is only a few years old and is a majestic sight along the San Francisco waterfront. It only holds a little over 40,000 for baseball, but the atmosphere is intimate. The fans seem to be right on top of the play. Looking out over the water in right field is quite a sight. We are sure to return sometime soon.
Following the game I was uncertain where our road trip would take us. I knew we had two games planned across the bay in Oakland on Friday and Saturday, when the Yankees were in town. But what was in store for Wednesday night and Thursday was still a mystery.
We headed for the airport and my dad informed me we were headed for Las Vegas.
That's right -Vegas baby!
I've never been, so this was an incredible experience for me.
Because this is a family publication, I can't get into too many details for fear of reprisal from my publisher. All I can say is we gambled, we partied and we had a few cold beverages. Hey, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?
Two more ball games, one a Yankee loss and a Yankee win and our road trip was complete. We started driving back to my folks place in Coquitlam Saturday afternoon after the game arriving on Sunday around dinner time.
While I was away, we of course were glued to the television and newspaper coverage of the horrific events on the gulf coast and New Orleans.
Seeing the images on television brought my trip into perspective. I felt lucky to be able to be on such a trip, but felt even luckier to experience it with my dad.
My dad and I have a very close relationship. Our relationship got a lot closer on this trip. The ball games were great, Vegas was even better, but spending time with my dad was the ultimate for me.
