One Summer, Two Tysons, 30 MLB Stadiums...: Salt Lake, Reno, ballpark #17, LA, & ballpark #18

Ok, so on July 28th we left Denver and headed west. We decided to drive to Salt Lake City and stay there for the night. We stopped at Sammy's near Provo, Utah to have a famous pieshake. I had a mint Oreo one, and it was very tasty! Definitely recommend it if you're in Utah! I'd never been to Salt Lake, and we really didn't have much time there, so we just went to Temple Square and checked that out. The Salt Lake Temple was beautiful and there was a gorgeous organ inside the Tabernacle.

I think (?) this is from the drive to Salt Lake.

Another view from the drive.

The Assembly Hall.

The side of the Salt Lake Temple.

The front of the Salt Lake Temple.

The organ inside the Tabernacle.

The next morning we drove to Reno to stay there for the night. We stopped at the Salt Flats on the way. The ground there was really weird. It looked like snow, but it definitely didn't feel like snow-it felt kind of squishy.

The Salt Lake.

Small Reno sign.

Big Reno sign!

I'd never been to Reno before. It's definitely not Vegas! To me it seemed like Atlantic City (minus the boardwalk/ocean). The next day we drove through Lake Tahoe on the way to San Francisco. Lake Tahoe was beautiful!! We stopped at a cute place for lunch on the lake.

Lake Tahoe

View from where we had lunch.

It was then off to San Francisco, well, really Oakland, for more baseball. We headed to ballpark #17, O.co Coliseum, to see the A's take on the Blue Jays. O.co coliseum is old. And it's not historic old like Wrigley or Fenway, it's just old. It kind of reminded me of RFK (they were both built in the 60s). It was definitely my least favorite open air park so far (although it did have cupholders, unlike Cleveland), so maybe it's tied with Cleveland for least favorite open air. Anyway, it was an ugly stadium, and it was COLD!! I wasn't expecting warm weather in that part of CA, but there were people in puffy coats at the game! To me there's just something wrong with wearing a puffy coat at a baseball game in July!! Puffy coats are for football games in November/December. I also ended up getting some hot chocolate to try and stay warm-pretty sure it was the first time I've had hot chocolate in July!

Ballpark #17 O.co Coliseum (don't worry, I had a sweatshirt in my purse!)

Elephant mascot and two huge hall of fame players.

View from the seats.

Hoping my hot chocolate will warm me up!

The next day my dad flew back to Va, and I flew to LA to meet my friend Catherine. Catherine and I teach next door to each other, and we were ready for some fun in LA! We went to a free BSB concert at The Grove on our first night. The next night we went to the Santa Monica Pier. Friday we went hiking in Runyon Canyon and saw the Griffith Observatory. Saturday we headed to the Orange County Fair. We had a lot of fun!!

Drinks before BSB.

BSB!!

Kevin!!

Palm trees at Santa Monica Pier.

Santa Monica Pier

View of the Hollywood sign from our hike in Runyon Canyon.

Palm trees in Runyon Canyon.

View of the Hollywood sign from the Griffith Observatory (for some reason I didn't take a picture of the Observatory itself...oops!)

Big telescope at the Observatory.

Yummy make your own ice cream sandwich from Coolhaus in Culver City...delicious!!

Cute little goats at the O.C. fair

Dodgeball tournament at the O.C. fair.

Catherine headed back to Va on Saturday night, and I stayed with my friend Carrie over the weekend. She just had a baby at the end of April, so I was excited to spend some time with the new baby (and his parents of course :-)). He was such a sweetie!! After a nice relaxing day on Sunday, it was back to San Francisco on Monday for more baseball! My dad and I headed to ballpark #18, AT&T Park, to see the Giants take on the Brewers. I thought AT&T Park was pretty nice, but my dad didn't really like it. I didn't like the temperature at the game, though. It was another night of drinking hot chocolate to try and stay warm; this time I did bring a fleece blanket with me! It helped a little. We had really good seats at this game, and we had access to some special field level food places. I got pad Thai at the Aisian place-mistake!! It was not good! I'd had some potstickers as a snack when we first got to the game and they were tasty, so I decided to try the pad thai. sadly, the pad thai wasn't good. We had a good time at the game, though.