April 2 - United States: Los Angeles, California
The second in a series of guest appearances by Jon
Hilly run through the Hollywood Hills
We woke up around 9am today and I headed out for a run in the Hollywood Hills. If anyone was thinking that the "Hills" part of the Hollywood Hills name was just to make it sound pretty, they are wrong! There are some hillacious hills in the Hills (that's quite a sentence isn't it?). I decided to run up toward the Hollywood sign, which is at the end of Ketron's street (and up on one of the hillsides). This meant that the entire first 25 minutes of my run were all completely up hill. I did get about as close as you can get to the sign though, without hiking on the hillside itself which can get difficult since many of the residents have gotten the city of LA to enforce the trespassing laws when people cross their yards to get to the sign. Anyway, it was a great run even if I will be feeling it tomorrow.
After the run we quickly got ready for the game and I decided that we had enough time for us to stop by Verizon Wireless and see about reactivating my mobile. Now, it's important to note here that the game started at 1:10pm and we were leaving Ketron's house at 11:30am. Despite the fact that I love to get to the game early and miss the pre-game traffic and catch batting practice, I still figured that since Dodger Stadium was less than 10 miles away we would still have time to stop by Verizon. BIG MISTAKE. Verizon took forever, which I'm sure anyone but me could have predicted. Then when we finally left the store it took us 15 minutes to find the 101 Freeway because the intelligentsia at the highway department didn't believe in marking the necessary turns required to actually get onto the freeway. By 12:45pm we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper stadium traffic. I cursed my own sense of denial and lack of planning foresight and sat there in traffic for the next 45 minutes or so knowing that we were by now only about 2 miles from the stadium.
Opening Day, Dodger Stadium
Like true Dodgers fans we managed to get into the stadium by the end of the first inning. LA fans are notorious for being late to games and also for leaving early. By the end of the first inning though, the damage had been done; Barry Bonds had hit his first of two homeruns, bringing in 3 runs, and the Giants were up 5-2. It was going to be a painful afternoon. Kevin Brown, with his $100 million + contract was pulled after 4 innings and left with an ERA over 15. Schmuck.
The seats we got from Rob and Sandy were some of the best I've ever had for a game. Sandy's father has had them for about 30 years and all I can say is that if I had tickets like these I'd be looking for a job, any job, in LA. We really owe them for the tickets! We did also have the obligatory Dodger dogs (or two or three) and of course a few beers and toasted our return to the US in style.
Note from Heidi: The seats were spectacular! We were in the Loge section, right in between Home Plate and Third Base. And we were about five rows from the edge. Absolutely perfect - we could see everything! After I got some dodger dogs and some beer, we sat back and enjoyed the game. And pardon me for getting overly sentimental, but there's nothing more American than this. Baseball, hot dogs, and beer.
Jon turned to me, tapped his beer glass to mine and said, "Here's to not watching cricket!"
The Dodgers take the field in the third inning
Grudzilanek (sp?) was the only Dodger hitting well on opening day
7-2 at the end of 4 innings isn't a great way to start the season
So the Dodgers go their butts kicked by the San Francisco Giants. Big Time. 9-2. Ouch. Two Dodgers fans near us really had it in for first baseman Eric Karros. They firmly believed that he was a waste of the Dodger's money, and let him know every inning when they yelled, "DO SOMETHING Karros!" They told that they give him hell each game, and that he really hates them. But they're true fans.
We did see Barry Bonds strike two home runs. If his season this year is anything like last year, then we've witnessed history.
After the game, and the accompanying LA traffic, we met Ketron at home and decided we would make Pad Thai at home but on the way to the grocery store we sort of had a change in plans and got In-N-Out Burgers instead - great choice! We also watched a movie and then Heidi and I went to sleep for 3 hours before leaving for the airport so I could catch my flight to DC.