Entries Tagged as 'baseball'

Cubs vs. Brewers @ Miller Park + Steph’s Birthday

April 26th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Last year I had a lot of fun with my brother going to a Cubs vs. Brewers game at Miller Park in Milwaukee so this year he got us tickets again. This year I brought Dallas and Killian with me.

We road tripped up to Milwaukee and hung out at my brother’s house for a while. I drank some beer from the Horny Goat Brewing Co., a craft brewery in Wisconsin. I liked the light Horny Blonde. I bet this is a good summer beer.

Stephanie’s 14th birthday was a few weeks ago so Dallas and I brought a gift that we went in on with my parents.

Her gift? A digital camera! This is the year that Stephanie got a cell phone for her birthday, then was allowed to join Facebook, and now she can post photos with her new camera. Big year!

Steph is pretty much taller than me now. I wonder if she’ll grow more or just stay around 5’4″ or so like I did. In 5th grade I was the tallest kid in my class then I never grew any more. Also, check out her hair. She dyed it a dark brownish red. I think it looks really cool.

Jessica’s birthday is in a few weeks. She wouldn’t talk to me while we visited (of course) but i told her she needs to tell me what to get her, or else I won’t know. She still wouldn’t tell me!

After visiting for a while, we headed out to meet Amanda (who had been at work) for a bit of dinner before the game. We’d wanted to tailgate but it was cold and rainy. We decided to go to the Milwaukee Ale House, where we ordered a bunch of appetizers to share. I tried a beer they make there called Downtown Lites, a light beer made with a bit of Wisconsin honey. Yum!

This was on the back of my coaster at the Milwaukee Ale House:

After the Ale House we said adios to Amanda and headed to the game. My brother had preferred parking so we got to drive right up to the stadium to park. Score! Before the game started, I got my photo with the German sausage, otherwise known as the brat, and the Italian sausage.

Our seats were right down from where this sausage display was. Last year we were just out from 3rd base and this year we were about the same distance out from 1st base. This was the view:

At the park I didn’t really eat much because I was stuffed from the Ale House, but I did enjoy some Leinie’s Honey Weiss and Lakefront Brewery’s River West Stein Lager. Killian kept making fun of the beer vendors because they were all wearing these florescent yellow vests, but I thought the hotdog vendor’s uniforms were even funnier:

Dallas was interested in trying some chorizo sausage so we went for a walk around the concourse. Not every stand had all the different sausages so we had to walk around a little bit. When we found the place, it sold a bunch of different kinds of sausage, maybe all the ones in the sausage race? When Dallas got his chorizo it was in a bun, like a regular sausage. Not strange, but last year when my brother and I shared chorizo it came in a tortilla with salsa. Dallas put the secret stadium sauce on his chorizo.

Dallas loved the chorizo and was still talking about it long after the game. My brother said they sell the sauce at the gift shop, but Dallas said it mostly just tasted like barbecue sauce. Klement’s is the official sausage of the Milwaukee Brewers and supposedly they’re making the chorizo and it’s in stores so we might have to look for it next time we go to WI. In the meantime, we just cheered for chorizo in the sausage race and guess what? He won! If you look close you can see him racing to victory here:

Side note: I was just on the Klement’s site and you can play a sausage race game. I like how 6/10 high scores are by someone called “Cubs Rule”. haha

The Cubs trounced the Brewers, who only made one run. For some reason this made it ok for Killian and I to act inappropriately towards the Brat. Poor guy!

Fun day with friends, family, baseball & WI microbrews! Looking forward to next year!

[Read more →]

Tags:·······················

The Nachos Served at Wrigley Field

September 11th, 2009 · 3 Comments

wrigley_field_nachos

I saw these Wrigley Field nachos by Azteca sold at Strack and Van Til. I thought it was odd that they were not even in the refrigerated section. I bet they are disgusting!

[Read more →]

Tags:········

NY Mets vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

August 5th, 2009 · 2 Comments

citi_field
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

On Saturday night Tien took Dallas and I to a Mets game in the brand new Citi Field. I’d been to Mets games before, when I lived in NY, but it was at the old Shea Stadium. I wanted to check out the new digs.

mets_build_a_bear
Mets Build-A-Bear :: Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

Everyone got a Mets Build-A-Bear as the free giveaway that night. Dallas gave his to some guy who was looking for an extra. Maybe he had 2 kids or something. Tien and I kept ours.

citi_field_pepsi_cola
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

The new stadium is nice, but what’s the last thing you’d ever want to see at the ballpark?

citi_field_hotdog_stand
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

Caloric information on the food? Ding ding ding! Calories shouldn’t count at ball games!

citi_field_dog_burger_stand
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

I guess this is a new NY law or something.

citi_field_nacho_stand
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

Zoiks! I am never eating at the ballpark again! Just kidding. Right after taking these photos I got a burger, fries and a beer.

citi_field_angel_pagan
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

The weather at the stadium was nice all night and the Mets actually won. Surprising! Angel Pagan hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the eighth inning. Whenever the Mets make a homerun, the homerun apple makes an appearance. You can see it here on the bottom.

citi_field_home_run_apple
Citi Field, Flushing, Queens

[Read more →]

Tags:·········

Cubs vs. Brewers @ Miller Park

April 13th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Last season my brother took my dad to a Cubs vs. Brewers game at Miller Park and I gave him a hard time because I wanted to go. I’m kind of a Cubs fan by default. When we were young our family never watched baseball. When I got older I went to watch some Brewers games at County Stadium, but only a couple years later I moved to San Diego. I went to some Padres games there. I moved to New York. I went to some Mets and Yankees games there. Now I’ve been in Chicago attending Cubs games for 5 years. It’s the longest I’ve watched any one team. So, I wanted to go up to watch the Cubs play, but also, I’ve never been to Miller Park so I wanted to check out the new ballpark.

lakefront_brewery_tip_jar
Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee

Saturday I went up to Milwaukee for the game. My brother had 4 tickets and his friends Brian and Eric went along too. First we went to Lakefront Brewery. We’d planned to go on a brewery tour, but we got there too late for one and the next was sold out. Since we were there, we just drank some beer. I had the Riverwest Stein Lager, an amber lager, and really liked it. I’m going to try to find it at our liquor store here next time I go.

There were a ton of Cubs fans at the brewery. My brother and his friends said that Cubs games are a lot different experience in Milwaukee than any other team they play. Because Chicago is not that far away, the city is overrun with Cubs fans. I had worn what I thought was a sort of neutral blue shirt, but everyone decided it was more Cubby blue than Brew Crew blue. The Brewers old school blue is very much like the Cubs blue, though.

richard_tailgating
Richard :: Miller Park, Milwaukee

At about 3:30, we decided to just head over to Miller Park and tailgate until that game started (at 6:00 p.m. I brought up some Half Acre lager and Fat Tire, neither of which you can get in Wisconsin. There was a ton of other beer and chips. And Brian brought burgers made from the beef raised on his family’s farm. My brother’s friends Michael and Julie also met up with us. They were going to the game but sitting in another section. Julie made and brought the most riche, decadent brownies to share, which was perfect because we didn’t have any dessert. The weather was crisp and chilly, but the sun was blazing. By game time I was pretty cold, but I still managed to sun/wind burn my face.

miller_park
Miller Park, Milwaukee

Walking up to the park we were finishing off our beers. I couldn’t finish mine before we got to the gate so I set it in the garbage can. .. and then I got yelled at by everyone I was with and even some strangers. I had to take my beer out of the garbage and finish it! Garbage beer! Classy.

richard_rachelle
Richard & Rachelle :: Miller Park, Milwaukee

miller_park_jumbotron
Miller Park, Milwaukee

Inside the stadium everything was so nice and new compared to what I’m used to. I guess it’s like 9 years old, but compared to Wrigley Field, which is going on 100 years old, it’s brand new. Also, because of the weather, the roof was not retracted. It was like watching a baseball game indoors, which felt kind of weird.. especially when they lit the fireworks off. Inside. During the game we only had a few beers. I think because we had drank so many outside! Made for a pretty inexpensive game.

peanuts
Miller Park, Milwaukee

chorizo
Chorizo :: Miller Park, Milwaukee

The fans in the park were almost 50/50, Cubs/Brewers. Fans yelled at each other and tried to out-chant each other, but for the most part they were friendly to each other. I’m sure it happened, but I didn’t see any fans on either side getting really nasty or anything. I bet on chorizo to win the Sausage Race. Hotdog won, then we ate chorizo . I found out that at Brewers games they always sing Roll Out the Barrel after singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game. And the Cubs won!

brewers_dancer
Drunk Dancing Idiots :: Miller Park, Milwaukee

Before going home a lot of people started tailgating more. We decided just to head out, since we were all pretty tired. Eric drove because he only had a couple beers earlier in the day and the rest of us had many more up til the time we left. He said he didn’t mind because he doesn’t drink much. Perfect. On the way out these two guys and a girl were all dancing for the cars as they were backed up trying to leave. We talked to them for a while. We even gave them a dollar for their entertainment.. which the girl thought we meant we wanted to see her boobs, but luckily we were able to stop her before she did anything stupid in 30 degree weather in front of loads of people!

stephs_bedroom
Stephanie’s Bedroom :: Oak Creek, WI

That night I stayed over in Milwaukee. My nieces were staying at my parent’s house for the long weekend, so I slept in Stephanie’s room. Looks just like my old room when I was her age!

I had a good time at the game and hanging out with my brother and his friends. My only complaint would be that it could have been like 10 degrees warmer to make the tailgating a bit more tolerable. We did ok huddling around the grill and drinking more beer, though. I’ll definitely have to go back to MIller Park again. If not this season then next!

[Read more →]

Tags:····················

Retro on Roscoe 2008

August 4th, 2008 · 2 Comments


Retro on Roscoe, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Retro on Roscoe was this past weekend and we all attended, of course. It’s hard not to when it’s so close. There’s a stage about 3 houses from ours, so even if we didn’t attend the festival, we’d be listening to the bands anyway.


Stephanie with empty chili samplers, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Steph and I walked around Retro on Roscoe starting at about noon or so. We sampled all of the chilis in the Windy City Chili Cookoff. There were a few unique ones like the pork chili verde, but most of them were red, slightly spicy and very meaty. We tried 9 or 10 different chilis and both agreed that we liked one called “Nikki’s Revenge” the best. We probably could have stopped right there and just had chili samples for lunch, but we decided to go to the polish stand where we ordered one of each flavor of pierogi and a blintze. Steph had never tried either. Funny thing is that neither of us really like sauerkraut, but we both really liked the sauerkraut pierogi. On a side note, Dallas loves the polish stand so much that he had it for dinner two nights in a row and I think he did the same thing last year too.


IRS, Retro on Roscoe, Chicago


IRS + Random Groupie, Retro on Roscoe, Chicago

After lunch Steph and I sat on the grass by the Hamilton stage and watched a cover band called IRS (Independent Rock Society). They played a lot of popular songs and the crowd relaxed and sang along. Jen and Chad hosted their annual Retro on Roscoe party since they also live so close to the festival. After IRS was done playing, Stephanie and I headed over to their house. Dallas and a bunch of friends were already there. Chad and Limey tried to introduce the Pimm’s Cup as the new Summer of Rachelle drink, but it didn’t work because I didn’t like it. We all played ping pong (beer pong for some) in the garage and urban horseshoes (sometimes called washers) in the alley. Trent and I were on fire as an urban horseshoes team. Steph had fun watching the ping pong action, playing with Drake, Cortez, and Quinn and even got in on some urban horseshoes action on a team with Cousin. Inside the house TJ taught Jill and Steph how to make homemade Mexican/Puerto Rican rice like his mom used to make. Oh, and Limey tried many times to convince Steph to be a Cubs fan. He said he would give her tickets for the game the following day and all she had to do was swear off the Brewers, but she refused. When he gave up on baseball and said “well, at least say you’ll like the Bears,” we walked away. Not a chance!


Pimm’s, Rosceo Village, Chicago

For dinner Stephanie was all for trying more new food so we headed back out to the festival and split a gyro, which she was in love with. I wasn’t sure if she’d like the lamb, but she thought it was delicious. It’s fun to have her willing to try anything and even more fun when she likes it! We watched a bit of a band called Dot Dot Dot because Kristin and Cousin’s cousin plays keyboards in the band. At about 10 pm we called it a night and went home. It was about a 3 second walk home. Awesome.

[Read more →]

Tags:·······································