Day 7 - Houston Astros' Minute Maid Park #23

On Tuesday, we left Arlington and made the 3-hour drive to Houston.  We were able to reserve a room at the Cambria Hotel which is a fairly new hotel in downtown Houston and only three-tenths of a mile to Minute Maid Park.  The hotel was very nice and we scored a city-view room on the 18th floor - very nice!  We checked in around 3 and rested a while before going to the game.  The tickets for the game I had acquired through FaceBook on the Astros Ticket Exchange group page.  This is highly recommended (thanks to the tip from my brother-in-law Chantz whose family had lived in Houston).  By purchasing through this group page and using Paypal and the Ballpark App, there are no hidden fees like you might pay through Stubhub.  Anyway, I got two sets of seats - one pair in the famous Crawford Boxes in left field and the other pair was on the front row in right field.  The night before we left for Houston I received a message from one of the season ticket owners that I bought the tickets from.  She told me that for this homestand against the A's that the stadium was opening up 30 minutes earlier for season ticket holders!  Perfect - now the boys and I could get in to watch most of the Astros batting practice as well as the A's - what this means is a better chance of getting a BP ball or two (we ended up getting 4!).  And Tammy could stay behind and go to the fitness room and still have time to shower and get ready for the game.

Small World - before the game, Tammy met a family from Taylorsville - The Pierce Family - who are also on their bucket list mission to see all the MLB ballparks.  They are really nice folks who were at Minute Maid (#13 for them) and then on to Arlington and then to Omaha for a baseball tournament.  We were able to share some stories about different adventures that our families have had on this journey.  It was great to meet people who have shared similar experiences.

So again, we were able to see a game in an indoor facility that had air-conditioning.  This could spoil you because it was really nice (especially compared to watching some games in "Hotlanta".  The game featured the AL West Division-leading Astros vs. the second-place team - the Oakland A's.

The view from our seats in the Crawford Boxes

My attempt at taking a "selfie" with Tammy

Our view of the Jumbotron showing the Minute Maid train

Trey and Tate's seats on the front row just above and to the left of the S in State Farm

The game was very exciting, but the highlight of the whole night for me was the fact that it was a Tuesday game and that meant "Dollar Dog Night!"  A promotion the Astros have is on Tuesdays all Nolan Ryan Hot Dogs are $1 and you can get as many as you want.  This was awesome!  We all ate our fill!

The A's jumped out to an early lead, but the Astros came from behind to win 9-6 thanks to 2 home runs by the Astros' rising star - Yordan Alvarez.  Halfway through the game, Tate and I decided to switch seats (I think so he could get away from Trey who can be quite bossy to his little brother).  Funny tidbit - As fate would have it, Yordan's second home run was hit into the Crawford Boxes right in the direction of where Tate and Tammy were sitting.  Now, Tate had his glove with him and might have had a chance to catch the ball, but he did not have his glove on when the ball was hit.  Needless to say, he did not catch the ball even though it might have been within reach.  He was in an aisle seat and it landed in the aisle.  Of course, his brother has given him grief ever since.  We have even watched the highlight of Tate not catching the ball on MLB Network several times.

Trey and Tate's view from the Right Field Seats

Orbit waving the victory flag after the Astros win.

Standard pose for the boys with the field in the background

Tammy photobombing the shot!

So the Astros win the game and we head back to our hotel preparing to fly back to Charlotte the next day.  Stadium number 23 in the books!  This adventure, although somewhat stressful at times, was a memorable one.  We go to see some of the beautiful scenery that our country has to offer as well as see some pretty cool ballparks.  I'm not exactly sure yet about where these three parks would rank as far as favorite parks go.  I guess it depends upon the criteria.  I plan on writing about that in a later post.  The next trip(s) will be much more involved as we will have to fly and drive again out to the west coast.  But this trip was full of some pretty incredible memories - ones that we will look back on for years to come.