Day 13 & 14 - Oakland Colosseum #29 and then Heading Home!

On July 4th, we made our last stadium trip to Oakland Colosseum where we would watch the Oakland A's take on the Toronto Blue Jays.  We were not very excited for this stadium except for the fact that this was the last one. The Oakland area was not very impressive compared to the other cities that we had been in. But we went in with an open mind. The A’s had not been having a very good season and attendance had not been good either. But this was July 4th and they decided to put on a promotion to get fans in the seats. They decided to offer second level seats for $7.04 each which included an opportunity to go out on the field after the game and watch a fireworks show!  Well, since we had splurged a little at some of the earlier parks, second level seats were just fine with us.

The view of Oakland Colosseum from the parking lot.

Trey and Tate view from our seats.

Not a bad view for $7.04 (July 4th Promo) each!

The Oakland Colosseum is one of the oldest parks in the MLB and we were not expecting a whole lot, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.  Even though it was old and very big (it supposedly sits more people than any other stadium at over 56,000) I thought it was a pretty neat place.  Of course it was very dated and kind of stuck in the 1970s, I thought there was a good view of the field from just about anywhere.  I know this because in about the 5th inning we moved up to the third level (to get away from the crowd which finally started coming in to get ready for the fireworks).  Oakland fans, even though there were not many, like all other fans are very passionate about their team, which I could appreciate.  The attendance was probably around 30,000 due to the fireworks show coming up after the game (they had been averaging around 5,000).

The game was exciting as the A's played very well and went on to win, maybe because the extra fans had them motivated.  And so after the game, we headed down to get ready to go out onto the field to watch fireworks.  I have to say, anytime I can get out on to a Major League field, I get pretty excited.  I get that Ray Kinsela feeling wondering "is this heaven?", but very quickly I realized that, "no, we were still in Oakland!

We go to see the A's win which did not happen a lot this season.

The field is named after Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson who played there a number of years.

The fans pouring onto the field after the game to see fireworks.

The fireworks show was very good!  It was set to patriotic music and the crowd was into it and I thought, what a great way to end our trip.  So after the show, we headed out to find our car and then we made the 25 minute drive to the airport for the trip home.

We had a early morning flight out of San Francisco the next day so we decided to spend the night in the airport which seemed like a good idea at the time.  Looking back on it, I would not advise that as there are not many comfortable location inside an airport.

But that did not spoil the trip by any means.  The West Coast trip was a great adventure.  We had gotten to see so many iconic places and, as a whole, might have been one of the best stadium trips we've been on.  So as far as MLB stadiums go, 29 down.  1 to go - Seattle.  That would be the plan for next year.  We will have to do something to make that trip extra special.  Top it off with an Alaska Cruise maybe?  To be continued...