Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Trip Report - Day 1 - Oakland

Two weeks ago today, my mom and I set off to visit the West Coast and see the Blue Jays play baseball. We were part of an organized tour with about 40 other participants. Here we are at the airport, wearing our team shirts.  
We landed in San Francisco around 4 p.m., picked up our luggage and got on a bus that drove us directly to Oakland Coliseum.  The rush hour traffic was quite heavy but we made it there about 6 p.m., ahead of the 7 o'clock start time for the first game on our tour.

As you enter the stadium, there are several murals depicting famous players in Oakland's history.  I remember the pitcher shown on the left in the picture below very well - Dennis Eckersley. He was quite a challenge for our boys in blue back in the late 80's and early 90's.
I was quite impressed by the large women's washroom and the fact that there were no lineups. Quite different from what you usually find at the ball park in Toronto!
We had no trouble recognizing our fellow Canadian fans! ;)
I liked the pictures they showed of the various Toronto players as they made their first at bat, especially the images of Skydome/Rogers Centre and the CN Tower in the background.
It was quite a cool evening and there were a lot of empty seats, so my mom and I moved down a little closer to the action.
We had a great view of all our boys, including Josh Donaldson, as they stepped up to bat.  (I posted more pictures in this blog post the other day.)
This hot dog vendor was quite entertaining and he actually carried this large metal box around the stadium, offering freshly cooked wieners to hungry fans.
There may not have been a lot of Oakland fans but there was a loud section out in right field making quite a ruckus with several musical instruments.
Unfortunately, the Jays lost to the Oakland A's 4-1.  It was full dark as we trouped out of the stadium to find our bus and head for our first night's accommodations.
By the time we got to our hotel that first night, it was close to 11 p.m.  I had no idea where we were but the view was quite pretty!

Day 78/100 - #100dayproject

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