Reds VS Padres

I'm starting to get excited about moving back to our hometown.  Among other things, I'm looking forward to being surrounded by people that love the same sports teams I do.  Sure it's fun to cheer on my home team in other cities but nothing compares to celebrating a Bengals' touchdown with a sea of orange and black or beating pots and pans in the streets like it's NYE after the Reds win the World Series (you know, like that one time in 1990 when I was 8!  It's actually one of my first memories, I have a terrible memory.  I digress)!

Last week, while my brother and sister-in-law were in town, we went to a Reds game in San Diego (actually, the whole reason they came out to visit us was because the Reds were in town and they have a goal to see a Reds game in every stadium in America.  Back to back series in San Francisco and San Diego was enough to convince them to come out west of a visit.).

We got to Petco Park super early so Brad + Jamie could watch batting practice and try to get a few autographs.

Warmups

There was a pretty good sized crowd of Reds fans waiting along the 3rd base line in hopes of scoring autographs.  I was just there for the photos.

Apparently Joey Votto doesn't often stop for autographs but he did that day and Brad + Jamie got their jersey's signed.

When Brandon Phillips came over, I decided to ask him for a selfie.  I follow him on Twitter & IG and he seems like a pretty cool dude, and he didn't disappoint.

Then he replied to my tweet and called me deb, which, at first I thought he got my name wrong, but after some thorough Google searching and reading through his twitter feed, I discovered it's some sort of slang for females, generally of the attractive variety, so I guess he can call me deb if he likes.  I am far too uncool for twitter and I'm ok with that!

Anyways, back to the baseball game...BP almost got beaned in the head by a wild pitch.  

I was working on my timing but, even though we had great seats, eventually my arms got tired of holding my camera at a goofy angle to be able to shoot around all the other fans, so I only got a few decent photos of the game.

We lost but we still had a good time.  I'm glad the next game we go to will be at Great American Ball Park (GABP), I love our home stadium!

GO REDLEGS!

Penguins versus Ducks

For a few months now, at the advice of the fabulous Kara, I've been using a couple money making apps on my iPhone.  I decided to just kept stockpiling my earnings until I found something that I really wanted but wasn't in the budget.  A few weeks ago I realized the Pittsburgh Penguins we're going to be in Anaheim playing the Ducks.  I really wanted tickets but NHL prices are definitely not in our budget right now, so I cashed in my earnings and bought a couple tickets!  The game was on Friday at 7 and even though I get off work at 430, we were still late!  What should take less than an hour and a half on a Friday evening in SoCal took 3.5 hours.  UGH!  I was not pleasant in the car but luckily this man is far more patient that me and loves me despite my faults.

One of my favorite things about NHL games is that they don't permit you to walk around while the puck is in play, 1 for your safety and 2 so you don't obstruct the view of others.  I hate when you're at a live sporting event and someone walks right in front of you just when the game changing play happens, UGH, the worst!

 While I was standing there waiting for the play to stop so I could go in search of my seat, the best thing happened, THE PENS SCORED!  I was so shocked and not really into the game yet that I failed to take a photo.  I was even more shocked that the crowd went wild!  Even though we were the away team, the arena was packed with Pens fans and IT.WAS.AWESOME!

PENS GOAL!

All night Jason was cheering for "penalty shots! penalty shots!"  He didn't exactly get to see a penalty shot but the next best thing, the game went into OT then a shootout, which is essentially repeated penalty shots.  It was intense, nail biting fun and I loved every second of it, especially this awesome goal from Sydney Crosby.

In the end, the Penguins came out on top and we got to see some bonus hockey!  Plus, the tickets were essentially free, WIN-WIN!

I was a little jazzed!  I miss this game so much.

WHO DEY!?!?

It's no secret that I'm a huge sports fan.  Hockey is my one true sport love but football is a close second.  My maternal grandparents were Bengal season ticket holders from their inception.  They had
a-ma-zing seats, 45 yard line 15 rows up.  They didn't miss a single game from 1968-1982, and even then, only my grandmas skipped the game, my grandfather still went.  What would cause her to miss that game on September 12, 1982?  MY BIRTH!

I'm responsible for breaking my grandmother's attendance streak, something I'm not really proud of.  From that day on, I think I was destined to follow in their footsteps.  At times it can be very difficult to be a Bengal fan but I've always had black and orange in my blood.  On the rare occasion my grandparents were unable to attend the games they usually passed them down to family.  I was lucky enough to attend multiple games growing up.  I wish I had some photos from those days.

 

This is from one of the last games I attended with my grandmother when my grandfather was too ill to go with her.  Even at 72 she still wanted to go early and tailgate with strangers in the parking lot.  I hope I have her spirit at 72!

As soon as we knew we were moving to San Diego, one of the first things I did was check out the local sports team's schedules to see if any of my teams would be playing nearby.  We immediately bought tickets to the Bengals game against the Chargers (I have my eye on some Penguins and Red Wings tickets in LA next month).  I was a tad nervous about going because the Bengals are usually hit or miss and the Chargers were coming off of a HUGE win against KC.  It's always much more pleasant to attend an away game when your team wins, and that we did!

 

We took the trolley to save on parking.  It was interesting to see how differently American's behave on a packed train than in Japan...lets just say that I much prefer riding the train in Japan.

I stole this photo from the Bengals' instagram feed then added the arrow and text =}

 

Qualcomm is a pretty nice stadium for being so old.  Even from the tippy top, we had a great view.

I'm not used to 75 degree football weather so I hid out under my jacket most of the day so I wouldn't end up with a tan on just one side of my face!

 

There was so much black and orange, it was awesome!

 

This about sums up our day.  Kid was bored out of his mind the whole time and the coolest Chargers fan in attendance photo bombing.

 

It was so nice to be able to see a win in the midst of this great season they're having!

 

 



PS. Jason wants to know what you think about his mustache?  He shaved off the beard and just left this behind...for now.