canadians at a ballgame (year two)

my beloved toronto blue jays were in san diego this week for a series against the padres.  since i had missed seeing them on this year's trip to anaheim, i decided to round up some friends for a trip to petco park.  i was joined by my friend peter (on the right) and my canadian friend adam - who you may remember from last year's trip to angel stadium.

the padres have an interesting promotion right now to get fans to fill out all-star voting ballots.  if you take the time to fill out 50 ballots, you get some kind of padres souvenier.  unfortunately by the time i filled out all 50 ballots, they had run out of the give-away item.  seeing that my 50 ballots were filled out with entirely dodger and blue jay players, it didn't really help the padres players anyway.

the jays ended up winning the game 7-1 behind some great pitching from one of my favorite players, starting pitcher, ricky romero.  coincidentally, we ran in to a big group of his supporters after the game.  who turned out to be friends and family members who asked if we'd like to meet him.

seriously??  of course we would!  somehow we got to the family/player meeting area and met up with the game winning pitcher who was kind enough to take a picture with three guys who really didn't belong there!  it was - to say the least - an incredible way to end the day!

alesmith

a pleasant saturday afternoon was made even better with a trip south to the greater san diego area and a few stops at some of the local breweries. alesmith is worth a visit if you are in the area - any beer on tap is only $1 per taster sample.

san diego zoo's wild animal park

this photo is from our recent visit to the wild animal park in northern san diego county. while we've always known how good the regular san diego zoo is, we had no idea how much we'd like this other park. it is known for their commitment to expansive areas for animals to roam, as well as a really well designed layout. it was pretty fantastic.

petco park

our visit to petco park this week was pretty amazing. i knew it was going to be a great park, but it totally surpassed our expectations. as a new dodger fan, i know i'm not supposed to like anything from the padres (especially when they beat you 4-0), but this park blew us away. from the perfect view of the field from pretty much every section we visited, to the numerous restaurants and bars around the stadium, to the open air concourses, and that quirky western metal supply building that they built the park around. it was pretty spectacular. the first park on our trip is going to be hard to beat. we went to the angels/yankees game tuesday night, on to san fran for a game yesterday afternoon, and finally Oakland for this evening's game.


one last photo - the newest dodger doing what he does best. glove in hand, just hanging out. manny being manny.

the gaslamp quarter

one more from our trip to san diego this week. i should be back to pasadena photos tomorrow. sorry for the delay!

san diego trolley

we took a ride on the trolley and got to see a pretty interesting side of san diego. this shot was taken at night after the fog had rolled in. it made for some very interesting lighting. I assumed this shot was too blurry, but I like how it turned out. just a reminder to never delete something off your camera until you get back to the computer and see it blown up.

stone brewing co.

our trip down to san diego included a stop at the wonderful stone brewing world bistro and gardens. this beverage welding gargoyle was found on the wall of the restaurant. if you are in the area, stop on by! Quite the experience.