Phase Two : Philadelphia (August 19)

After some much needed rest, we took our time getting to the day game in Philly. It was extra super hot and sunny, and our left field foul pole seats - while great - were not under any shade at all. So that kinda zapped some of our strength. After the game, we planned on getting straight to the zoo for some free employee-summer-picnic-style food. We were looking forward to free, after all the tolls, fast food meals, tickets, rental cars and hotel rooms we were going to pay for. We actually kept a log of expenses (anything that we shared) and who paid for what, in two columns. We each bought two sets of tickets, I got the rental car and he got the hotel room and we traded off on tolls & gas. The tally at the end had both of our totals around $200 and within 3 dollars of each other. Hell yeah! Works for me!

CBP. Citizens Bank Park. And no, they're not still working on the park, but they are still in the process of cleaning up the remains of Veterans Stadium, which stood next door. It's finally all clear (and a parking lot) but it took them quite a while.

CBP did, however, just open this year (April '04) and barely made it done in time. It's freakin' gorgeous, though.

As you can attest...

It's even got its own Liberty Bell, that rocks back and forth and lights up after every Phillies' home run.

How polite and thoughtful, though not as exciting as Boston's.

Phillies have the bases loaded. Right after I took this, I switched my camera to video mode to try and catch a potential Grand Slam. Somebody was walking in front of me when I was trying to focus, so I hesitated... and then stopped the camera... and then the Astros pulled off a fucking triple play. Nice crowd for a Thursday, though. They call it the Businessperson's Special, 1 pm on a weekday.

This poor kid was miserable all day long. He got there even earlier than we did (he's in the picture a few spots up) and sat in the sun for the whole game, all the while drinking sugar and caffeine courtesy of his mother, who also gave him an earful about every other inning for being fidgety and whiny. I was feeling his pain.

Mike didn't even know I took this picture until the next day when we were uploading them onto my computer. He's all into the game like he cares about the Phillies and stuff. How cute.

My trusty Brazilian rainforest hat helped keep the sun off of my head and my knappy facial scruff.

Toothy grins and Diet Coke go hand in hand.

Hey, it's Dr. J! He's in the landscape around the Spectrum, across the street from CBP, where the Sixers played in his heyday.

Mike does his Stallone impression while Rocky has his back. Rock is just down from Dr. J - though somehow this fake boxer is in a much more posh position in the Spectrum's grounds.

He's not complaining, though.

The game was good - lots of runs were scored, but no home runs came our way. The Phils looked like they were going to get blown out but made a game of it towards the end. I still can't believe I missed that damn triple play. Anyway, we finally made our way back to the car and onto the highway, just in time for early rush hour traffic. We were going straight to the zoo, and instead of fighting through downtown from South Philly (a route I'm not familiar or comfortable with), we sat for about an hour on the interstate. Unintentionally. It should have only taken about 15 minutes. It didn't matter all that much, we weren't late for our free food - but I was telling Mike about Steph and had hoped to get there before the zoo closed so he could check her out. We got there about 10 minutes after closing... the food was great (and did I mention, free?), and Mike got to meet some of my co-worker pals (Wendy *and* Desiree, whom he heard a lot about) and then we went back to my apartment for another night of solid sleep.

On to NYC...