And we're off! Our Trip Starts in Arlington

The air was filled with as much anticipation as the rookie locker room on opening day of spring training... it was finally here... our first day of baseball! This day was chock full of amazing moments that it can only be revealed chronologically, so here we go...

We arrive at the stadium at about 3:15pm. Our intention is to buy our tickets, go to the Legends Museum (which houses the largest collection of baseball memorabilia outside of Cooperstown), then catch the game.

We wander into the Rangers front office and the security guard not only points us to the museum entrance, but also to the only ticket office open AND suggests some places for food. He did comment that the prices inside the stadium were exorbitantly expensive; we were tempted to tell him we're used to prices at the Angels Stadium and were pretty certain that nothing could phase us. Instead we forge ahead.

We proceed to the ticket counter and encounter our first comments about our t-shirts. Quick detour...For those of you who don't know, Suz made us shirts for our trip. The front has the picture currently featured on the top of our blog. The back lists the stadiums that we will be visiting this summer ala a concert tour t-shirt. In my totally "unbiased" opinion, it's one of the best things ever! FYI... based on the reaction (as you'll soon see) in Texas, we have designated these shirts as our official stadium uniform. God knows what they'll look (or smell like) once we get back home. But if players can adhere to their crazy superstitious traditions, so can we! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

So we get a comment from the guy in front of the guy in front of us about our shirts and we explain our trip to him. The person we're talking to buys his tickets and walks away. At this point I try and approach the ticket window, forgetting there is a person in front of us. He turns towards us and I see that he is an employee of the stadium. He asks us very politely if we would like free tickets in a great section. Well...our mamas didn't raise no fools and we promptly said, "Yes please!" Our new friend approaches the ticket counter and hands us our tickets. He also kindly points out that our tickets will also get us into the Cuervo Club, an air-conditioned restaurant area with views from behind home plate.

We enthusiastically thank Gary, our favorite Texan, and proceed to the museum. At the museum, we are informed that our 1/2 price admission ticket will also get us into a stadium tour tomorrow morning. Can our luck get any better you may ask? Oh just you wait...

Once we're done with the museum we enter the ballpark and head to our seats, which just happen to be located ONLY 26 ROWS behind the Rangers dugout. Once our shock at the kindness of our favorite Texan wears off we decide to go check out this Cuervo Club where we run into Curtis, our favorite Texan EMT. He is also intrigued by our shirts and we get to talking. Curtis turns out to be a WEALTH of information, giving us tips on which sports bar to visit in Houston and talking Suz (hopefully!) out of wearing her Angels gear to Yankee stadium. But wait there's more... once we sit down to eat our dinner Curtis reminds us to come find him before we leave and then returns to our table two more times. The first with free give-aways from previous games, a Michael Young flag and Texas Rangers beach towel, and the second time with two baseballs, retrieved from the Texas dugout and ACTUALLY USED IN A MAJOR LEAGUE GAME!!!!!

Our excellent time in Arlington is capped off by GREAT seat mates. We chat during the game, they show us the in-and-outs of being a Texas Rangers fan (including singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch and cheering for your favorite dot in the Dot Race, see video) AND one of them offered us his season tickets for our St. Louis game next summer.



As a life-long Angels fan I'd never thought I'd say this, well the Rangers are 11.5 games back so I guess it's safe to say it, we loved the Rangers game. What a way to start off our trip!

Final Score - Texas Rangers 5, Seattle Mariners 7

Now... if you couldn't get through this VERY LONG post, here's a recap...

Early-bird parking: $0
Tickets to the game: $0
Ballpark tour: $0
Rangers merchandise: $0
Making connections for Part Two: $0
Starting our trip in Arlington: priceless