This takes place after parts one and two – if you haven’tread those parts yet, I highly encourage you do so as this post is more of a continuation than anything else.
It was time then to move on. The game had not started, and we still had things to do. No, seriously. There’s a reason we get to the ball game early. I plan for enough time to relax, not rush to our seats, and allow the kids to go to the playground area before the game starts. Sometimes it is also nice to be able to just wander around and check things out.
On our way to the playground we passed by the Moose Den, the small area where the Mariners Moose mascot holds court to meet young fans. I had planned on taking the kids out during the 6th inning or so to meet the Moose, but they wanted to stop while he was there and the line wasn’t long. So we stopped on our way to the playground and the kids got their picture taken with the Mariners mascot.
After getting a picture with the Moose, and several minutes on the playground, we headed to our seat. This was after a detour to pick up some cotton candy. The three kids each asked for some, and I figured if I got them each their own, it might actually keep them occupied for an inning. I was right. We missed the opening pitch, partly because we were in line to get Déla a Mariners hat, which I had neglected to do for her on our previous trip, but we hadn’t missed much when we did finally get to sit down.
Over the course of the game we got up a few times, usually to go to the bathroom followed by purchasing a treat to share. The grand total was one bag of Kettle Corn (half of which we still have in the pantry) 3 things of cotton candy, 1 large lemonade, 1 massive soda in a souvenir cup, and 2 orders of garlic fries. Oh, I could go on about how awesome the garlic fries are. The next day my wife complained about how the house smelled of garlic. August and I just looked at each other and smiled.
Our seats were pretty good, over in right field on the 100 level, almost close enough to reach out and touch Ichiro. Our line of sight wasn’t so great for the person at bat, having a better vantage point at our last game, but here we were much closer to the field, which was exciting.
Ciárán was ready to go home as soon as we sat in our seats during the first inning. Literally. He asked if we could go home, informing me he was done. Apparently some of the songs were too loud. I asked him to give the game a chance and we would go home if we needed to the next inning. He agreed, and we wound up staying for the whole game. He enjoyed himself, and now he likes baseball. Well, the idea of baseball anyway. He’s only 4 and doesn’t understand the rules.
What is so bothersome to me is that we forgot Flat Stanley. Initially I was going to send my son’s second grade project to Goon Squad Sarah (she who has twins terrorizing the Washington D.C. area) but decided to delay sending it so as to be able to take Stanley to the baseball game. Unfortunately, we left him at home. Mostly this was me rushing out the door to make sure I could get decent (free) parking. And so we don’t have a picture of August’s Flat Stanley at the baseball stadium.
It was a successful outing, where my fears of losing one of my kids in the crowd (no, really, I was very worried about this) didn’t come true. The three kids had fun, I had fun, and I look forward to doing the same thing again next year.