Baseball Birthday

For my birthday yesterday, McKay took me to an Astros game. He had earned two free tickets as part of the library's summer reading program. There was a choice of about four different games that he could get his tickets for and one happened to be on my birthday. So he decided to get those tickets and take me (instead of Dad, who usually goes with him to the games).

We had to hurry and have birthday cake right after our early dinner (Brian brought me the roses):

Then McKay and I were off to the ball park (he wanted me to wear an Astros cap too, but I don't really like baseball hats, so I declined). :-)

I have been to a couple of games this season but haven't been the one driving, so I was a little unsure about finding our "usual" parking spot. I ended up missing the turn and headed the wrong direction (i.e. away from the stadium). The ball park is right in downtown where there are lots of one-way streets which I am very unfamiliar with. So we drove around for a little while and were starting to get pretty nervous about the parking situation, when we found a little lot not extremely far away that had a spot left (and it was one of the cheaper lots too). Leaving this little lot afterward turned out to be a little tricky because it was SO tight to maneuver the van in, but with McKay hopping out briefly to check to make sure I wasn't going to hit one of the parked cars, we were able to squeeze back out. (They really pack the cars in those lots!)

On our way into the stadium, McKay stopped briefly for a picture on the "dug-out bench":

And here's our self-portrait taken from our seats way up high on the 3rd base line:

And finally, a picture of the ball park, with the roof closed:

The Astros were playing the Chicago Cubs and it was pretty crowded. McKay got tired early, so we stayed until the end of the 6th inning (although he was ready to leave before then) and saw the Astros score 7 runs (including 3 home runs), so that was exciting. The final score was 8-2. We have two tickets to one more game this season (the last regular-season home game vs. Atlanta), but I imagine it will be Dad & McKay who go to that game.

Thanks, McKay, for a great birthday present and spending the evening with me!