So, last Friday morning all 7 of us piled into the Suburban (thanks to Adam and Stephanie for some great connections in getting a great deal on the vehicle and loaded with DVD players for the kids) for the 6 hour drive up to Atlanta.
We left around 9:00AM and after 1 stop for food, a little traffic outside of Atlanta, and a stop at the wrong hotel we arrived around 3:00.
A stop at McDonald's to let them play and eat!
The game started at 5:00 so it was definitely a rush rush time at this moment. Throw the bags in the room and quickly change and out the door we went. Adam's brother Brian and his wife Kristin and her brother Dalton also drove up with for the game. The plan was to take the hotel shuttle to the Marta station and then the Marta to Underground Atlanta and transfer on a bus to the field. Adam and Brian have been to lots of games and this is the way they have always gone to the field and it usually only takes about 30 minutes. Well, today was a HUGE exception because we didn't get to the field until about 5:15 so it took over an hour an half. Yeah, lots of laughs about that adventure - and our trip home wasn't much better. LOTS of memories!!
Our (minus Jason and Brody) seats were 3 rows from the top in right field and boy was it high but at least we were there. Jason and Brody were sitting with Daniel, Jessica & Caleb on the 26th row from the Braves dugout - yeah pretty good seats. Thankfully Trevor and Ava sat next to each other and had lots of fun dancing and doing the chop (even though Trevor said he couldn't do it but could only do the chomp). We only had to go down the steep steps twice for the bathroom.
The kids did really good, but I guess the older man in front of us didn't think so because he turned around the first time and asked Adam "if we could reign in our kids" - yeah that didn't sit too well with any of us. The seats aren't really designed for a toddler. When Trevor got up out of the seat, he had a really good chance to tap the man in front of him. Yeah we got a few dirty looks, but seriously they only tapped the man about 5-10 times during the whole game - not too bad I thought. Towards the 7th inning, he actually turned around and told Trevor to stop kicking him. Well, that didn't make me very happy and the next thing I knew Adam was sitting in Trevor's seat waiting for the man to turn around again. Needless to say the man left soon after and never said another word.
Yeah, Jason's seats were a little bit better.
This was Chipper Jones' last game. He went to high school in Jacksonville so we always feel a connection to him.
See we were in the nose bleed seats - but we were there.
Finally in the middle of the 6th inning, the screen went to a video of some pictures of Daniel and then he walked out on the field and waved. It was the coolest things to be a part of. As he walked back up to his seat, he shook the hands of Chipper Jones, Jimmy Carter and the governor of Georgia - WOW!! I don't normally do well emotionally when these type of military things come up so I was quite teary eyed after this.
Shaking the governor's hand and Jimmy Carter is in the background with the Braves hat on.
The Braves ended up losing the game but the most exciting part was during the 8th inning, a terrible call was made and before we knew it fans were throwing all kinds of stuff on the field and wouldn't stop. The officials threatened to call game if it continued, so after about 15 minutes it finally stopped.
A few pictures of us afterwards - coming down a little closer to the field.
Silly cousins
All of us after a long day!!
So after the game we headed on a long trip back to the hotel - a Metro tram with 2 down engines so very slow and then it seemed like everyone from the airport was headed to our hotel because we had to wait because the first bus was full!! We were finally able to eat dinner at the hotel around 11:30 - needless to say 2 of the kids passed out in the restaurant.
It was a fun and very eventful first day of our adventure.
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