After spending the night at Travelodge in San Ysidro which is 13 miles south of San Diego and right by the Mexican border, we checked out after we ate breakfast there on Friday August 16th.
We arranged to meet up with our pal & fellow ballpark chaser,
Steve Fekete aka Padre Punk again. He took off from work that day. He told us to meet him at
Portillo's for an early dinner in Buena Park which is 7 miles north of Anaheim at 4:30PM.
Since we had some rare spare time we drove up part of the Pacific Coast Highway as we made our way towards Anaheim which is 100 miles from where we stayed.
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| Duck & The King at Oceanside Beach |
The King & Duck wanted to go to a beach to dip their feet in the Pacific Ocean. I obliged as we stopped off at Oceanside Beach along the way. We parked the car and we walked over. We took a nice relaxing walk along the beach. The highlight was when the King lost his glasses briefly when a wave came up. It was hilarious watching him try to find them. Luckily he did. Once they were done having their fun, we went back to the car and we went on our way. When we finally got to Buena Park to meet Steve, we had some time to kill. I noticed there was a Walmart in the shopping center. With that being said, we were able to go shopping while we waited for Steve to arrive.
Shortly thereafter, Steve wrote me & he said he was at Portillo's. With that being said, we walked back over there & we joined him. They're known for their hot dogs and beef. They also have chicken & fish sandwiches. I decided to get a fried halibut sandwich which was excellent. I had fries and a shake with it.
After we ate, we drove over to
Angels Stadium to see the Angels play the Houston Astros. We parked the car on the street within walking distance of the ballpark thanks to Steve who knows the area since he lives nearby and he goes there often.
Steve, the King & Duck decided to go ahead towards the ballpark. I stayed by the car because I was waiting for some special people that the King & I initially met back in March 2000 when we saw the Mets play the Cubs in Tokyo, Japan. I'm referring to Dennis & Sue Kelly who were originally from Long Island. They moved to Orange County which is where Anaheim is located just over 30 years ago. Since we've met them, we've taken turns visiting each other over the years.
They showed up shortly after Steve, the King & Duck left so it worked out well. They parked right behind us. We then walked over to the stadium together. I wanted to make sure they didn't get lost along the way. We caught up with Steve, the King & Duck by the home plate gate where the two Angel hats are for those of you who have been to the ballpark there. We proceeded to round up tickets outside. Once we did we all went inside. We arranged to meet upstairs behind home plate where we watched the game together. We were one big happy family if you will.
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| View from Upper deck at Angels Stadium |
As for the game we saw, it turned out to be a long one time wise. It took 3 hours and 48 minutes to play the nine innings. The only good thing about it was that we were able to enjoy each other's company longer. The game was scoreless for the first four innings too. In the top of the fifth inning, the Astros broke through as they scored three runs to take a 3-0 lead. The Angels answered by scoring one to make it 3-1 after five. Both teams added a run in the seventh inning to make it 4-2. The Astros pulled their starter Brad Peacock with one out in the seventh. They called on a pitcher named Josh Zeid who got Angels' center fielder Peter Bourjos to hit into an inning ending double play which stopped the rally the Angels had going with the rally monkey jumping up & down on the scoreboard during the pitching change. The Astros put the game out of reach in the top of the ninth inning when they got a power surge as Chris Carter hit a three run homer which was followed by a solo shot by Matt Dominguez to give the Astros' all the run support they needed as they beat the Angels, 8-2. Since the game went so long we decided to leave despite the fact they were having a post game fireworks show which Dennis & Sue stayed for. We said our goodbyes & thanked them for making the time to join us. It was great to see them again.
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| Steve Fekete, Duck, King, Me, Dennis & Sue Kelly |
Stay tuned for the next installment of the journey as we headed back up to the Bay area.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
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