If you've read any of the "Travels" category on the site, you know that a couple years ago me and 2 buddies drove from Chicago to the East Coast, hitting up multiple baseball stadiums and hall of fames along the way in our quest to see every baseball stadium in the country. Well we are now headed out to California in a couple weeks to hit up all 5 of the stadiums there in 7 days. It's not going to be easy, but it'll definitely be worth it. We've also lost a member of the group this time to a wedding so it's just me and P headed out there. We have a couple friends out there that we are going to visit and maybe they'll even come to a couple games with us, so it won't just be us in a car together for 7 days straight.
Our schedule is pretty set in stone so this is what we'll be doing. We are flying from Chicago to LAX with a layover in Houston on June 22nd. We'll get into LA around 2:30PM and that night we'll head over to Anaheim to see the Angels play. We'll then spend the entire next day (23rd) hanging out in LA and seeing the town with Burman. On the 24th we'll pack up and start the drive up to Oakland/San Francisco where we'll be seeing the Athletics on the 25th and the Giants on the 26th. After the Giants game on the 26th we're going to start our drive back down towards LA, hopefully making it about 1/2 way. We'll then wake up and drive the rest of the way back to LA in time for the Dodgers game at 7PM on the night of the 27th. On the 28th we'll wake up pretty early and drive down to San Diego to check out the town for the day and then enjoy the Padres game that night. And on the 29th, we'll hang out in San Diego for a little bit before we have to drive back up to LAX in time for our 5:30PM flight out of LAX, direct, back to Chicago.
So it's a little crammed towards the end, but it's better than having a lot of down time in my opinion. When we did the East Coast trip we ended up with a lot of downtime in between games and found ourselves going to movies to kill time.... seems kind of pointless to go all the way out there to see a movie. Plus it was hard enough finding a week where all 5 California teams were playing at home at the same time, so it's hard to be picky. The only drive that's a little annoying is getting back to LA after getting up to San Francisco/Oakland. The way up there isn't bad because we have an entire day to do so, but on the way back we have to be back in LA the next night for a game and I really don't want to be stuck in traffic around LA while trying to get there.
Running List of Stadiums Visited:
Arizona Diamondbacks - Chase Field
Atlanta Braves - Turner Field
Baltimore Orioles - Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Boston Red Sox - Fenway Park
Chicago Cubs - Wrigley Field
Chicago White Sox - Old Comisky / U.S. Cellular Field
Cincinnati Reds - Great American Ballpark
Cleveland Indians - Progressive Field
Colorado Rockies - Coors Field
Detroit Tigers - Comerica Park
Florida Marlins - Sun Life Stadium
Houston Astros - Minute Maid Park
Kansas City Royals - Kauffman Stadium
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Angel Stadium of Anaheim
Los Angeles Dodgers - Dodger Stadium
Milwaukee Brewers - Miller Park
Minnesota Twins - Target Field
New York Mets - Shea Stadium / Citi Field
New York Yankees - Old Yankee Stadium / New Yankee Stadium
Oakland Athletics - Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Philadelphia Phillies - Citizen Bank Park
Pittsburgh Pirates - PNC Park
San Diego Padres - Petco Park
San Francisco Giants - AT&T Park
Seattle Mariners - Safeco Field
St. Louis Cardinals - Busch Stadium
Tampa Bay Rays - Tropicana Field
Texas Rangers - Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
Toronto Blue Jays - Rogers Centre
Washington Nationals - Nationals Park
