For Ben's 30th Birthday, we went to a Cardinals game in St. Louis with his parents, brothers, and their wives. It was also Cecilia's first time in Busch stadium. We left for Missouri after my class on Friday and got to Cape Girardeau in the evening. That night, Ben went on a ride-along with his brother Nick who is a Cape Girardeau police officer. He saw the evening shift of a police officer first hand, and had many interesting stories about the people he saw. Evidently, there were a lot of intoxicated people Nick had to deal with and he used the siren a few times, which was a real thrill.
Saturday, the family drove up to STL for the big game. We stayed in the Crowne Plaza downtown, which was very nice. By the time we got into St. Louis and checked into the hotel, it was already after 3. We wanted to get to the park when it opened, so we walked to the stadium right away. There was a 20 minute or so wait to get in and then we ate in the park. Park food is not very nutrative, so everyone was still very hungry after the game - and a little sick feeling. So, we needed real food afterwards.
It was picture day, so people came out on the field and the players walked around to give people photo ops. We were going to do that, but it was really just waiting in another long line and none of us - Cecilia included - felt like doing that. I did walk down a few rows and get some pictures. The players weren't supposed to take pictures WITH fans, but Pujols started pulling people out of the crowd to take pictures with them. An announcer asked him about it and he said, "Why not? It's picture day!" in that cute accent of his. You could tell he was a real leader on the team, because one he started taking some pictures with fans everyone else did, too. We also got a picture of Molina with his arm around Pujols. See the sidebar for a link to all the pictures.
It was a great game and we got to see Holliday hit a HR. The Cards beat the Nationals 9 to 4, and Ben kept a scorecard of the game so that I could look that up :). We really love keeping stats at a game, it must be the engineer in us.
After the game we went back to the hotel room and Ben got his birthday cake. It was chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Becky baked the cake and I frosted and decorated it while Ben was on his ride-along with Nick the night before. It said "Happy 30th Birthday Ben" and my attempt at a STL cardinal. It also had 30 trick candles. Ben blew most of them out and then put out he rest with his fingers. We ordered a meal from Maurizio's Cafe Cecilia went to bed before midnight. The poor thing was all worn out. The boys stayed up late and then we all slept well.
Sunday we went to Union Station and did some shopping and had a meal. Ben got a STL decal for the car and I go some fudge. After that last bit of time for the family, we loaded up for the trek home. Cecilia was tired of driving and being away from home, so the trip wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. We all slept well when we got home. What a weekend!
See the link on the sidebar for pictures.
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