Houston Part 2-Minute Maid Park

Now for the real reason we made the trip to Houston!  Checking off stadium numero 7!  If you want a refresher on the beginning of our trip, click here.  Our 2nd day in Houston was devoted to baseball and baseball only!  We started our day with a light lunch of fruit, yogurt, pastries and coffee (milk for Logan) at the hotel's coffee shop.  Our hotel was thisclose to Minute Maid Park.  (really!! It was only 2 blocks away!).  We put Logan in his stroller (with his bunny in hand) and headed off for a morning tour of Minute Maid Park. 

Let me tell you, I did not have high hopes for Minute Maid Park.  It is about as boring as boring gets on the outside.  You have to be right in front of it, to even see a sign that tells you the building is Minute Maid Park.

Yep-that's all the signage there was...

This is the view of the outside (might I note-from our hotel's window)  I told you we were thisclose)

I should not have judged the book by its cover because once inside, this place was pretty awesome.  Probably still not at the top of my list of favorites, but not at the bottom.  So the cool thing is that the stadium is actually build into an old railroad station.  Once entrance to the stadium is actually the old train depot.  It has been restored and is gorgeous.  We must not have taken a pic of this for some reason though. 

This is the original train depot building that is connected to the stadium

Now, I'm going to give you a quick tour of the stadium in pictures.

The stadium took many of its features from other old baseball stadium architecture (such as the Citgo sign (Fenway) and the flagpole in the field (Yankee), etc.



Tal's Hill



Logan was upset about something here...We were touring the EXPENSIVE suites (you wouldn't believe how much they charge for these things!! No wonder they never fill them...)

The "Choo choo"  It runs across the track (by an actual train engineer at the beginning of every game, when a home run is hit, and if the Astro's win the game)

View from up high

Jeff standing on the field

Family photo at Minute Maid Park

Logan practicing walking out of the dugout for his future baseball career... (yes Mr. Otter does have a Cardinal hat and Pujols jersey on!)

Logan had no interest in looking at the camera...

Closer view of Tal's Hill

The gas pump that keeps track of Home Runs hit in the stadium

Logan standing in the visitor's bullpen

Logan was keeping this girl entertained with his stories!

Leaving the tour

We left the tour and headed home for lunch, but on the way we saw this

"What in the world?!?"

Upon closer inspection, we realized it was foam machines with a whole bunch of toddlers playing in the foam!  We had happened upon Toddler Tuesday at the park across from our hotel!

Logan was in heaven!

"Do you see this?!?!"

"Where's Logan?"

"Here he is!"

Logan lost it when we it was over.  He was screaming "Bub-bles!  Bub-bles!" and crying hysterically as we carried him back to the hotel!!

We went back to the hotel for lunch and naptime, then it was off to the baseball game.

Logan in his Pujols jersey

Logan loved the Mickey statue

Go Cards!!

I'm excited for this game!!

The view from our seats.  (We had awesome seats!)

The Choo choo going across the tracks.  I had to yell at the cotton candy man to move his behind so Logan could see it at the beginning of the game!!

If you look REALLY close, you'll see former President Bush and his wife Barbara front row, center field.  This picture really doesn't do it justice.  We were just a few rows back and diagonal from them.  Kinda neat!

 Unfortunately, the Cards lost.  Logan was most definitely the happiest Cardinal fan in the stadium because he got to see the Choo choo go across the tracks 3 times!!!!  (One at the beginning of the game, one when they hit a home run, and then at the end of the game when they won)  Logan was such a good little boy at the game.  I only had to take him up to walk around for 2 innings and he sat and enjoyed the game the rest of the time!