Classic Trip: Tucson, Arizona 2011 - Part 2

After spending a day in Tombstone it’s time to see Tucson proper.  The weather that had been threatening finally called in its debt and rain started coming down as we got back into the city.

Seems that’s how it goes for us, plan on a sunny getaway and we’ll get cold and rain.  Plan a trip to the snow and we’ll get a heat wave.

Watch the Video!

In the morning, we have a nice breakfast at the hotel…seriously, they have a great hot breakfast buffet…and make our way to downtown Tucson to see what we can find.  It is downright cold this morning.

Pulling into downtown, flakes start to fall.  That’s right…it is now snowing in downtown Tucson.  In the desert.  In Southern Arizona.  Just a few miles north of the border.  Where lawns don’t exist but Saguaro cacti do.

It looks like our bathing suits are just going to take up space in the luggage for this trip.

We find a spot to park on Congress Street on the east side of the city center.  It’s cold and snowy so we duck into the lobby of the beautifully restored Hotel Congress to get all our jackets, mittens, and hats on.  

The manager comes up to us.  He just wants to point out the accessible routes to all the areas of the lobby and invites us to come in and take as much time as we want to get warm.

That’s how hospitality is done, folks.

It is indeed an inviting place to sit for awhile, have a cup of coffee, and warm up in the tile walled room.

Out back, we cross the street to the old, restored Tucson train station.  Here you’ll find Maynard’s Restaurant and Maynard’s market.  We wander the aisles of the small store where you’ll find an upscale selection of food, wine, and beer plus some reasonably priced sandwiches and other prepared food to go.

Letty and I get a cup of weak coffee and it’s back out into the cold, cruel world.

Back on Congress Street, we stop at the Chicago Store.  It’s a large music store with just about any instrument you’d want to find.  It’s also like a musical pawn shop where local musicians can sell their instruments and budding musicians can buy them.  I get just a couple of items that I needed for our audio studio back home.

We continue to walk around in the light snow flurry but, although there seems to be a big surge towards restoration of the area, it’s still got a ways to go to be lively.

Back in the van, we head up First Avenue for lunch.  Today, it’s at BK Tacos.  You might have seen this place on the Food Network or the Travel Channel.  The specialty here is the Sonoran hot dog.  This starts with a bacon wrapped hot dog…a truly evil and delicious combination…and then piles on beans and salsa.  Most people also load up on the shredded cheese from the condiment bar.  It’s known as a chili dog on steroids…a pretty apt description.

The dogs are very good.  I also have a couple of their good al pastor tacos along with some creamy guacamole and hot sauce from the condiment bar.  It’s good enough to order seconds.

Tonight we’re going out on the town.  Specifically to a show at the restored Fox Theater on Congress Street back in downtown. 

When I was researching this trip, I saw that country singer Mark Chesnutt was going to be in town so we stopped in and bought tickets on arrival.  The wheelchair seating is in two boxes on either the left or right side of the orchestra and only 8 rows back from the stage.  Their actually very good seats.

At show time, the place is only about a third full so it was far from a sellout.  The first act, Mark Connors…a local singer, was not great.  The headlining Mark, Mr. Chesnutt, was great and...if you’ll pardon my French for a second...kicked ass.

The partially filled auditorium made up for the lack of bodies with the full-throated cheers and screams at Mr. Chesnutt’s act.  Security was tight, though, no pictures other that what we could grab with our phone or download a public domain copy could be had, so I apologize for the lack of photos.

The next day we wind down a bit, go shopping at some of Tucson’s many pawn and thrift shops, and spend the evening reminiscing at the hotel’s happy hour before settling in for one more night. 

We need to be well rested for that all day drive back to L.A.

Darryl

Copyright 2011

All Rights Reserved.

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

This week's post visits the home of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado.

The Rockies started play in 1993 as an expansion team, along with the Florida Marlins.  Their inaugural season, and the following year, was played at Mile High Stadium which they shared with the NFL's Broncos.  The new stadium was ready for business in 1995. 

Since then, the Rockies have made it into the postseason three times in 1995, 2009, and when they made it into the World Series only to lose to the Red Sox in 2007.  The big stars on the 2011 team are shortstop and former Dirtbag Troy Tulowitski, first baseman Todd Helton, outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, and third baseman Ty Wiggington.

In June of 2012, they're only ahead of the San Diego Padres in the western division of the National League.

Here are the stats:

Year opened: 1995

Surface: Grass

Construction cost: $300 million

Capacity:  50,445

Field dimensions: Left field – 347 ft.; left center – 390 ft.; Center field – 415 ft.; right center – 375 ft.;  Right field – 350 ft.

Home team: Colorado Rockies (National League, MLB) 1995 –present

Events attended: one game

Coors Field, sitting a mile up in elevation, is known as a home run park because the balls travel farther through the thin air.  The walls are some of the deepest in MLB, with a center field distance of 415 feet.  Still, many balls find their way into the outfield stands.

A few rows from the top of the upper deck, there is one row of seats painted in the team's purple color. This marks the point where it is actually a mile above sea level.

Many dinosaur fossils were unearthed during construction.  To honor this fact, the team's mascot is a dinosaur named Dinger.

The stadium's signature food is Rocky Mountain Oysters, deep fried bison testacles.  We tried it...I guess you have to when you're here...and they tasted like a very bland potato wedge.  Hardly any taste at all.  The hot dogs were good, long, and narrow.  The beer selection is good and tends to favor the brands made by the park's namesake, Coors.

Coors also runs the in-stadium microbrewery where the brand Blue Moon was invented.

Accessible seating abounds, starting with the season ticket seats in the front row behind home plate and running up through every level even into the upper deck and the outfield cheap bleachers.  We sat at the top of the field level, almost directly behind the on deck circle.  The view was excellent but was just slightly marred by the overhang of the second deck with cut off our view of the very top of the scoreboard.  We were able to see all of the game action, however.

Tickets were no problem at all and Denver has plenty of companion seats to go with the wheelchair seating.  Ticket prices run from a low of $4 to $85.  Our seats were $55 each for the non-premium game against San Diego that we attended. Just call (800) 388-7625 to order tickets.

Transit is OK...light rail and bus service serve the area but the closest rail station is about a quarter mile walk away.  When the current construction is finished, it will still be a three-block walk to the stadium.  The light rail has a low capacity for wheelchairs on the trains.  There are plenty of parking lots in the stadium area.

It's a good stadium, not great, but better than all west coast stadiums with the exception of San Francisco. Coors Field sits behind St. Louis but ahead of Cleveland on our list. 

- Darryl

Copyright 2011 - Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Hot Dog Taste Off

It's not all drinking, all the time. You need some food to go with those drinks now and again.

One of the best examples of pub food is the humble tube steak known as the hot dog.  Tim and I are somewhat of hot dog snobs, for instance we need to taste a hot dog at each stadium we go to (Yankee stadium? Great. Dodger Dogs? Suck).

Watch the Video!

Recently, Burger King introduced hot dogs to their menu and we wanted to try them and compare them with the offerings at our more well established hot dog chain, Weinerschnitzel.

Burger King's version is all beef. Weinerschitzel's classic dogs are not but they do offer an upgrade to an  all beef sausage for an extra dollar. This makes both dogs the same price, $2.49 in our area.

One is an obviously better tasting dog.  You can see which one in our video above.

Cheers!

Darryl

FIELDS OF DREAMS - PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

alpineinc under CC-BY license

And now we have it...the best stadium in Major League baseball. An absolute beauty in every way, although they could have a better team. Admittedly, this could change as we still have seven stadiums left to visit but ,as it stands, this is number one...

PNC Park is the home of Pittsburgh’s Pirates of the National League. It is located across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh. It's one of baseballs newest and smallest stadiums with the ability to seat just over 38,000 fans...the second smallest in the majors. It only has two decks and wheelchair seating is sprinkled throughout the stadium. You could have just about any kind of accessible seat you want, the view is spectacular from anywhere in the stadium, including the front row.


The only bad thing about the stadium is that the Pirates are an historically terrible team,  but that's all changed this year as they are pretty much unstoppable and are in first place by 2.5 games, tied with St. Louis close to the end of the season behind the phenomenal play of Andrew McCutchen. The team also has some great history. This was the team that brought us the great, late Roberto Clemente. It’s one of the oldest franchises in baseball, dating back to 1887. They played in the first World Series and another one in 1909 behind the pitching of Honus Wagner. Other Hall of Famers to play here include Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, and Ralph Kiner. Besides 1909, the Pirates took the World Series in 1925, 1960, 1971, and 1979.

Maybe, just maybe, this might be their year.


Here are the stats:


Year opened: 2001
Surface: Grass
Construction cost: $216 million
Capacity: 38,496
Field dimensions: Left field – 325 ft.; left center – 410 ft.; Center field – 399 ft.; right center – 375 ft.; Right field – 320 ft.
Home team: Pittsburgh Pirates (MLB National League) 2001 – present
Events attended: One game


The first thing anyone notices at PNC Park is the view. The most spectacular of any stadium I’ve ever seen. The park is situated to take in the view of Pittsburgh’s skyline over the Allegheny River with the bright yellow Roberto Clement Bridge thrown in for contrast. It takes your breath away when you see it in person.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Donball09 under CC-BY license

Taking your eyes off of the view, you then notice the cozy feel of the park. Only two decks with the suites all but hidden. It’s one of the smallest parks in the majors and the placement of the press box on top of the stadium makes even the nose bleed seats seem close to the action.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Adam Stone under CC-BY-SA license

Next comes the food. The famous (or infamous) Primanti Sandwich is served here along with 15 inch kosher dogs and Italian sausages festooned with peppers and onions. The stadium used to have an Outback restaurant that anyone could access. Then access was restricted to premium ticket holders, now it’s the Hall of Fame Club where all ticket holders can go on game days and the general public can go to the rest of the time.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Banco under CC-BY licens

Another couple of cool features are the circular rotunda ramps that eliminate the need for huge ramps to mar the outside of stadium and the out of town scoreboard that not only shows you the score, what inning (top or bottom) but also a diagram of the diamond to see how many men are on base and where they're standing.


There are plenty of parking lots next to the stadium and public transit can get you close. Pittsburgh’s downtown subway will drop you off at one end of Roberto Clemente Bridge, you can walk or roll the rest of the way over it (the bridge is closed to traffic at game times). Buses go right to the stadium.


Tickets are easy to come by and range from $7 in the bleachers to $255 behind home plate in the Lexus club. Wheelchairs can sit in the front row along the left field foul line for $35-40 (depending on who they're playing).  Dynamic pricing is the name of the game for grandstand and bleacher seating.


If you’re in the Iron City, be sure to stop by and take in a game in baseball’s best stadium.



Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
Updated for 2013

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Citizen’s Bank Park is the home of the Philadelphia Phillies and replaces the now demolished Veteran’s Stadium, which they shared with the Eagles football team.  It sits south of downtown in the Sports Complex along with Lincoln Financial Field (football) and the Wells Fargo Center (hockey and basketball).

The Phillies have a long history.  The team has been here, in this incarnation, since 1883.  The name is short for the “Philadelphians.”  The team has had highs and lows.  It won the World Series in 1980 and 2008, most recently against the Joe Maddon led Tampa Bay Rays.   The team also holds the record for the most games lost by any MLB team.  Many baseball legends have played here; Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Casey Stengel, Sparky Anderson, Joe Morgan, and Ryne Sandberg are among the big names that have graced the rosters.  In 2012, you can watch such star players at Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Chase Utley and Cliff Lee play.

Right now, in August of 2013, the Phillies are in third place but it's a low third place, 15.5 games behind the Nationals and the Braves in the Nationals League's eastern division.

Here are the stats…

Year opened: 2004

Surface: Kentucky Blue Grass

Construction cost: $458 million

Capacity:  46,528

Field dimensions: Left field – 329 ft.; left center – 374 ft.; left center “angle” – 409 ft.; Center field – 401 ft.; right center – 369 ft.;  Right field – 330 ft.

Home teams: Philadelphia Phillies (National League, MLB) 2004 –present

Events attended: one game

Citzen’s Bank Park seems like a large stadium when you’re inside, a feature it shares with parks such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, and San Francisco.   This is not an intimate feeling stadium, yet the staff and fans are very welcoming and become temporary friends for a few hours.  It’s a hitter-friendly park, too, second only to Yankee Stadium for the number of home runs given up.

The seating bowl features three larger decks and a small level of suites.  It can get pretty hot here in the summer, so most fans like to sit in the upper reaches of the decks to take advantage of the shade…you’ll see a lot of people from the lower parts of the decks head to the open concourse on a hot day.

Seating in the outfield has several levels, from cheap bleacher seats to a private party deck filled with inflatable pools.  Ticket prices run from $14 to $80.  Decent prices for a lot of the seats but lacking in the truly “cheap seats.”  Call (215-463-1000) for accessible seating.

Handicapped seating is bountiful and spread throughout all levels.  No problems with buying extra companion seats. 

The stadium is well served by accessible subway and bus transit.  It is also surrounded by vast fields of parking lot.

Food is mainly regular ballpark fare with hot dogs, pizza and the like but it is high quality and tasty.  A few different foods are available, such as the Schmitter…a cheese steak with salami, tomatoes, special sauce, all on a Kaiser roll.  Pre-packaged vegan fare and sushi are available at the South Philadelphia Market convenience store locations scattered around the park.

There is a large selection of draft beers available at average ballpark prices.

The game experience is very good here.  The views are excellent with no obstructions.  Staff is very friendly and helpful.  It is also one of the few stadiums that do not allow fans to return to their seats during game play…you must wait for a dead ball to go back.  For wheelchair users, they enforce the clear area around the wheelchair seats so people don’t use your personal space as a “standing room only” zone like they do at many parks.

The local fans are also very friendly and are happy to talk baseball, the Phillies, your home team, and your trip. 

What is great about this stadium is decent food, great beer selection, friendly people, good views, and an exciting team to watch.  What could be better?  A more intimate feel, lower ticket prices in the nosebleeds and bleachers, and be closer to downtown.

All-in-all, a great stadium that leads the rest of the pack under our top three modern era stadiums.  .

Darryl

Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick

Road Food - New York

Since we're recapping our first trip to New York this week, let's talk about our favorite places to eat there.  As with many destinations, it's the cheap, street food and snack bars we remember most.

Although our report this week mentions Nathan's in Coney Island...makers of very good hot dogs...on subsequent trips we found we liked Gray's Papaya even more.  I don't know how much they cost now but our trips to Gray's featured the Recession Special.  Two delicious, natural casing hot dogs...with mustard and sauerkraut...and a cup of their papaya juice for only $1.98.  Several locations in Manhattan, we went to the shop at 78th  72nd and Broadway, which is across from an accessible subway station.

Our first trip there, I had to cut off my wife and Tim after a couple of dogs (they wanted a few more) because we had reservations at Tavern on the Green and I didn't want to ruin our appetite.  The Tavern was good, very good in fact, but later my wife said she'd have been just as happy to gorge on the dogs and forego that experience.

Since we're talking about Tavern on the Green, you should know that this landmark closed its doors on New Year's Eve.

Another delicious and cheap option are bagels.  We found Tal Bagels at 979 1st Avenue to fit the bill perfectly.  A great variety of bagels, fresh from the kitchen, with a plethora of toppings for just a buck or two.  They also have a lot of other baked goods and fresh coffee.  A large dining room offers a place to relax, enjoy your food, and take in the scene.  One thing though, know what you want before you go to order.  The staff are very busy and very impatient.

Up a couple of notches in ambience and price is Sam's Place, just off of Times Square at 132 E. 39th Street.  Nominally an Italian kitchen, I like Sam's for the most delicious pork chops I've ever had.  Served with a glaze of carmelized onions and mashed potatoes, it's the best, sit down food I've had in Manhattan.

-Darryl
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons
hu:User:Totya under CC-SA license