Oh my snap

Rosenblatt Stadium is AMAZING!

E-beth and I got our first taste inside the park today, and we were treated to bonus baseball! I'll take (almost) anything for free. If I pay for nine innings of baseball, and you want to give me 12, I'll take it! Well, we got 12 innings today at Rosenblatt Stadium, watching South Carolina rally from behind TWICE to win 3-2 in 12 innings. The Gamecocks tied the game with a run in the 8th inning, and then scored two in the bottom of the 12th after Oklahoma had taken the lead on a solo home run in the top of the 12th.

Getting inside Rosenblatt made the trip totally worthwhile. It wasn't exactly easy to get to that point, though. We went on Wednesday and experienced all of the hectic hustle and bustle around the stadium, but we didn't actually make it inside because, well honestly, I just didn't want to wait in line.

Today, our plan was to visit a garden/arboretum and the Omaha Zoo before going to the game. However, Elizabeth wasn't feeling well this morning, so those plans changed. Those plans are now Friday's plans. While Elizabeth stayed at the hotel, I drove into Omaha in order to upgrade our general admission tickets to reserved seating. At first, I was upset because the line looked tremendously long from the road, and I was worried about not being able to get tickets. It turned out, howeve, that I only had to wait about an hour in line and had no problem getting tickets.

Our upgraded seats were down the third base line in the outfield. While we were far from the action, it actually turned out to be some of the best seats in the house because of the location of the sun. We were among the first seats to be in the shade, and in fact were in the shade almost the entire game. We arrived in the bottom of the 1st inning, thinking we were attending a College World Series game that would be full of offense and instead were treated to a pitcher's duel. It wasn't until the bottom of the 12th that one of the teams scored more than one run in an inning.

Rosenblatt's views truly are breathtaking, and it's really sad that the stadium that has been home to the College World Series for the past 60 years no longer will exist soon. The stadium will be torn down at the end of the Omaha Royals (Kansas City's AAA affiliate) season and will become part of the Omaha Zoo. The CWS will move into a new, state-of-the-art stadium in downtown Omaha, which is expected to open in time for next year's series.

Our vacation is coming to a close. On Friday, we'll visit the garden and the zoo before going to the second game of the day at Rosenblatt. It should be a long, exhausting day. Then, we have a long drive ahead of us on Saturday, as we will try to make it all the way back to Alexandria (while also finding a place to watch the U.S.-Ghana soccer match somewhere along the way). Honestly, I love vacation, but I'm always ready to get home. And I'm especially ready to see the pups, who have to be thinking by now that mommy and daddy may never come home. But we're coming girls, and we'll see you soon!