(W)rite on Cue(Q): Vacation

We will be heading out to California on a Family Vacation at the end of this week. We have been planning this Trip for several years - but we were waiting for our kids to be the right age to really enjoy it and get the most out of it. (We did the same with a Disney Vacation in '08 - and our kids were the perfect age for that one!)

One of the major events we have planned for our Trip is that we will be attending a MLB Ballgame in ALL FIVE of the California Baseball Park/Stadiums!!

I have been a Baseball Nut all my life! My favorite Team will always be The Chicago Cubs - being a Cubbie Fan has been a part of my active consciousness since age 3 - but my love for the Game of Baseball is actually even deeper still. I truly love Baseball. All the trials that the sport has gone through the past several years - the steroid era, the wack-o salaries, players in court - have been difficult to stomach -- but I am an Innocent Baseball Purist at heart. I love everything that is a part of going to and watching a MLB Game.

Living for awhile in NW Indiana, I went to several Cubs and White Sox games as a boy. Needless to say Wrigley Field and old Comiskey Park were classic and beautiful ballparks - and they made a tremendously positive impression on me! They truly were "magic" places... Even now as an adult, every time I get the chance to go to a MLB Game I get butterflies of excitement, anticipation and wonder...

Beginning in '99 (when my son Josh was about 5), a few friends and I decided to drive out East to go visit a few Classic Ballparks. We road-tripped in a bumpy van to catch games in Detroit, NY and Boston - and then drove back. We LOVED IT!! So it became a "tradition" over the next several years to see if we could carve out some Summer Time to go "knock down" a few more Stadiums. We made a couple of other trips out East, the Mid-West and down South to keep making a dent in our List.

Unfortunately, we have not taken a group trip for some time now - but I have personally tried to keep up The Quest. I have been fortunate enough to be able to catch several Games on vacations, conferences and other misc trips. My family has been VERY supportive of this Quest. I am SO thankful that they have enjoyed going to games along with their "Baseball-Nut" Dad...

So, after our vacation out to CA there will be only 3 MLB PARKS I have not been to: the 2 in PA and 1 in DC! Almost there!! Hopefully next Summer we can go on one final Road Trip...

I have compiled here a List of ALL the MLB Parks and Stadiums I have been to. Since The Quest began, there have been a few re-modeled or new Parks re-built in cities we have already visited. I DO want to go back to those - but for now I am counting them as "already visited".

Each Team Name / Ball Park below is a LINK you can click on to get more information. When we get back, I can put all the CA Stadiums in the "Been There, Done That" category! Oh yeah...

PLAY BALL...!!!