Day 6: Los Angeles Union Station

This morning we headed to Los Angeles Union Station to try and see the Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour. It turned out to be a waste of time, as when we got there the wait in line was four hours long. There was no way we could wait to see it and make it to the game tonight on time, so instead we just came back to the hotel. Mik and I are spending the time until the game watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Hopefully we can catch the Train Tour thing on June 12 in Denver.

Kj's Baseball Collection: Disneyland 2009

Yesterday at Disneyland I found a Disneyland 2009 design baseball that I decided to get for my collection. It is a colorful design with a 2009 Disney characters logo and a strip of holographic blue that says Disneyland.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: Disneyland

Mik loves the chocolate croissants at the bakery on Main Street, so that was our first stop at Disneyland yesterday. Dad and I also got good parfait there that even had banana slices in them.

For lunch Mik had a hot dog from Pluto's Dog House in Toontown. Nothing all that special, but he did say it was better than a Dodger Dog.



Mik had a pretzel dog from Wetzel's Pretzels in Downtown Disney for dinner. They are the ultimate hot dog in his opinion because of the pretzel bun.

Accessibility Review: Dodger Stadium

At Dodger Stadium we sat in section 162. The parking was very conveniently located right outside the entrance to the stadium and section 162 was straight ahead from the entrance, so in that respect it was convenient. However, for game enjoyability the seats were not that great. First off you have the concrete of the sections above in the line of sight, which I am not used to because we usually sit in the highest section, but they do not seem to have handicap seats in those sections at Dodger Stadium. Secondly the seats are not raised above the section below like at the other ballparks we have been to so far, so the people in front easily block the view, which is really sad for those in wheelchairs because they cannot just stand up to look over the people. This became an even bigger problem when the game went into extra innings and everyone was standing up to see the game. Lastly we could not see the scoreboard, but that is mostly just a function of the particular section.

Now those are just minimal things that potentially you deal with in regular seats, too, and I could deal with the seats if that was it, but it was not the only problems. One of the major things Mik pointed out as discriminatory was that the handicap seats have no cup holders. Sure some ballparks do not have cup holders in any of the seats, but here they do except for those in the handicap row (see below for seats in front of us that had them and then the seats right in front of us have none). The other issue is the area we sat in is basically treated like a standing room area. It is totally annoying to have people crowded all around you as if standing to view a parade or something.



Basically it was a horrible seating experience, especially since we paid more for these tickets than the great All You Can Eat ones at the Padres. If they had been cheap section tickets I can see dealing with it also being a standing room area, but these were not the cheap seats at all. I do not think they were officially standing room, but the fans treated it that way and there were no ushers anywhere near by to shoo them away.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: Dodger Stadium

Since we could not locate what at least used to be the trademark food at Dodger Stadium according to the 2004 guidebook Mik just settled for a Dodger Dog. It turned out to not be that good and while it looks long and big it really is just a thin stretched out hot dog.

After his hot dog he enjoyed the fried in a helmet. The mini helmet the fries are in is about twice as big as the ice cream ones. He declared the fries delicious and since they were unique in being the first time we have seen them in a helmet it is the trademark food as far as he is concerned. At first he was not going to share, but there were a lot and they were filling, so I got to finish them up and I agree they were good fries.

Mik did not have the parfait, but it seemed worth mentioning in the food review post for Dodger Stadium because it is not often you see this kind of thing at ballparks and it was not like it was a simple small one like McDonalds does. This one had strawberries, granola that included sunflower seeds and other stuff, and dried cranberries. It was overall really good, but with all the stuff in it it really could have used more yogurt, as in the end there really was not much yogurt around the strawberries on the bottom.

Smashed Pennies: Dodger Stadium

At the Dodger game I sent Dad in search of the Smashed Penny machines since they were on the level above our seating. The one I had wanted was the Dodger Stadium one, but the machine with that one was out of order. At least the other machine was working and Mik and I each have a Dodger smashed penny. Mik chose the one that says LA Established 1958 leaving the Dodger shooting baseball logo one for me.

Smashed Pennies: San Diego Automotive Museum and San Diego Model Railroad Museum

Our first smashed pennies of the trip we got back on Friday at the San Diego Automotive Museum and San Diego Model Railroad Museum. At the San Diego Automotive Museum I got one with an image of a 32 Ford and Mik chose the design with the 2006 Lamborghini.



While we technically did not go to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum we did spot the machine when we went to lunch in the cafe above that museum. There I got one with the a Model Railroad Museum logo and Mik got one with a conductor image.