Accessibility Review: AT&T Park

Parking at AT&T Park was really annoying since we arrived about four hours before the game. The parking lot did not have anything blocking you from going in, but also had no one taking money. We found the handicap parking, but were not sure what to do because it was suposedly a permitted parking lot along with being the lot for handicap parking and across the waterway from the park. We ended up getting a parking pass off of a scalper that instantly hounded us when we pulled up. It ended up working out and we saved $4, but I would not trust it under normal circumstances and would have felt better if we had been giving our money to those actually in charge of the parking lot.

Parking might have been annoying, but the actual park experience was quite the opposite. While waiting in line for the park to open one of the Giants staff actually pulled us out of the normal line and showed us over to line up by the gate that opens for wheelchairs to avoid the turnstile entrances. We entered through the O'Doul Gate, which has steps right after you enter, but to the left there is an elevator. We then headed to the bleacher section that our tickets were in to find that we had to go back down to our seats.

A very helpful usher not only told us how to go down to our seats, but actually escorted us the whole way to them. The handicap seats in the bleachers at the Giants turned out to be in front of the bleacher section right against the outfield wall compared to up at the top of the bleacher section like at the Oakland Coliseum. Dad and I thought these seats were awesome and a nice barrier free view of the park. Mik did not exactly like them, though, because it was very much so in a spot a home run ball could possibly come right at you and he was nervous about getting hit by a ball, although really the outfielder would probably have caught any ball that came right at us and any home run ball would have probably gone over his head.

At the end of the game we exited the park on the level we sat on, as the right field gate was on that level. We then just walked along the boardwalk on the outside of the park to get back to the bridge and the across to the car avoiding the whole going up and down the elevators route we had taken to get to our seats.

Game 7: Baltimore Orioles 1 @ Seattle Mariners 0

Tonight's game was quite quick with a game time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Our seats were decent, although up high at the top of the bleachers in section 194. Not much to say about the game as not much action with only one run by the Orioles (Dad and I were rooting for the home team since we are not American League fans besides me liking the Angels).

The only kind of interesting thing was the Orioles #10 breaking his bat three times. He broke a bat in each of his first three at bats and only did not break one in his fourth and final at bat. I have never seen more than one broken bat in a game much less one guy break three separate bats in one game. What a waste if you ask me.

Might not sound like it was exciting, but it was still an enjoyable game. Mik was well behaved even though the sun made it impossible to play his MLB PSP game. He actually even watched some of the game and he was happy as he was the one rooting for the Orioles.

We are now on the way back to the campground. Tomorrow we plan to get up at 5am to pack up the tent and hit the road by 6am. Staying at campground in Bismark tomorrow.

P.S. Mik said I need to post he got new cargo pants yesterday (not sure if I mentioned in yesterday's shopping post or not) and he wanted Mom to know. He wore then today and they are comfy. He was having a pants problem because Dad only packed him jeans and they were both itchy uncomfy pairs. He has some sweats, but with the cold weather games and him being an Arizona boy he needed another pair of pants so we were not constantly doing laundry.

Sent from my iPhone

Kj's Baseball Collection: Orange Giants

The souvenir baseball selection at the Giants was not bad, but it is getting discouraging that yet again I could not find one recognizing the stadium. I ended up choosing the orange one because it says San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball Since 1958. It does have kind of an flowery pattern that is not my style, but it being orange makes up for that undesirable part.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Orange Giants

The Giants had a pretty good selection of mini bat colors and I think also two different logo designs to choose from. Mik went with the orange colored bat since he does not have one of that color in his collection at all. The logo part says Giants and also has the SF logo on it.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: AT&T Park

After having the garlic fries at Oakland and not liking them, Mik decided not to try them at San Francisco where they are labeled the ballpark's trademark food. Instead he just had a hot dog, which he thought was better than the supposed best ones in the majors (Oakland's), but I still think he rates the Padres ones the best.



Only other food he had at the game was a pretzel he shared with me. Now the pretzel itself was pretty good taste wise, however, it was disappointing size wise. They call it a jumbo pretzel and when we sent Dad to get one for us to share we certainly expected something bigger and ended up with a small one barely bigger than the measly ones that come in the freezer section at the grocery store. At least it was hot, though, as it was one of the colder games so far.

Game 6: Mik Rolling Over Barry Bonds

Now that I finally got all the photos from going to the Giants game uploaded, I can finally share the funny story of Mik rolling over Barry Bonds. Outside AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants play, there are some plaques in the ground along the side that is on the water. The plaques represent major achievements by the Giants such as hosting the All Star game, and mostly different home run number achievements accomplished by Barry Bonds. Mik dislikes Barry Bonds and to show his distaste he decided to roll over Barry Bonds plaques as a sign of disrespect, I guess. The first one he rolled over was the one commemorating Barry Bonds breaking the single season home run record. The other one Mik rolled over was the one commemorating Barry Bonds breaking the all time home run record.

Accessibility Review: Jelly Belly Factory

The Jelly Belly Factory is pretty much entirely accessible, but the tour experience is not the most ideal for someone in a wheelchair. Sure they have an elevator up and down from the level the tour is on and the whole tour path is accessible, but the viewing of the actually factory is not that great. Along the route most of the viewing of the factory is through windows looking down onto the factory and the windows do not start until almost above Mik's head. They do have some windows down low probably meant for the kids on the tours. This works to some extent, but actually they are kind of low for someone in a wheelchair and they were hard to get close to with everyone else crowding around for a look and almost always being right in front of the low windows including kids that legitimately needed to look through those spots to enjoy the tour. The other problem was the video monitors along the tour were mounted up high and the way the windows worked often made it hard to put Mik in a spot he could see them. It seemed way less than ideal in my opinion, but of course Mik did not really even notice because he was mostly just playing his PSP until it came time to get the free sample bag at the end and browse the Jelly Belly shop to stock up on candy.