Take me out to the ball game....

 Plaaaaaaay Ball  !!!

An odd mix of stuff on our agenda today … each of which being a stand out on its own, so I’ll try and keep it corralled so it doesn’t go off on a tangent.

Not as early, but still early we met up at the foyer of the hotel as we did each morning, but this time, there was something different. 

This morning was going to be the one that taste forgot. 

Its WALMART day….

So into the bus we piled, in varying degrees of bad taste, with shimmery fabrics and furry leggings and fishnets with holes and I think a corset or two. 

And so as not to look like a group of weirdo’s (???) we filed into the store separately and dispersed.

It wasn’t long before we forgot we were dressed like ‘walmart folk’ and were filling up arms, baskets and even trollies of cut priced wonders that had our eyes popping and our wallets open. 

And funnily, it wasn’t until you heard people debating if we always looked like that or if it was a costume in less than hushed tones behind us, that we even remembered that we were dressed so oddly.

I do believe that the odd husband also got a swift dig in the ribs for staring too long in some instances.

I also remember doing a LOT of hitching up of those psychedelic rainbow coloured  shag pile fur leggings which became a pain in the butt in a very short space of time… in the end, doing so was hampering my shopping experience and I left them sit right where they preferred, about two inches lower than the leggings I had on leaving a wonderful patch of whiter than white skin between the two… oh well, all in the name of bad taste of course.

So what did I buy… actually, what DIDN’T I buy is probably more accurate.

Makeup but the score; massive bags of Halloween candy; fairy floss flavoured frosting sachets; US measuring cups ( for all my pinterest recipes); sooooo many different lollies; Halloween decos; pumpkin pie spice, scrapbooking nic nacs, and my favourite – sugar cookies and pumpkin sugar cookies…

It was seriously all about the food in this store.

It was a wonderful haul.  

Oh... and No photos of this morning  will every see the light of day... other than in a scrapbook or two.

Piling back into the bus, and heading for Knotts Berry Farm  - but not to go into the park but rather to sample the very offering that made the worlds first theme park possible in the first place – the famous ‘Mrs. Knotts Chicken Dinner.’

In a beautiful ‘home dining’ atmosphere, we 15 plus the driver, sat around a big ol’ table and tucked into the most amazingly filling and tasty meal I think I had on the whole trip.  The photos did not do it justice – half a chicken fried in the most amazing coating that I’m not even going to attempt to describe, sweet corn side dish with biscuits ( akin to our scones, but still a little different – more buttery I think) with the equally famous boysenberry jam ( hmm.. could have had several of these from memory), a huge pile of the smoothest and tastiest mashed potatoes I’ve ever  had and quite seriously the BEST chicken gravy pooled in the middle of said mound was seriously mouth watering.  You couldn’t wait till the next bite.  All washed down with Boysenberry cordial concoction.

And then came the boysenberry pie….

Yep, you had to roll more than a few of us out of there, and I think all but one took their pie to go because there simply was not enough room in our stomachs to do it justice.

It was with exceptionally full tummies we then headed back to dump our walmart spoils in the room and onto another shopping centre in the OC.

And while it had great shops, wasn’t nearly as many bargains to be had here, so yes, we shopped, and yes, there were plenty of bags in the bus on the way home, but  not nearly as much propping up of the US economy occurred.   Probably hampered by the centre calling for full evacuation due to some ‘security scare’ which I think only the Aussies took any notice of, because only a handful of people bothered to leave.

Evening came way too soon, and then after filling 2 maxi taxi’s – only one of which knew where we were going, and ours took great offence to the fact that Australians ate kangaroo and boy… did we hear about it)  - it was off to the ball game - to see the LA Angels play the Seattle Mariners. 

I had every intention of barracking for the Mariners until I arrived at the stadium and quickly surmised that I would be the one hanging from the second tier by my toenails should I shout anything other than 'Lets go Angels, lets go' in that sea of red.  

Angel Stadium is everything you would imagine a ball park to be… massive, noisy, and a mad crush to get to your seats in time for the national anthem and the first ball of the game.

On entering the park, we made a b-line for the Angel shop where quite a few of our group kitted out for the game with jumpers, balls, and the necessary big hand to wave around at the opportune moment.

And when we finally took our seats as the National Anthem was ending – right over 3^rd base – we were so excited to see what all the fuss was about in all those sitcoms we’d seen on our TV’s for our whole lives.

Oh. My. Lord. 

What a circus a ball game is.  A fun circus, but a moving, seething, massed cacophony of fans who all talk through the game and only seem to take notice of it at irregular intervals.

So far removed from my live game experiences at home.   Everyone walked around all the time, there was definite ‘buying food from your seat etiquette’ that we clearly didn’t know, and how many grown men had their own catchers mitts with them? 

Naturally, the reason for the last bit became starkly obvious once the first of probably 20 balls made its rocket-fueled way into the stands and knocked out a lady in the 3^rd row.

And believe me, eyes would have been taken out in the melee to be the one with the ball in the hand thrust into the air with a definite ‘ possession is 9/10’s ‘ feel about it.

We did come very close to being in the running, but it went over our heads to the rows behind us.

So as you would expect, hotdogs were  consumed, along with pizza, churro’s, nacho’s and beer ( which without a passport or local drivers license could not be sold to us – cos we of course LOOK under 21??????) but being Aussies, those who desperately needed a beer, were able to acquire one.

And the singing of ‘take me out to the ball game’ was a definite highlight… the whole crowd got up and sang with gusto and quite honestly, you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

Despite all the fanfare and razzamatazz the game reminded me very much of cricket with all the maneuvering of players on the field and so slow between every pitch because of strategy decisions and base ‘advisers’.  Of course, that gave the flashing lights of the advertisers all around the many levels to sink into your psyche before the next play.

I think the fireworks at each home run were probably the biggest surprise… wasn’t expecting that.

Half time was a hoot, none of this ‘mini minors’ stuff like we have at home… its all about the kiss cam and the dance cam and the karaoke cam and various other ‘cams’ that put a spotlight firmly on the crowd and did they ever love it.    Naturally we vied for the chance to shine but alas, we were not some of the chosen few this time. 

The game went quite late, but we were sorry to see it end, and line up for a taxi to head back to our hotel.  The spectacle that is a ball game is definitely something I’d love to repeat one day. 

Mrs Knotts famous Chicken Dinner

mmmmm.... Boysenberry pie

Home plate entrance

Dugouts of both teams... Angels at the bottom and Mariners at the top

Spent a lot of time giggling over the pronunciation of this players name...

Bases are loaded - Trout at the bottom of the photo picked up 'player of the year' the week after we returned home

Heeeeers the wind up....