Friday, August 8, 2014

Des Moines to Kansas City

Breakfast at the local My Favorite Muffin before we visited the Iowa State Capital Building. The Iowa Capital has some unique features including an amazing 5 level library with spiral staircases and a circular glass floor. They've also got a cool model of the USS Iowa which has been decommisioned and is now a floating museum in LA. We got a call from the Kansas City Royals just as we were leaving the capital saying they had some special batting practice passes for us. That put a little extra giddy up in our drive to KC and we arrived at our hotel (Sheraton Kansas City on McGee) around 3:45. We checked in, got a bite to eat across the street at Jimmy Johns and took a cab to Kauffman Stadium. We had been to Kauffman Stadium 7 years ago but the stadium has had a massive renovation since then. We met our contact, Anthony, in Guest Relations and he provided us with bracelets to get on the field for batting practice, his own personal seats (between home and 3rd on lower level), and bracelets for the kids to participate in all of the Outfield Experience activities (small field, batting cage, pitching cage, base running, mini golf, and play structure.....all for free. We watched BP and got a few waves from Bruce Bochy and the kids each got a ball from Ron Wotus (Giants bench coach). Jessi autographed her own ball before getting Shawon Dunston to autograph it. So cute. Will had Shawon autograph his glove. After BP, we walked around the park and the kids got some time in the Outfield Experience area before we went to our seats. The park itself is a good place to watch a game. It's definitely more intimate and, with the upgrades, isn't lacking in much for food or unique features. The statue is of Dick Howser who managed the Royals to their only World Series title in 1985 and died of brain cancer several years back. The baseball field at Florida State is also named after him....we got a picture of the FSU field back in Tallahassee. The game itself wasn't so great. Bumgarner wasn't very sharp and the Giants wasted a ton of opportunities. Final score, Royals 4, Giants 2. We caught a cab back to the hotel and were in our room before 11pm.

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