Tara was graciously given four tickets to Comerica Park to watch the Detroit Tigers take on the Seattle Mariners on June 11th, including a picnic meal on the Pepsi Porch (with free hot dogs, drinks - yes, beer too, and other goodies included). It just so happened at the time we got the tickets that Tyler and Samantha both already had plans, so Tara & I got to look forward to an evening out with just Drew and Jayden, which doesn't happen very often in our family.

    We left our house around 5:30pm for the drive to the stadium, although I would have preferred to have left 30 minutes earlier. The food service started at 6:30pm at the stadium, so I thought we would still have some time to arrive before the game started and grab a bite to eat anyway. Turns out that Taylor Swift and her fans had other plans for us, as her concert at Ford Field next door to Comerica was occurring on the same night. Needless to say, after sitting in the parking lot formerly known as I-75 for way too long, we were a tad bit late to the game. And by a tad bit, I'm talking close to an hour late. Oh well, I did get to see a nice pair of asses belonging to two ladies who obviously had too much to drink when they decided to take a pit stop along the expressway. If only Tara was driving, I could have pulled out my camera and shared them with the world! We even got to sit in a downpour for about 15 minutes, which I hoped would delay the start of the game, to no avail.

    Parking was a whole other battle near the stadium. The fine people who work for Olympia Entertainment were nice enough to notify everyone that their parking was full, which should have been more than obvious to anyone who was involved in the crazy traffic at all. We bypassed one parking lot that looked like it would work in order to try to get closer, but that move cost us nothing but more time. We ended up circling around the block and parking there anyway. It wasn't really a parking lot as far as I could tell, as nobody was collecting money or helping cars park. Plus, the grass was about a foot and a half tall. We managed to make it in without bottoming out the van and finding a spot to park, though.

    Once inside the stadium we made our way to our seats. Turns out that it was a very good thing that it was Drew and Jay with us as opposed to Tyler and Sam, because we actually had three seats in one section and one seat in another. Seems like a strange way to give out tickets, but OK. We neglected the fourth seat and just planned on putting Jay in our laps. Drew spent most of the game sitting in my lap so that he could see over the row in front of us anyway. Our first move was to go and buy food, so a quick 30 bucks later we were partially full. This is where the free food would have really came in handy, because we chose not to eat dinner before coming down expecting to be able to eat all we wanted. Oh well, stuff happens - more often than not to me. The Tigers were already winning when we arrived, and we got to see them add to their lead several times throughout the remainder of the game, which was nice.

    After the game we stuck around for the fireworks display. They set up the trailers in the middle of centerfield and set off the fireworks from there. The display was fairly impressive, I suppose, but I guess for some reason I was expecting more. I can't really nail down the reason why, but I was slightly disappointed. Once the fireworks were over we made our way to the Big Cat Court and let the kids ride the carousel. They were on the last right of the night, so I guess our timing worked out OK in this one instance. We wandered through the Tigers Den store (or whatever it is called) looking for a foam Tigers paw, as Drew really wanted one. The $15.99 price kind of turned his mother & I off, though, so we left empty handed.

    We made our way back to our car by walking the dark streets of Detroit, heading back into the unlit field that was our parking lot. Aside from the cars being parked way too close and needing the help of Tara and the people parked next to us in order to back out of our spot, we managed to survive this part of our ordeal. We made the short drive around the stadium to get back onto the expressway for the smooth drive home. Or so I thought, until we hit construction which closed all but one lade in the northbound direction. So, despite leaving Comerica Park a little before 10:30pm, we didn't get home until after midnight. All told we spent close to seven hours of our time for this game, of which only a little more than two was actually spent inside the park. It was fun while we were there, but it made for a long day otherwise. Next time I'm researching alternate routes a little better!

Detroit Tigers vs. Seattle Mariners
	The Ernie Harwell statue on the main concourse.
	Brennan Boesch warming up in right field.
	Tara's favorite, Miguel Cabrera waving hello from first base.
	Tonight's starter, Max Scherzer, throwing a pitch.
	The view from our seat in right field.
	One of the Tigers above the scoreboard.
	The Pepsi Porch, as seen from our seats.
	The Chevrolet Fountain.
	Ichiro Suzuki warming up in right field.
	Austin Jackson batting.
	Miguel Cabrera batting with Brennan Boesch leading off from first base.
	Drew and Jayden in their seats waiting for dinner.
	A look at the outfield and the scoreboard from our seats.
	The DirecTV blimp hovering above the stadium.
	A look at the clouds behind home plate.
	Drew and Rodney sitting together.
	Jayden and Tara together.
	The post-game fireworks.
	Another look at the fireworks, with the scoreboard and Ford Field in the background.
	A look at the fireworks with the blimp hovering above the stadium once again.
Please click here for page two of the photos