Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We had some good friends in town this weekend from out West (Albuquerque and Denver) who made a quick stopover in Atlanta while en route to the Masters this week. Overall it was a great time, and included a LOT of eating (which, what else is new - guests should just be prepared to wear their stretchy pants when they come visit the Sassers!)

We are usually the most terrible Atlanta hosts when it comes to actually doing Atlanta-ish things.  I mean, this is a really cool town with other things to do besides eat.  Fortunately, our friends came prepared with tickets for the Braves game.  You can't get more Atlanta than a game at Turner Field!

So, getting there was quite a disaster (that I'm sure my husband would rather me not write about...)  Traffic was absolutely terrible.  A few factors working against us:   it was the first pretty day in Spring and 90% of the city wanted to be outside; it was one of the first games since Opening Day with a sold out crowd;  AND the NCAA Basketball Tournament was in Atlanta, along with 200,000 game go-ers (and people who didn't even know about the tourney) taking advantage of free concerts in the park....  And everyone felt the need to drive on I-75 and I-85.

This meant that we got stuck, stuck, STUCK in some terrible traffic from our house to Turner Field.  Once we finally got to the ball park, parking was even a bigger disaster than the traffic! Every parking lot was already full, and there was zero help in trying to navigate around the mass chaos of fans and cars and (unhelpful) parking attendants.  After circling a few times, getting lost in some rather sketchy areas, getting back on the interstate and then back off the interstate a few times...we were a bit frazzled. Especially James, who was driving.  An actual Sasser quote: "I was only going to have 1 beer at the game, but I am changing that number to 2."  And they were two well deserved Bud Lights.

Finally - THANK YOU, ALL THINGS HOLY! - we found a "parking lot" in an abandoned building (right next to the field) that would accept two more cars.  For a small price of $40 a car.  Which was gladly paid at this point.  Can you really put a price on your sanity?  It was debatable if our car would still be there upon return, but at this point I would have given up my favorite little hybrid to actually not be sitting in it anymore.

It was still there when we got back - yea!

Once we made it into the game, we had a fantastic time!  It was very sunny (but not too hot), and the seats were great.  We munched on some yummy game food, watched quite a few innings, saw a home run from the hometown team AND a Braves' win - you can't ask for much more!

The Sassers (in plenty of SPF)

The Gulley's and the Bacas

We were sad to see everyone leave this morning, and even more jealous we weren't headed to the Masters with them. It's gearing up to be a lovely week, weather-wise.  (About time, Georgia!)