Redbird Fever

The corner of the new Busch Stadium.

(Val) I'm very blessed to be the Mom of two very talented and brilliant kids, and it's wonderful to get to reap the benefits of their brainpower sometimes. Wednesday night, Jesse and I had the pleasure of attending a Cardinals baseball game using tickets she earned through her school's Straight A Program.

We had a really great Mother-Daughter night out and took full advantage of our city's public transportation system to do it. With the price of gas and parking, it's much cheaper and more convenient to take the MetroLink, so that's what we did.

Me and my girl at the Ballgame!

The new stadium is absolutely beautiful, but I do miss the old one. There were a lot of memories there. We arrived over an hour early for the game, so we made good use of the time to go exploring. We even got to walk through the "exclusive" club area when we ended up on the opposite side of the park from our seats. All of the new signage, and the electronic boards are really something. The color is brilliant, and all of the ways they encourage the fans to interact is a lot of fun.

Molina steps up to the plate.

The marching band that performed the Star-Spangled Banner did a great job, and we were impressed with the number of students involved in that band. It was at least three times the size of the band at Jesse's school.

Jesse patiently poses for a picture.

Everyone was really nice there, and the game was wonderful! The Cards started out slowly, but they made up for it and came back to win. One funny thing was that I told Jesse I really wanted to see a home run there so we could watch the fireworks and all the great display screens do their thing. Right after that, Alber Pujols walked up to the plate and blasted one out over the left field wall. It was pandolerium! What a cool show they put on to celebrate a home run.

Juan Incarnacion and Jose Oquendo confer at third base.

We left after the fifth inning knowing that we had a long trip home and an early morning to face, but we had a really great time. I didn't even have to use the "big purse" method of sneaking food and drinks because they let you bring in a small, soft-sided cooler if you want to, so we did!

A great view from inside of the new Busch Stadium.