Road Trip 2017: Minneapolis

DAY 1: July 17th 2017

In my opinion, it was a miracle that we were able to continue our trip after what we had gone through in the twenty-four hours prior to our arrival.

Now, that being said, we took the 11:30 A.M. ferry from Madeline Island, Wisconsin to Bayfield, Wisconsin. Once that was over, it was a four hour drive to Minneapolis, Minnesota. We still had plenty of time before we had to be there for the 7:10 start of the Twins game that day, so we went about 20 miles down the road, and went swimming on a small beach. For the record, Lake Superior is freezing cold, so it was hard getting used to. We stayed for close to an hour, and then plowed straight through.

We arrived at the Hampton Inn in Minneapolis around 5:45. We unpacked and walked the four minute walk to Target Field. As usual for me, it was very exciting to set foot into a new major league stadium. However, the line to get in was quite long. It was a Monday night, so people were coming in from work. We got inside the stadium right as the first out of the game was made, and because our seats were in the upper deck on the complete other side, it took almost the entire first inning to get to our seats successfully.

When we got there, the first thing I did was take a panorama of the field from the view of my seat, like I have done at every other stadium I’ve been to:

We met up with a friend who works in Minneapolis, and we thought it would be fun to catch up, and it was. We stayed the whole game despite the fact it was pouring pretty bad in the 8th inning until the end of the game. The game didn’t get delayed, and the Twins beat the Yankees 4-2. We were in such a rush, that I didn’t even get an opportunity to bring my camera, so there weren’t any other photos from the first day.

DAY 2: July 18th, 2017

This was a much more eventful day.

The day was off to a fairly early start. We went to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on the other side of the city. The weather wasn’t exactly promising, but we were able to make something out of it.

There were trails where you could walk around and view the sculptures. My favorite one by far was the “Spoonbridge and Cherry”. It looked like this:

There’s also water that runs through the bottom of the cherry so that it can filter the pond below it.

There was also another fascinating sculpture that was called the “Big Blue Rooster”. It looks exactly how it sounds:

After viewing the sculptures, we played a round of mini golf. It wasn’t ordinary mini golf, but the holes were sculpted. Pretty neat.

After the sculpture garden, we went to go eat lunch by Lake Calhoun. It was nice, quiet, and the food was great.

We went back to the hotel, and relaxed for a bit, as another Twins game awaited. This time, only my brother, David, and I were going. We got there fairly early, and this time I was able to bring my camera with me.

We made it for the final fifteen minutes of batting practice. I sprinted over to the batters eye, and saw Yankees catcher, Gary Sanchez playing long toss in deep center field. Here’s a photo of him letting one go:

I had at least fifteen pictures of him throwing the ball, but I won’t bore you with those. There was something much more important…

It was Bartolo Colon’s Twins debut. Thankfully, I was stationed in the “front row” of the bullpen so I had a perfect view of him. It got crowded very quickly.

Just like with Gary Sanchez, I had many photos of him throwing, but here’s the best quality picture, and my personal favorite:

The game itself wasn’t very significant in any way. In the middle innings, I saw Twins reliever, Matt Belisle warming up. The area around the bullpen was completely empty, so I had no issue getting a photo. Same deal. Many pictures, but here’s my favorite:

The best part about the Target Field bullpen setup is that they are adjacent. Most stadiums do that nowadays, but some still have a bullpen on opposite sides of the outfield. I was happy to see former Mets pitcher, Tyler Clippard warming up in the Yankees bullpen. Here’s one out of the twenty I took of him:

He never did come into the game, but still, very cool.

The Yankees put up five runs in the fifth inning to go up for good. With a 6-3 lead in the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman was about to come into the game. Even Twins were excited. It was also amazing to see someone throwing 100 MPH from that close up.

Here he is about to throw: