The Home Plate Bar and Grill

What do you do when you have arrived two hours early? That is the question that we asked as we parked our car near Minute Maid Stadium. It was only 3:30 pm. The Saint Louis Cardinals were going to meet the Houston Astros for the second of three games, but the doors would not be open until 5:30 pm. 

Our first thought was to walk around and take pictures, but September afternoons are still pretty warm in Texas, and we did not want to get all hot and sweaty. So, we walked toward the Stadium entrance, looking for a shady place to sit. That is when we spied the Home Plate Bar and Grill, conveniently located across the street from the ball park. 

I have to say that Richard and I are "good Baptists" who do not drink any alcoholic beverages, so we don't usually patronize "bar and grill" types of places. However, we were hungry, and it is possible to order water with lemon in a "bar and grill" establishment, so we went inside. 

I was a little wary, since Richard was wearing his red Cardinals T-shirt and a Cardinals baseball cap. What if the Home Plate Bar and Grill was strictly for Astros fans??? What if the Astros fans take exception to strangers wearing the visiting team's colors? 

I was happy to see that the bar was practically empty when we got inside. So, we got a table, ordered our water with lemon, and looked around. 

There was a lot of sports memorabilia on display, some of it for sale...for instance, there was a baseball signed by Nolan Ryan, beloved Hall of Fame pitcher who played for both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. For only $99, Richard could have taken it home and set it on his desk as a souvenir of our trip. He decided not to purchase it (whew!).

We ordered a couple of burgers, which were very reasonably priced (around $6.50 each), which gave us an excuse to sit at our table in an air conditioned room with a view of the ticket booths and front doors to the stadium.

I asked our server if I could take her picture for the blog, and she grinned and said she loved to have her picture taken (she is the second girl from the right). Several of the other servers smiled and laughed and told me they love to have their picture taken, also, so they all posed for me behind the bar. At the time, the gentleman on the stool was one of the very few patrons in the place.

As the afternoon passed and it got closer to game time, more and more folks came in to sit in a cool place while they waited. Surprisingly, most of them were wearing Cardinals jerseys and T-shirts, so there was lots of chit chat between tables. Once, a couple of Astros fans opened the door to walk in, looked around and saw all the Cardinals fans, and turned and walked back out. How funny.

Finally, a line started to form across the street, so we walked over to the home plate entrance and got in line.

Once again, we were surprised to see a lot of red shirts...there must be a lot more Saint Louis Cardinals fans in Texas besides just Richard. Whoo-hoo!

Tomorrow....pix from the game!

We're Going to Houston to See the Astros versus Cardinals Baseball Game

Texas has several great sports teams, so if you are interested, there are lots of different teams you can support. Dallas has the Dallas Cowboys football team, the Texas Rangers baseball team, the Mavericks basketball team. San Antonio has the Spurs basketball team, and Houston has the Houston Texans football team and the Houston Astros baseball team.                                 

Richard grew up in Missouri, so he is not much of a fan of the Cowboys or the Astros. He is, however, a die-hard Saint Louis Cardinals baseball fan. When he was growing up, his dad took him to a couple of Cardinals games, including game 7 of the 1968 World Series (which the Cardinals lost to the Detroit Tigers.)

So, for his birthday, this year, I got him two tickets to last night's Houston Astros game because they were playing his team, the Saint Louis Cardinals, or as they are affectionally called, "The Red Birds".

It was a big deal, too. You can tell Richard was really excited, because he had to detail his truck before we went. Inside and outside! I guess you are not supposed to take a dirty vehicle to a ball game. 

Houston is about a three hour drive from our home, so we started early. The stadium doors opened at 5:30, the game started at 7:05, so we left a little after 1:00 pm. We figured we would get their about 4:30 at the latest, giving us plenty of time in case we got into heavy traffic, or in case we got lost. Fortunately, neither of those things happened.

Texas is so large it has many different types of geography. We live in pretty flat land, and you can see for miles and miles.

Once we got to Houston, traffic really picked up. Here is the interchange on the outskirts of the city. The concrete girders are immense and the highway roads look like ribbons as they criss-cross each other.

We arrived in down-town Houston at 3:30, not 4:40. Here we are, at the parking lot, looking at the downtown skyline.

Minute Maid Stadium was so easy to find, and parking was no problem at all. We were amazed at how close to the stadium we were able to park. Now, we just had to find a way to kill two hours until the gates opened.

Come back tomorrow and find out what we did for two hours....but for now, I will just say it was an unexpected treat.

Rain and Cooler Weather Come to Texas

Most of the time, a Texas September is just an extension of the very, very hot and dry summer. Last year, there were over 100 days which had temperatures over 100 degrees, and we were in the midst of the greatest drought of the last 50 years. I was so glad to see the end of summer.

This year is a different story. Our summer was mild, with just a few days hitting the 100 degree mark, and we had several good showers, so our grass is greener, and the animals are happier.

Today, we are enjoying a very nice rain that has been falling all afternoon. Not only that, it is only 68 degrees. Additionally, the forecast shows highs in the mid 80's and lows in the 60's. That's my kind of weather.