The trip my brother and I had planned to get our dad to Fenway Park for the first time was a great experience. Everything went off without a hitch. Okay, we may have taken the wrong train in New York once and went into NJ when we were supposed to be heading to Connecticut after leaving Yankee Stadium, but I guess that's all part of the experience.

In summary, we saw 7 games in 8 days. 6 of those games had saves and the other a walk-off homer. No extra innings. No rain delays. All in all just a wonderful trip. Here is how it broke down:

Saturday, June 22nd - Wrigley Field - Astros 4, Cubs 3

This was my first visit to Wrigley Field since 2001. Friday's game had a 3 hour rain delay so we were fortunate to miss that by a day. Travis Wood was dealing with a 3-0 lead with 2 outs and nobody on in the 6th before 2 singles and a J.D. Martinez 3-run home run tied the game. The Astros scored the go-ahead run in the 9th on a double, sac bunt and suicide squeeze. Jose Veras got the save and our trip was off to a good start since my brother's team is the Astros.

We had row 1 tickets in the 2nd part of the upper deck mainly to avoid any poles being in our way. Well, Wrigley is old and the first row of seats above the walkway are not really high enough so our view was blocked by the foot traffic in front of us several times. The Wrigleyville area was buzzing as we were leaving as the Blackhawks were just about to start game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

I would highly recommend the evening/weekend commuter lot if you were like us and driving before and after the game. We paid $6 to park at DeVry University (right by the interstate). A bus took us the 2 miles and dropped us off right in front of the Ernie Banks statue. After the game it picked us up right there as well. We made our way to western Ohio to spend the night, leaving us about 2.5 hours to Cleveland the next morning.

Sunday, June 23rd - Progressive Field (Ballpark #11) - Twins 5, Indians 3

This was the longest game on our trip (3 hours, 40 minutes) and somewhat ugly as the winning pitcher (Pedro Hernandez of the Twins) walked 6 in 5 innings, but was able to escape trouble more often than not. Drew Stubbs hit the only home run of the game and Glen Perkins put the tying run on base before nailing down the save.

Being from Iowa, it was cool to see the Bob Feller statue outside of Progressive Field. It was certainly the easiest in and out of any of the parks on this trip. The crowd was disappointing to me. 17K on a Sunday for a team that I think is a lot of fun to watch. They still need some pitching, but their offense never seems to be out of a game.

We parked in the ramp right by the stadium for $12 and were on our way to the middle of Pennsylvania with no problem after the game.

Monday, June 24th - Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Ballpark #12) - Indians 5, Orioles 2

The road team won for the third straight day as we followed the Indians from Cleveland to Baltimore. Michael Brantley had the 2 big hits in this one - a 2-run single in the 6th and a 2-run homer in the 8th. Vinnie Pestano allowed the tying run to bat in the 9th, but got the save in Chris Perez's absence. Chris Davis and Manny Machado combined to go 0-9, certainly a rarity in 2013. We had similar seats to Wrigley in that we were in the first row of the 2nd part of the lower level. The difference being our seats were elevated enough that foot traffic did not hamper our view.

The highlight for me was the tour we took in the afternoon. For less than $10/person, the tour was scheduled for 90 minutes and took closer to 2 hours. We got to go in the dugout, press box, suites, etc. They told the history of the park very well and we even got to see Indians manager Terry Francona taking swings during early BP. He even hit one to the warning track. We stayed in downtown Baltimore, about a mile north of the park through Hotwire. My brother and I walked to the game in the daylight, but decided we were taking the light rail back at night. I figure if I go back and stay there, the Holiday Inn just north of the stadium will be a better choice.

Tuesday, June 25th - Yankee Stadium (Ballpark #13) - Yankees 4, Rangers 3

I wasn't sure if I was in New York or Tokyo. Yu Darvish and Hiroki Kuroda started. Ichiro hit a walk-off home run with 2 outs in the 9th, the 6th solo home run of the game. I'm no Yankee fan, but it was cool to see Mariano Rivera come in to the game in the 9th inning during his final season, even it was a tie game and not a save situation.

We paid $35 to park in the ramp right by Yankee Stadium when we arrived about 1:30pm and hopped on the Subway for a quick tour of Manhattan including the 9/11 Memorial, Times Square and Central Park before heading back to Yankee Stadium. We took a wrong train getting back to the stadium so did not make it in time to check out Monument Park. Our seats were in the 400 level, but almost behind home plate. After the walk-off homer we seemed to be a rarity in not heading for the Subway, but we had a few issues getting to our hotel in CT as we ended up in NJ first!

Wednesday, June 26th - Fenway Park (Ballpark #14) - Red Sox 5, Rockies 3

Michael Cuddyer was in the middle of his 27-game hitting streak at the time. Our seats were near Pesky's Pole so my dad was taunting him saying his streak was ending that day. He proceeded to hit 2 solo HR's over the monster, hitting 2 of the 3 advertisements on top of the monster. The Rockies did little else against John Lackey (12 K's, 0 BB's) and Koji Uehara closed out the win in 1-2-3 fashion, marking a perfect end to my dad's first visit to Fenway. A brief downpour happened in the top of the 8th, but was over before it could stop play. We stayed in the area and ate supper after the late afternoon game.

Thursday, June 27th - Fenway Park - Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 4

We took a tour of Fenway that morning. It was not as long as the Camden Yards tour, but cost twice as much ($19). The highlight was going up on the monster and checking out the views from there without forking over hundreds of dollars for a ticket. We then went up to Copley Square, but they had just removed the Boston Marathon memorials so we didn't get to see those. After some down time at the hotel, we headed back to the Fenway area and ate at Jerry Remy's before the game.

The game was over pretty early as the Red Sox tagged Chien-Ming Wang for 7 2nd inning runs capped by Dustin Pedroia's home run over the monster. A slight drizzle fell for the first 6 innings, but not enough to even be an annoyance. The Blue Jays made it somewhat interesting before Uehara closed out his 2nd game in 2 days, again in 1-2-3 fashion.

Getting back to the hotel took awhile as everybody was heading to the "T" after the game.

Friday, June 28th - National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I ended up having a great time at the Hall of Fame. We spent about 3 hours there and got to see pretty much everything. If you really want to stop and read more you could easily spend twice that long getting through everything. Since my Royals were not part of this trip, it was at least nice to get to see George Brett's plaque.

Saturday, June 29th - PNC Park (Ballpark #15) - Pirates 2, Brewers 1

I was probably most looking forward to this park out of all the new ones we were able to see. It did not disappoint. We parked about 4 hours early and walked across the Clemente Bridge and down the riverwalk to the park with the big fountain for some photo ops. I was just blown away by the views and just all facets of the park and that revitalized area. I had the Primanti Brothers roast beef sandwich before the game. I love cole slaw, but had rarely had it on a sandwich. It definitely worked with the fries on there too.

The game itself was electric. The Pirates won their 50th game that night and became the first team to reach that mark in 2013. It was also their 5th straight sellout. Pedro Alvarez hit a massive home run to right field that only a tree saved from going in the Allegheny River. Garret Jones added a solo shot 2 innings later and Francisco Liriano and 3 relievers made those 2 runs stand, with Jason Grilli nailing down a 1-2-3 save.

We saw a bit of the fireworks show after the game, but used that to make a somewhat quick getaway as my dad and brother had to be back in Iowa for a golf tournament the next afternoon. That meant driving through the night 12 hours back to Central Iowa. Luckily it was getting light near Chicago at 4:30am so it didn't make the night seem too long.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and only wants to make me to do more trips in the future. I still have a 7 Ballpark east coast trip I could do to hit the other 7 stadiums I need out that way (CWS, DET, TOR, NYM, PHI, WAS, CIN) so I might have to plan that in the near future.

I'm halfway to my goal of seeing all 30 parks after that trip and I officially have a new favorite (PNC Park).

Doug