The vast and spectacular west

In 1982 we decided to go to the baseball stadiums furthest from home. That would mean the west coast from Seattle to San Diego. After three days of driving we reached our first destination. It had nothing to do with baseball.That third evening was spent in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The town with the antler arches was amazing. They even staged a shootout in the evening. Baseball was not given a thought here.In the morning we took a scenic raft trip down the Snake River. We saw plenty of bald eagles and various other forms of wildlife. The next couple of days were spent viewing Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. To this day nothing makes me smile more than the thought of being in Yellowstone. The wildlife, the geysers and streams that are so clear you can see all the way to the bottom – it's scenic beauty makes it my favorite destination in the entire country.But we were on a baseball trip however, so we headed to the Pacific Northwest. Seattle gave us the Kingdome, which was very dimly lit. In my opinion the game was meant to be played outdoors. We visited the Space Needle, Pike Place Fish Market and other various places. From there we headed down I-5 before cutting over to Oregon's coast and a small town named Florence.A decade ago I talked to a lady tending bar in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I asked where she was from when she confirmed she was not a local. She said it was a small town on the Oregon coast that I likely had never heard of called Florence. She was shocked when I told her I had eaten huckleberry ice cream in Florence. She even named the store I got it in as she had worked there at one time. Small world…We drove down the coast to Crescent City, California and stayed in The Curly Redwood Lodge. Some 30 units in this motel were all made from on giant redwood tree. A day later we drove through the Avenue of the Giants. A 33-mile stretch through a redwood forest, it was gorgeous and breathtaking. We also toured a lumber mill in Scotia where trees were stripped of their bark and sawed into manageable sheets.Eventually we made our way through Mendocino (a New England style town north of San Francisco) and the Napa Valley before reaching San Francisco. There are so many things to see in San Francisco that it quickly became my favorite city in the country. We rode the Cable Cars, drove down Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world) and went to Fisherman's Wharf every night.Oh yes, we saw a couple of baseball games. We went across the bay to Oakland for an afternoon game. We also took in a night game at Candlestick Park. This stadium was infamous for its windy and cold conditions, but not the evening we were there. A gentleman in the parking lot we talked to after the game told us we were lucky. The night was mild and pleasant and he suggested that kind of weather happened two or three times all summer!Leaving San Francisco, we journeyed along the Monterey Peninsula. Seventeen Mile Drive takes you past Pebble Beach Golf Links and it is as beautiful as the pictures on TV make it out to be. We lunched in Carmel although we did not get to see Clint Eastwood, who was mayor at the time.In Los Angeles we went to a game at Anaheim Stadium and another at Dodger Stadium. We were walking around the park in Chavez Ravine when a Porsche pulled into a parking spot. The license plate said ESPN and none other than Steve Garvey emerged. He posed for us to take his picture.In L.A. we went to Disneyland, Universal Studios and toured the Queen Mary. Now it was time to head south on the Pacific Coast Highway to San Diego. You may find a more scenic drive than this one, but I highly doubt it. The view of the Pacific is incredible.In San Diego it was a visit to Jack Murphy Stadium home of the Padres. I would like to tell you about the games we saw on this trip, but the sites we visited are much more etched in my mind than baseball.We went to the San Diego Zoo of course and the Gaslamp Quarter. We went to the beach in Coronado and dined at a restaurant called Hamburgerosa. There I had a hot dog and a cheeseburger all in the same sandwich. You had to know that food would be a part of this story!It was time to head home, but we were not done taking in the sites. We drove to Las Vegas and spent time visiting the Strip. We then crossed the Hoover Dam before taking in the awesome views of the Grand Canyon.This trip would take three and a half weeks and I will always consider it the best baseball trip of all. Visiting all the stadiums on the West Coast was so much fun. Seeing all this country has to offer AROUND those parks was even better.We were now on the verge of completing all of the stadiums with Atlanta being our next (final?) stop. It would be another year before that happened. You are lucky… you only have to wait until next week to see our journey completed.