WR: Twins Fest + Deduno

As I mentioned in my previous post, I picked up Adam at the airport on Friday night.

Saturday morning, Adam and Chester slept in and I picked up Christine and Kelly at 9:45 for TwinsFest at Target Field! TwinsFest is an annual fundraiser for the Twins Community fund featuring auto graph sessions with current and former players, live radio broadcasts with player interviews, a trading show and lots more. This year was the first at Target Field.

We parked in the ramp adjoining Target Field, and made the quick dash in without our coats so we wouldn't be burdened with them all day.

Our first stop was on the Service Level to get my guy Samuel Deduno's autograph. I completely geeked out because he's my favorite player. I had ordered a 8x11 print of a photograph I had taken of him warming up in the bullpen at Safeco Field in Seattle, so that's what I had him sign.

I also may have told him how he was my favorite player and that I had taken that photo of him myself.

He was super nice and looked really closely at the photo. It was fantastic!

We also got autographs from Chris Herrmann,

Terry Steinbach,

and Scott Diamond. We didn't really have anything for those 3 to sign, so we had them sign our TwinsFest programs. It's a cool program though and I'll probably end up framing it.

While we were putting our autographs away in the hall, Christine spotted a Carlos Gomez signed bat for sale. She contacted mom and dad and they agreed we could buy it for her and they'll give it to her for her birthday in May.

Then we walked along the Service Level, checked out the Champions Club,

as well as the Grounds Crew Alley.

Our next stop was the self-guided Home Clubhouse tour. It was really neat to see the Clubhouse, batting cages, manager's office, and even the laundry room!

By then it was 12:10, so we decided to hangout a little longer on the Service Level to get our photo taken with Anthony Swarzak (relief pitcher) for $5. While we waited, we enjoyed seeing random players walk by on their way to the Clubhouse. We even saw Florimon (one of Christine's favorite players and Miguel Sano).

At 12:30, we had our photo taken with Swarzak. He was super nice and we talked to him a little bit. I mentioned seeing him doing the sprinkles thing in the bullpen in Seattle, and he said it was for "good luck."

Next, we took the elevator up to the Club Level. There we wandered through the Metropolitan Club and I purchased Season Tickets for Adam and I to ensure we can buy All-Star Game tickets. We were originally thinking Field Box, but the seats available to 20 pack ticket holders were not great (like Row 20), so we ended up with row 2 in the Grandstand. Two of these tickets were less than one Field Box, so I won't feel too bad when we don't go to all the games. 20 is a lot...

Then, we talked to one of the directors of Pelotero, who is now filming The Miguel Sano Story.

We walked through the Twins Yard Sale, but by then it was pretty picked over.

By then we were hungry, so we grabbed lunch from a stand in what is the Legends Club,

and took it up to the Suite Level to get in line for Buxton. We thought 2 hours before he even started signing was ridiculously early, but would be plenty of time. HA.

At 1:15, we got in the massive line upstairs for Byron Buxton. We couldn't believe how long the line was considering that he wasn't going to start signing until 3:15! Unfortunately for us, he was signing with 3 other people and the line didn't move very fast. We didn't make it. Yes, we were in line for THREE HOURS AND STILL DIDN'T GET BUXTON'S AUTOGRAPH. Insane. Had the session gone for another 10 minutes, we would've gotten it as there were only about 20 people in front of us. At least we weren't the people in the very front at the cut-off time.

The only solace we took was that we were first in line for Miguel Sano at 4:45. However, we had [just barely] gotten his autograph last year. Kelly and I had both had him sign a baseball with other players last year, so we decided to have him sign one solo this year. Christine already had him sign it solo last year though, so we ran down to the Service Level during the 30 minute break and bought a poster of Sano to have him sign for her. We also picked up her Gomez baseball bat while we were there.

At 4:45, Sano started signing, and we were out of there by 5.

He signed with Max Kepler (far right), Michael Tonkin, and Trevor May.

On our way out, we made a quick stop in the Twins Press Box to check out the view. Those are really good seats!

We also listened in on a few minutes of the Fox Sports North Roundtable broadcast with Dick and Bert before heading out.

Here's what Adam and Chester did all day!

(to be continued)

Our Last Twins Game of the Year

Last week we went to our last Twins game of the year. It was our 11th Twins game of the year (Adam and I each went to one game without the other), and 7th of the year at Target Field (2 games in DC and 2 in Seattle).

This time, the Twins played the Detroit Tigers. We took Christine as part of her birthday present (we gave it to her back in May for when she'd be up here at school). We picked up Christine at 5:30, and were there by 6. Just in time to catch the end of the Tigers batting practice.

Our seats were AMAZING! It was our first time sitting in the Dugout Box, which is the lower level section behind the dugouts. It was so fancy - the seats were even cushioned! And there was a private lower level concession area with bathrooms just for this section to use. Super handy! I loved sitting here. I've been up higher behind home plate, but I love being as close to the field as possible, so almost preferred these.

Pinto was the catcher, and Diamond pitched.

 We were right by first base, so had great views of Prince Fielder!

I was excited to see all the other Detroit big names like Torii Hunter,

 Miguel Cabrera (or as I like to call him, Mig Cab),

and Verlander (hanging over the dugout fence).

 Surprisingly, we had a perfect night. You never know what outdoor baseball in September will be like!

view from our awesome seats

Twins lost 4-2. We stayed until the end, so it got a little late. But it was fun!

We did have some pretty obnoxious people around us (never fails!), but made the best of it. The drunk guys in front of us were fun to laugh at, and the obnoxious and loud Detroit fan was fun to cheer against. But the highlight of the night was being on the big screen not once, not twice, but three times! Christine was traumatized. I thought I would hate it, but it was pretty funny. As long as I'm never on the Kiss Cam, I'll be fine!

WR: Farmer's Market & girl's night Twins game

My fam left not long ago after a fun spontaneous visit involving pizza from Savoy's. My mom and dad were up here to pick up Christine for the weekend, and decided to stop by and see us. It was great!

Last week was the longest short week ever. We were both feeling sick with colds, so relaxing was high on our list. Friday evening we watched "The Candidate" from Netflix. It had it's funny moments, but wasn't great.

On Saturday morning, we headed over to the St. P Farmer's Market. We hadn't gone since May, so a visit was well overdue. We picked out broccoli, leeks, kale, and basil. Then I picked out a bouquet of beautiful flowers. I was really excited to get them home. They're beautiful!

I also rearranged my flowers that Adam had given me a week and a half prior. They lasted a while, but by Saturday only the baby's breath and carnations were still looking good. I rearranged them into the adorable little vase my mom gave me. They looked perfect!

That afternoon, I headed to the other downtown to meet up with a few friends for a girls night Twins game. I met Caitlin at 3 at Rosa for drinks. I had a delicious pomegranate margarita. Too bad the service was terrible! Laura had some light rail issues, so she didn't arrive until 4. We headed over to the Twins game 2 hours before the game started at 6. We had plenty of time to get the giveaway (Twins ear-buds, the same giveaway as when we were in Seattle!), shop in the team store, and walk around to get food.

Our seats were in the 7th row in right field, which actually was much closer as the section is at an angle.

We had so much fun at the game even though the Twins played miserably. We were surprised at how many Toronto Blue Jays fans were there, and joked it was because all of Canada was there to cheer on their only team. These fans were so obnoxious.

Laura left at the top of the 9th to take the lightrail, while Caitlin and I stayed until the bitter end. Twins lost 11-2. It was pretty clear they weren't going to win when Kevin Correia gave up 5 runs in the 1st inning...

Sunday was just a relaxing day at home, which is always appreciated.