Take me out to the ball game!

Day 14 - Friday, April 11, 2008

Friday was the team rest day. We love team rest days because you get to pack in as many activities as you can. Glen spent a relaxing 11 hours fishing and caught nothing. Who would’ve thought that there’d be no bass in bass lake. Maybe he should’ve be using his own hair to tie his lures. Michelle spent a productive day learning a new career and preparing for our evening outing. We’ll talk you more about that later but think orange…

Will got to have lunch with the superintendant and business manager of the \school district and thought he might’ve learnt a bit about the way things are done over here. Instead we discussed smuggling Australian parrots out of the country for the ex principals breeding program. I told them they could have as many seagulls as they like, but can’t touch our rosellas…

After lunch (salad of course), Harry and I headed around to pick up Sarah. Sarah spent a relaxing morning recovering from a police manhunt that had lasted well into the night. The three of us headed back to Harry’s place so Sarah could wow the locals with her shooting prowess. At home, to maintain their firearm validation, police shoot once a year for an hour or so. Over here they shoot A LOT more often.

Sarah & the AR-15

Fortunately, even though Sarah hadn’t shot since Feb 2007, she managed to out shoot the locals. Guns are a little bit more readily available over here and we got to shoot at 7, 10 and 15 metre targets with a Glock 23 40 Cal, Sig Sauer Mosquito .22 handgun, 20 gauge shotgun, and a modified AR15 rifle (a semi auto civilian version of the Military M16).

Will with 20 gauge

(Note from Sarah) Will was a little bit nervous about being around so many guns. He would’ve been able to shoot fine if he opened his eyes and didn’t shake before he shot. Regardless, we managed to shoot 18/20 into the heart of the target. Surprisingly the AR15 didn’t have a whole lot of recoil considering its size.

Errol's arms aren't long enough for the rifle

We were lucky that Harry’s son Dan came over to clean out the weapons we used so that we could head off to the Baseball in Fresno.

Friday nights at the Fresno Grizzlies stadium is meant to look like a sea of orange, so we were very grateful that Victor and Michelle had designed and produced these stylish pieces of grizzlies merchandise for the occasion.

Sarah, Will & Glen sporting Michelle & Victor's sexy orange tops

Sarah and I were really excited because there was a voucher for a free chilli dog on the back of our tickets. Unfortunately, after searching high and low, we found that the outlet giving away the chilli dogs wasn’t at the ground, it was in the mall… Doh! We ended up buying our own hot dogs. If we had got them free, they’d still have been over priced.

The Grizzlies mascot. Glen wants this job!

A little later, the home team were in trouble. How much later? To be precise: 8 innings, 14 light beers, 3 renditions of Aussie-Aussie-Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi & lots of yelling ‘you wanker’ at the evil opposition from Tulscon….

Fresno player striking out. There was too much of this for 8 innings!

How much trouble? Well, at the bottom of the 8^th, the home boys were down 1-4. When the Tulscon team scored again at the top of the 9^th, we were stuffed. Lots of the local fans walked out, but us stoic Aussies refused to leave until the end. Unbelievably, the grizzlies scored 5 home runs in the final innings and managed a win from an almost impossible position! Needless to say, we went off! It was unbelievable…

Fresno striking out one of the bad guys. Yay!

Some interesting asides (see if you can spot the common theme):

-Beer is ridiculously expensive. $7.50 for a pint of light
-They stop serving beer after the 7^th innings! You can’t buy it toward the end of the game!
-They asked Michelle and Sarah for ID and refused to serve either of them because their IDs weren’t from the US. Michelle had words with every responsible person in the arena, but to no avail…
-Glen and I were rowdy and rude, but they served us every time we asked...

After the game the city of Fresno put on a special fireworks display in our honour, and we then headed home. But not before we stopped into “in and out” (a burger joint). I love this place. Their menu gives you 3 choices:
-Hamburger
-Cheese burger
-Double double (2 patties, two pieces of cheese)

Along with chips and drinks. I think it is brilliant that they keep it so simple.

“What do you do?”
“We sell hamburgers”
“Cool. Can I have a grilled chicken on foccacia?”
“No”
“How about a soy late?”
“No”
“Can I at least see the salad menu”
“No… Bugger off back to Canada.”

I like them. An unapologetic hamburger joint.

Fireworks in our honour!