Stadium #7: Globe Life Park in Arlington, Arlington, TX

Our last stadium for 2014 was The Ballpark Globe Life Park in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers and Cam's team.  This game marked our second home team loss but it was still a really fun game because we went with Cam's cousin, B, her husband, M, and their 6 year old tot, B who was going to his FIRST EVER MLB game!  Read more about our day of art in Fort Worth and the game at the Ballpark!



Cameron's parents live in Granbury which is southwest of Fort Worth/Arlington so he grew up on Rangers baseball.  Meaning he endured the early 90s and 2000s as a Rangers fan which must have been tough.  But the last few years the Rangers have gone to two World Series and made the playoffs...until this year.  Saddled with a ton of injuries the team had a terrible year.  But with a healthy roster next year hopefully they'll bounce back.  They lost the game we attended (with the Tigers' loss we are now 5-2 seeing the home team win) but it's made a tad better considering they lost to the Royals who would eventually sweep through the playoffs and take the AL crown.

I wouldn't say that Cameron and I are "opposites" in the "opposites attract" sense but I am definitely a chatterbox and he's more stoic and quiet.  While I love him I was totally mad at him last Christmas when I met his cousin, B.  I was mad because she is super outgoing and chatty chatty like me and he never told me about her!  I liked her instantly when I met her and her husband, M.  They have two adorable sons, a 6 year old and a 1 year old.  Since they live in Fort Worth I told Cameron that we should invite them to the Rangers game because what little boy doesn't love going to the ballpark?  Not only were B and M down to go to the game but we found out that it was little B's FIRST ever game.  I don't think I've ever been to a baseball game with a little boy for his first time and I recommend it!  The look on his face when he saw a homerun get hit was the cutest thing I've seen all year.

So we headed up to Cam's parents' house on a Friday evening and went to bed early.  Saturday morning we got up early to head into Fort Worth.  We went through a small town on the way in order to take a picture of a courthouse.  You see, last summer when I went to Granbury with Cameron for the first time I thought it was so quaint how you have to go through so many small towns and pass so many small town courthouses on the way.  On the way back to Houston that time we just stopped in all of the small town squares and took pictures of the courthouses.  I posted them on Instagram and my friends love them so it kind of became our "thing."  Now whenever we're driving in Texas and we're near a county seat located in a small town we stop and take a quick picture.  So many people--people I wouldn't even expect!--have told me they love the courthouse pictures.  So we'll keep taking them.  We took advantage of the drive between Granbury and Fort Worth to cross another county off of our list.  Thus, I give you the very pretty Parker County Courthouse in Weatherford, Texas.

Outside of Texas I think that people just know that Fort Worth is in close proximity to Dallas and that's about it.  But because of vast oil fortunes Fort Worth has some of the most impressive art in the country.  Our first stop was the Amon Carter. They have an impressive collection of Frederic Remington art, one of Cameron's favorite artists.

After the museum we had worked up an appetite so we hopped on Yelp to find somewhere nearby where we could get lunch and a good beer.  We decided to try out The Bearded Lady and everything was great!  They had a very impressive beer selection including one whose entire top came off.  Kind of silly but novel and fun!

With our bellies full we headed out for more art, this time to The Modern Art Museum.  But on the way we swung by the Tarrant County Courthouse to take a photo.  And this photo led to a serendipitous meeting!

There are so many effects of social media that have been discussed to death in various thinkpieces.  But I do love social media for its initial purpose: connecting people.  After I posted this photo on Instagram my friend H commented that she and her husband who I've known since 9th grade and live in Jackson, MS, were in Fort Worth for a wedding!  She was busy with hair and makeup appointments but she said that her husband, A, who I went to camp and college with but hadn't seen in a few years, had a few open hours in the afternoon.  And so did Cam and I!  After some texts we arranged to meet up at a bar for a drink after we were done at The Modern Art Museum.

We had a blast at the Modern.  I'm usually more of a classic art kinda gal but there were so many fun pieces there.  One of my favorites was a wall with portraits of these four sisters--one portrait every year for forty years.  It was so amazing to see how they all changed.  A couple months after we saw it I kept seeing people post articles about the photos so I felt very hip having already seen it.  Here are some of the neat pieces we saw...

After our souls were sufficiently filled with art we headed up to meet my old friend, A.  I look terrible in this picture but here's proof that we actually saw each other for once in a few years!

Obviously we had to HOOK EM.

After our afternoon beers we headed to B and M's house to pick them up for the game!  Their 1 year old, W, while adorable, would've been a nightmare at a baseball game so we left him with his grandparents.  But not before I made him take a picture with me for which he was not interested.

Finally it was time to head to the stadium!

Cowboy Stadium, right next door

Erected in 1994 

I didn't realize until right now that we didn't get a picture of all 5 of us!  Oh well you get the point of who all was there:

B, me, Cam, Lil B

adorable family, minus baby W!

I make sure we take a picture in front of every stadium and Cam makes sure we get a picture behind home plate at every stadium.

Nolan Ryan

view from our seats

the only person I'd wear a Rangers shirt for.

oh man this pic of Lil B and his dad is making me melt!

It was...HOT.

Unfortunately the Rangers didn't get any luck from it being Lil B's first Major League Baseball game.  I'm pretty sure had an absolute blast, though!  The Rangers lost 6-3 to the Royals.  Alex Gordon hit a homerun in the top of the 1st so B got to see his first homerun almost immediately!  Later on in the game Shin Soo Choo hit one for the Rangers but it wasn't enough.  This means we've seen homeruns in 6 out of 7 parks (Wrigley being the exception) for a total of 14 homeruns thus far.  Pretty good!

As I said above, at least the Rangers lost to the Royals who would, of course, go on to a crazy playoff run and almost World Series victory.  This also is the first game where we saw a repeat team--we previously saw the Royals play in Cleveland.

Cam snapped this adorable pic of B right after Shin Soo Choo's homerun--I love his smile!

Along with Houston this was our other trip that didn't take a lot of planning and we could do whenever since it didn't require much travel.  But I feel like we really made the most of our day in Fort Worth and used the opportunity to spend time with Cam's family.  This was B's last weekend before first grade started so I think it was a fun last night of summer for him!  Even though it was hot and the Rangers lost this was a great game to end our 2014 travels!

We are well into the off-season now and we can't wait until baseball comes back into our lives!  But until then it's fun to scheme and plan for next summer.  We don't have anything set in stone yet but I think that California is in our near future...