Happiest Place on Earth

In my nine illustrious years in the workforce, I have yet to work on Opening Day. As soon as the schedule comes out, I block that day on my calendar for vacation. This year was no different as I headed to Coors Field with a ton of my friends. We hit several parties in LoDo prior to the game, drank lots of cold beer, snacked on roasted peanuts, and actually managed to get a little sunburned during the game.

The view from our seats looking west. Bet your ballpark doesn't have that kind of view.

The Rockies ended up losing to the Diamondbacks, but overall it was one hell of a way to spend a Friday.

Full house at Coors Field

I already have tickets to four more games in April and May. If summers past are any indicator, I will be at Coors Field quite a bit this summer. It's never really mattered to me if I'm sitting in seats behind the dugout or out in the Rockpile, I just love being there.

I like the way the grass looks. I love the smell of a Rockie Dog. Nothing is better than the sound of a bat making contact with the ball. I love the warm, dry air that, thanks to the mountains, almost always has a light breeze to go with it. I love how, despite what a fantastic player he is, Tulo is still humble and having so much damn fun playing the game. I like the look of the hand laid brick of the ballpark. I love the row of purple seats that goes around the entire ballpark to mark 5, 280 feet above sea level - mile high. I like the fact that our mascot is a dinosaur because they found so many dinosaur bones during construction of Coors Field. I love jumping up for and/or ducking from a foul ball. I like night games after work when you meet up with friends you haven't seen in a while because everyone spent the winter hibernating.

If you're not a baseball fan, you probably don't get it but trust me - it's all good stuff.