Heads up- going to try putting in text ahead of inserting pics and video. So, if you don't see pics/vids, it's still a work in progress
Side note- part 2 of this trip received its first major alteration. We decided to postpone Universal. Sam needs some extra time for conditioning for club softball tryouts after being in a boot. Assuming she's cleared on the 19th, we will be getting her into the gym while on the cruise to start back with strength training and basic endurance, but she's going to need a few extra days to get in some fielding drills and batting. As a result, we decided to push Universal to Thanksgiving. We're going to hit the parks for a few days before driving down to south Florida to be with family. My parents were booked on a Princess cruise at that time, but rescheduled for a later date. Hey, at least we'll get in some good holiday vibes and hopefully better park weather.
Back to the TR...
Day 3 - June 27th
I started off my day with a totally touristy moment. I had to run out to the car and stopped to snap a pic of the mountains from the parking lot before heading back in.
The front desk manager had come out for a smoke and asked what I was taking pictures of ... because really, there was nothing out of the ordinary for her there. I jokingly told her I was probably going to do a trip report and that the mountains were heavily obscured in haze and rain the previous day. She looked confused...I felt embarrassed. Oh well.
We got ourselves together and went to a nearby breakfast/brunch spot. They were oddly packed for 10:30am on a Monday, but whatever. We had too many plans for the day for me to indulge in a drink, so I got the supposedly Insta-worthy Bloody Mary grilled cheese.
It was really just ok and not really all that Insta-worthy either.
Sam and David's meals didn't get photographed, so I guess that means they were boring! Kendall got some spruced up avocado toast. It came with a side of goat cheese, but she asked them to swap it for queso fresco instead. They wound up putting both on the plate, the server didn't know which was which, and we had a moment like Tom Hanks in Big with the caviar. At least I got the rest of her goat cheese!
As we were finishing up, I got a message from the dad of one of Sam's softball friends from her previous team. They were also in the Denver area, but playing at an invitational in a different tournament. We'd eventually coordinate a meet up, but I got a good laugh at first. He gave me the sport complex name, which was just noted as "Industrial Park" on their planner. I plugged in "Industrial Park" into Google maps and it came up as only 15-20 minutes away from our hotel. Then I realized I'd been mapped to an actual industrial park. At least I would eventually find the actual fields...40-45 minutes away and closer to Boulder.
The opening player party for the tournament was supposed to start around 2 and there were something like 200 teams in Sam's division, so we didn't have a ton of time to play around. We did pop into Target so that David could look again for sweats (nothing) and get some essentials (like lip balm). Sam got ridiculously excited over a cup while we were there.
After last year's opening ceremony parking fiasco in Panama City Beach, I decided arriving early was our best plan. I think it was about 12:15pm when we arrived. Ooops.
At least it wasn't all for naught...I mean, we did choose to go so that we could figure some things out to get a head start on next year. When we arrived, they were doing some All Star games. Later on would be more traditional showcases. While Sam had a referral for these (pre-injury), we found out she's too young. This is a big factor in all of our team drama right now. Everything hinges on graduation years. Because she has a late birthday and is after the cutoff, she's a grade behind 97% of her teammates. Oh well...we watched and learned from it.
I will try to keep my gripes about this team to a minimum, but it may seep in here and there. For this day/event, let's just say meeting up and such wasn't well coordinated and the opinion based decisions by some made for a reduced experience for the girls IMO. They decided to go with these team rally hats and skipped out on pin trading, saying it's only for little kids. While I liked that Sam was able to customize her rally hat and wasn't bound by the preferences of other girls, my child would have preferred pins. And contrary to their opinions, nearly every other team we saw had pins, wanted to trade, and thought we were the oddballs for not participating in the standard fun.
I did give major props to one of the teams from Hawaii. Their custom opening festivities gear was on point!
Ultimately, opening festivities were a real bust. That's not the team's fault. It was just a bunch of vendors and really nothing else.
We hung around for a bit to watch some of the showcases for scouts, but it’s so dull when your kid isn’t playing. We had plenty of time and daylight, so we hopped in the car and headed to something we enjoyed in the past…
Well…after we re-navigated our way. My car nav routed me to an employee entrance in the back…so we went the looooooooong way around.
