2. Petco Park - August 12, 2015

This was the trip that got the ball rolling.

The idea to "start" the journey in California is a weird one. It was a year before that three of my good friends decided to go to Los Angeles for a week. I've never left the East Coast for any reason. I have no recollection of being on an airplane. This is something I wanted, I needed to do.

I work at a major electronics retailer. There's not many left, so you can make a pretty good guess as to which one. I had a lot of vacation time that I didn't think I would be using. So, before the holiday preparation began, I took a week's vacation to get away. As to where, that wasn't decided yet.

The view from my seat down the left field line.

I was scrolling through travel websites for where to go and prices. Then, I thought back to my friends' trip and decided to go to San Diego. I chose San Diego over LA, San Francisco or any other city in California is because of the pricing and location. And I made the right choice.

So, I had the hotel and the flight booked, my rent a car waiting for me and my baseball tickets in my hand. I boarded the plan and off to San Diego I went.

I spent the first couple of days in San Diego driving around and sightseeing. I obviously went to the Zoo. I was there for over five hours, but that's not why you're reading this.

The San Diego Padres were facing the Cincinnati Reds. It was a 12:40 afternoon game. It was a beautiful day. Petco Park was easy to get to, and it's a very nice stadium. Compared to the two ballparks in New York, this was very wide open. If you are walking around the concourse, you can look outside and see the beautiful city around you.

What you can see walking around the concourse.

The game went by pretty quickly, lasting just under three hours, but it was a good game. I saw then-Reds closer Aroldis Chapman. Both Matt Kemp and Joey Votto hit home runs. James Shields got rocked in this game, five runs in 6.1 innings.

I'm not sure if it's because of the time of day, midday on a Wednesday, or the Padres were not a good team, and still not, but the stadium was empty. All but three sections up top was empty.

Even though I wasn't sitting at field level, I had a good view of the field. And for $25, I'm not going to complain.

Around the ninth inning, I got up from my seat and decided to leave, but I hung around until the final out. That is something I would soon regret because I had a long trip ahead of me to get to my next game.

Overall, despite the lack of fans or success from the team, Petco Park is a great stadium. I had a really good time in San Diego, so much so that I almost didn't come home.