cards celebration road trip!

5:15 am (sunday morning)- my alarm went off.  

'Why is my alarm going off so early ON MY DAY OFF?!!??!'  (and after celebrating Halloween the night before)

'Oh yeah, it's Cardinals day!'

And I hopped out of bed.  Ok, maybe hopped is an exaggeration.  But I did get up & deep down I knew I was excited.

I'm a pretty impulsive person by nature (and I have problems making decisions until the last minute).  To clarify, this is in my personal life, not professionally.  I'm quite rational professionally.

Yea for being impulsive.

I got to St. Louis, walked around union station for a bit and then mom and dad were there before i knew it!  we found our spots for the parade about 3 hours before the parade started.  dad & i ended up walking along the route to the stadium, getting tshirts, looking for onesies with world series champs on it, enjoying the crowds, and getting some gus's.  then we made our way back to mom who was holding our spots and making friends with the people by us.  those 3 hours went by so quickly!  there was so much excitement and energy.  here's a great little video recap.  it was great to be surrounded by cardinals fans!

free posters on dad and my walk

LaRussa started off the parade with the Clydesdales

then i insisted we go to the stadium.  we dropped our stuff off at the car and stood outside of the fence in left field (we couldn't get tickets-mom & dad tried REALLY hard though).  i watched the screen and strained my ears to hear what was happening inside.  i was getting a little frustrated and... they opened the gates.  needless to say we hurriedly got in and didn't look back!

we got to see the clysdales come in and hear the speeches and see the highlights of the series again!  

freese's (mvp) speech was short and very sweet.  it was perfect.  

pujol's speech (this was after a LOT of screaming) was very upbeat!  

berkman's speech was well put.  i was talking with dad earlier about how well berkman gives quotes and talks with reporters.  he agreed.  i even talked about how what was so great about this team was we didn't win because of one specific person.  and that's basically what berkman said in his speech.  he talked about how they needed the contributions from everyone at different points.  

then la russa got up and gave a great speech.  he talked about all our animals we have as cardinals ;) and took what berkman said and added to it.  he said they were where they are-world series champs-because of the fans.  (insert eruption of cheering.)  I'm going to share the story that he shared:  It was the end of August, we were 10 1/2 games out and we were playing the Cubs (insert booing).  We were down 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th when all the fans in Busch got on their feet and started cheering.  We came back to win 2-1 and that was our turning point.  From that point on we were unstoppable.  

Thanks Tony!

Mom, Dad, & I wrapped up the day with dinner on the hill.  then they dropped me off at karen's (my ride to my 1:15 am bus).  karen & I had a hot chocolate party.  aka i was cold in her place so i had her make me hot chocolate and then i sipped it while she talked.  it was lovely. 

rating of the day:  A+++++++++

I like baseball.  

I love Cardinals baseball.  

I'm a little upset about the 4 months ahead of us without baseball in my life.

and i'm very sad laRussa is retiring.  i guess it's good for him, but i'm really going to miss him...
he talked about it a little bit on letterman.  he mentioned how special cardinal fans are.  oh yeah

he's been with the cardinals for 16 years.  that's basically all i remember of the cardinals.  the new manager has some major shoes to fill!

next time i'm at the stadium there'll be another flag up there