Visit to Como Zoo

With Mommy at work and her brothers at school, Sarah needed something fun to do to get out of the house on Tuesday. Since her preschool "homework" involved zoo animals, Daddy decided to take her to the free Como Zoo in St. Paul for a couple of hours. Here's Sarah catching up with the giraffes.


The penguins were kind of groggy today, so Sarah took a picture with these lively penguin statues.


In front of some pretty purple flowers in the tropical exhibit.


Can't remember what kind of animal this is, but he kind of looks like Harley, mommy's dog, stuck up in a tree!


"Cheeeeeese!"

Marjorie McNeely Conservatory

There were TONS of pretty flowers in the conservatory area today!


Sarah was mesmerized by the fish in the koi pond. She spent more time there than anywhere else during our zoo trip.


"Here, fishy fishy!"


"MY daddy!"


A wide shot of the flowers ... and Sarah's back at the koi pond.

First trip to the new Target Field!

Rich and Sarah went to see the Twins beat up on the Boston Red Sox 8-0 at the new Target Field in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday. Here's Sarah posing in front of Pillsbury Center on the 10-block walk through downtown to the stadium.


Sarah and dad in front of the huge metal "wind veil" art sculpture covering the parking ramp outside Target Field. It's made up of 51,000 metal panels that move with the wind, creating a cool "amber waves" effect, and it's 285 feet wide and 60 feet high.


Lookin' into the sun, just before we went through Gate 34 (in honor of the late, great Kirby Puckett).


We got to the game an hour early and had time to walk around inside the entire stadium. Sarah wanted to get her face painted, and she DID!


Sarah chose a "Hello Kitty" design for her face painting.

Target Field, Part II

It's STILL unbelievable to see REAL green grass and NO ROOF on the Twins stadium!


We checked out the bullpens. They're side-by-side behind center field. And those little trees over there help make up the batting eye for players swinging away at home plate.


We ran into our friends Steve and Margaret Monson while we were walking in the concourse. They sat in the seats next to us during the game! (Sorry the Red Sox lost, Steve.)


After we bought Sarah a Twins hat and a foam finger, we went down the steps to the lower level to check out the view at the field level.


Check out the giant scoreboard and video screen, which is the third-largest one in the major leagues. If you look closely, you can see the lineups for the Twins and Red Sox on there.

Target Field, Part III

Sarah got a ride through the bustling crowd in the lower concourse.


The view from our seats in the upper deck along the right-field line. Hey, there's T.C. the Bear on the scoreboard!


The infield ... NO ROOF! :-)


The skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis are hard to see from our seats, but they're there.


The right-field bleachers, plaza and parking ramp with metal "wind veil" artwork covering the side.

Target Field, Part IV

Twins starter Francisco Liriano gets ready to throw the first pitch of the game.


When Daddy and Steve went to get us some chow, Sarah and Margaret hung out together and took these "secret" pictures with daddy's camera.


"Go TWINS!"


"Twins are NUMBER ONE!"


A sleepy baseball fan on the ride home.