If You Build It....

I remember the day we met.

It was Labor Day weekend 2005. My friend Jenny and I had decided last minute to make the hour drive up to Pittsburgh as an end-of-summer road trip.

As the car zoomed out of the Fort Pitt tunnel and into the sun, I blinked in amazement at the Pittsburgh skyline. For those of you who have never been to the western Pennsylvania city, I have to tell you.....there's almost nothing quite like the sudden entrance into a world of yellow bridges, skyscrapers, and waterways.

Anxious as a kid on their first day of school, I bounced in my seat and looked around excitedly.

"I wonder where she is," I thought to myself.

You see, I had heard about her glory for a few years, but had yet to make her acquaintance. She was still very young, and I had been away for a while.

And then, as I turned my head to the left, I saw her.

PNC Park. Home of the Pirates.

That Labor Day weekend became the start of a beautiful friendship. Although I don't get to visit as much as I'd like, I always look forward to my time at that ballpark.

I've sat through games in cold weather, with a promo blanket draped across my lap in what my friend Leah terms "invalid chic". I've also sat through the hottest of hot, sprawled out in a chair apart from my friends just to get some breathing room.

I've witnessed some pretty strange occurrences at her side. Like the time my friends and I watched some guys snorting huge lines of cocaine in the car beside us as we tailgated. Let me tell you, you've never seen four girls scatter in four different directions so fast in your life.

And the Pierogi races. Oh, the Pierogi races. Who doesn't like to see pasta filled with potatoes race?????

Classic.

To be honest with you, there's few places that make me smile quite like PNC. From the boats that float lazily by to the fantastic pirate ship battle that precedes every game, PNC never fails to feel like coming home.

You know, if I lived in a ball park.

So fellow sports fans, what's your favorite ball park/stadium/arena? Do you remember your first time meeting it? Let me know!

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I'm off this weekend to Atlantic City for an early birthday celebration with some of my favorite ladies. Ergo, there won't be a post on Monday. Fingers crossed I make it back alive so I can blog about the All-Star game next week. Ciao!

Images provided by the Sports-o-nista and pittsburghpierogi.