June 22-24, 2025
I wish I could say that the only reason I went to L.A. was for a Dodger game. While I did got to the Dodger game, I was there for a memorial service for my grandma.
My paternal grandmother passed away in Boise back in February, shortly after her 89the birthday. A memorial service was initially set for April but complications within my parents’ household prevented that from happening and the service was pushed to June 23.
Pre-Trip Antics
I made arrangements to fly out June 22 and return the 24th, however the most convenient flight for me to depart on left Des Moines at 6:00 am, landing me in Orange County at just after 9:00 am, PDT.
I reserved a Motel 6 in Westminster and booked a rental car, all before booking a one-night hotel stay at a hotel by the airport for the night before my early flight.
Before travel day, Brandy decided we should both sign up for TSA Pre-Check KTNs (Known Traveler Numbers). I filled out our applications online and submitted them, then made an appointment at the nearest office to finalize the applications. The nearest office was in West Des Moines, a nearly 2 hour drive from home. I set the appointment for the following Friday, and we left at 2:00 to make our 4:00 appointment.
After a nearly two hour drive, including my regular pee stop, we showed up about 12 minutes until 4:00. By the time we left, our appointment time still had not come. We were in the building for seven minutes.
We walked in, said we were there for a 4:00 appointment, we were led down a long, liminal hallway and into a small office where a computer and photo station were set up.
We had fingerprints and photos taken, and were sent on our way.
That was it.
Four hours of driving (out and back) for a 7 minute appointment…
Ah well.
We were told our KTNs would arrive via e-mail in 3-5 days. My flight to California was leaving in two, so was slightly disappointed that I would be able to use the TSA Pre-Check on this flight.
We stopped for sushi before hopping back on the highway and headed home.
Trip Time
The next day, I finished packing up, took care of some errands that needed to be handled, then headed out just after 5:00 to the Best Western by DSM airport. I checked in, went to my room and called Brandy to let her know I’d made it safely. When I got off the phone with her, I checked my e-mail and saw that my KTN had already come. Sweet!
I logged on to the United website and added the KTN to my trip. Without knowing how much the TSA Pre-Check line would shave off my time in security, I decided to play it safe and show up at the airport at the same time as I usually do- about an hour and a half before flight time.
I got to the airport a little after 4:00, parked and hiked through the parking garage to the terminal. All I had was a carry-on any my backpack (my personal item), and I had my boarding pass on the United app on my phone, so I skipped the counter and headed straight to the security checkpoint. I followed the signs to the TSA Pre-Check “line”… I say “line” because there was one guy ahead of me. He ran through then I came up. I handed the TSA agent my drivers license, and he took my picture. I threw my stuff on the conveyor belt and waltzed through the metal detector, belt and shoes still on.
Even with the short lines at DSM, the TSA Pre-check made it almost a non-stop journey. I headed to my gate and waited to start boarding. We boarded and we made the flight to Denver then on to John Wayne International Airport without incident, landing in sunny SoCal just before 9:30.
I made my way to the Enterprise counter, picked up my rental, a Hyundai Santa Fe, and headed directly up to 1000 Vin Scully Avenue.
Dodger Stadium
I was STUNNED at how quick the drive to the stadium was. On a Sunday afternoon, I was at the stadium 45 minutes after picking up the rental. That drive normally would have been 2 hours.
The parking lot gates open 2 hours before game time. With a 1:10 first pitch, I found myself in the line to enter the parking lot about 40 minutes early. Just after 11:00, the gates opened and we were funneled into the enormous 130 acre parking lot. Previous journeys to Dodger Stadium proved to be a free-for-all when it came to parking. You’d enter the lot and either park in the regular parking lot, or the premium lot. Aside from that, park where you want.
This time though, parking attendants directed us to fill the lot efficiently, directing us to specific spots within our designated areas. I was guided into a spot, hopped out of the Santa Fe and made my way toward the holy land.
The powder blue facades surrounding the stadium evoked a deep nostalgia, the sights, the sounds, the smells, all familiar, but heavier with my triumphant return to Chavez Ravine, my first visit in nearly 20 years.
I knew the stadium had undergone many renovations since my last visit and I got to experience a good portion of those updates first-hand. Most of the upgrades took place in the areas immediately surrounding the outfield pavilions which is where my purchased ticket was seated.
The side walls of the stadium-proper are invariably adorned with the images of players, usually a solo image of the current “face of the franchise” or super-mega star. I was expecting to see Kerhsaw and Ohtani’s images gracing the sides of the building and was pleased to see the right field side plastered with a celebration of the team’s 2024 World Championship, their first since 2020, and their first in a full 162 game season since 1988 (since apparently, to San Diego and Houston fans, that’s now a qualifier, that the World Series win is ONLY legitimate if the Dodgers played 162 games in 2020. It doesn’t matter that EVERY team played the same number of games, and EVERY team was given the SAME opportunity to win the SAME trophy, and that those teams’ fans wouldn’t be saying shit if THEIR team had won it… ahem… let me get off my soap box…)
Anyway, I wandered around aimlessly, completely lost as the area I was in looked NOTHING as I remembered it. There was plenty of wonderfully decorated and landscaped areas surrounding the pavilions. Gone were the bleak, industrial steel and concrete landscapes of my memory.
Scattered about were enormous replicas of the team’s World Series rings from years past.
And a 6 foot tall Tommy Lasorda bobblehead.
The last time I was anywhere near the outfield pavilions at Dodger Stadium, there were concession stands and bathrooms directly under the seats, and that was it.
Now there are several restaurants and fantastic seating areas on a gorgeous patio behind the bleachers.
I wandered around looking for some souvenirs that I could bring home to commemorate my time but wasn’t thrilled with what I saw in the team store or the other souvenir stands scattered around.
I made my way to a concession stand and got myself the food of the Gods, the footlong Farmer John Dodger Dog (yeah, I know Farmer John isn’t the maker of the official Dodger Dog any more, but hey, let me just have this, huh?)
I know, the glizzy connoisseurs are going to have a hissy fit about the fact that I put ketchup on my hot dogs. Well, that’s how I like them so I’m sorry my joy causes you so much distress.
My seat was on the center field side of the left field pavilion. Closer to the left field foul pole, between the pavilion and the rest of the stadium, is the Dodgers’ bullpen. An hour before game time and there were SO many people draped over the railings on both sides, watching the afternoon’s starting pitcher warming up before his start. The pitcher that day? Shohei Ohtani. Of COURSE so many people were dangling over the rails watching.
My seat was situated smack dab under the California sun. I’d had the wherewithal to put on sunscreen before I left the car so I felt well protected.
Finally, it was game time. I won’t bore you (any more than I already am) with the minutiae of the game, suffice it to say that the Dodgers put a whomping down on the Washington Nationals, eventually winning the game 13-7.
I had pulled my short sleeves up in an effort to try to get some color on my upper arms. Pink is a color, right?
Post-Game Activities
I left just before the 9th inning started. I headed out of the pavilion and toward the parking lot with absolutely no idea where I had parked. Again, the Dodger Stadium parking lot is 130 acres. I knew I’d parked behind the pavilions but did not take note of what lot or section I’d parked in. I wandered the parking lot for a good 30 minutes looking for an unfamiliar car I’d just acquired a few hours before. Finally, I happened upon the old 76 gas station that used to be a standard fixture in the lot. At one time, it was a fully functioning gas station but its days have long since gone. It was, however, especially helpful in that I remember seeing it to my right as I approached the stadium from the car. Knowing where I was in relation to that building is what got me back to the car, no worse for the wear.
Once in the running AC of the Hyundai, I pulled up the e-mail from hotels.com confirming my booking at the Westminster Motel 6. The address in the e-mail was a link that opened up Google Maps. I hit the start button and headed on my way.
Google Maps did a pretty amazing job navigating me around the traffic exiting the stadium and trying to get back on the freeway. I passed a TON of cars stopped in lengthy lines trying to crawl their way back onto the 110. I made lefts where I would have turned rights, I turned rights where I would have gone straights, and before you knew it, I was back on the 5, then to the 10, hit some traffic on the 710, then on down to the notorious 405.
I navigated the way using Google Maps’s guidance and found myself at the Motel 6 in short order. I went to check in, but they didn’t have me in their system. I showed them my confirmation e-mail and was told that I was at the wrong Westminster Motel 6, that the other one was around the corner and up the road. The link embedded in the e-mail was linked to the wrong address.
I got back into the car, manually typed in the address and found myself at the CORRECT Westminster Motel 6 in short order.
I checked in, was given a first floor room facing Goldenwest St, quickly cleaned myself up, then headed to the hotel where my parents were staying to pick them up. From there we went to Black Bear Diner in Santa Ana. I’d never heard of this establishment, but was pleased with it. The food, atmosphere and service were all pretty good.
It was nice seeing my parents and having dinner with them again, even with the pending circumstances.
After dinner, I dropped them back at their hotel then headed back to mine, calling it a night soon after.
Memorial Service
The next day, I picked my parents up again at their hotel at about 10:30. We headed up to La Mirada where my grandma was to be laid to rest with my grandpa at Olive Lawn Memorial Park. We arrived early so my parents could meet with the person performing the memorial service. I sat under the tent that was set up near the columbarium and reflected on memories I had with my grandma. She was a wonderful woman, so full of love and life and it was so damned sad to see such a rapid decline in her quality of life at the end.
As I sat, more family members started arriving, most of whom I hadn’t seen in years. Both of my sisters were there with their families, as well as a couple of cousins and aunts and uncles.
The ceremony was short and wonderful, speeches given by my mom, an aunt and a cousin, then we walked down a short hill where her and my grandpa’s mixed cremains were interred into the columbarium.
After, the crowd dispersed and we all headed over to a nearby Lascari’s Italian (pizza, really) in Whittier where the family took up a vast majority of the small dining room.
I wound up sitting with my sisters and cousins and we connected like we never had before. It was very nice having the chance to sit and talk to everyone and catch up on life since the last funeral.
After our late lunch, I took my parents back to their hotel then headed to my sister’s house in Huntington Beach. The core family was there, including my parents and both sisters and their families. My parents left after a couple of hours but I stuck around until 11:30 that night after a lengthy conversation about what we were going to do about our parents and their stubbornness when it comes to their late in life plans.
I finally left and headed back to my hotel, pulling in just before midnight.
The Flight Home
My flight was originally supposed to depart SNA at 1:14 pm and a scheduled arrival at 9:30 or so, plus an hour and a half drive home after that, I was looking at getting home at 11:00 pm.
With nothing better to do on a Tuesday morning, I headed to the airport early, getting there at 9:30 am. I returned my rental car, breezed through security (thanks to TSA Pre-Check) and hung out in the terminal.
At about 12:45, we started lining up to board the plane and, in fact, the first few people in the line made it on to the plane and I was on the jetway just getting ready to enter the craft when we were turned around and told that there was a ground stop in Denver due to weather and that our flight would be delayed.
I had a good length layover in Denver but that was burned through before we took off so my concern about making my connecting flight increased dramatically. Finally, we took off at just before 3:30, landing in Denver at 6:30.
My connecting flight was supposed to leave at around 4:30 or so but the ground stop had delayed that flight as well, but two hours? I wasn’t hopeful. As we taxied to the gate, I checked my departure gate and was dismayed to see it was taking off from a different concourse.
We landed, I ran off the plane and through the airport to the train that runs between terminals just as the doors were closing.
I hopped off at the next terminal and made as mad a dash as I could make to the gate furthest from the depot just in time to see my plane pushing away.
In Santa Ana, I had placed myself on the next (and last) flight to DSM that night, scheduled to leave at 9:00 and land in Des Moines at midnight, now pushing my arrival home to 1:30 am.
I was given a meal credit for the delays so I sat down and had a nice little dinner and a couple of margaritas then headed to my gate where my flight was now delayed even further. My 9:00 flight now didn’t leave until 10:00 so I didn’t land in Des Moines until 1:00.
Exhausted from the weekend and just that day, there was no way I was going to drive for an hour and a half, creeping in to the house at almost 3:00 am. I got a room at a nearby hotel and made the drive home early Wednesday morning.
Conclusion
While it’s hard to say the trip went entirely as planned, it was still a pretty awesome trip. I made my triumphant return to Blue Heaven on Earth, watched the boys in blue whomp on the Nats, got to hang out and reconnect with long-lost family, and sadly said my final good-byes to grandma.
The debacle getting home was kind of the last straw for me after the nightmare we encountered coming back to Albuquerque from Ottumwa for Christmas 2022, I will now go forward doing my best to avoid that airport at all costs… except for our return trip from Mexico in October…
The only pictures I took were at Dodger Stadium, and there were only a few of those, and are, of course, found in the Photo Diary.
The day after I got home, we took off for a quick three days in Kansas City for a SECOND Dodger game in a week for me, stay tuned for a post about that trip coming up next.
Until then!
-Phil
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