We went to the ball park on Saturday. It’s not just about going to watch a baseball game. SunTrust Park is an experience!

Wow! I will tell you I had very low expectations. Honestly, I was not a proponent of the whole idea. Spending $2 billion on a baseball stadium seemed like a ridiculous idea to me.

My tune has changed.  Our friends Tricia and Henry Holder invited us to SunTrust Park to check it out and watch the UGA baseball game.  This particular game was mostly general admission, so we headed straight for center field. The seats are field level. You feel like you are practically ON the field. After sitting there for a while, we tried out seats in just about every part of the stadium, including the nose bleed seats by third base.

One of the surprising things about the field is that every seat feels close. It is a very intimate feel and the seating sections are angled toward the infield so there is no neck-kinking to watch the game.  There seriously is not a bad seat in the house.  The stadium is designed specifically for baseball. That may seem like a weird thing to say, but remember, Turner Field was designed for the Olympics and had to be able to host lots of different types of events. SunTrust Park FEELS like a baseball stadium.

I have to mention the Jumbotron. At one point, Tricia asked me how big it was. My answer was simply, “HUGE!” The picture is 4K resolution, which is double HD. Imagine that. It is truly spectacular. I did some research and couldn’t find the size, so if you are reading this and know, please comment and include a link to the information please!

Food. Well, I have to admit to my husband and I indulging in a hotdog and Coke. I guess we are traditionalists when it comes to ball park food. However, they have every kind of food you can think of available, from a steak restaurant to pizza, and everything in between. And the prices were not exorbitant like I expected. We got 2 hotdogs, a bag of peanuts, a soda and a bottle of water for $23. Not cheap, but not ridiculous. They have healthy choices like salads too. I’ll be curious to see how healthy restaurant options do at a ball field.

A couple of other things to note.

The air circulates!  If you ever watched a game at Turner Field, you probably remember how unbelievably stagnant the air was. We noticed today that the flag wasn’t moving at all, but there was a breeze the whole time. They have done a great job keeping the air moving with giant ceiling fans and magic. I’m really not sure how they did it, but it was delightful.

There is something to do for every age. The kid play areas had age-appropriate activities including a zip line and batting cages for teens, and a sprint to see how fast you can get to the distance to first base and festival-type games for younger kids.

And for the big kids, there are bars of all different shapes and sizes, including a local brewery. There are so many different seating areas, from your regular seats to outdoor sofas and barstool seating.

Technology is everywhere. Bathrooms are everywhere. The people who worked there were incredibly friendly and helpful.

Heads: This is really important. They do NOT plan to have any drive-up and pay parking. You must purchase your parking ahead of time. And Waze will guide you to your exact parking space. They also have an entire area dedicated to Uber drop off and pick up. Honestly, next time we go, we will Uber. The parking is about $20 and round-trip Ubering will not be that much more, and you are dropped off right at the gate.

Tails: If you forgot to bring your kids’ (or your own) baseball glove, Mizuno has you covered. You can rent a glove!

I expect SunTrust Park to be a destination for an entire day. If people are going to the game, they will go early and stay after because there is so much to do. I’m sure the games will make traffic even more of an issue, but the traffic will actually probably be fairly staggered because everyone will not be trying arrive and leave at the same time.