Disneyland. I chose Dodger Stadium over the Rose Bowl. We ate some Rubio’s fish tacos and got hot dogs at Pink’s in Hollywood. I got a sensory tour of Koreatown and drove up the Hollywood Hills to the big sign – something I’d never done in my many trips to Los Angeles.
On the third day, we dragged him to LAX at 5 a.m. – once again, he had no clue where we were headed.
***
It’s no secret that I love the Bay Area. So does my wife.
She missed the Super Bowl in San Francisco earlier this year plus the Ravens trip to Santa Clara last October fighting for her life.
I quietly had dinner with Oakland Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in February and he pledged full support if I needed anything.
A week before Niels arrived in America, I googled the Raiders training facility and realized it was literally at the foot of the runway of the Oakland airport that we’d be arriving at around 8 a.m. on our one day in the Bay Area.
Two texts to Del Rio and his awesome assistant Rachel was putting together an incredible treat not only for Niels but for our desire to grow the bone marrow registry. We were invited into the team facility for a brief tour and I got to address a first-place NFL team with a plea to get swabbed that day.
It must’ve worked – we swabbed 44 members of the Oakland Raiders for the DKMS while I was showing Niels the cable cars, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
As we did a whirlwind day at the Fisherman’s Wharf and dined on my favorite dim sum at Yank Sing and margaritas and Shrimp Veracruz at Tommy’s, the Raiders were being kind to us and doing a good turn. Turns out, I can no longer be a Raider hater!
Meanwhile, the Warriors were incredible hosts, allowing Niels access to Steve Kerr’s now infamous press conference the day after the election. He also had a front row seat for Steph Curry warming up in a dribble and three-point shooting clinic on the floor of Oracle Arena. We also obtained some sweet Golden State Warriors version of #SagerStrong T-shirts to support Craig Sager, who had his life saved on the bone registry with a donation from a 20-year old back on August 31st.
Before the game, I tracked down Sarah Melton of the Dallas Mavericks, who took me to say hello to Mark Cuban. He insisted we grab Niels because he wanted to meet a real hero. Of course, none of us mentioned the words “Dirk” or “Nowitzki” because we didn’t want to tip off Niels about what was planned for New York the following Monday.
***
The alarm was set for 4:30 a.m. in Oakland after the Warriors game. We flew all day to get back to Baltimore for the Ravens win over the Browns on Thursday night. On Friday, Niels and Jenn did the Fox 45 Morning Show to tell our story. Immediately following, we headed to Washington, D.C. to show Niels the capital of the free world.
The Capitol. The Washington Monument. The Lincoln Memorial. The Mall. The Smithsonian museums. We had a great day in D.C. before hitting the Wizards game and running our swabbing table for DKMS and March For Marrow.
On Saturday morning, on Niels’ 24th birthday, we took him to the zoo to hang out with the penguins that were on his bucket list. And that evening, as Jenn woke up from an afternoon nap with a 101-degree fever, we hosted a few hundreds friends and family for a birthday party at Ruth’s Chris.
By the way, Mike Ricigliano is a genius!
***
I told him before I took him to Philadelphia that it’s not considered a very friendly place. Even a 24-year old kid from Germany knew that the fans once booed …
