is that the good seats can be somewhat expensive. Lower bowl seats are all pretty good – the dark red on the chart are all good seats.

Prices @ http://mlb.mlb.com/sd/ticketing/seating_pricing.jsp

If you want to spend less, I’d advocate either the upper deck behind home plate ($19) or the $5 standing room park pass seats. You won’t have a seat with the park pass, but they allow you to get to places with good views just walking up and since no one goes to Padre games since they’re a boring team I doubt you’ll have trouble finding a decent seat somewhere.

Other notes:
Thursday day games often have 2 for 1 tickets for certain sections (check out their website). Generally, day games in San Diego are HIGHLY recommended because the weather is gorgeous during the day and can be damp and cold at night, even in June (especially in June, for some reason here). I’d suggest the Thursday day game if you are planning on going with someone.

If you go to Friday night’s game, I’d recommend bringing a light fleece or jacket. You should probably pack one for visiting San Diego this time of year anyway.

Places to eat: Go to Hillcrest instead of Downtown for eating – better food, not overpriced like Gaslamp downtown (though not “cheap” either). Yelp.com is pretty strong in San Diego, so hit that up for recommendations for different types of food. Asian food and taco shops are the best in San Diego.

in Section 131. The seats were good but not great, mainly because neither team every hit the ball to the outfield grass that day.

I would also recommend the day game, although last year they did put on a good fireworks show after the Friday night game.

If driving, I’d recommend parking at the old town trolley stop. It’s free, close, and the trolley runs pretty late. Parking is pretty much 20 bucks everywhere down, and not always plentiful. The other option would be if you wanted to tailgate beforehand, you can park at the Murph and grill and chug it up to your heart’s desire. It is a good bit longer of a ride on the trolley, but not bad.

Also, if you want to get a good SoCal beach hood experience, go see Ocean Beach. Lots of fun little shops, bars, and whatnot, including a killer boardwalk. Check out Winston’s for live music down there.

Speaking of live music, San Diego has a pretty good small concert scene, especially in the summer. Some venues to scan and see if one of your faves is playing:

4th and B (between the lamp and little italy)
Humphrey’s (Point Loma)
The Belly Up Tavern (my personal #1, in Solana Beach)
Hard Rock (lamp)
the Bitter End (mostly cover bands, but at least they’re really good cover bands, in the lamp)

Stay away from Coronado, unless you want to check out the Hotel Del Coronado, which is a pretty good call if you want some fine dining. The rest of the “island” makes downtown look reasonable.

Old Town is another good place to eat and browse, as is Little Italy. La Jolla, this may shock you to learn, is also way overpriced/rated.

If you like lobster and Mexico, you can take the trolley to the border, take a $5 busride to Puerto Nuevo/Rosarito, and get treated like kings and queens at Lobster Village. And the Rosarito beach is really nice, not at all like it’s dirtyass whore neighbor, TJ. Good shopping there too. 20 minutes from la linea.

You can also take in some breathtaking views if you drive down catalina rd. towards the Cabrillo lighthouse. At the end of the peninsula, you get a gorgeous look at most of San Diego Bay, the sub base, downtown, ertc. La Jolla cove also has amazing views (just skip the shopping and eating).

And, of course, the Zoo is amazing.

Hope this helps. If you have specific things you are interested in, holla back, maybe I can help.