Cincinnati

This was the 7th game in 7 days for us. The hotel was nice. The park was new but not too big. The attendance was poor at the game. The food was unremarkable. The view from our seats of the river and Kentucky across the river was the best part. The Reds were ahead 13-0 in the bottom of the 5th and we left to go back to the hotel, eat dinner and relax.

Detroit

Early the next AM off to Detroit. Detroit is not a beautiful city and it would not be a place most would want to visit unless they were making a documentary on the car industry, but IF you ever find yourself in Detroit, stay at the Inn on Ferry Street. This place was really the best “hotel” I have ever stayed in. Comprised of four remodeled 19th century homes and two updated carriage houses, the “hotel” is really more of a B and B without all of the discomfort of a B and B. We had our own bathroom which was smaller than most of the other ones in the brochure but was still huge. They have Jacuzzi tubs, old cast iron tubs, etc. In addition to our four poster bed in the front room looking out on the front yard, we had a sitting room with a pull out bed if we needed it. All of the furnishings were of antique look but new. The walls, window treatments and whole package was a wonderful trip back in time and it would have been nice to have stayed longer. Downstairs, they had a winding staircase, window seat in the front parlor. Library complete with hundreds of books and CDs.

The game was nice also ;-) We had really good seats behind home plate and the game was entertaining. The Tigers were everywhere in the park and the fountain over center field lit up and shot up water with every home run. It was an enjoyable time – free shuttle to and from the game.

Minneapolis

If you pull out a map and look at our path, you may start to notice that we depart from all logical thinking at this point in time. Minneapolis is a four and a half hour drive west of Milwaukee. We stayed the nights of both of these games in Milwaukee because our next stop was Detroit (yup – look on a map and tell me how this makes sense). That is just how it goes sometimes. So, we were up early and did a lot of driving to get to the Minneapolis game.

The outside of the stadium was the nicest little collection of vendors we had seen. It was a nice sunny day. We parked literally right next to the stadium for cheap and got the most melt in your mouth BBQ ever, roasted corn, kettle corn and a homemade corn dog (they like corn). By the way, even with the walking we have been doing, we have both gained weight during this trip from all of the crap we have been forced to eat (I guess forced is not the right word). LA Fitness here we come!

The food was great and we sat in the shade before the game and enjoyed. The stadium is also used by the football team so we got the nosebleed seats behind home plate and watched the game from very high up. It was still a nice game and the stadium is very similar to the King Dome in Seatlle before it was torn down. The white puffy roof is also bad for outfielders who often lose sight of the ball – white on white.

We stopped at Mall of America to stock up on underwear and to see where the old field used to be – it could fit inside the current mall.

Milwaukee

Never have I seen baseball fans tailgate! I likely never will again. Occasionally, in places that aren’t plopped in neighborhoods, you will see people drinking at their car before the game. Sometimes, they will try to visit with a friend they came with and eat a quick snack before they enter a game. In cities like Boston and Baltimore, they close off a street and people hang out and visit and drink their beer and eat their brats outside the park but in close vicinity. This was NOTHING like that. This was full-on tailgating. After pulling into the parking lot, barbeques and fold out chairs appeared from nowhere. Several cars’ worth of people would gather around one grill and await food. Games were played – catch, football, beanbag toss, anything you could imagine. Whole families – extended families were gathering together at tables they unfolded from their trunks to eat and enjoy company before the game! WOW! We were even offered some really yummy corn that had been grilled next to us. We felt a little silly sitting on the back of our car and eating our chips and dip, but it was an AWESOME experience.

The game was really fun to as all of the people had been working up to the excitement of the game for the last two hours. We had great seats only about 20 rows behind home plate and our neighboring fans were very excited to be at the game. The stadium has a retractable roof and was a little too mechanical to be a ball park, but would have been nice protection for rain and sun had it been rainy or daytime. The only down side was the promotion for the evening was lunchboxes and they wouldn’t part with one – even for my hypothetical 6 year old at home – oh well.

Chicago

I have only driven through Chicago before and Tom has never been. That experience of driving through at almost midnight on a Sunday total traffic jam on one of my family’s across the country drives back to Kentucky when we needed to just get home was not very endearing. We do have a friend in Scottsdale that Tom worked with who lived in Chicago and told us how nice it was. Tom’s favorite band, Wilco, is also from Chicago. We were looking forward to exploring this city.

We arrived at the White Sox game and had a lot of traffic getting into the game. Parking was pretty easy and we found our seats. Right away we were in trouble with the heat. The seats are a dark smurf blue and with the afternoon sun beating down on them, the 90 degree heat felt more like 110! We made it through a couple of innings and then had to seek out a reprieve on the concourse. The problem was, however, that you could only stand in a place where there was not a vendor (I am not sure why – just the rules) The vendors also told us it would be okay to stand in the aisle but just not behind them. Apparently, there are no fire codes in the state of Illinois.

We eventually went to guest relations and they put us in a “different place”. That ended up being in the handicap section so we felt REALLY BAD and only stayed a couple more innings. IT was hot and we were tired and already my patience was wearing thin from the St. Louis smoking room. We decided to go back to our hotel before the rush hour traffic started and get settled in and go for a nice cruise on the river and Lake Michigan.

Our hotel was a very lovely old building. In the late 1800’s it had burned down and been rebuilt but stood exactly where the first one was built. The original building had been used by Lincoln and Douglas to debate! Our room was small but smoke-free and adequate and it was overlooking a neat old church and the Hancock building which was less than a block away.

We looked through all of the free coupons we were given and found a cocktail cruise. It was a wonderful time looking at the many buildings of Chicago while sipping a glass of wine and hearing about the history of the city. They have really done a lot to clean up their river and make the city a vibrant and wonderful place to live. It is a big city but doesn’t feel as crowded, dirty or smelly as NYC. It also has much more open space and is more easily maneuvered. The original city planners wanted lots of parks – one for everyone in the city to have within walking distance. And the largest of those are right on Lake Michigan. The have a large amphitheater, huge fountain, museums, gardens, artwork, sculpture, gathering places, baseball parks, thousands of Canada geese, and walking paths, bike rentals and outdoor movie theater area. All of this is free even when there are big events as is keeping with the original plan of the parks to be free, open and clean! They were all of that!

We enjoyed the end of a jazz set after our dinner cruise. People had brought picnics and blankets and chairs and those who weren’t sitting close in the auditorium style seats would just sit and enjoy on the yard. It was like the Britt festival in Southern Oregon, only free. The night lights were beautiful and the sculptures were also impressive. Later that night we ate at Ditka’s which was right next door to our hotel and visited with my friend Jamila who graduated with me from residency and has been here in Chicago for about a month doing a fellowship in women’s health and OB. It was nice to see a friendly face and to hear about her experience in Chicago – a little different living here than visiting especially when you work many many hours a week.

The next AM we headed to Wrigley Field. This is one of those parks where sitting in the bleachers in the outfield is a truly baseball experience; unmatched and unrivaled except maybe at Fenway. We ate at a nice place across the street and then found our way to the general admission bleachers in outfield. We sat in right field and enjoyed the die hard fans – who got more loud and raucous as the innings and the beer drinking progressed. The Cubs being the Cubs lost and we left a little early to catch the “L” back into the city and relax for the evening – we were beat!

After relaxing for the night, we went got up early and went for a walk back to the park in the daytime. We got to walk down the Magnificent Mile – shopping strip on our way. The park was different in the daytime but very beautiful and we had a better view of the city, buildings, gardens, and museums in the day time. I could live in Chicago if it weren’t so far away from home. It was very foggy and I could imagine what the winters must be like, but after Arizona – bring it on!

Now to Milwaukee…..

St Louis

From Kentucky, St Louis is the start of a seven game in seven days run, the longest on this trip….

I was in a bad mood before the game even started because we got put in a stinky smoking room. They didn’t tell us ahead of time, but it was a smoking floor which was obvious from the second you stepped off the elevator. I tried to get us switched, but they were “sold out” for the night. They offered an ozone machine which would “completely remove all the smell” I overheard a guy next to me canceling his reservation for the evening as his plans had changed at the last minute. I asked if we could have his room and was basically told that because we made our reservations on Hotwire (albeit in MARCH) we were entitled to no such luxury as a non-smoking room and that would be reserved for someone else – they would call if nobody else wanted the room the guy had just given up. You see that room “is in a whole different tower”; whatever that means.

All of the clothes that we had just washed in Kentucky would now smell like smoke. We did get the ozone machine and a new set of sheets and it was okay. It is really too bad because we had a great view and awesome sunrise of the arch and we have to stay at this hotel again on our way back to the west coast – reservation also through Hotwire – nonrefundable! UGH!

The game itself was nice and we sat in the outfield bleachers. We had entertaining fans all around us and the game was between two teams that we had seen before. Good food overall and we even saw a little pre-game show of local middle school and high school dancers in the concourse. I was feeling a little better.

We left early the next AM to make it to Chicago for an early afternoon game. Here is a pic of the only good thing in our stinky hotel room - a wonderful wonderful wonderful sunrise view of the arch, front and center.

Cleveland

We have been to Cleveland once before in college to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We found it much unchanged since the last visit. It was a very sunny afternoon at “the Jake” (Jacobs Field). We had seats that were behind home plate but in the upper decks but still had a pretty good view of the game. Unfortunately, the Indians were playing the Royals and the Royals are about as stinky a team as you can imagine right now; particularly the poor pitcher who found himself on the mound that day.

After the we had been through the batting order once and there were still no outs, we were already scheming about when to leave the game. Eleven runs scored that inning and the pitcher was replaced after making only one out. It was a sad sad sad display and Tom declared that even he was bored at a baseball game – I am sure that will never happen again on this or any other trip.

As we were on our way to Kentucky which is about a 6 hour drive, we departed after the 2nd inning and made our way to Bloomfield to visit with the Walkers’. For those of you who don’t know, the Walkers’ are close friends of the family that we met when my dad was in divinity school and had a job in a small town called Bloomfield, KY. They are close to my parents’ age and have two kids that are close in age to Nick and Shauna. When I went back to college in Lexington, they served as my surrogate parents having me home for weekends and holidays that I could not make the long trip home!

We had a very nice visit with them and then went on to Louisville to visit with another friend from college, Theresa and her husband Ben who was also a good friend in college. They have and almost one year old, Noah. Although the weather was still a little warm, we had a nice visit to the zoo and it was nice to catch up and see Noah again, the last time he was just a couple of months old.

Pittsburgh

We were treated to a very nice and reasonably priced hotel in Pittsburgh. 4 star and fancy! IT was wonderful!

Also went to a good game and had VERY nice seats on the 1st base line only two rows back from the field on the players' level. It was cool to watch as the infield and outfield players were only feet away from us making plays. We also got Negro League hats that night as souvenirs.

I took lots of pics over the river of the skyline.
Back at the hotel, room service included a tray that folded out into a table. VERY FANCY!

Too bad we were only there for one night.

Next stop Cleveland.....

Philadelphia

Philadelphia was a little overwhelming with all of it's history. A one day visit didn't even cover all of the basics as Independence Hall was sold out and the Liberty Bell had a line (we still saw it). We also saw lots of other historical mini films and people dressed in vintage clothing.

The ballpark was a pretty cool one and the fans were excited. They had a nice promotion that day - free postcard sized pics of the people on their wall of fame as they were inducting the 2006 nominee. They also have the best mascot - the Philli Phanatic. He is a big green monster with a tubular nose.

But, by far the best was watching a beautiful sunset!!

Only a quick visit here before off to Pittsburgh. Enjoy the pics

Upstate New York

After Baltimore we drove up to New York again to see Tom's Oma (grandma). She lives outside the beautiful city of Ithaca. We only had a day to visit with her, but it was very nice to see where she lives and the area around it. Not very many people think of New York as being full of trees and lakes but outside of the big city that's pretty much all there is.

Here are a few pics of Tom, Oma and great Aunt Erika at the falls closest to their house. They live almost on Lake Cayuga which is 48 miles long!

Baltimore and DC

Baltimore game was early on Sunday afternoon. It was hot again but not as hot as it had been. Fortunately we had seats in the shade so it was a pleasant experience. The outside of the park atmosphere was really cool and we enjoyed watching two great teams play each other. Baltimore was playing the Yankees. The Yankees won again but it was a closer game. Many Yankee fans had driven down with us to watch the game. The Baltimore stadium was probably the nicest mix of old ballpark and new stadium we have seen thus far.

Baltimore is also the birthplace of Babe Ruth so there were quite a few baseball things around. No, we are not collecting any baseball paraphernalia on the trip. We decided pictures and our scorecard will be our momemto - we wouldn't likely use much else anyway.

We saw two fans gets kicked out, and are well on our way to setting a record for seeing the most Yankee fans get kicked out of a game. Two Yankee fans were kicked out at Baltimore and one at the Mets game.

From the game we went to Alexia's house and had a wonderful time catching up on life. Since the last time I had visited in October of 2005, she has had a baby boy, Gavin and he is supercute. It was a lot of fun to have our husbands finally meet as well.

Monday was spent exploring Baltimore and we went to the aquarium. It was very crowded mostly because it was indoors, but also a very neat place.

Tuesday was spent in DC touring all of the places that Tom has never seen of historical significance mostly around the Mall and White House. This is my fourth time in DC but the first time since they have finished the WWII memorial. It is between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument near the Reflecting Pool. I have neever seen so many Canadian geese in one place! Their poo was everywhere and the feathers and poo clouded up the reflecting pool. Tom and I think a few tax dollars could be spent cleaning out the area. After all of our looking around in DC, we were off to the game in DC.

The Nationals have a large stadium that is very awkward. Our seats were pretty good but stuck up in a corner under a rafter so didn't get much of the breeze. We had a lot of fun and Alexia joined us at the game while her husband watched the baby at home. It was fun to have a third party viewpoint. It was a fast game between the Nationals and Marlins.