The very last part of the baseball trip. I was so happy to be done, as I’m sure you could imagine!

Uncle Peter got us all tickets to the games (thanks Pete!!) and the seats were really good. The boys were all pumped up going to a game together.

Maureen and I left in the 2nd or 3rd inning (I don’t know- does it matter?) to take the littles to the carousel and ferris wheel. When we came back it was only the 5th inning. How is that possible??

The kids enjoyed the rides a bunch and it is a nice stadium. What Mickey Mouse has to do with the Detroit Tigers, I’m not exactly sure. But it was nice to see a friendly face.

Lots of pictures of our friends who we miss dearly.

Winding down…

And fireworks night. It started to rain just as the fireworks were starting. Good thing it held off that long.

Thanks for a great time, Z family! We miss you tons again.

And I’m happy to say….THE END. (of the baseball trip- always more pictures coming of other stuff).

By this point of the trip, this summed up exactly how I was feeling.

All I could think when seeing the sign was..’you got that right, buddy’.

Left Cincinnati for the very exciting drive to Clevland to see the Indians.

Made it close time wise to get to the game (again). As we were walking from the hotel to the park (for about 3 blocks) I noticed a sushi restaurant across the street from the hotel. I debated for a while if sushi in Clevland would be a good idea or not, until my good friend Nate stepped in via facebook and decided for me that it was not in my best intrest to eat sushi (or anything else for that matter) in Cleveland. He phrased it slightly more harshly than that however.

We made it to our seats (good seats again) just to be moved shortly thereafter. A sheet of glass in the restaurant above us was broken on the top and the whole sheet was all spiderwebbed with cracks. So instead of taking the chance that their fans would be sliced to ribbons by the glass should it happen to fall, we were moved over a section to slightly better seats.

There were some interesting folks at the game. Like sideburns here for instance.

John referred to some of them as “Eminem’s white trash uncles that even he would be embarrassed of”. We witnessed a number of people being ejected from the game- oh, they were real class acts. A girl wearing clothes that she had no business wearing fighting with some tattooed scary unbathed guys behind her. She went first, and they got removed shortly thereafter. Well, at least it was something other than baseball for me to watch.

The boys took some pictures too with the little camera.

And they all had a great time. And I had a hershey bar for dinner back at the hotel. I figured that was safe.

Onward.

Left Pittsburgh, drove thru tons of nothingness. Did see two good signs (one of which to follow in part 3) and the other was for Gumby’s Beer & Cigarette World. No picture though cause I couldn’t get the camera out fast enough (when there’s nothing but nothing to look at for hours driving, there’s no point keeping the camera out) so the Gumby’s sign will have to live on in memory only.

Stopped to see Merle and Earl in W. Virginia with mullets and not a whole lot of teeth at the Gas n Go. Did go to a cool 1950’s McDonalds with a nice old BelAir in the middle. Made the boys take pictures there- Jack was not terribly pleased. But that was the agreement so he had to suck it up. But Patrick was great and I got a nice one of him.

Made it to Cincinnati, checked into the hotel which was really nice but had this tube/fountain thing in the lobby. Can you say Augustus Gloop?

Walked over to the stadium for the next game. It looked like rain (omg, are you kidding? Baseball while sitting in the rain? Can I go home now please?) so I left the good camera at the hotel and just took the point & shoot, so the picture quality isn’t as good, sorry.

Passed some cool chillipeppers planted along the sidewalk on the way. As John was on line to buy tickets, a really nice lady came up and just GAVE us 4 tickets for seats behind home plate. How nice! Timmy proceeded to get really sick at the game (thank goodness we were just feet from the family bathroom), but it only happened once so that’s something. I didn’t feel great either. Sickness and baseball- bonus!

There was a build A bear in the park (clever) so Timmy got 2 new guys this time. And after being such a trooper about being sick, he deserved 100 guys!

The Cubs won but that seemed like it was okay with everyone at the park because everyone was rooting for the Cubs instead of the Reds. That didn’t seem nice to me at all. Whatever- the game was over.