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.

John has a dream to bring the boys to a game at every single MLB park in the country. The big boys were down 12 stadiums already before this trip (Boston Red Sox, CitiField/Shea Mets, old & new NY Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs) and can now cross off another 3 from the list after this trip (Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and a second trip to the Detroit Tigers).

As many of you blog followers and friends know, I am NOT a fan of baseball. At all. So why, you might ask, did I go on this trip? I’m still not entirely sure. The boys and John really wanted Timmy to come along on the trip and in order for him to do that, I had to go too. 3 kids in a ballpark, hotels, and car for hours on end at 10 and 4 probably not so doable on your own. So I went. Begrudgingly. And those of you who are my FB friends know exactly how much I just LOVED the trip (coughcough). The boys sure had a great time though and that’s the important part. But I still loathe baseball and no one can make me like it.  So there.

After driving what seemed like 100 years, we arrived in Pittsburgh in just enough time to check into the hotel (which was really nice btw), throw our stuff in our adjoining rooms and walk the few blocks to the baseball stadium. The walk over was really nice and they had the bridge closed off so it was foot traffic only.

I brought the camera (duh) but forgot the freakin Kindle back at the hotel room. Still couldn’t make me watch the game though! John got really good field level seats for all 5 of us for just about the cost of one ticket at Citi.

Boys and statue of Roberto Clemente who Jack wrote a report on this year, so I actually knew who he was.

Ralph Kiner’s hands or something…I have no idea what the deal was with this, but they wanted a picture there.

This was the beer inning apparently. (John says there’s something for every inning for the boys. Food, ice cream, bathroom, shopping, snack etc). I guess it was his turn.

I didn’t like the shirt I was wearing (especially after 8+ hrs of wearing it in the car) so John bought me a baseball shirt. The shirt’s nice and I like the sewn on letters. Other than that, here’s my feeling on baseball:

Any confusion?

Took a self portrait of Timmy and me in every park.

Timmy looks like I felt in this picture. He was actually very happy the whole game (especially after getting his “guy”) but I think he was just tired.

The boys were having a great time. Baseball is SO their thing.

The view from the stadium was really nice with the moon hanging over by the foul pole (see, I know something).

The Pirates lost (ok, I just had to yell into the den and ask John and the boys who won cause I was paying no attention to the game). We all walked back to the hotel and went to sleep, getting ready for our next day’s ride to Cincinnati with a night game the next night. Oh, joy.

More to come on the trip… (we have parts 2-5 to go, stay tuned).