I Knew I Could Figure Out How To Post A Map

I know some of you will be interested to know our first stop is the National Baseball Hall Of Fame, a place I've wanted to visit all my life. I'm not sure how many photos I'll be able to take but I can assure you I will take many memories away with me. Can anyone imagine me, a photographer, not taking at least a handful of pics somewhere in the building? Total mileage for Day 1 will be 300.1 miles. Keep watching! It only gets better from here...
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Traffic 3- Carl 0

We drove north to Holman Stadium in Vero Beach once more. The nice breeze of Sunday was gone and the humidity much higher than it had been all week. I’m not one to enjoy that type of weather and there was an audible sigh of relief by everyone in the stands when the thick clouds rolled in. The high points: Derek Lowe, a former member of the Red Sox pitched three fine innings; Rafael Furcal, a former member of the Atlanta Braves played a smoking short stop and the Marlin’s Hanley Ramirez, a former Red Sox prospect that was traded away, played an equally active short stop. These players have all moved on but I still enjoy watching their careers. The Low points: crowded seats, over priced mediocre food and the Dodgers lost by one. Carl decided after his third traffic jam in three days that we would play “hooky” on Wednesday. I get caught up on some laundry and planned for tomorrow's trip to Homestead Motor Speedway for NASCAR souvenirs for the family.

Directions Are Over Rated

A quick trip into Miami found us at the American Airlines Arena within site of the cruise ship docks and also home of the Miami Heat Basketball team. Tonight, they faced off against the LA Clippers with Carl and I in upper deck seats overlooking the court. The view was exceptional and I can certainly appreciate two well matched opponents who faced off with a hotly contested last quarter. I’m not a huge basketball fan, as such, so it didn’t matter to me who won and in the end it was the Clippers by one over the Heat. The trip home should have been easy with my Map Quest directions in hand. The Miami Dade police force had other plans and met us at each turn with blocked roads. Eventually we found our way to Rte 95 which was undergoing construction. At one point, traffic was pushed from five lanes down to two and slowed to a crawl. Never a dull moment in the big city. A trip that should have taken 45 minutes was almost two hours.

Baseball Is In My Blood

Close up on a few guys tossing a ball around and, as your mind’s eye pulls away, the entire ball field comes into view. Now, you pull further back to see traffic backed up for miles in all directions on it’s way to that park. Okay, so it’s the closing scene from the movie "Field of Dreams" but, it’s also the very conditions we found ourselves in today. We were to find out later that we were part of the largest crowd ever, 9,260 fans, to be at Holman Field in Vero Beach for a Dodgers game. The Red Sox were beaten 0-4 in the very last Sunday game that will ever be played on that field because after 60 years, the LA Dodgers will be joining the Cactus Spring Training league next year based in Glendale, AZ. I’m sorry that my guys got beaten but it was great to see regulars, Manny, Big Pappi and JD Drew take the field with some of the new guys. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched well. I had only one option to try for a couple of pictures but due to the close quarters I found myself in, it didn’t matter that our seats were only 60 feet from the field. The seats at Holman Stadium are crammed closer together than coach seats on most airlines.

Florida, Warm And Apreciated

My husband and I own time share weeks and we use them often to trade into areas that we want to visit. This is one of those trips. We’ve traded a week that we own in North Conway for a week here in Weston, Florida. Now, there are many different types of resorts but they all have one thing in common. There is one day at the beginning of the week that is called a down day. Whether you use it to become familiar with the resort, the area or just to chill and gear up for the rest of your stay, this is the day. You find grocery stores, line up activities and spend the rest of the day finding everything in your new home because these types of resorts all have the same amenities but they are always located in different places. This part of Florida is a planned community and streets are really just grids running north and south with connectors that flow east and west. So, no worries if you miss your turn, just take the next three lefts or rights and you’ll be back where you started.

Spring Training = Spring Fever

We're not planning anything elaborate in the way of trips, photo excursions and vacations this year. We are, however, headed to every baseball fan's ideal of the perfect way to spend a week. We're headed to the warm weather of spring training to watch my favorite team, the Red Sox, get ready to defend their 2007 World Series victory. We leave on March 7th and while we're staying in Fort Lauderdale, most of our time will be spent driving across Alligator Alley to Fort Myers, the winter home of my boys of summer. We'll watch two or three games on their home field and also get to visit the Dodgers and the Twins in Vero Beach. My husband and I even have tickets to a basketball game between the Miami Heat and the LA Clippers. I'm currently working on something sportsy to fill in the only free day we have, Saturday the 8th. At the end of the week we'll climb about the Royal Carribean Majesty of the Seas for a short but restful cruise out to the Bahamas and back. Our respite from all of this year's bad weather will come to an end on the 17th when we return to reality.

It's A Matter Of Perspective

Tickets to the game:$48.00
Tickets for bull riding:$240.00
Hotel and food for the weekend:$350.00
Fun with the grandchildren: Priceless

Okay, so maybe I went over the top with the analogy but we did have a great weekend. Sometimes, we tend to take life's experiences for granted but change or add just one thing, two grandchildren, and everything is different. I mean, I've been to a dozen baseball games and I'm always watching the action, who's about to steal, how many outs there are and who's on deck. This time, I looked at the whole experience through my six year old grand daughter's eyes. Could she see everything, was she enjoying herself, did she have enough to eat, was she getting too much sun???? As I'm writing this, I realize that's what grandmothers are supposed to do. I wasn't there as a photographer to grab the action or make a record of the up and comers who were playing the game. So, I didn't take too many images. I only took pictures of and for the kids, the mascot-Fungo, even the fun and games between innings. Go figure! I am here to report, however, that the NH Fisher Cats have a great stadium on the banks of the Amoskeag River and the facility is clean, safe and reasonably priced. The quality of the game was professional and we had great seats. All together the weekend was a huge success. I can't wait to do it all over again real soon.