Game 23: Cubs 2 - D-Backs 1

What an amazing day at Wrigley Field! The game was a 1:20 PM (afternoon) start. The Cubs were hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks and the weather was a perfect sunny and 80 degrees. We had a light breeze and shade overcame our awesome seats just as the first pitch was thrown.

It is important to note that not only were we joined for the game by Jesse and Raquel (their first Wrigley experiences), but we were also joined by our dear friends Daniel, Taylor and their sweet six month old son, Knox (all experiencing their first Wrigley adventure as well).

Before the game we made a past around the part and grabbed our key photos.

During the game, we managed to visit the Audi Club (in honor of the baby car ... thanks Jeff!).

I was also the surprise recipient of a gift message from my lovely wife, displayed on the large scoreboard.

All in all, a perfect day. The Cubs won 2-1 (after having dropped the first two of the four gam series to the D-Backs).

Love Chicago, love Wrigley and can't wait to come back. However, for now it is time to head toward Seattle, visit a few more states and continue the adventure.

Sweet Chicago

Our extended travel required a number of sacrifices. Among them was our absence for Jesse and Raquel's first wedding anniversary, Raquel's birthday and Jesse's birthday (missing Jesse's birthday is a bit of a family tradition). 

In lieu of our presence, we arranged to transport Jesse and Raquel to Chicago to hand with us for a few days. We met them at the Chicago airport Monday afternoon and spent the better part of two and a half days exploring the city.

 

We took a sunset architectural boat tour (city scape photo by Raquel/tour bill by Rob).

We visited the Shedd Aquarium (photo by Raquel/admittance fees by Rob).

We had cocktails at the Signature Lounge on the top of the Hancock Building (city photo by Raquel/cocktail bill by Rob).

We also ate very well, including deep dish pizza and a fabulous lunch above Millennium Park.

Love these two and had tons of fun! However, the highlight of the visit was our activity on Wednesday ...

Music City USA

We had a blast in Nashville.

Our initial target destination was Draper James. It was busy, but Beth found a super cute skirt/top and a denim dress that will come in handy for the rodeo in December.

We wandered down the street for BBQ nachos and some tea at Edley's. A perfect late lunch, enhanced by the Cubs game being televised right in front of our bar seats.

Saturday we toured the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The museum is beautiful and we enjoyed the great exhibits. Learned a ton. Saw some things that we hadn't seen since our childhood. In all, we spent about four hours exploring.

Friday and Saturday nights were reserved for Broadway. This four block strip is teaming with bars, honky-tonks, saloons, whatever you want to call them, each with live music. Packed with people, we managed to find seats in each one and just enjoyed the time listening to music.

While out, we learned that Nashville has become "the place" for bachelorette parties. This was amplified by the packs of inebriated women roaming about.

Our final discoveries were food related. The Sun Diner, names from the fabled Sun record label was our go to brunch spot ... Spare Rib Hash! Merchants was our dining spot on Saturday night. A traditional steak house on the second floor, above the Broadway craziness, was a delicious way to fuel for our night about.

Nashville definitely gets our vote and we will be coming back ... soon ... after all, we are now members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Time to head to Chicago and our mid-week visit to Wrigley Field.

Very International

When we last reported, we were settling down to watch to All Star game (a little sad that the American League won, yet again).

We set out on Wednesday from Baton Rouge on US 61. US 61 runs along the Mississippi and is called the Blues Highway. It runs from New Orleans through Memphis, St. Louis and on to Chicago. Along the way we found our amazing lunch spot, the Magnolia Cafe, in St. Francisville, LA.

That is us, super happy, after having shared two of the nasties sandwiches we have ever had ... with the exception of that Ruben in Annapolis that I can still taste.

After lunch we passed into Mississippi, driving along the river and crossed into Louisiana again at Natchez. Our objective was to travel up the West side of the river and make sure we traveled through the southeast corner of Arkansas. We ended Wednesday in Memphis, deciding to pass on Graceland.

Thursday turned out to be our International Travel Day. We headed on toward Nashville, but took a circuitous route. We stoped in Milan for lunch. Next we visited Paris. Our time included a trip to the Eiffel Tower.

Next we traveled through Cadiz. At this point, we decided to skip Rome and journey to the Parthenon.

I am not an expert, but it looked like it had undergone some restoration.

We also came across this gem.

Turns out that this is a 351 foot obelisk monument to Jefferson Davis, raised in his birthplace. It looks strikingly similar to the Washington Monument (which stands 550 feet tall).

We ended our two days of southern state travel in Nashville for a weekend of music fun (next post). As a result of our wandering travels thus far, we have visited 38 of the lower 48 states, including every state east of the Mississippi river.

Once we depart Chicago later this week, we will attempt to include a visit to the final 10 continental states (SD, MT, WY, UT, ID, NV, WA, OR, CA & AZ) as we complete our baseball journey.

Beautiful Beaches

We spent Monday and Tuesday touring the beautiful gulf coast. Neither Beth nor I had ever traveled along the coast between New Orleans and Tampa. As a result, we took a couple of days following Atlanta and headed for Panama City, FL.

We stopped for lunch at the Surf Hut in Destin. The beaches are amazing. White sand. Warm water.

While lunching we saw a first (for us) ...

That is a ship with a giant video screen showing adds as it slowly trawled along the beach ... billboard at sea. I guess it is more cost effective that pulling banners with a small airplane.

We arrived in Pensacola Beach, perhaps the prettiest of all the beach communities we visited, in time to have an amazing dinner with our dear friends Chuck and Susan.

They have a beautiful home, steps from the beach and the open air restaurant they selected for our evening outing was picture perfect as well as perfectly delicious. It was so great to catch-up, share updates on their two (Paige and Stuart) and our two (Jacob and Jesse), as well as the new married kiddos. We will definitely be back.

When we head this way again, we need to be sure a visit the sand bar, crab island. It looked like a blast.

We will also need to check-in again at The Blind Tiger, our lunch spot in Biloxi Beach on Tuesday. The "reds" were great and Beth loved the bushwhacker!

As we ended the day Tuesday, we headed inland toward Baton Rouge. We found a spot to catch the All-Star game and plan to spend the next two days wandering along the Mississippi River and making sure we visit Arkansas (filling in a few needed states).

Game 22: Braves 5 - D-Backs 1

Sunday provided the last day before the All-Star break and our best chance to catch the Braves in Atlanta. We arrived at Sun Trust Park about an hour before the game and discovered this nice outdoor restaurant area just outside the park.

Having opened just last year, the park was very nice. In fact, the giant fans in the concourse (designed to move air) and delicious looking food vendors making their wares, resulted in our awarding this ballpark the "most aromatic".

That said, this was a day game. Atlanta is 90+ degrees and the humidity is a typical 90+ percent. Our seats are in the sun for what I estimate is the first half of the game.

Let me tell you ... I don't care what the rest of the country says about Arizona summers ... it is more pleasant in AZ in July than the SE/gulf coastal region, in terms of temperature/humidity.

The first couple of innings of the game were quick and the D-Backs pitcher (Corbin) looked really solid). However, in the third they crumbled, giving up four runs. In the end, they couldn't get back in this one, with the home team winning 5-1.

We headed out from the game and made our way to Houston's on the NW side of town. Turns out, they are one of the few Hillstone restaurants in the country that serve chili on Sunday, in addition to Saturday ... score! As a result, we had two days of chili ... bonus ... and then began working our way to Panama City (FL) and the gulf shores region.

Key West and the Push

We spend Thursday morning driving the keys until we could go no further.

We spend the balance of Thursday and all day Friday eating some amazing seafood and looking (mostly from patio or poolside) out.

I am guessing you can understand why. Beth also spent time making new friends.

The rest was good as Beth managed to pick up a bit of a head-cold from our cruise. Probably because of her exertion.

Rested, we headed out for our bit push to Atlanta. You see, with the coming All-Star break and the Brave's road trip following the break, the Sunday afternoon game will be the final game played in Atlanta until July 26.

As a result, we need to make a ~900 mile trek from Key West to Atlanta from Saturday morning through Sunday noon (game time is 1:35 PM). Oh yeah, it is Saturday, which means we also need to make time to stop at Houston's in Miami to grab a bowl of chili ... "chili Saturday"! 

Game 21: Marlins 5 - Brewers 4

We returned to Port Canaveral Wednesday (7.11) having enjoyed our time at sea. It was great to catch up with the Randy and Heidi. We also had a wonderful time dining with Paul and Sharon.

We stoped in several spots including Aruba, and we enjoyed time snorkeling in St. Kitts.

Once we disembarked, we headed for the Audi spa to collect the car. With fresh fluids, new brakes and her new set of shoes, we three headed for Miami and Marlins Park.

The ballpark is set in a developing neighborhood in Miami and has a nice exterior appearance.

The roof was closed due to threatening thunderstorms, but the views from the park, both inside and looking out the outfield windows, were very nice.

We settled into our seats, along with the small number of other attendees (note: this team has the poorest attendance I have ever seen) and watched a great ball game.

We saw a home run, which produced this in left center field.

And, over the course of 12 innings (yes, 12 innings or ~ 4.5 hours) we watched an entertaining game, which the Marlins won.

We filed out, along with the other ~500 fans who remained to the end and headed south for the night. Tomorrow we are headed to Key West for a couple of days rest.

We're Back

"Exhausted from the cruise, we needed a rest."

That seems like the perfect opening line for a novel. In our case, it is simply a description of our post cruise state and a small excuse as to why we are a bit behind in our journaling. 

Rest assured that we did find some relaxation over the past couple of days, but we also logged a bunch of miles as we worked to manage our schedule with the coming All-Star break. 

Over the next few days we will resume our entries and provide a summary of our activities during the past two weeks.

For now, we have to dash to Atlanta.