the Joy of Sox

Just back from a whirlwind roadtrip to beautiful Cleveland to see the Red Sox play. It's a peculiarity of our new home that we've a better chance of getting Sox tickets here than we ever did while living in the Bay State. Since they happened to be playing the Indians on my birthday, it was a no-brainer: a couple of minutes on the internet with the credit card, and we were good to go. It was a pretty painless 4-hour drive down rte 90, and the hotel and Jacobs field were easy to find. I was a little worried about how the kids would handle a 3 hour game, but they did really well -- C actually got into the game (remarkable since she has no interest in sports whatsoever) and S didn't start losing it until about 2 hours in. And there was a kids' playground right behind us in the stands -- J had to drag S up there towards the end of the game. Seemed like the crowd around us was at least 50% Sox fans, so no worries about whooping it up. C rooted equally for both teams, so no one could hold anything against her (or everyone could; I guess it just depends how you look at it) Altogether a completely rocking birthday. It was just gravy that the Sox won 9-2.


The kids at their first game. C brought reading material in case it was too boring, but it all stayed under the seats when the game started.

















We had really good seats -- 3 or 4 foul balls came our way -- though not close enough to catch. Here was our view of the action ( a little blurry this one) -- here's Mark Bellhorn swinging at one...

















We finished up the next day with a quick trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, hit the road, and were home by dinner time. Couldn't have been sweeter.

So today, I bought some Sox t-shirts for the kids, and new running shoes for myself. Took my old faithful pair out on the trail one last time and got them good and muddy first. Tommorow S and I will try to hit Black Creek early with the jogging stroller and see if we find any rabbits or deer.