Day 12 - Philadelphia

Saturday, May 31

After a last look at the Inner Harbor we headed off to Philadelphia. Shortly after leaving Baltimore we encountered a thunderstorm with heavy rain that lasted all the way to Philadelphia. This is the first significant rain we’ve seen.

Our Hampton Inn is in the downtown area right near the Pa. Convention Center. It is very nice and the staff are friendly and helpful. We walked over to the Reading Terminal Station for lunch. Think of Quincy Market quadrupled in size with several fish, meat, and produce markets intermingled with bakeries, food counters and restaurants and you have Reading. Oh yes, with craft and candy stores thrown in too. We were amazed at the place.

After the rain let up we walked over to the historic government district and went on tours of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Very powerful, walking on the same floors as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. We then wandered around society hill and the historic waterfront and Washington Square districts. A wonderful area with cobblestone streets, brick sidewalks, very old brick townhouses, tree lined streets. There were several old churches and famous buildings with informational placards on them.

We had supper at Jim’s Steaks, a Philly cheesesteak place that we had read (and a nice Philadelphian we talked with while waiting in line confirmed) is the best place for cheesesteak sandwiches in town. We all agreed the food was super! The neighborhood was less than stellar, as Rodney said to Brian while he was taking a photo: “take the picture then let’s get the hell out of here.” Luckily a safer feeling area was just one block away. We meandered back to our place with tired legs and full bellies.

Tomorrow we are off to our last game, (boo hoo) Philadelphia Phillies vs. Florida Marlins, at Citizens Bank Park. Hmmm…. I wonder who put up a lot of $ to build this ball park?

Day 11- Baltimore

Friday, May 30

Our motel, the Sheraton, is about midway between the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards. What could be more perfect?

The weather in Baltimore was hot, sunny and breezy. We walked over to the Harbor area and had lunch at the Pot Belly Sandwich Shop. Rodney and I went on tours of a WWII submarine, the Torsk, and a Civil War battleship, the USS Constellation. Both very interesting, they both had fairly big roles in their respective wars. Brian went to the ESPN zone to play while we were touring.



Red Sox nation was well represented in Baltimore. We saw people in Red Sox clothes by the dozen, maybe even hundreds, at the hotel and harbor area. The town was just mobbed with Sox fans.

After a swim in our ridiculously tiny but refreshing pool we headed over to the ball park. Our seats were pretty far back on the first base side, but still afforded a great view of the action. And action there was!! The game was tied 2-2 at the end of nine and ended up going 13 innings! Finally the Orioles made a few errors that the Sox capitalized on in the 13th and the Sox ended up winning 5-2. It was a fun game. Manny Ramirez was one home run shy of 500 so every time he came up to bat the entire stadium went wild, cheering, taking pictures of every swing, etc. Unfortunately he was unable to get a home run in 5 at bats.



We got to see 7 Red Sox pitchers: Josh Beckett, Hadeki Okijima, Manny Delcarmen, Javier Lopez, Craig Hansen, Mike Timlin and the great and greatly entertaining closer Jonathan Papelbon. The game ended right before midnight and many people, including us (of course!) stayed until the last out.



Tomorrow we are off to our last venue, Philadelphia. Also one of our shortest legs, just over 2 hours- hopefully.

Day 10- Baltimore

Thursday, May 29

The road warriors were at it again! The trip from Cleveland to Baltimore took about 6.5 hours. Rodney is doing a magnificent job driving around in all these big cities, you would think he does it everyday. He has the excellent assistance of his navigators Brian and Tommy, our GPS tom tom. Occasionally Brian and Tommy disagree on a route; Brian is always right. We listened to some of Welcome to the Monkey House, a very bizarre collection of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, and part of a very funny Dave Barry book. We still have a Hercule Poirot book to go.

After we settled in we went to the harbor to a crab restaurant called Bo Brooks that a friend said is her favorite place in Baltimore. We had steamed crabs. They were coated with Old Bay seasoning and other things and were spicy and delicious, although labor intensive. We decided the best way to eat them would be outside on a picnic table with plenty of iced tea or ice cold beer. It was lots of fun. First the waitress put a heavy paper tablecloth on our table, and placed on it a bucket with 2 mallets and a few dozen paper towels. Then she brought out the steamed crabs (8) and threw them on the paper. A messy but very yummy affair.

After dinner we went to a place called Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. Allison, this must be the same franchise you and C. go to in Ct. It was a wonderful ice cream parlor, each serving made to order. The ice cream was some of the best we have ever had.

For those who are following the blog, this is our 3rd posting this evening, so you will need to scroll down to see the last 2 days. We have been trying to keep up but some days we seem to run out of time.

Tomorrow we are planning to do some exploring of Baltimore before the evening game. We just found out Josh Beckett is pitching. I am so excited. I don't like him quite as much as I like Roy Orbison, but I am a big fan. Our road trip is sadly winding down!

Day 9- Cleveland

Wednesday, May 28

One thing I forgot to mention about our game at Wrigley: Just before the game, in celebration of Memorial Day, a bald eagle named Challenger was released and soared over the ballpark, coming to his trainer who was waiting on the pitcher’s mound. It was a beautiful and moving moment.

On to Cleveland: We headed over to Progressive field around 10:30 for a 12:05 start. Have I mentioned that some of us like to get to the ballparks an hour or two before each game to get a feel for the place, tour around the park, check out the food and other vendors, watch batting practice, etc? There was a school program on weather being held at the park with many thousands of children. Some stayed for the game afterwards. The park has been rated the best in the league and has many unique and interesting features. Our seats were behind home plate so we had a great view of the game. Another exciting game with two home runs and lots of hits and good plays. The White Sox won, 6-5. The crowd was pretty tame compared with our games in Chicago, maybe partly because it was a daytime game. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, however the temp was around 50 and there was a frigid wind from Lake Erie, so perhaps that kept the amount of alcohol consumption down. Usually we try to avoid the sun at the ballparks, but today we anxiously waited as it crept our way and by about 1:00 we were feeling much warmer.

After the game we rocked and rolled our way through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Wow!!! What a place! The museum is housed in this gorgeous modern structure right on Lake Erie. There are 7 levels of exhibits. Some of us could easily have spent an entire day there. They covered music from the early blues, jazz, hip hop eras right up to the present. They had exhibits of everything from Jim Morrison's report cards and Cub Scout shirt to Janis Joplin’s Porsche and a Cadillac Elvis bought for his manager. Plus many outfits from different performers- Elvis’ spandex, rhinestone encrusted pantsuits, suits the Temptations wore, clothes different people wore at Woodstock, etc. We were speechless! There were kiosks all over to listen to different artist’s tunes and hear biographies about them. They have a film of all the Hall of Fame inductees with short video and still clips, and, of course, their music.

Brian was somewhat disturbed to discover I love Roy Orbison. We thought of Susie Noy when we saw the David Bowie exhibit. Nancy would swoon over all the Elvis stuff. Allison would love the Chuck Barry video. It is worth a trip to Cleveland just to go to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum if you have any interest in music.

We finished the evening with dinner at the Hard Rock Café, just to keep the mood alive! The hotel shuttle picked us up after dinner ( a nice service) and gave us a tour of the renovated areas in downtown Cleveland.

Cleveland is deserted at night (although it seemed quite safe) in contrast to Chicago which was always bustling. The shuttle driver said that people work in Cleveland but live predominantly in the burbs and that this was a typical level of activity for a weekday night.

Tomorrow we are off to Baltimore to see the Orioles and Red Sox. Go Sox!!

Day 8- Cleveland

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

After breakfast we started the long journey to Cleveland. I must say there is not a lot of scenery in the Midwest!! We finished Harry Potter, just excellent!

We arrived in Cleveland around 4 after losing an hour to the time change. Our hotel, the Embassy Suite, is right downtown. Our two rooms are easily four times the size of our little room in Chicago. We have a view of the lights of the ballpark from our window. After settling in, we walked around Cleveland a bit then had dinner at the Winking Lizard tavern, a place recommended by the bellhop. Wonderful food and over a hundred kinds of beer. It was right near the ballpark, must be hopping after games.





Now we are back at our place, doing laundry, watching, of course, baseball, the Dodgers vs. Cubs back in Chicago. We plan to go for a dip in the pool then turn in.

I guess I need a few fillers since this is such a short post. Hmm…. How about our favorite signs and comments so far:
1). A sign a panhandler in Chicago was holding: “I’ve made a few bad decisions in my life…”
2). A sign in a construction zone on the interstate: “$15,000 fine for killing a construction worker.”
3). Pitch from a panhandler here in Cleveland: “ I won’t lie,I need $1.25 for a Colt 45. Please!!”

Last comment: We cannot believe the cost of gasoline. Yikes!!! Holy Cow!!! Holy Toledo!!!! We saw a high (so far) of $4.39 just outside Chicago, but this afternoon it was $3.99 outside Cleveland. We are hopeful it will go down.

Tomorrow we are off to the noon Cleveland vs. White Sox game at Progressive Field, then hope to go to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Day 7 - Chicago

Monday, May 26

Happy Birthday, Julie!!! The party photos were great!!

We forgot to mention that if you want to enlarge the photos just click the mouse on them. Also, we've added a new feature! If you hover your mouse over certain pictures, a caption will appear. (Thanks Allison!)

Today we woke up to a hot, sunny, breezy day. Perfect for a ball game.
Rodney and I walked over to Lake Michigan and the loop area after breakfast. We saw the Sears Tower (from a block or so away) and Millenium garden. Again, lots of great statues, fountains and architecture.

We took the subway over to Wrigley Field. What a hoot- the ballpark is in the middle, I mean the middle, of a neighborhood. Many of the surrounding homes have built bleachers on their roofs and sell tickets for people to watch the game. It is a very congested and somewhat frantic area.

Did I mention that the White Sox fans are enthusiastic? The Cubs fans are rabid!!! The place was full (over 41,000) and full of energy. The game was very exciting, we have been treated to great pitching, defense and offense at every game we’ve been to. The Cubs got two home runs and ended up winning 3-1. We are Dodgers fans and silently cheered for them, it may have been dangerous to do otherwise. Brian did wear his Dodgers shirt, brave guy!!
The subway back downtown was pretty busy and crazy.

We went to the original Pizzeria Uno for dinner. It is just two blocks from our place. Delicious Chicago style pizza and wings, entertaining waiter who was a rabid White Sox fan.

On to Cleveland!!

Day 6 - Chicago

Sunday, May 25

We woke up to a sunny, warm and breezy day. After breakfast we took the subway, then city bus to the Museum of Science and Industry. Most of the population of, and tourists from Chicago joined us there. I guess Sundays, and holiday week-ends, are their busiest times. The place is vast with many exhibits. many of them geared toward children and children at heart like us. There is a fabulous U-boat exhibit as well as all kinds of other exhibits. An amazing place, we came out awed and much more intelligent, partly from having lunch in the Brain food court!

We then took a city bus back to downtown and did some touring on foot. Beautiful statues, buildings, flowers and people, people everywhere. Such a vibrant place.

We went by subway again to the game. The weather cooperated and it was warm and breezy and clear all eve. U.S. Cellular field is fairly new, clean, spacious and we all liked it a lot.

The White Sox fans were a highly enthusiasic and excitable bunch and greatly amusing. Before the game, in celebration of Memorial Day, there was a parade around the field of current and former service men and women, most in their uniforms. The crowd of over 30,000 gave them a standing ovation. It was very touching. Before the game and after every home team home run there was a brief burst of fireworks. The first were in daylight and they were really neat!

The game was exciting, great pitching, fielding. The score was tied 2-2 and in the bottom of the ninth Carlos Quentin of the White Sox hit a home run to end the game. The crowd went wild!! It was loads of fun. I'm sure those of you baseball fans saw the game because it was the ESPN Sunday night game of the week!

The subway going back was crammed with deliriously happy fans.

Tomorrow it's off to Wrigley and the Cubs vs. Dodgers.

Day 5-Chicago

Saturday, May 24

We left for Chicago around 11 this morning. Yes, the middle of the country IS flat, I don't think we've seen a mountain for days. The 4.5 hour trip went by quite quickly partly in thanks to Harry Potter and company. They are still busy fighting boggarts and dementors. We figure we'll finally get through this book on tape before reaching Cleveland. I highly recommend the Harry Potter books on tapes, the guy who narrates them is a scream!!! hee hee

Our hotel, the Cass Hotel Holiday Inn Express, is right downtown, surrounded by much taller buildings. We think the Cass Hotel was taken over by the Holiday Inn and is in process of being refurbished. We have the "coziest" room yet but at least the bathroom door is solid wood this time- thank God!!! We walked around, wow, Chicago is a huge and overwhelming city. The streets and stores were mobbed. A very exciting place.

We had dinner at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse, a venerable, ornate restaurant just a few blocks from our place. All male waitstaff, very friendly, great Italian food.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to the Museum of Science and Industry before heading to the evening White Sox vs. Angels game at US Cellular Field. Monday the Cubs are playing the Dodgers at 1 p.m. at Wrigley Field. The weather forecast is for thunderstorms both days so we are hoping the games get in. Last night in Detroit the skies cleared right at game time and it was a clear and cool evening. Hopefully we'll have a similar situation here in Chicago.

Until next post...

Day 4- Detroit- Motor City

Friday, May 23

Our motel in Detroit, the Riverview Sheraton, is in the financial district and has a great view of the river and Windsor. Our room is nice except for one extremely odd feature. The bathroom door is made of glass and although it is textured glass, when someone is in the bathroom you can see them clearly!! Thank goodness we are family!


After settling in, we walked over to the Renaissance Center, an enormous cluster of attached buildings on the river. The area has a GM showroom, Marriott, and many offices, shops and restaurants. Our bellhop said he has never made his way through the whole place and still gets lost in there. We saw many bright shiny new cars all over in there and wondered how they got them on the upper floors.


Detroit has a really neat elevated train called the People Mover. It snakes all around the downtown and along the river, making 13 stops. For 50 cents it is a real deal. We got on and rode the whole route, a nice way to get a look at some of the city. After this, Brian headed back to the room for some sanity time without the parental units and Rodney and I walked along the river and civic center area. There is going to be a Red Bull world series competition of ? light planes next week-end and there was a frenzy of prepratory activity going on- scaffoldings being put up, huge tents, port a potties, etc. We were mightly glad we'll be out of Dodge before that event!








In the late p.m. we boarded the people mover again and rode over to the ballpark area. Comerica Park is right near the Detroit Opera House, kind of an interesting combo. We all liked the ballpark a lot, it has lots of neat sculptures and decorations and the park has lots of personality. Our seats were 6th row back on the 3rd base side. The people around us were friendly and the place had a nice family feel. Lady luck was on our side again. It was Polish American day and before the game about 100 children dressed in colorful native clothes performed a show of native dances. A man then sang the Polish national anthem and the American anthem before the game. We also discovered that every Fri. eve after home games they have fireworks. They turned out the floodlights and the show was fantastic.







We saw a few home runs, lots of doubles and triples and some great plays. Unfortunately most of them were by Minnesota and Detroit lost 9-4. Oh well.





By the way, we probably should have mentioned earlier on in the blog that, after 17 years with Horace Mann, Rodney has retired. His last day of work was the Friday before we left.


On to Chicago!!!!

day 3- Toronto and Windsor

Thursday, May 22

In the a.m. we walked over to Lake Ontario and toured around the harbor area. A lovely spot, saw lots of ferries and sailboats. It must be very busy in the summer.

Our next stop was the CN tower. We got tickets to both the main observation deck (1135 feet)and the sky pod 33 stories above that, the highest public observation deck in the world. The men got quite a chuckle out of my gait and stance in the sky pod. I had this strange sensation that at any moment I would crash through the barrier and window and tumble to the ground below. Impossible, I know, but that is the beauty of phobias!! So I had to hang on to the rail and walk very deliberately. Anyway, it was just unbelievably magnificent up there! The day was partly cloudy and quite clear and the view was really amazing in all directions. The people and cars looked like teeny ants. We spent a lot of time there and I'd go back in a minute, phobia or no!

On the main observation deck, there was an area with a glass floor so you could peer right down to the ground. People were taking photos of each other lying or sitting on the floor. Rodney and Brian took some of each other while I, well, you know! :-)

After lunch at Shopsy's Deli (an old Toronto landmark) we went back to retrieve the car.

By the way, to enlarge the pictures, just click on them.

Overfed, overtired and over budget, we headed off on our 4 hour journey to Windsor, knowing that another night at a Casino would make all things right. Our Inn is right downtown again. Windsor has a population of 200,000. Brian and I went for a dip in the pool, then we headed over to the Windsor Casino. Yes, Lady Luck was on our side!!! They were having a promo and we each got a $10 food voucher. So, our dinner ended up costing $19 including a generous tip. We were there until after midnight. Brian and I ended up losing less than $4 each and had a few exciting wins at the poker machine, and Rodney, as usual, ended up $6 in the black, and had a huge win at the slot machine. I guess it is obvious we are not too much of a threat at the casino!

This a.m. after breakfast we walked over to the river. Detroit looms right across the river, looking magnificent. Another lovely sight, lots of people fishing both from boats and along the shore, the river aqua blue, nice warm sun.

We are soon heading out on the shortest leg of our journey, the 8 minute trip through the tunnel to Detroit. Tonight we'll be at Comerica Park to see Detroit vs. Minnesota.

Day 2 Niagara Falls and Toronto

I forgot to mention that last night the falls, both American and Canadian, were lit up, in a repetitive series of all the colors of the light spectrum. Strange but beautiful!!!






This morning we headed down to the falls and went on a behind the falls tour. We took an elevator down to the base of the falls where there were tunnels with portals to look out as well as two outdoor observation areas at the side of the falls. The tunnels were not for those with claustrophobia. We loved the outdoor areas, it was amazing to see the falls from the side, the volume of the water was so immense. They gave everyone these ponchos to wear but we got soaked anyway.






After our good-by to Niagara Falls we were off to Toronto. The drive was an hour and a half, some of it along Lake Ontario, quite a sight. Toronto is huge and bustling. Our motel is right downtown. Our room is...er....quite a bit COZIER than the suite of yesterday. We headed out to look for a lunch spot and found an Irish pub a few blocks away. The place seemed oddly busy for the middle of the afternoon, we got the last table. After a few moments we realized the 5 large screen tvs were all on a soccer match between Manchester United and Chelsea and the crowd in the restaurant were all fervent fans of one team or the other. What a riot, any time any exciting thing happened the place was in an uproar. The food was wonderful and we enjoyed ourselves greatly. The other patrons must have been suprised when we left in the middle of the match!




The Rogers Centre is about a 25 minute walk from our motel. Oh, Canada!!! Luckily for you all I don't know how to do an audio on the blog or you would hear me warbling the Canadian anthem. We had first row seats down on the first base side. The game was great, good pitching, lots of hits, double plays, etc. The Angels won 4-3 and it was exciting right up to the last out.


The ballpark has a dome that was closed, we were happy about that since it was quite chilly out.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the top of the CN tower and do some more touring of Toronto before heading to our next stop, Windsor, Ont. Our next game is Friday eve in Detroit. We will try to post again tomorrow from Windsor.