Summer Trip 2014

This is the summer of Laura and I's ten year wedding anniversary. It may be a bit cliche to say, but it seems just like yesterday when we were tying the not. It's as though we blinked and somehow a decade elapsed.

To celebrate we took a nine day vacation and traveled out east.  We accumulated just over two thousand miles on Laura's car and while doing so we had some great conversation, listened to some podcasts, and a book on CD.  We didn't really get hung up in traffic too frequently, and I supposed that can be attributed to Laura's great scheduling: leaving major cities in the AM and entering in the PM. 

 

We left early last Wednesday morning and because of a rain delay we were able to catch first pitch in Pittsburgh!

Laura with her crab fries and cheese dip!

Pittsburgh is still my favorite ballpark.  It's just absolutely gorgeous and everyone who works within PNC seems to always be very helpful and wearing a smile.

We didn't hang around in Pittsburgh too long, because we had to catch the Oriole's game the next night.

Another rainy day, but no matter.  We sat in the first row of the top deck and had a nice and quiet time.  I've been having good luck buying from scalpers the last couple of years and I again came away pretty happy.

Earlier in the evening I ventured out in the rain and walked to the birthplace of Babe Ruth.  It's a nice little museum and definitely worth the price of admission.

 I didn't know Babe's first professional home run occurred in Toronto and that he once was a catcher.  Good stuff all the way around.

We hit our nation's capitol the next couple of days.  We made good use of our ponchos the first day and applied plenty of sunscreen the next.

 

 We visited just about every big sight-seeing attraction around the National Mall.  I found the below little gem in the National Portrait Gallery.

Next, we were scheduled to visit Philadelphia.  Our stay in Philadelphia started with the Cubs blanking the Phillies 3-0 on Father's Day.  Nice!

Quick question for those of you in the know:  What's up with the red seats in the Phillies' dugout?

That evening we stopped by Sonny's and had a traditional cheesesteak sandwich.  Yum!

While in Philly we visited Ben Franklin's old stomping grounds and stopped by the oldest inhabited street in the US, Elfreth's Alley.

 Naturally, we found the Rocky statue.  But even better, we found the "Chasing Dreams" exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History.  Hello, Moe Berg!

During our last night in Philadelphia we took a sailboat tour along the Delaware River.  Romantic!

We had already done our tour through DC, but because the Nationals weren't there over the weekend we went back and caught a game when they arrived back in town.  Isn't my wife the best?

What a great trip overall!  I was able to see two new ballparks, tasted some amazing food, learned quite a but through all of the museums and monuments, and we made some great memories. ... like Laura walking barefoot on the lawn by the Washington Momument through the wet grass because she wore the wrong shoes.  Good times for sure!