We had a great week away from Boston and neither of us wanted to come back. But after a week away and travelling through 8 states--Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC it was time to come back to the city we love (sarcasm) and get back to the daily grind. One thing I have always done ever since I was a kid was keep track of all the different license plates we saw along the way. We actually had a pretty good bunch.... Minnesota, Arizona, Missouri, North Dakota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, Delaware, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Texas, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, Indiana, Tennessee, California, Illinois, Georgia, Washington DC, Quebec and Ontario. PHEW! That was a mouthful. Now onto the good stuff...
We found ourselves travelling through Connecticut and into New York. We decided instead of taking the long way around into New Jersey we would just head through New York and over the George Washington Bridge. Boy was that a DUMB idea!!
Yep, you guessed it. Bumper to bumper traffic for well over an hour leading up to the bridge. They were doing construction on the lower deck. Fun times. Once we finally made it through all the traffic and onto the bridge though it was definitely worth it. I love the George Washington Bridge. It was overcast and smoggy that morning so we didn't have much of a view.
Once we got over the bridge and into New Jersey it was smooth sailing on the New Jersey Turnpike. We decided to take a detour through Delaware so we could go to Sonic Drive-In for supper. We see commercials for Sonic ALL the time and it drives us nuts because there are none anywhere near us. When we decided to go to Baltimore we were sure to look up any Sonics along the way.
It was worth the detour. Every greasy bite was worth it. Hey, don't judge me. I was on vacation, diets don't count on vacation.The whole point of this trip in the first place was to go to baseball games. Our team the Seattle Mariners were down there in Baltimore for a 3 game series and since they only came to Boston once this year and we only got to one game we decided we would go down to Baltimore and get tickets to all 3 games. We decided to get tickets in different sections for each game. The first game we sat in the 300 (upper) level directly behind home plate. The Mariners won 10-3, so that was a good thing. We took a ton of pictures on all 3 nights and I will only post a few of them here. After you are done reading this you can head over to our picture blog and see ALL our pictures over there. The second game we sat out in left field and we won again, this time the final score was 8-4. It was insanely hot the week we were down there. The temperature at game time on the Wednesday night (7pm) was 101 degrees. It was GROSS! The next night the temp wasn't as bad as it was a little stormy and we did have two rain delays. Once again the Mariners won and the score was 13-8. Always fun to travel to see your ball team and have them win all 3 games.
The above picture is of the plaque that is on the wall of the warehouse where Ken Griffey Jr hit a home run off during the home run derby of the 1993 All Star game. The player ever to hit the building. Seattle fans will know and appreciate this picture.In Seattle one our TV announcers gives away rally fries at all home and away games. A few months back at a game in Seattle some guy went to catch a foul ball on the warning track and he spilled his fries all over the place. So Mike Blowers (former Mariner and current TV guy) replaced his fries for him. It was the 6th inning and the Mariners ended up scoring a bunch of runs. And so there was born the idea of "rally fries." So now every game fans bring signs and Blowers will give away fries to the fans with the most creative signs. Chris and I made 3 different signs, one for each game. The first one was Chris's moms idea and here is the picture of it...
I realize that might not mean anything to some of you. But the old stadium in Seattle where the Mariners use to play was called the Kingdome.The second game our sign was a little poem that Chris and I came up with and it said...
We did not get rally fries on either of the first two nights and I was a little disappointed. However Chris felt the sign he had for the 3rd games was the best one and had the best chance of getting their attention. It was a sign that was a direct jab at Mike Blowers who had 4 errors in one game. So even though this was "Chris's sign" there I was during both rain delays standing in the rain holding the sign high above my head. Finally we received a phone call from Andrea back in Seattle that they showed us and our sign on TV and they were talking about it. And sure enough to long after that phone call someone brought us rally fries and told us what camera to look at and wave and hold our sign up for. YAY! We got rally fries. I was so excited. A bunch of people in Seattle called us because they saw us on TV, fun times.
We also went down behind the Mariner's dugout before a few of the games. We were happy to end up with Raul Ibanez autograph as well as Adam Jones who is our up and coming young star outfielder of the future.
We also spent a day down in Washington DC. That was AWESOME!! We kinda did a whirlwind tour. I definitely would love to go back to DC for a couple of days and spend a lot of time really seeing things and the museums etc. We parked downtown DC and walked walked and walked some more. The first thing we did was of course head toward the White House. You can walk right down the road in front where you can stand and take pictures with the White House in the background. As we got close however noticed that the whole portion of the road in front of the White House was blocked off. We asked a police officer and he told us it would be reopened in about an hour but wouldn't give us any information. So, we decided to walk on over to see and take some pictures of the Washington Monument which is basically across from the White House. We took pictures of the Monument and the were sitting on a bench trying to decide our next destination when I heard a loud roar. I looked up and to the right of the Washington Monument appeared a HUGE helicopter that headed straight toward us. I turned and said to Chris "uh, honey, I think that is the president!" He looked up and said "I think you are right!" Both of us looked in shock as this giant helicopter roared directly above our heads, so close it was almost as if we could reach up and touch it. We turned behind us and watched as it roared toward the White House and right in front our eyes landed on the front lawn. Arguably one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. It was awesome. And I tell ya, what a way to get dropped off at home. Sheesh! 
The Lincoln Memorial was pretty awesome as well. All of it really was pretty amazing. The architecture of everything was unbelievable. 
We took a quick trip across the river into Virginia to go to Arlington National Cemetery. We saw JFK's grave site and also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. It was neat to watch the "changing of the guard." They switch every 20 minutes during the summer and guard the Tomb 24 hours a day. 
Not sure how well you can read it in this picture. But the below grave is JFK.
There is not really a lot to do in Baltimore itself except for the Inner Harbor Area downtown. It is actually very pretty down there and we spent a few hours walking around taking pictures and buying souvenirs.
All in all we had a great trip. It was nice to get away for a little while and go somewhere new. I realize this post was very long and I apologize for that but I wanted to be sure I touched on all the highlights of our trip. To see all of our pictures please click HERE.
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Trying to cool down after the long walk
Being the sports nut that I am, my thoughts immediately went to sports when I received this weeks word in my inbox. Well either that or Stewie from Family Guy who is known for saying "Victory is Mine!" But I realized there was no way I would be able to write a whole post about him so I decided to stick with sports.
I have always loved sports (watching, not playing). I remember as a kid when my dad would take me and my brother to Pee Wee and Jr hockey games at the rink near our house. Perhaps that is where it all started. While I love baseball and NFL football, hockey is and always will be my number one favorite sport to watch. I truly am a Canadian at heart and I grew up watching the fast paced and physical game that is hockey and it will always be far and above my favorite. So naturally, being from Edmonton, the word victory holds all sorts of meaning for me as I think about my favorite hockey team and a team that is known for being one of the greatest sports dynasty's of all time. I of course, am talking about the 
The Oilers built a team of young and talented players around Wayne Gretzky and went on to win 5 Stanley Cups in a span of 7 years. 83-84, 84-85, 86-87,87-88 and 89-90. Most of those cup victories came when I was too young to truly enjoy what was happening. I remember the cup win in 1990. I was 12, but still at an age where even though I loved the Oilers I was still a little too young to really get caught up in all of it. However, the 05-06 season was a little different.
The Oilers didn't have the greatest regular season but with a few trades towards the end of the season to solidify their goal tending and defense they managed to get into the playoffs as the 8th and final seed in their conference. No one gave them a chance in the first round as they would be facing the Detroit Red Wings who finished the regular season with the best record in the league. The Oil went into the series as underdogs but pulled off an amazing upset and beat the mighty Red wings in 6 games They were victorious in round one but still had a long road ahead of them.
Next up was the San Jose Sharks. Again no one gave the Oil a fighting chance. Things did look a little questionable when the Sharks took a quick 2-0 lead in the series. But the Oilers fought back and won the next 4 games to win the series in 6 games. Again they were victorious but once again the critics said they didn't have what it took to beat their next opponents in the Anaheim Ducks. Once again the Oilers proved the entire hockey world wrong and defeated the Ducks in 5 games to win the Clarence Campbell Trophy as the Western Conference Champions and were on their way to the Stanley Cup finals. 
Game 1 of the finals saw the Oilers hit with adversity as their starting goaltender Dwayne Roloson was injured with the game tied 4-4. Backup goalie Ty Conklin came in and immediately fumbled with the puck behind his net and turned it over and allowed the Hurricanes to score the game winning goal. Game 2 saw the Oilers other backup goaltender Jussi Markkanen be named the starter for the rest of the series. Jussi was amazing all the way through to the final buzzer of game 7. The Oilers came up short that season. They lost the clinching game by a score of 3-1 and the Carolina Hurricanes won their first ever Stanley Cup Championship.
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