Great American Ball Park

We used Hotwire to reserve our hotels. We were nervous about it at first because we had never used it. But it worked out well for us. We got four star hotels for cheaper than one star hotels.

We stayed in the Cincinnatian Hotel. The valets wore top hats and coats with tails. It was cute. Our balcony went out to the lobby where there was someone playing music on the piano. It was nice. We ordered room service and got some delicious banana bread pudding. I took another bubble bath and took more Benedryl to aid my itching. We both put on lotion because Spencer had gotten sun burned.



Here's a picture from our balcony.



This is a picture of our room's balcony.



The next morning we put on sunscreen and walked to the Great American Ball Park. The downtown area of Cincinnati is really nice and has a good, safe feel to it. We liked it a lot.



Here we are out front.



These are the statues in front of the park.






Here is the city.



This is the logo. My dad's favorite team as a child was the Reds, so I kept thinking about him.



We got some really good seats from a guy that Spencer works with, named Gary. We were really close and got to watch batting practice.

Here I am in our seats from the edge of the field.

This is the dug out.

Here is Spencer by the field during batting practice.

During the game they had Bingo card that you could mark off spots for different plays. It was really fun, and we almost won.

The hot dogs here were weird because they tasted like hamburgers.

We really like the mascot. He looks like a crazy Italian to me.

The ball park looks kind of like a steam boat and is right on the Ohio River.

This pitcher had a complete game. He did really well.

This guy's name is Encarnacion and I kept thinking of Nacho Libre when he sings the song for the girl and says this name over and over.

We saw an amazing double play and a triple play! It was awesome! The reds won 2-0. A foul ball came by us and some jerks got it and wouldn't give it to the kids. They kept it! We booed them, and it really made me mad.

When the Reds got a run and when they won, they would blow the steamboat whistle and shoot fireworks from the two towers.

Here is the Ohio River with steamboats on it.

This is a cool looking building. I thought of my brother-in-law, Ben.

You can see Kentucky in the background on the other side of the river.

This is Paul Brown Stadium where the Cincinnati Bengals play.

We walked back to the hotel and then we drove to Pittsburgh. As we drove to Pittsburgh, we drove through a tiny corner of West Virginia. We listened to the song by John Denver "West Virginia Mountain Mama." My mom always sings this song. So I called her. This was Easter Sunday. The weather was nice. We didn't do anything traditional, but we had fun.

Comerica Park

We woke up at sunrise and got this picture of the river. Then we went back to sleep. I still had a lot of Benedryl in my system.




We rode the "People Mover" to the game. We then got this picture outside of the stadium. It took a few tries. I had bad instincts during this trip and had asked a man with one-arm to take our picture. I didn't notice that he only had one arm when I asked him. The next guy we asked didn't even take a picture. The next two people we asked didn't get our faces or didn't get the sign. We finally got this one.

We really like Comerica Park. They have lots of statues of tigers. Our high school mascot was the tigers, so we both have an affinity for tigers. Not as much as Homely...

This picture reminded me of Brady with his ball.

It has scratches from claws on the side, too.

There are fountains above the General Motors sign that go off when the Tigers get runs.

Here you can see the city in the background. We like the stadiums that use the city as the back drop.

You can see our hotel in this picture.

Here is the field with the logo. We got Spencer a hat with an orange logo.

There was a guy in front of us that ate the peanuts whole.

The Tigers won 4-3.

You can see Ford Field in this picture.

Ford Field is where the Detroit Lions play. The Lions are Greg's favorite football team.

We walked back to the hotel. We walked past Greektown.



Then we got our car and left Detroit. As we were leaving, we had to take a construction detour to get on the freeway. I wanted a picture of the blue bridge. We were near Mexicotown and 8 Mile and I told Spencer to pose like he was holding a gun and saying "Thug Life!" He said no because he was busy driving. All of a sudden I heard some loud noises. At first I thought that it was a car backfiring. But then, right in front of us at the intersection we saw two cars of people shooting at each other! They were out of the car and ducking and shooting at each other. I was freaking out. I told Spencer to hurry and get out of there! We turned and tried to get on the freeway. Then they jumped into their Escalade and drove next to us. I thought that they were gonna come after us because we were witnesses. Then we got on the on-ramp to the freeway and they kept driving straight on the road. We high-tailed it out of there! I kept saying "I can't believe that that just happened!" We decided that we would never, ever live in Detroit. Detroit is listed as the first through third most dangerous city in America, depending on which list you are using. And I believe it. I experienced it first hand.



We then drove to Cincinnati. Our GPS girl is out to kill us, I swear. She took us into a couple of other shady neighborhoods. It was like Eagle-eye style.

Drive to Detroit

Every year we go on a trip to watch baseball games at all of the different stadiums. This year we did it over Easter weekend.

We left on a Friday. Spencer had to work that morning. While he was at work, I took the dogs to Petsmart Hotel to stay for the weekend. At Petsmart there was a crazy dog in front of us. He was freaking out and biting his owners and they had to sedate him to get him into his kennel. While he was panicking, he ran against the glass door and made the door cut off the tip of my pinkie toe. It was a whole centimeter that got cut off of my toe. It bled everywhere and hurt horribly.

We finally started our trip by driving to Detroit through Canada. We drove right through Mindy's mission. I tried to do a drive by picture, but it didn't work very well.



This is a picture of Detroit from Canada.




This is the border into Michigan. We got stuck at the stupid customs. We chose a bad line.




This is the GM Renaissance Center. This is where we stayed for the night. We knew that Detroit was dangerous and we stayed at the nicest hotel in downtown Detroit to feel safer.



We stayed on the 60th floor. The hotel was right on the river. From our room we had a good view of the river and Casino on the Canadian side.

We went to a restaurant inside the Renaissance Center called 42 degrees. It was right on the river and had a beautiful view. It had the most yummy bread in the world. I kept thinking about how much my mom would love it. One of the breads had pomegranate in it. Spencer had a t-bone steak, he said it was the best t-bone he had ever had.



All day long I had been a little itchy. After dinner, the itching got out of control. I had a massive allergic reaction on my skin and was broken out into welts. I am allergic to some kinds of laundry detergent, and Tide quit making the scent that I'm not allergic to, so I had to try a new one. It was definitely unsuccessful. I took a ton of Benedryl and took a bath and covered myself in calamine lotion.

We watched HBO and ordered pizza from Hungry Howie's later that night. Hungry Howie's is the best pizza in the world. I fell in love with it in Arizona. We were so excited that they had it in Detroit, so we got it. Spencer had to go clear down to the lobby to get it. The pizza guy was completely drunk and forgot the soda that we had ordered. On his way back, some thugs tried to get some of our pizza.

While he was getting the pizza, I stayed in the hotel room, itching. I heard a loud pounding on the door and yelling to come out. I started freaking out. So I poked my head out and there were ten policemen in the hall. They were banging on the door next door and didn't need me. So I closed the door and watched out of the peep hole. They broke into the room next door and took out a bunch of guys in hand cuffs at gun point. They walked past Spencer as he was coming back to the room.

When Spencer went to get ice and soda from the machine, he saw a skanky girl locked out of another room. We now realized how completely ghetto Detroit truly was. Even at the nicest hotel, it was dangerous and full of thugs.

We played an Italian card game called Scopa. And slept in the most comfortable bed. It had been a rough day for me. I was still itching like crazy and my baby toe was still throbbing.

Buffalo Bandits Crowd

This is the crowd after winning the first playoff game.

Bandits Playoff Game

We went to the Buffalo Bandits first playoff game. It was a home game, so we had to go. It was against Boston, who we had lost to the week before. It was an intense game. Our friends Courtney and Andrew went, too. We made them fans. And I am quickly becoming a fanatic. I wore a Bandits bandanna and got dressed up in an "I heart lacrosse" tee-shirt for the occasion.

This is a fight during the game. I love fights!!

We won 11-8! Yay!!

Here I am dressed up. Don't I look like a thug?!

Sadly. The Bandits lost this past weekend. So lacrosse is over until next January. I think that we are going to buy season tickets for next year because it is just too much fun!