Feeling a Little Blue, Blue Jay's That is....

Today was so Awesome!!We meet so many amazing people and we saw an epic come from behind win and we ate some yummy food. So first things first;

We took our time getting up and getting ready for the game. @ around 11 we left the hotel and stopped at Starbucks (which just so happened to be right down the block from our hotel, Thank the Coffee Gods!) before we headed over to the stadium. It was a really nice walk and we got to see quite a bit of the city. We got there a bit early so we decided to pop into the CN tower giftshop since it had been closed the night before when we had left. All I wanted was some postcards (I collect them. Is that a weird habit? I have like a 1,000 or something from all the different places I have been) and I did find them but I also had to deal with a random attack:

Funny right! After we left the gift shop we headed into the stadium;

Our seats were amazing,

And we were both so excited to see the game

The game was Awesome(!!!!) and we were seated around some really cool people, there was a couple behind us that were big Blue Jay's fans and a father and son who also sat behind us, the son was a Blue Jay's fan and the father was an Orioles fan (whom the Blue Jays were playing) and a mom and her little boy sat next to my mom. We had some great baseball talk, which I was extremely grateful for. I often feel out of place because I have no one to really talk baseball with, no one I know loves it as much as I do nor can many people hold an intelligent baseball conversation for very long. See what I've found it that lots of people can talk baseball about the team they love, but very few can talk about the game itself. And while I love the Yankees and the Tigers I love the game of baseball even more. I can talk about lots of players, from lots of different teams who are amazing because I LOVE the game. Today's game was great! The Orioles were dominating for most of the game but the Blue Jays were holding their own. Adam Jones from the Orioles hit a home-run and they were ahead 5-2 when the Blue Jays came up in the bottom of the 9th. Now if you watch baseball you know that the Orioles closer, Jim Johnson, has been lukewarm at best this season so we knew the Jay's still had a chance. Two batters latter it was a 5-4 game. The Jay's had two out and their #9 hitter game up to bat, Kawasaki, he lines one to right field and it bounces to the wall for a stand-up double scoring two and just like that the Blue Jays win 6-5. The crowd (us included) went bonkers, everyone was jumping up and down and high fiveing. It was an amazing thing to be a part of, even now thinking about it I smile. The Blue Jays stadium, Roger center, is nice but nothing stands out about it, which is something that I noticed about Toronto. Its beautiful but there is nothing unique about it or that makes it stand out. Its missing something, I'm sure what, but just something. Anyways, after the game we walked back down to the center of the city, which was just down the street from our hotel. We thought we might see a movie but decided for a long dinner instead. We are big fans of the Hard Rock Cafe so we popped in there to enjoy a bite to eat. Around 9 we headed back to the hotel since we both had long drives the next day. My souviner from the day? besides the t-shirt and postcards, a sunburn to shame all sunburns. My nose is litterly the cool of a freshly cooked lobster, but thankfully it doesn't hurt that much! 

Hope you guys had even 1/10th the amount of fun I had today! 

Laters!!

Finally Made it....

Whew.... I finally made it. A total of 5 hours later. Boy oh boy was crossing the border rough, it took me almost 45 minutes just to get through there, that plus the traffic trying to get into this city was a nightmare. But nonetheless I finally made it. And our hotel is beautiful!

 We are staying at the Hotel Victoria which is a boutique hotel with only 52 rooms, it is centrally located to just about everything we want to do (not that there is much). So mom wasn't here yet when I got here so I came up to our room and got settled, and then headed down to the lobby to wait for her, not that I would recognize the car she's driving since it's a rental. She turned up about 30 minutes later, after having driven around the city for an hour trying to find the parking garage! After dragging her stuff (and there was a LOT of it) the three blocks back to hotel we decided to hit up one of my favorite things to do when I travel, which is to see the local markets, in Seattle they have Pike's Place, in Paris they have Marche Bastille, in NYC they have Union Square, and in Toronto they have St. Lawrence.

Which is an eclectic array of food, drink and wares. They building its self is beautiful antique and inside the flurry of activity captivates your eyes and your soul (at least mine it does!) We spent an hour simply walking around, our head snapping from left to right so as not to miss anything. This market is two floors which is unique and downstairs we stumbled upon a coffee shop (which as a coffee addict I could not pass up) and a bakery (which as a dessert fiend I could not pass by) where we sample a delicious strawberry rhubarb tart which was SOOOO Yummy! There were like a hundred different things we wanted to try but we had dinner reservations and we didn't want to ruin our appetite.Before we headed back to our hotel we stopped by a shopping center to see if they had any Blue Jay's things. You might not know this but whenever I go to a stadium to see a game I pick up a t-shirt, not a team t-shirt but one that has the stadium on it, to commemorate the fact that I saw that stadium. We found exactly what I was looking for and stumbled upon this delightful sight at well.

 Its a bunch of birds, flying through the mall! Okay so its just a art piece but I still thought ti was hilarious.

We had dinner reservations for the 360 restaurant at the top of the CN tower @ 7:15 so we hurried back to the room to get ready and made our way over to the tower. They had a ton of photo-op's on the way to the top!

I am so SPECIAL!

 Once we got to the top the view was amazing!

One of the unique things about this restaurant is that it spins, cool right! That way you get to see all of the views the city has to offer. Dinner was so delicious, and I loved the opportunity to catch up with my mom, whom I had not seen since my sisters wedding last June, that's a long time right. By the time we were done it was nearly 11 and we were both exhausted so we headed back to the room and called it a night.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and I am very excited!

Laters!

The Long weekend begins.....

I am so tired, its been a long day. Not only did I work all day (as in 6:30am- 6:15pm) but I also drove for what felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R. It was really only 4 hours but it felt even longer than that, especially since it was pouring and nighttime (I hate driving in the dark add on top of that and it's something out of a Hitchcock film to me). So here I am in God knows where, in actually a pretty nice hotel room @ the Microtel Inn and Suites tryin to finish up some homework and then hit the sack.

Where am I going to ask? What great adventure am I off on now? What kinds of shenanigans will I be partaking in??

Well it's funny you should ask because I just so happen to be headed to Toronto, Canada for the long weekend. Toronto, that's random right, but it is where I am headed nonetheless. Its a short 7 hour drive from my house and home to the Blue Jays @ Rogers Center the true reason I am going, it's another stadium to check off my list(!). Nothing particularly exciting happened on my way here other than the YANKEES WON!! Which I listened to on the Radio.

But now I am tired and I have to get up early to leave the hotel by 9 because I still have another 3 hours to go before I get to the next hotel. So I bid you good night dear friends!

Laters!!   

Charm City Adventures!!

It's been a long time since I have been anywhere fun enough to blog about, but a couple of weeks ago I spent the weekend in Baltimore and I had so much fun that I want to share my adventures with you!

Perhaps this is something you don't know about me but I love BASEBALL! and one the things on my bucket list is to see a game in all 30 of the MLB stadiums. Before this weekend I had been to five of them;

• Yankee Stadium 
• Shae Stadium (Mets)
• Comerica Park (Detroit)
• Wrigley Feild (Cubs) 
• Safeco Feild (Mariners) 

So back in January I decided I was going to go to a game opening weekend at Camden Yard. I took the bus into the city, and then the train from there to Baltimore. Let me tell you, I have taken the train a fair number of times in my life and it is seriously the way to travel, and I meet the coolest people on the train. A couple of years ago I meet a bunch of gentlemen that were on their retirement-moon (they were 5 men who had been friends for years and had all retired at the same time) they were traveling around the country for a whole month visiting a bunch of the different ball-parks, I was so jealous. This time, the woman who sat next to me was also a baseball fan, and was taking the train on to Washington where she was meeting family to go see a Washington Nationals game. We talked for almost an hour about the game and it was so nice. When I got to Baltimore I dropped my bag off at the Hotel and then headed for the inner harbor which just so happened to be only two blocks from the hotel.

The inner harbor is beautiful, and there is so much to do down there. It was still early, and the game didn't start till 7 so I had plenty of time and decided to hit up some of the highlights of the inner harbor. First I went to the Aquarium

They had a bunch of cool exhibits, but it was under construction and there were a TON of people, I had to shove little kids out of the way in order to see the fish! After spending a couple of hours walking around looking at the different fishes I wanted to walk around the harbor and see all that was going on.

They have beach volleyball courts right near the Harbor!!!

If you look far off into the distance you can see Ravens Stadium

They even do Graffiti right here in Baltimore 

After spending the afternoon wondering around the harbor and chowing down on some Yummy Mac N' Cheese, I met up with a friend who came down to go to the game with me, and we headed to the ball park.

#4 is Earl Weaver's Number, he passed away this past winter.

The Orioles were playing the twins, and both teams played a wicked game. It was really cold though, thankfully there were a bunch of burly men sitting next to us and they did a great job of blocking the wind. As a Yankees fan, I have to say that Orioles fans are CRAZY, in a good way. Yankees fans are very dignified at games, we get into it certainly, but we do it with class and grace. At Camden yard however the fans were totally into it, and so emotional. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. Alas the Orioles did not win, but it went down to the wire. I was exhausted afterwards, since the game got over at 10:30 and I had been up since 4:30 in the morning., so we headed back to the hotel. The next morning after a quick breakfast I waved goodbye and headed out to explore some museums.

  One of the reasons I wanted to come to Baltimore is because it is the birth place of my all-time favorite player Babe Ruth. They have a wonderful museum here that I was very much looking forward to seeing.

Each one of these represents a home-run that the Babe hit

He was a handsome fella wasn't he!

I will admit that I get very emotional around baseball stuff. So this museum was small and there were not very many people there, I think it was me and one other family. It is run by a woman and her husband, as I was standing in front of an exhibit about old Yankee stadium- which is also known as the "House that Ruth Built" I started crying, and we are not talking graceful, girly tears, I was CRYING. After a couple of minutes of this the woman walked past me, and stopped to comfort me, "Are you OK dear?" she asked to which I blubbered about how much I love baseball and how the babe was my favorite player and how my fantasy team is always called Ruth's Babes. She continued to rub my back and comfort me, and then suddenly she was crying and talking about how much she and her husband felt the same way. When I finally calmed down she took me to meet her husband and gave me a special ticket from the museum (they are changing things around soon). We talked baseball for a little while before I waved goodbye and headed to the Sports museum @ Camden Yards. Even now just talking about it brings tears to my eyes, and this memory will always hold a special place in my heart. After the sport museum I caught a Taxi to the train station and headed back home.

It was such a fun weekend and a great escape from everything going on back home. It feels so good to check off another stadium from my list, which I plan to do a lot this summer already I have tickets to a Toronto game, plans to see the Washington Nationals and the Boston Red Sox's at Fenway Park.

Can't wait to share my other adventures with you!!

Back To Reality....

It's a harsh truth, but eventually we must all return to reality. After spending 10 days wandering and enjoying the company of my free will, it was difficult to return today to my domesticated routine. Add to that my severe case of jet lag and it made for one very very long day. I finally made it home last night at 8:00pm that means (given the time change) that I had been traveling for 18 hours. I was exhausted. My flights were comfortable and remarkably on time. I watched three movies on the 8hr first flight (soul surfer, Red Riding Hood, and Rio) and after changing plane in Pittsburgh (where I had to endure extra security for some reason) I read a book for most of the 1hr flight to JFK. NY was a mess from the storm over the weekend. Not just the airport but the roads as well. A major highway (87) southbound was completly closed off and there was tons of traffic in and around the NYC area. It took the Chauffer almost 2 hours to get me home (and even then I left my phone in his car, it now has to be mailed back to me). Once I got home it was so nice to hear all the commotion and voices of the three musketeers, they had to tell me every single thing they had done while I was gone. It was nice, but when I retreated to the solitude of my basement room I longed for the space of the apartment. I miss Paris already, and can't wait to return to see all the other secrets I can reveal of that mysterious city. My spirit is already yearning for my next trip. One of the best parts of traveling is choosing where to go next. I have always wanted to go to Istanbul, but I think London might be my next destination. At least they speak English there!

Goodbye, Farewell, Until We Meet Again.....

It was my last day in Paris. I spent it wondering around the city in idle fashion. Searching for the perfect souvenior. I walked to and fro around this city. I saw one of the things I had missed the last time I was near the Place De La Concord. This is the exact place where Marie Antoniette as they say "became a foot shorter on the top".  Here are some observations I have made about the French:

1. I never see French woman wearing tennis shoes. It's always flats or heels.

2. That said this whole time I have never seen a French woman running, it's always men.

3. French men dress like they just walked out of an Abercrombie and Fitch add. They wear tight pants (which I am not complaining about) and pointy shoes (which I am, those suckers hurt when they step on your toes in the Metro)

4. The French like to have things done a certain way, the same way it has always been done, they love their traditions.

5. They love to sit and chat over long lunches and even longer Cafe breaks

6. They will line up  and wait for hours to get bread from their favorite bakery.

There are pro's and con's to traveling alone. Pro; I get to sightsee at my own pace, go where I want and do what I feel like. The Con's; I have no one else to rely on but my own wit and cunning. Pro; I choose what and where and when I eat, stop for the potty, and go back to rest. Con; I only have all these weird head shots of myself . I must admit, that I am ready to go home. I have enjoyed my week here. I have seen alot and done alot, and learned even more. Not just about the history of Paris but (perhaps more importantly) I have learned alot about myself. I learned that no matter the circumstances, I can and will survive. No matter the misadventures I've had I still love to travel. Even saying the word out loud brings to mind exotic destinations and worlds unexplored. Travel has a way of opening your eyes to new and exciting things, to show you a way of living that you might not have know existed, to introduce you to situations outside your comfort zone and make you a better person because of it. Travel gives you the opportunity to learn things about yourself that might have otherwise stayed dormant deep within your soul. For me traveling satisfys a longing deep within me, a yearning to see new things and experience new things. It dosent have to be haftway across the world, it could be discovering something new about my own home town. The point is to get out there and SEE it. All week I haven't been able to shake the feeling that I have been here before, I tried to put a name to that feeling and had otherwise been unsuccessful, until today. Walking the streets of this beautiful city I realized it feels like home. And tonight I say goodbye. But to quote a very talented actor in what is perhaps the greatest film every made "I'm not going home, not really" (Daniel Radcliff as Harry Potter)

What a Hectic Morning

I awoke early to finish packing and head for my new digs. Lugging two rolling suitcases behind me (one medium sized one, and one carry-on size) I made my way down to the metro and hoped beyond hope that it would'nt be busy. It was, I can't even count the number of toes I ran over or the number of calves I ran into with my big suitcases. I avoided making eye contact with anyone in the hopes that they would take pity on me, and not rip the suitcases out of my hands and begin beating me with them. Finally I reached my stop and made my way slowly towards street level. Only to have to walk 3 blocks (which is actually not that far here in Paris), I walked 6 blocks and couldn't find my hotel. I must have missed it, I turned around and walked back in the direction I had come. Finally I spotted it. After checking in, an agonizing long process here in France, I was given the key to my room. I should say closet not room. The room is tiny. With my suitcases on the floor I have to climb over the bed to get to the door. To get in the bathroom I have to pick up my suitcase and set it on the bed. The view, is of a paint peeling inter alleyway. I miss the apartment already. But it's only for one night and I can handle it for that long. Today I am headed out to do some shopping. Some serious shopping!

* I turned CNN on while I was getting ready and they are talking non stop about Irene. It looks very dangerous, and I hope all my friends and family in NY stay safe and dry.