Hi Grandma!

In case you thought I was cool ... here I am knitting on the beach at Disney's Castaway Cay.

Ironically, I'm knitting a scarf.

Just the article of clothing one needs on the beach!

Hey, when you're on a cruise for work and you get 2 hours off, you head for the beach, but don't get too dirty! No time for a shower before your shift starts.

How I almost slept at the airport

So, last Sunday Jonathan and I were scheduled to fly home from Memphis.

Our flight left at 4pm, getting in to Atlanta at 6:50pm. That's plenty of time to catch the 8:50pm connecting flight to Orlando.

Well, when we checked in at Memphis, it said our flight was delayed until 4:50pm. Again, no real problem there (except now I have to wait longer - blah!).

4:50pm comes and goes.

5:30pm arrives. No updates what so ever. I ask a supervisor, "do I have time to wander around the airport and find some dinner? Or could we possibly pick up and leave at any minute?" He says, "you have plenty of time!"

Greeeeeeeat

6:30pm comes and goes, and the finally make an announcement. We will leave at 7pm. So everybody with a connecting flight line up and we'll see what the plan is.

Well, we're not going to make our connecting flight now. We're booked on the 11:15pm flight to Orlando, which arrives at 12:40pm.

Our car is parked at some mom & pop car place.

The mom & pop car place closes at midnight.

We're going to be trapped at the Orlando airport from 12:40pm to 5am (when the place opens again).

So when we land in Atlanta, we find a 10:30pm flight to Orlando (why weren't' we just booked on that one?!?) and sprint to that boarding area. They put us on standby, but 10 minutes later, we're allowed to board!

We're not sitting together, but who cares! We'll get to Orlando by 11:50am and we can get our car!

10:30pm comes and goes

10:40pm comes and goes

10:45pm comes and goes

We need to leave NOW or we're going to miss our car!!!

We finally leave at 10:50pm and land at 11:55pm.

The minute we can use cell phones, Jonathan calls. They will leave right now to pick us up and bring us to our car. Sweet.

We sprint off the plane and sprint down to where public transportation is (we have no checked bags, thank goodness).

As we spring to parking spot A13 (where they said they would be parked) the van is pulling away!!! We wave and yell, "hey, we're here!"

Thankfully the cranky pants guy stops, lets us on ... and everything is saved.

I must admit, I was kind-of looking forward to camping out at MCO just to say "I spend the night at the airport!", but sleeping in my own bed was great too.

Say cheese!

So, before our baseball game at Wrigley Field, we had about 1/2 hour to wander around the stadium.

I knew there was a Harry Carey caricature right above the press box. I walked down (pretty close to the field and snapped a photo).

<-- see the cartoon Harry Carey?

Then, a nice, old lady usher asked if I wanted my photo taken. I figured, what the heck, and handed her my camera. I assumed it was obvious what I was taking a photo of, I mean, Harry Carey is pretty famous. My back was turned away from the field.

She takes my camera in her shakey hands and I think, "well, this will be a blur-fest." Then she keeps slowly lowering and lowering my camera.

"What is she possibly taking a photo of?!?"

After she snaps my photo, she hands me my camera and says, "is that ok?" I look at the photo and say, "yeah, it's great - thanks!"

Here is the photo I got. Pretty sweet huh? *ha ha ha*

Go Cubs go!

Our last baseball game was a noon-er in Chicago. We had to leave Detroit at the crack of dawn in order to be in Chicago by 11am. We all wanted plenty of time to walk around Wrigley and take it all in.

I had been to Wrigley Field over 10 times, but I hadn't been there since 1998. Jonathan had never been there. The stadium is over 95 years old, so it's a pretty special place full of history.

We had rockin' seats in section 216. We were under the overhang, so we were in the full shade. I could see everything except 2nd base, thanks to those famous Wrigley Field poles.

The Cubs pitcher had a no hitter going into the 7th inning ... but no hitters are boring. Bring on the runs!

The Cubs beat the Reds 3-1. Queue the music: "Go Cubs go ... go Cubs go ... hey Chicago, what'd you say? The Cubs are gonna win today."

I am officially exhausted and pretty darn dizzy from the bus ride. I haven't gotten sick all trip, so I'm pretty proud of myself. So I'm sitting here in a Milwaukee hotel, trying to recover.

What am I doing in the hotel ... watching baseball of course!!! The Brewers are crushing the Cardinals.

Adios Lame-Ville

Ok ... I'm being a little hard on Detroit. I mean, I guess it's not there fault that all the jobs disappeared. But how many people can harass me while I'm walking around the baseball stadium.

No, I don't have any extra tickets.

No, I don't need to buy tickets.

No, I don't want your American flag pin.

No, I don't have any spare change.

Comerica Park (Tiger's stadium) was super cool. There were giant tigers everywhere, and lots of fun history stuff to look at. They also had a small ferris wheel made of baseballs!

The fans however ... pretty lame. It took us forever to finally get the wave going. And they were just so quiet. "Do, do, do do, do doooo ... *silence*". Where's the 'CHARGE'?!?

Well, we're off to bed. We're leaving the hotel at 7am to haul buns to Wrigley Field by noon tomorrow.

Free Stuff!

The stadium and team I was least looking forward to was the Pirates. Nothing against the Pirates, but I just have no feelings towards them ... good or bad, just no feelings.

It was free t-shirt day, and they actually had size S t-shirts. Normally freebie t-shirts are always 'one size fits all', so I was quite excited to get a shirt I can actually wear.

Then, they had a roulette type wheel, and I won a super cool stars and stripes Pirates hat! So I was decked out in head to toe Pirates gear. Enter 1 ice cream in a helmet later, and I'm a happy camper.

Also, enter 1 ice cream helmet I found on the ground after the game, and I'm an even bigger happy camper.

Tomorrow morning we don't have to leave until 10am, which is a big change from leaving at 8:30am ... so I get to sleep in a tad! Yee-haw!

Tomorrow, Detroit!

Broken Promises

Well, it's day 3, and I didn't have a hot dog today. I broke the 1 vow I made for this trip.

For the Indians vs. Blue Jays game we had "party deck" seats. So we had a huge FREE spread of food from 6-8pm. I had a pulled pork sandwich and mac 'n cheese ... and 3 cookies. The cookies were garnished with blueberries, and I also ate 2 lbs of blueberries.

The Indians Stadium (Progressive Field) was my least favorite so far.

A - it was just kind-of boring

B - there was nothing featuring the movie Major League

C - they didn't sell ice cream in a helmet

It was Jonathan's favorite stop so far, because:

A - he bought a t-shirt for $6

B - he got a free Shin-Soo Choo bobblehead

C - he got to see a Shin-Soo Choo homerun

D - free food!

Tomorrow we have a short 3 hour drive to Pittsburgh for the Pirates vs. Phillies. Go Pirates!

Home run!

Woah - we just saw an awesome game in Cincinnati!

The Reds were down by 3. 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth. 2 men on. Votto, the Reds best hitter is up to bat. I'm complaining that nobody has hit a home run yet because I want to see the smoke stacks shoot off fireworks ...

Boom!

3 run home run to straight away center! Reds tie the game!

Phillies score 3 runs in the top of the 10th to win ... but who cares! It was a great game.

Plus, the Red's mascot, Mr. Redlegs, is such a cutie with his handlebar mustache.

It's 11:09pm, and we have to wake up at 7am tomorrow morning to move on to Cleveland.

Zzzzzzz ...

Go Brew Crew!

One baseball game down, 5 more to go!

Jonathan and I are in full vacation mode. We're doing a Jay Buckley baseball trip. We flew into Milwaukee yesterday morning, went to a Brewers game last night, and now we're headed off to Cincinnati.

Eventually we'll also make stops in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago (Cubs).

Contrary to what you're probably assuming ... I picked this vacation! My dad used to get a Jay Buckley brochure every year in the mail, but we never went on a trip. So I'm finally going!

My goal is to eat a hot dog in every stadium (although, last night they gave us free brats at a tail gate party, so that kind-of counts) AND ice cream in a helmet!

Let me tell you, the ice cream at Miller Park (Brewers) was enormous! The mini helmet was filled to the brim. The first thing I did was spill chocolate sauce on my tennis shoe. So now it looks like somebody pooped on them.

Well, it's 7:15am, and we have to board the bus to Cincinnati. I've got some pretzels, Back to the Future 1 & 2 and my Snuggle. Let's roll!

An open letter to Boston

Dear Boston,

Before I visited you I didn't like you. I'm not sure why. I think it's a sports thing. As a Rays fan, I normally find Red Sox fans annoying. And the Patriots ... I'm tired of you winning all the time. Lame reasoning, I know.

So I just got back from Boston and it was a really cool city! Parts of the city reminded me of New Orleans. It's a really old city. It was founded in the 1600's (I think). So there are parts of the city where the streets are really tiny, and the brick buildings are all smashed together to make room for expansion.

And Boston Bruins fans - you are the best! I wore my Tampa Bay Lightning hat to the Bruins game. I anticipated somebody would punch me in the face, spill something on me, or at least make a comment about how the Lightning suck. None of those things happened! Maybe it was because the Lightning whooped the Bruins, or maybe it's because Bruins fans are super cool.

Reason #1 why I could move to Boston: I love wearing toboggans (stocking hats)!

Reason #2: The public transportation system rules. I would never have to drive again.

Reason #3: I found a cool paper store. I could've stayed in there all day.

Reason #1 why I could not move to Boston: I look terrible in boots. Every single girl had boots on. My short legs just don't cut the boots scene.

So Boston, I apologize for judging the book by it's cover. You are pretty darn cool.

Sincerely,

Amber

Ted Drewes

Ted Drewes is a St. Louis tradition. I love cheesy places like this. I guess it's been around since the Route 66 days.

Their specialty was a 'concrete', which I had no idea what it is. Eating 'concrete' does not sound very appealing to me at all. Turns out, a 'concrete' is similar to a Dairy Queen Blizzard. I guess Ted Drewes sells only vanilla custard (what's the difference between custard and ice cream anyways?). Then they mix the custard with all kinds of crazy things.

Every time I get a Blizzard of a McFlurry, I ALWAYS get Oreo. This time, I'm on vacation so I went a little nuts. I got walnuts, chocolate and caramel. It was called something … like "The Duke" or something (that wasn't it … but something royal sounding). It was delicious … but it was also MASSIVE! I really wanted to eat the entire thing, but I just couldn't do it.

I know whey they are called 'concretes'. When the server handed me my order, he was holding the cup upside down. The custard mixture didn't move! But it wasn't hard at all, it was smooth and creamy.

If you're in the St. Louis area, look up Ted Drewes!

Digital Scrapbooking - more Alaska

I used the same template (templates rule!!!) for each of these pages, but I flipped it around, so they don't all look 100% the same.

I think I like the Juneau page the best, although the word "Skagway" is a really cute alpha I downloaded.

All my digital scrapbooking materials were downloaded for free! Thank you Ikea Goddess!

Digital Scrapbooking - Alaskan Cruise

You might be ashamed to learn that I spend a lot of time digital scrapbooking on our cruise.

Now I didn't take any time away from all the ports or other things, but there was a lot of downtime on the ship. I would take my computer to a martini bar that overlooked the huge atrium area, or sit in the ship's library and scrapbook away. It was fun to play with all the photos I had just taken.

That "Alaskan Amber" page is one of my favorites.

If I haven't gotten you into digital scrapping yet - what are you waiting for?!?

Alaska sunset

Our last night sailing the 'seas' of Alaska.

The sun is setting behind us ... and it's probably about 10:30pm.

Got to love those really long sunshiny days!

Ice, ice baby

Our Alaskan cruise ended at 9am, and our flight wasn't until 9PM, so we had a lot of time to kill.

We signed up for a boat trip (small boat) that drove up close to a glacier near the cruise port.

Since it was still early 'summer', there was still tons of ice on the lake. The boat blasted thru some of the ice to get us closer to the glacier. The ice didn't look thick, but it really was!

Check out how think it is. And it's all crystallized. It reminded me of Superman's ice lair.

Seals

More Alaska stuff ...

Walking off our cruise ship in Whittier, AL, there was a big 'ol seal sitting on ... well I'm not really sure what he's sitting on.

But it's a seal! Cool!

Coral Princess

It was kind-of off to see a cruise ship next to snow capped mountains.

When I always thought of "cruise" I always thought "Caribbean" and "sunny" and "tropical"!

This is a photo of our cruise ship, the Coral Princess, in our last port, Skagway.

Red Onion Saloon

The Red Onion Saloon was around in 1898, when the big gold rush came (and went). I guess there were over 70+ bars and saloons in Skagway back in the good old days.

You can't really read the sign very well, but it says that the Brothel Tours are "$5 for 15 minutes ... just like back in 1898!"

Welcome to Alaska!

In Skagway, Jonathan took a train shore excursion and I took a bus tour. My bus tour went to the Yukon (in Canada), then back into Alaska.

We stopped a bunch of times for photo opportunities, and one of them was at the Alaska border.

Look out for bears!

I guess brown and black bears are everywhere in Alaska. When we were touring in a residential area, all the garbage cans (it was garbage day) were closed, and bungee cords were wrapped all around them.

The garbage cans in downtown were all large metal cans. They all involved a semi-complex way of opening (or maybe it was only complex for me).