Summer Trip 2010

Day 1

Today was the beginning of the 18 day trip. We left Great Neck a little after 1 pm. Our first stop on our journey was the very exciting Great Neck AT&T store, so Debbie could buy a headset for her cell phone. That thrill-a-minute stop was shortly followed by a trip to the much-hyped, not-to-be-missed Little Neck Post Office.

Once these two "can't miss" stops were out of the way, we headed off towards Amish Country, PA. The trip took about 3 hours, which would have been less if not for rubbernecking on the NJ Turnpike. Aren't NJ drivers used to seeing crashes on the highway by now? Anyway, Brian slept most of the way, and Amanda slept about half of it. When she wasn't asleep she was asking me every 7-10 minutes "Daddy, how many miles have we gone?" We finally arrived in the very strangely named town called Intercourse, PA. Ethan, being 13, found this very funny. Brian, being 10, simply said "I don't get it." Didn't really expect to have "that" talk with him in the middle of Amish country, but I kind of filled him in. Still not sure he really got it.

If you have ever been to Amish country, it's basically one big tourist trap with the sporadic horse and buggy rolling by. Not sure what we were supposed to do or see, but after getting some ice cream around 5:30 we headed to the hotel near Harrisburg. On the car ride there, we heard a radio commercial about "buy one get one free" tickets to that night's minor league game in Harrisburg, so we decided to go there. Amanda was none too pleased about the idea of spending the evening at a baseball game. Well, that was until she was handed a free bag of "silly bands" and then won a free water bottle. Now she was having fun. I splurged for the $11 second row tickets and after purchasing our gourmet dinners (chicken sandwiches, cheeseburgers and dollar popcorn and peanuts) we settled down to watch the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals) and Erie Seawolves (Tigers, we think) play their AA game. Turns out if was a pretty good game. The Harrisburg pitcher held the other team hitless through 6 innings. I was glad he gave up a hit in the 7th, because that allowed us leave after the end of the inning, especially since about 7 million bugs showed up earlier in the inning.

The actual game was secondary to a typical minor league promotion called "Baseball Bingo." Long story short, fans received a bingo card when they entered, and for every at bat for the home team a specific bingo number was associated with what they did, as long as they got on base or did something positive. Amanda and Brian both had cards where they only needed one more player to do something, and it was the DH who needed a single. In the bottom of the 7th, the DH led off and hit a sharp grounder down the 3rd base line. Unfortunately, he was a little slow afoot, and just missed beating the throw. Amanda was not too happy with the DH and tears soon followed (from her, not the DH, although to be fair we couldn't actually see into their dugout). Clearly, it was time to go.

We got back to the hotel, got the kids in PJs, negotiated the sleeping arrangements (Brian and Ethan together and Amanda on the pull-out couch) and then Debbie and I started to work (price we pay for taking almost 3 weeks away). Tomorrow we head to Pittsburgh where the highlight (for most of us anyway) will be 4th row tickets to the Pirates-Marlins game. Hope they have Baseball Bingo or silly bands!