On The Move...

In our last post, we were spending some time to vacation from our vacation in San Antonio. Thanks to our great hosts the Del Vecchios, we had a really nice and relaxing few days, playing with their kids, going to the gym, going to the pool, and seeing the new movie “Inception” in IMAX (by the way, the movie definitely lives up to the hype. Go see it. Do it.)

On Thursday night, we went out on the town in downtown San Antonio. Mike dropped us off at the Alamo, the famous mission that served as a battle ground during the Texas Revolution in 1836. It was a very interesting place, though had kind of an odd feel to see this kind of historical site in a city center. We left there and headed over to Joe’s Crab Shack for a drink and an appetizer of crab dip and calamari. What’s cool about downtown San Antonio is that most of it is focused around the RiverWalk, a river that winds back and forth throughout a few blocks with boat taxis and tours, and no shortage of bars and restaurants. So we hopped around from place to place for the rest of the night. Surprisingly there were a lot of Irish pubs (I think we went to 2 or 3?), one of which had a piano player who put on a good show. He was asking everyone where they were from and, when learning we were from Boston, played Sweet Caroline and the Cheers theme song. There was also this girl at another table who was absolutely hammed, so she served as great fodder for his jokes. There were also huge buckets of peanuts on every table so the place was full of empty shells everywhere, which was something different. After grabbing some food there, we continued to hop around, finding one place with this drink called a “Hurricane”. The name explains everything. Also, we went into the Coyote Ugly bar, where one guy proceeded to by 33 beers and gave them out. We were close by and got some, so it was a worthwhile stop for sure. We eventually found a cab to get home, and it was quite a long ride. Another city much bigger than Boston, its small size has really spoiled us over the last five years.

The next day, it was time to pack up and hit the road again. And hit the road we would, as over the following four days we would drive to Arlington (Dallas), Houston, New Orleans and West Palm Beach, Florida. We started off by going north to Arlington for the Rangers-Angels game Friday night at the Ballpark in Arlington. Andy found a nice hotel only a couple miles from the park, and there is also a trolley that goes to all the touristy spots in Arlington. It took us a while to catch it but it was way better than driving. We saw a great game, as CJ Wilson of the Rangers and Joe Saunders of the Angels both threw great games. Michael Young's homer in the first turned out to be the only run scored of the night to give Texas the 1-0 victory, and it turned out to be Joe Saunders’ last start as an Angel as he soon thereafter got traded to the D’Backs in the Dan Harren deal. He didn’t seem to take it too well either, as he started balling on tv during an interview. Rough life being a baseball player. The crowd was excited for a Rangers win and we were surprised with a great firework show after the game. During the game, we got talking to two guys in front of us who were also doing a little baseball trip of their own, going to 10 games in 10 days. One of the two (unfortunately we didn’t get their names…if you guys are reading this feel free to leave a comment!) seemed really intrigued by our trip and got the OK from his wife to do this trip of his own at some point. We hope you do it someday! It really is an amazing experience. So we had a good time talking to them for a while, and after the fireworks took the trolley back to the hotel.



For those of you who don’t know, the new Dallas Cowboys football stadium was built in Arlington right next to the ballpark. It is absolutely unbelievable. I’d bet money that if you were to see it for the first time (as we did) your first words would probably be: “Oh. My. God!” maybe with an expletive or two mixed in there. So, in the morning we drove over to take a look, hoping to do a tour. Unfortunately we couldn’t fit the tour in because it would have taken like two hours and we had to be in Houston for a 6pm game that night, and its about a 4 hour drive from Dallas to Houston.




It was young professionals night in Houston, and we were hoping to get tickets for that section because you got 8 buffalo wings, a soda, a baseball hat, and a souveneir mug with a ticket for 48 bucks, and most likely some “networking” opportunities. But, that was sold out unfortunately. But seats are pretty cheap there, so we got seats maybe 15 rows up along the right field field level for $39. We had been buying nosebleeds for the most part lately, so it was nice to splurge a bit. And, it was Roy Oswalt against the young Reds phenom Johnny Cueto so we were anticipating a good matchup. But, despite lots of trade talks, Oswalt laid an egg and didn’t throw too well. The Red Legs (who I think are my favorite National League team now) took this one handily, 7-0. Afterwards, we found this tap house which claimed to have like 200 beers on tap. It didn’t disappoint, as it was pretty packed and there was lots of good beer. They also have this beer club there, and this one guy was celebrating what we thought his 1800th different beer there. It was hard to understand how many he exactly was celebrating, but either way it was insane. We tried going to the upstairs section, but apparently he had that area on lockdown to celebrate. It was kinda cool. But, that’s a lot of beer, and way too much money. Not really something I’d want to invest thousands in. After talking to two girls, we found out that the “Midtown” area was really the happening place. We attempted to start walking there, but that got old quick so we hailed a cab and it only turned out to be like 7 bucks. First we stumbled upon this interesting coffee shop/wine bar/café/beer place. Everything was made out of dark old looking wood, and it had couches and tables and a patio in an open area downstairs, then upstairs there were tables all around the outside, but it was open like a balcony and you could see the first floor. Then there was another outdoor patio upstairs. I really digged it and it reminded me of something that you might find in Cambridge, Mass. We left there and went to this place called the Poison Girl, which was recommended by the two girls at the tap house. It wasn’t bad, but it was getting late and after a beer we went back to the hotel.

The next day, we went to the Johnson Space Center in Houston which turned out to be really awesome. I would definitely recommend it for kids because it has lots of games and activities for them, but we also did a good tram tour that took us to mission control, where all space missions are controlled and all the communication with the space crew is conducted, you know like “Houston, we have a problem.” Anyways, it was fun. We got to do a space shuttle landing simulator, see the Saturn V rocket which was absolutely massive, and see all sorts of other cool artifacts. Definitely something and engineer would enjoy.

We headed out from Houston in the early afternoon. Our next game from here wasn’t until Friday the 30th in Tampa, so we didn’t really have any plans and we had lots of time to kill. So, we decided to go to New Orleans, or should I say “Norlens” as they pronounce it down here. Let’s just say Bourbon Street lived up to the hype. You don’t even really have to go into any bars to feel like your in a party. Drinking is legal on the street, and the place is flooded with all sorts of characters. It’s really indescribable until you go there. I can’t even imagine what it must be like on Mardis Gras. We saw all kinds off great jazz and blues music, a band of young kids playing in the street and a whole bunch of people dancing around them for seemingly no other reason than to have fun. We also saw lots of crazy shops and t shirts, one of which said “FUBP” with the BP logo tainted in oil. I bought that one the next morning. It was slow going in the morning as some of us were feeling it pretty good from the night before, but we eventually made our way back to Interstate 10, which we’ve gotten to know all too well on this adventure as it spans the width of the the country along the southern states. So, we were on the road again with no real idea of where to go. It’s kind of an interesting feeling to be driving all day and have no idea where you’re really going. Try it sometime.

As I said, our next game is Friday and then we’re probably going to the Marlins game next Tuesday. Since we didn’t know anyone in Tampa that we could stay with, we decided to hunker down and drive all the way to West Palm Beach, where we’re staying at a condo that my family friends the Johnsons were awesome enough to let us stay at while we’re here. Thanks so much, you guys are the best! So we’re here now, we hit up the pool yesterday and got some groceries and grilled out last night. No real plans for the next couple days yet, most likely going to the beach and maybe the driving range. But its been a whirlwind of the last four days. So once again, we’re a-okay with taking it easy for a couple days. That’s about it for now. Pretty soon we'll be heading up I-95 with home in sight. Happy reading everyone.