Stories From the Road and Beyond and Yes, a Little More Baseball

So sorry I have neglected my blog and all of my lovely readers.  We got so incredibly busy with baseball and baseball activities in St. Louis, then the long drive home, then the unpacking, then the going back to work....it all just piled up sooooo quickly!  We were getting back to the hotel so late, I didn't feel to much like taking food photos or typing for that matter. Here is the low down on the rest of the trip to fabulous St. Louis:

St Louis is in bloom!

1) The Canadian Rookies won their tournament!! Unfortunately I missed the game (bad parent!) as Hubby and I had to start the long drive home so we could meet the bus and pick up the Boy!  For those who understand baseball jibber jabber.....the Boy hit a 2 run double to bring the Rookies ahead by one, the other team scored a run, the Rookies had the bases loaded, 1 out, and went with a suicide squeeze bunt....and it worked!!!! Woot Woot!!

2) We attended Opening day festivities in downtown St Louis.  It was a fun time, with lots of music and some food...I especially enjoyed the free ribs from O'Charleys!!

3) We went the the Saturday game at Busch Stadium with the Padres playing the Cardinals....the Cards lost big time!!!  We had lovely seats in left field right behind the bull pen!! (Yes, we were out in left field! ha ha ha) The Boy and I each had a ball park bratwurst and shared some nachos. Hubby went for the pulled pork BBQ with baked beans.  We don't get to see MLB games too often so we don't feel guilty about eating the food! The Boy also managed to scarf down a pretzel!

Hello pitchers.....

4) The 12 hour drive to Fargo, North Dakota was long. We took food with us and stopped only for gas and restroom breaks. The Dinner we had at Ruby Tuesday's was lovely. We raided the all you can eat salad bar and called it a night!

5) We actually caught up to the bus Monday afternoon at 1pm, about 2km from the drop off point!

6)  I have officially lost count of how many loads of laundry we have done since arriving at home.

7)  After unloading the car we went grocery shopping.

8) I made chicken pot pies for supper Monday...the freezer needs to be restocked and I have to find a day to do a big freezer filling cooking day.

9) Returning to work means getting into full swing for out school production...I am the stage manager and may be away from blogging during the show and rehearsal times.

10) Life is slowly returning to normal, but I am still catching up on sleep.  I became quite accustomed to naps while on vacation!

What a great looking team!  That's the Boy, the tall one in the middle of the back row

 Now that the winter program is almost over, it is time for regular season baseball....and that means more games, more food, and more fun!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Road Trippin' Day 5 - Play Ball!!!

The boys finally got to play some ball last night!!  Woot woot! They also won both of their games! Double woot woot! It was a chilly night but we braved the weather to watch our boys play their first games of the trip.  It was a sunny day yesterday and since the boys didn't have a practice until 2:00 we were able to go see the Gateway Arch!  We unfortunately didn't have time to take the tram up to the top as it was only10:30 yet the next available tickets or a tram was 12:30.  We needed to be back to have lunch before the boys left for practice.

It looks like we will be able to see some sights in the mornings then make it to practices and games in the afternoon and evenings.  Not too bad at all!

We started with a nice sunny walk along the mighty Mississippi.

We stopped at the Gateway Arch for a few photos.  We went inside, but as I said it was too long of a wait for the time we had but we looked around the shops for a while.

We went back to the hotel for a spaghetti & salad lunch.

The boys got in some batting practice at Balls & Strikes indoor facility. This was quite the neat place!
The team then stopped at a Denny's to eat before the game...I had breakfast for dinner!

Then the boys played ball!!

We didn't make it back to the hotel until 10:30 so I took the pastrami sandwiches I had originally made for dinner at the park and grilled them! Grilled pastrami and cheese sammies and fruit hit the spot! I was too cold and tired for food pictures but the boys raved about them.  After a good night's sleep we are all ready to do it all again today, as long as the weather holds up!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Road Trippin' Day 4

Well the snow finally stopped and is almost all melted already! The boys were able to practice at one of the local high schools today and if the weather holds up, they will get to play their first double header of many tomorrow night!  Horay!!

Hubby and I managed to do a bit of shopping again sticking to the shops we don't have back home!  This means Williams Sonoma, Dick's Sporting Goods, Trader Joes, and Target! (Eeeeeee)

I have never been to a Williams Sonoma before.  I frequent their website and have friends who have picked things up for me but this was my first time.  The Williams Sonoma trip involved their Stars line that I didn't already have at home and new Wustoff chef's knife!!!  (EEEEEE)  Dick's Sporting Goods involved baseball gear.  We really don't have too many stores with a wide range of baseball gear back home.  The choices really are limited so we save up for trips to the USA.  The Boy will have to come with us to the Sports Authority to try on cleats though.  Pants and sliding shorts I can manage without him but cleats he will have to try on!

I have never been to a Trader Joes before.  I have friends who rave about this store and one of the parents on the trip wandered into one.  When he was telling us about this Trader Joes store, he wasn't impressed.  I however could have spent so much more time there.  I bought some salt grinders and vitamins but if I was closer to home....it could have been ugly wonderful.

Tomorrow (or later in the week) I will be going to Penzeys Spices!!  I have a list of places to go and this is one of them.  Even if I don't buy anything there, I just want to go!

Enough chit chat, what have we been doing for food? Well let me tell you! We are lucky enough to have a kitchen in our room! I think it may even be bigger than the Little Kitchen, and it has a dishwasher! Yesterday afternoon I made a bolognase sauce for quick lunches.  We just have to boil up some pasta! (Of course I didn't have my new chef's knife yet and suffered with the wimpy knife here, but I managed) We also stopped at the grocery store and loaded up on fruits, veggies, and sandwich fixings.

Even made Hubby's favourite chickpea salad!

Last night,since it had been snowing all day, we organized a pizza and salad dinner in the meeting room at the hotel.  We ordered from a local place called Racanelli's.  They came highly reccommended and it was very good.  Pizza and salad for 50 people is no small order but we had a nice time visiting with the other players and their families last night!

Tonight we all went as a group to the Delmar Loop. This is a neat shopping and restaurant area.  We all stopped for a bite to eat at Blueberry Hill, a St. Louis hotspot for music and food. I actually wasn't too hungry but the chicken fingers I had were delicious!  I didn't hear anyone else complain about their food at all!

It is quite unusual that we have so much time to shop and relax (and blog) but with the snow and rain the fields are just too wet.  The boys have had at least one practice a day since we arrived and we are told that tomorrow's scheduled games are on!  I hope to have baseball pics tomorrow!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

On The Road, Again: Road Trippin' Day 2

So we woke up after a decent night's sleep in Omaha to this:

The exact stuff we drove some 10 hours to get away from....sigh....while it still is warmer than home and some things are looking green, there is still snow.  Apparently St. Louis is expecting more snow this weekend!  I wonder if the baseball tourney is still on? The lovely people here in St. Louis have arranged for the team to have an indoor spot to work out tomorrow morning!

In other happenings in the wonderful world of road tripping includes this:

That's right....the check engine light!  Really??  At first we assumed we hadn't tightened the gas cap enough so we tightened and shortly after the light went out....then it went back on and has stayed on.  There is a dealership close by so we will have it checked out.  We have a long drive home and we don't want anything to go wrong. Perhaps they just need to re set something and that's all....I am keeping my fingers crossed.

It rained off and on for the bulk of the drive into St. Louis.  It kind of felt like a longer drive today, but it wasn't really.  Rita (our GPS) took us on an interesting route that wasn't an Interstate....We're not too sure why she chose this route, but she did.  The traffic once we got back onto the I70 was enough to drive me absolutely insane.  Cars kept braking and even came close to a stop....for no reason! Enough about the weather and the long boring drive!  What did we eat today????

Breakfast was a nice (and free) breakfast bar at the hotel.  It was quite the all inclusive type of thing with everything from waffles, oatmeal, toast, yogurt, fruit, cereal, and even eggs, sausages, and potatoes.  All the various fixings for each of these items was available as well!  We also were able to nick a couple of granola bars for the road! Sweet deal I tell you!

At lunch we pulled into a Sonic drive in.  Once I was able to read through the menu, I went with the basic burger and fries.  Hubby had a burger on Texas toast...it looked good but was so large, he couldn't eat it all.  After this quick in-car meal, we got back on the road!

This Texas toast burger was huge! Hubby didn't even finish it!

Dinner tonight was the California Pizza Kitchen....sorry folks, no pictures of that meal but it was soooo good.  We split a Cobb salad and a Sicilian thin crust pizza.  Very tasty indeed!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

On The Road - Day 1

After a long day of driving, we made it to Omaha, Nebraska! We spent pretty much the entire day in the car....really, we did.  Approximately 960km or almost 600 miles. The I 29 just seems to keep going South! Our first stop was in Grand Forks at the Jimmy John's for sandwiches.  We don't have a Jimmy John's back home and when we are on the road we like to stop at the places we don't have at home.

Therefore, our first road meal of the day was sandwiches!  BLTs to be exact!!

We lucked out when we got to the hotel in Omaha tonight there was a Culver's practically in the parking lot! Another restaurant we do not have back home.  I completely forgot the camera in the car but by the time we got to eat, we were pretty darn hungry!  I went with a salad tonight so I could splurge a little and try their deep fried cheese curds....wow! The cheese was tasty, so was the chicken cashew salad.
Back on the road again tomorrow!
 
Until next time, stay warm and eat well!