Baseball, Hot Dogs, (Cherry) Pie, & Soccer

It's a little late, but HAPPY 4th of JULY !!

On July 3rd, Michele, Ian, and I watched the Columbus Clippers play the Toledo Mud Hens. Michele's Mom & Stepdad have great seats...third row, directly behind home plate. The game was a good one. Tied 4 to 4 in the eighth inning, the Clippers scored 6 runs to end the game 10 to 4. After the game, there were fireworks. We could also see a little bit of Red, White, & Boom. This is the BIG fireworks show in Columbus, with over 300,00 people attending. As the fireworks launched, many of the players either carried their kids out onto the field, or jumped into the stands to sit with their wives and children to watch. The whole night was such a very "American" experience. Happy 232nd Birthday USA!

Next year, the Clippers will be playing in a new downtown stadium - called Huntington Park.



Columbus' Arena District is really becoming a great spot.

Nathan was one of the 300,000 people at Red, White, & Boom. He went with his friend Logan, and watched the fireworks near the launch site at Veteran's Memorial. He said the show was great...but his stories indicate that the people watching was even better. At age 12, he has already learned that there are a lot of "weirdos" out there...and most of them are just plain comical.

On July 4th, Nathan and I went to see the Dublin fireworks. It was a good show, but was just a warm-up for the annual fireworks extravaganza that our neighbors (Spence & Lori) put on each year. This is what I was really looking forward to this Independence Day weekend.

We invited a small group of friends over to the house to watch the big show next door. Ian & Nathan invited a larger group of their friends. The kids played soccer in the front yard, and volleyball & corn-hole in the back yard. They roasted hot dogs & s'mores over the fire, and drank more sugary, carbonated drinks than they needed. Michele made a tremendous amount of snacks and drinks for the adults, which we shared on the patio. She even made a couple of cherry pies with the cherries we picked from our little dwarf cherry trees. The weather cooperated to make it a great night. Of course, the fireworks were awesome. The neighbors take 2-3 days preparing the launch pads for the fireworks...and the results were unbelievable. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.















After the weekend, we discovered that Ian's soccer team was accepted into the Midwest Regional League (MRL). This is one of the top leagues in the nation. The other teams in the league are from Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Needless to say, we'll be doing some weekend traveling this year. He will also be playing in tournaments in St. Louis, MO and Raleigh, NC this fall. Maybe with all of this travel we'll be able to drop in to say "hi" to out-of-state friends and family!