US Open 2010

Tennis, tennis, and more tennis.

For one last hurrah of the summer season, we flew out to New York to go to the first week of the US Open Tennis Tournament. As it turns out, this is not a sporting event for the weak--spectators included. Even though this was definitely not a restful vacation, the effort was worth it for the chance to see some incredible play.

As a former tennis Mom, I've watched my share of matches over the years, but of course, this is tennis at a whole different level. The court coverage, the power and precision, and the player's stamina is almost unbelievable. It actually took a while to get used to even following the speed of play. And while watching tennis on TV can be enjoyable, you simply can't appreciate a 144 mph serve from your living room.

Of course, the venue for this event is as much a draw as the athletes themselves. The facility is beautiful. We were a little disappointed by the foods provided after all the build-up, but it was still better than most. (And you are there, after all, for the tennis.)

Weather played its own role in the opening days. The heat and humidity were oppressive even for watching, which makes you marvel all the more at the fitness level of the players. And to top it all off, Hurricane Earl threatened to literally dampen at least one day of the event, but thankfully only gave us a few drops of rain and delayed play for only a brief amount of time.

All said, we had a great trip to close out the summer, and when we got back to MN, even the weather reminded us that summer is definitely over. So, it's time to get our son back to school and for us to get back to work.

Welcome To Target Field!

Now Spring has officially arrived. Outdoor baseball. Back in Minnesota. And back in style.

Saturday afternoon's Gopher baseball game gave Minnesota baseball fans their first glimpse of the Twins' spanking new stadium in downtown Minneapolis, and it couldn't have been better. Well okay, it could have been 72 degrees instead of 50, but I don't think that anyone cared.

Target Field is perfect. They've captured just the right blend of an old ballpark feel with all the modern amenities. The wide open concourses tempt you to keep exploring what's ahead and yet you can always stop for a few minutes to catch up with what's going on on the field. There are even a couple of sections with vintage-type wooden seats to bring you back to your youth--well, if you're old enough, that is.

And the food! In the past, we've always made plans to eat somewhere either before or after a game because the Dome's food was so bad. Yesterday we had a hard time deciding what to try first. (By the way, we went for Juicy Lucy's and Murray's steak sandwiches--and a cold beer, of course, at the Town Ball Tavern and everything was excellent.)

Say what you will about taxpayers having to help build stadiums or about the choice of location, this ballpark is going to be a major attraction in the city of Minneapolis for years to come, and I can't wait to go back. Our tickets for a night game this May with the Tigers are already burning a hole in my pocket. I've heard the lighting is the best around.

Being Minnesotans, we just couldn't quite leave winter behind us though. After enjoying our afternoon at the ballpark, we ended the day watching the championship game of the NCAA regional hockey tournament at the X in St. Paul. We were mostly cheering for St. Cloud, but having been born in Wisconsin and educated at St. Cloud State, I couldn't lose. Turns out the Badgers were more than the Huskies could handle. One more weekend of hockey, and we wait for Opening Day.

PGA 'til You Drop

Our last week was consumed by golf, golf, and more golf.

Cleverly hidden in the center of the country, Minnesota rarely plays host to international sporting events. So when over one hundred of the greatest golfers in the world make the trek to play in your backyard, you go.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly in our backyard. The journey was the most trying part of the week. With the drive, traffic, road construction, and shuttles, it could be over two hours each way to the course and back. But once we arrived, it was truly a great experience. The course was beautiful, the golfers were unbelievable, the tournament itself was well run.

And Tiger-mania is alive and well. To avoid the largest crowds, we spent most of our time watching the rest of the field. When we did stick around on a hole long enough for his group play through, the flurry of activity around him was just as fascinating to watch as the man himself. Security is tight. The media coverage is phenomenal. And his fans watch his every move. (When he used the bathroom after teeing off on one hole, more people were staring at the Biff than Padraig's tee shot.) I'm sure it's good to be Tiger, but it's got to be difficult to live with that kind of attention.

After a couple of practice rounds and the opening round of the tourney, I surrendered my ticket for the weekend to my brother. By that time, I was more than happy to watch the coverage from the comfort of my own home with a new appreciation for the phenomenal skills of these elite golfers. Even HD doesn't give you an appreciation for the challenges of the course, and these guys just make it all look too easy.

Wrigley

Twins vs. Cubbies at Wrigley. Hotel room right next door to a brew pub. One night of Giordano's, and one night of Gino's East deep dish pizzas. Does it get much better?


The sweep would have been perfect, but we'll settle for winning the series.

Chicago really is a great city--one of our favorites--and stadiums don't get much better than Wrigley. It makes us excited for outdoor baseball in MN next year.

Home At Last

In my last post, I had a picture of our living room Christmas tree, but seriously, this is a great Christmas tree--basking in a 70 degree Arizona day and surrounded by orange trees. And we live in MN because...???

No, no, no. I love my home and am glad to be back after spending our New Year's vacation in Arizona. The beautiful tree in the picture is on the grounds of the Arizona Biltmore Resort where we stayed for part of our trip. Besides pines, poinsettias, and orange trees, the gardens around the Garden Sprites were a welcome break from MN snow banks. The Wright-inspired Spa and Resort is like taking a step back in time. I loved reading about their history and checking out all the photos of the old celebrities and past presidents who had visited the place.

Since many of our vacations tend to revolve around sporting events, you just know we spent New Year's Eve at the Insight Bowl where the Gophers were defeated by Kansas, but a loss is much easier to take in such a lovely location. (Besides, I'm not a UMN grad, so I was just there for the sunshine! Sorry guys.) From the game, we headed over for the Tempe block party where we shared the ringing in of 2009 with 100,000 other people while we watched fireworks and listened to Styx. (Oh boy!) It's hard to say how many miles we had walked by the time we got to bed by 2:00 the next morning. I'm too old for that kind of day.

After exploring Phoenix, we set out for Flagstaff. Having never been to Arizona--outside of the airport that is--I couldn't get over the variety of landscape and climate. As we drove in to higher elevations, we came into winter again and laughed at the excited tourists who just had to drive to the shoulder of the freeway to get out and play in the snow.

The next morning we were off to the Grand Canyon. The views along the way are gorgeous and the canyon itself is quite a sight. We did have to wonder what the park must be like during the peak season when the crowds were considerable in the middle of winter.

On our trip back to Phoenix, we wound through the road leading to Sedona. I think this was my favorite spot in the whole trip. The town itself is pretty touristy, but the drive to get there is fantastic. There were a few campgrounds and resorts along that road that would be fun to visit if we ever get back.

By this time, we were ready to start heading home, but the good people at US Air wanted us to stay a little longer. Our late Saturday flight was canceled due to a mechanical problem, and we were unable to book another flight until Monday morning. We made the best of it and spent some more time looking around Phoenix and even got to a movie. (A movie we all loved, by the way--"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.")

It's good to be home--even with the snow and cold temperatures. Life isn't quite back to "normal" since we have our college kid with us for another couple of weeks, but we'll enjoy that while we can.

Thanks to flight times, car trips, and my tendency to wake up long before the guys are ready to get going on our vacations, I finished three more Mitred Mittens while we were gone. As I was packing for this trip, I wasn't sure what to take along for a project until I found the leftover skeins of yarn from St. Brigid. I threw those in my bag with some dpns and my copy of the pattern and they turned out to be just the thing to take. The pattern is so easy to remember that I could easily pick them up on the fly and be able to knit and enjoy the scenery at the same time. After I get caught up around here, I'll finish up that fourth mitten before I get back to my Rambling Rows cardigan. While I'm knitting, I can reminisce about oranges and Christmas trees.

Finished!

I had my doubts whether or not I could finish my Alix's Prayer Shawl before the deadline of Ravelympics 08, but I got the knitting completed while we were in LA and have it drying out on a rug as we speak. I snapped this picture of it draped on the back of the hotel room chair after I did the bind off.

Even though I took it along on our trip over the weekend, I decided not to bring it on the plane. It was getting a little bulky and since each row had so many stitches by the end, I was afraid I would have a mess if I had to put it away suddenly. By the last repeats, it would take a good ten to fifteen minutes to knit each row, and while my family now understands it when I say, "Just let me finish this row.", I didn't think a hundred or so people on the plane would be as patient.

We had a great trip out to California. The Angels stadium was beautiful--and the Twins won both Thursday and Friday night. (We must be good luck.) Besides the games, we squeezed in one day at Disneyland and another day taking in the sights around Los Angeles. We're already thinking about our next Twins trip. Colorado? Toronto? Kansas City?

Another hectic week ahead of us. We'd like to try and get to the State Fair for our annual day of gluttony, there's some packing that needs to get done, and then we take our son up to college on Thursday. We've had quite a summer before we all begin the next phase!