And, oh my, how smitten am I with this new addition to the family?! I will try not to be THAT kind of grandfather, but rest assured, I'm more than thrilled with my new role as GrandBob. (And how blessed am I? I get to become GrandBob times two in October!)
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Wife has spent a fair amount of time with the new family of three over the past month. She stayed a week after he was born, then went back for about three days again, and will go for a day next week while Daughter goes for her follow-up Doctor's visit. And this weekend, the new grandson will make his visit to see his grandparents on their turf. Can't wait for that.
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In other happenings, we are all atwitter here in Middle Tennessee about the upcoming solar eclipse on August 21st. Nashville is the largest city in the "path of totality" (where there will be a total eclipse, as opposed to a partial one) and there will be droves of people coming here.
Wife and I are in a little bit of a dilemma about what to do. We live in a suburb a few miles south of Nashville, and we won't have the totality, or length of totality, that they will have north of here. I could choose to work in downtown Nashville that day, but with all the crowds and craziness, I'm not sure I want to do that. We are leaving three days later for our vacation to Ireland (more on that later), so neither of us is in a position to take the day off. I think it will be pretty remarkable even where we are, but on the other hand, I don't want to cheat myself by trying to avoid the crowds.
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I just returned from another baseball trip with my two sons, this time in Minneapolis. We all met there Friday morning and had a great time, as usual. This marked the 26th major league park for Older Son, with only four to go. I'm at number 24, and Younger Son is at 20.
We went to games Friday and Saturday nights. Younger Son had researched good places to eat and some breweries in the downtown area where we stayed, and Saturday morning we went to a park with some beautiful hiking trails and waterfalls.
The goal of visiting each major league park started when Older Son was 8 and he and I went to Atlanta (where he now lives) to see the Braves. He had become a fan watching them on one of the Turner cable channels.
He will hit number 30 in a few years, I suppose, but as Younger Son so eloquently put it a few years ago, it's not a race. And I don't know of a journey I have enjoyed as much.
It was a beautiful weekend in Minneapolis, and here's the view from our seats at Friday night's game:
5 comments:
For me, I'm not making an effort to get right on the line of totality which happens to be in a large urban area just south of here. Instead, I plan to stop about 20 miles to the north which means that the length of totality won't be a full 2+ minutes but it will still be a total eclipse. I'm hoping to avoid the madness that way.
Also, I like the goal of seeing all the ballparks. It isn't so much the destination but the trip and who you spend it with. I have a goal of visiting all the graves of my ancestors from my great great great grandparents on down. I've done about half of them thus far.
You could have waved to my son! The ballpark is clearly visible from their window. (you saw their apartment building whether you were aware of it or not...it's very tall) From our own visit, I know it's a beautiful city (along with St. Paul) with lots of great places to eat and things to see and do.
I'm glad I'm far enough away from the line of totality that I don't have your dilemma. I'll just be happy to get good weather for a partial eclipse. (My glasses haven't shipped yet! I'm afraid they're back ordered now and they've not yet told me... though using the pinhole method would be okay if necessary)
Enjoy your wee visitor this weekend, GrandBob. :)
I remembered your son lives there but didn't know exactly where, of course. Should have dropped in on him and said you don't know me but we have all kinds of connections. I know he would have loved that!
Lots of fun stuff lately!
I love the idea of visiting the ballparks and making it a special trip with your sons. Something you all will remember forever.
We won't have the total coverage like you, not even close, but it is a neat event. Trying to figure out how to best do it in with the kids at school. We will only have started two days before. I hope you decide to go see it in Nashville and share your experience with us. :)
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