Major League Baseball Parks

I do love ball parks. The atmosphere is wonderful; the sights, sounds and flavors! The game is entertaining and so civilized. It's just a great place to be. I started out in Minneapolis visiting the Metrodome when the kids were little. Then when traveling I would check out the baseball schedules. I took the kids to Yankee Stadium and Busch Stadium; both gone now, but I have added the new parks to my to-do list. We saw the Colorado Rockies play during their inaugural year but haven't been to their current ball park. Now when I travel, I try to find opportunities to visit more. Dale has been very willing to visit ball parks with me so we have seen quite a few together, three this year already. The baseball collection started out as Jay's. I would buy him a baseball and buy Ashley a team teddy bear at each park. She lost interest in the bears and Jay lost interest in the ball parks. He finally told me that I could keep his baseballs because I liked them better. So I continue to buy myself a baseball at each new ball park and will continue to collect more baseballs. I would think I was getting close to visiting half the teams but then they build new ball parks and that means more on my to-do list. I do love my baseball collection and display them at home. They are fun souvenirs.

Old Friends

It's been more than four years since I sold my house in Cedar Falls and packed up my belongings. At that time I thought this West Des Moines home would be a short chapter in my life so I left some things packed in storage. I have moved a few things out of storage and passed some things on to the kids but there are still some boxes and furniture in that space. Today my friend, Tammy asked me about those boxes and it reminded me that now would be a good time to sort and determine what I still want to keep. I recently heard that you should only keep what you find to be often useful or very beautiful. I like that philosophy. I want Grandma's Fostoria, but there is no room in the kitchen at this time. I do not want the box of telephones. Those will land in the dumpster. I decided to open the box of Hummels and found that it was like seeing old friends again; seventeen old friends. Yes, I do want to keep them, for now at least. They hold some precious memories and I still find them to be beautiful. Most were meaningful gifts from my mother-in-law, Betty. I remember which one was my first and I remember the occasion marked by others. She brought me the one in the front with the buggy the day that I gave birth to my first child. It's nice to see my old Hummel friends in my living room again.

Pool Time

Ashley came to visit!
It did not turn out like we planned but it ended up being a very nice visit. She was going to have a couple of photo shoots but one got canceled. I was going to take Friday afternoon off to hang out but ended up going to a funeral out of town and leaving Ashley at my house. There were plenty of clouds and a few rainstorms but we made it all work. We ate good food and relaxed lots. We went to the Farmer's Market and even took a quick trip to the mall. The sun came out and we got to spend time in the pool all three days. We exercised in the water and lounged on the chairs with icy drinks. I wanted to document our weekend and took my little camera down to the pool. With plenty of water and sun neither of us felt camera ready. We each took a few shots thinking that foot photos might be the answer and then decided which ones could be blogged. These were the two that passed the test. I always love it when Ashley visits but often do not have any photo documentation of our very relaxing time. This visit was relaxing too and it felt a little bit like vacation which is a good thing.

Fishing Weekend

Once a year Iowa offers a free fishing weekend allowing people to fish without a license. Since Dale and I barely used our fishing licenses last year we thought this would be a good weekend to get out our fishing poles without the expense of two licenses. We fished on Saturday and we fished on Sunday. We went to Mine Pond, Q-Pond, Lake Ahquabi, Moffitt Reservoir and Water Works Park. Sadly this was the only fish that we were able to get on a hook. We had some nibbles and sacrificed a few nightcrawlers but did not catch anything until the last hour of fishing on Sunday. It may be a tiny little fish but I was thrilled when I reeled it in to the shore.


I thought we would fish just one day but after coming up with nothing on Saturday I was motivated to go again on Sunday. I lost a couple of lures on snags. Dale even climbed out on a dead tree to find the right spot, but no fish! We did see some turtles, dragon flies and butterflies. We got to watch storms roll in and back out on Saturday. Sunday we got a beautiful sunny and breezy day. Finally I did catch my tiny fish and felt content with my fishing weekend. As always, I was grateful that Dale was there to take the poor thing off the hook for me. We set it back in the water to swim off but it may never see out of its right eye again. That may be the extent of our fishing this year but we did enjoy some beautiful areas on a nice June weekend.

Minnesota Twins

The initial motivation for Dale
and me to go to the Twin Cities
over Memorial Day weekend was to visit Target Field, new home to the Minnesota Twins.
I do love to visit major league ball parks and this one was extra special. Back in the late eighties Jay, Ashley and I were big Minnesota Twins fans.

This is a photo of Jay, Ashley and their dad is at the Metrodome in 1988. I never loved the Metrodome but I think it gave me a real appreciation for outdoor ball parks. We were familiar with lots of players back then but Kirby Puckett was a favorite. That's me above by his statue at the new park. Don't Jay and Ashley look cute all decked out for a Twins game? Ashley's Kirby Puckett doll still lives in my guest room. I had the doll's uniform made especially for Ashley after finding the right Cabbage Patch Doll to be her Kirby Puckett. Jay wore his Twins jersey often and was ready to photograph the players on the field that day.

I was quite impressed by Target Field. It has a very unique appearance from outside of the park. Its a great place to watch a game and we got to see the Twins beat the Rangers who we had just visited in Texas last month. Minnesota seems to be embracing outdoor baseball. The game was sold out. The scalpers were charging three times face value for tickets. We chose to buy standing room only tickets because that was all that was left at the ticket counters. The atmosphere was great. Its a beautiful ball park. I hope to go back again, maybe with the kids next time!

Como Zoo

I have always loved Como Zoo in St. Paul Minnesota. As a child I remember sitting on the large turtle when my parents took us to the zoo. I took my children to the Como Zoo many times. They no longer allowed children to sit on the turtle but we always enjoyed the zoo. This photo of Jay and Ashley is from 1987. Last Sunday, Dale and I visited Como Zoo and although there were lots of changes, I smiled when I saw this same gorilla sculpture still in the same spot. My disappointment was that the polar bear display was closed. It reopened a couple of days after we were there. The polar bears were always my favorite, so I guess I will need to go back again.

The zoo was very busy on Sunday with lots of small children and many strollers. It really made me smile to remember that I had pushed a stroller through the same zoo over twenty years ago. The people crowded in for the Sparky show just like we did in the 80s. It was so fun to be in the Twin Cities again after so long.