Baltimore!

Jeremy and I had the fabulous luck of getting free Baltimore Orioles tickets for a weekend we were both free. Big Brothers Big Sisters were given these two tickets by a donor and my social worker contacted me about them. It was Friday, June 8.

We started out at 1:30 in the afternoon and it was so hot we were sweating going up the road with the windows open and the fan on high (no air conditioning builds character as Calvin's dad would say :).

The fun started before we got to the game. I enjoyed the chance to talk with Jeremy on the way up about things we don't usually get to talk about. But then we were passing by this big garage-looking building, and we noticed some giant tires outside that looked suspiciously like monster truck tires.
Philip: "You wanna go see what those tires belong to?"
"Yeah!"
Pulled a U-ie.
Inside we found two big monster trucks, and soon enough the owner came by on his four-wheeler. He was really nice: "I don't usually let anyone do this, but you can climb up in since nobody's around. Just don't touch anything inside." We took turns climbing up for a picture in the biggest monster truck. He also gave us each a poster and a toy model of his truck and a t-shirt. I thought maybe this would be the highlight of the trip for Jeremy, but it wasn't (you never really know what's gonna strike him the most).

Today, a week later I stopped by his house to chat with him and I asked him "Hey big Orioles fan! What was the best part of the trip...the thing you always love to tell people about?"

"That guy on the motorcycle doing a wheelie."

Just into Baltimore, we were driving down this one street and all of a sudden a high-pitched motorcycle engine is revving just ahead of us and going the opposite direction. A guy with a bandana is doing a wheelie and he keeps it up until he's almost out of view behind us. It was pretty crazy.

But the reason we went was to watch a baseball game. After a McDonald's lunch, we walked to Camden Yards and Oriole Stadium and began to explore. We noticed that the Rockies were having batting practice so we asked if we could go stand right behind the right field wall to watch. Soon baseballs started flying over our heads, especially when a leftie was batting. One ball hit right in front of me on the top of the wall but I didn't have the courage to reach out my bare hand for it. We were patient and eventually pulled a ball out of a small fracas nearby. A very cool souvenier, I was happy.

We had good seats too from which I could explain to him everything that was happening and point out where the ball was. He loved the Oriole mascot. Here we are just before the game right behind the Orioles' dugout...we weren't sitting here, just getting a picture. Notice the mascot at the mound.
The weather was beautiful that night, so we got up during the 7th inning stretch and decided to try to go to the highest point of the stadium we could find to look out. We found this ramp that went up and up and raced each other to the top. We looked out at the city and there was lightning on the distant horizon that made the night so beautiful.

the view from our seats:

After the game (actually after the 8th inning...that's about all he could take; the Orioles were up 4-2), we walked to the inner harbor and watched lightning there, which was very peaceful. We found some really good break dancers doing a street show nearby and watched their craziness for a little while too.

Jeremy says, "I'm gonna stay up all the way home."
15 minutes later he's gone and I drive home 3 hours in silence...the first prolonged silence of the day :).

The most interesting thing I noticed during the day was that Jeremy reacted quickly against my hand on his shoulder, like when I would try to hold him back from traffic a little bit. But later I noticed that when we would walk anywhere, he would put his elbow against my elbow with a constant pressure. He was okay with that and so was I. It made me smile.