Day 33 - Day of Rest

July 9 - After 32 days of travel and sightseeing, I welcomed a day with none of either. I spent most of the day on my computer. Kay made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. We had delicious takeout lasagna for dinner. Best of all, the Phillies rebounded from their dismal Tuesday night performance to beat the Cardinals 4-2, a game I enjoyed from the comfort of my sister's family room. After Jimmy Rollins broke the Phillies 14-inning scoreless streak with an RBI triple. Later, Ryan Howard broke a 2-2 tie with a home run. Brad Lidge worked the ninth to save the game. As Kallie so sagely commented, "We went to the wrong game!"

Day 32 - Summer in the City

July 8 - I hit the wall on Day 32 at of all places, Citizens Bank Park, home of the my beloved Philadelphia Phillies. We drove down from Brooklyn to Chester County without incident, but only had about an hour's downtime before leaving for the ballpark. My personal financial adviser had reportedly arranged with his college teammate, Phillies' reliever Chad Durbin for me to meet some of the Phillies players in the dugout before the game. We were told to be there at 5:30 p.m. We beat the target by 10 minutes, but spent the time standing outside in 90 degree heat waiting for the gates to open. Inside we made our way to the Phillies dugout, only to learn that the team was in a pre-game meeting. By the time they emerged it was game time. We had already headed upstairs to our seats.

I sat in my seat in the fifth row of the third deck between home and first, a great view of the field, despite being in the upper deck. The sun continued to bear in over the third base side of the stadium. In fact by moving upstairs we effectively moved the sun higher in the sky. In spite of the splendor all around me in Citizens Bank Park, including Ashburn Alley, a Phillies Hall of Fame and who knows what else, I had only enough energy to watch the game and take a few pictures. Bless her heart, Kay roamed the stadium to find cheese steaks and drinkable beer.

The Phillies seemed to be suffering from heat fatigue too, as they managed only six hits in a 2-0 loss. Every time they got a rally started, the batter hit into a double play, four in all.

Bless her heart, my friend June, who'd gone to the game with us, drove back to Chester County. I so looked forward to a Wednesday with nothing to do and no place to go before our travels resume southward on Thursday.

Day Ten - Age of Aquarium

We took it easy Monday morning, then went into Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium. They had a number of excellent exhibits. My favorite was a colorful array of frogs. I've posted pictures at www.photoblog.com/dadlak. We had planned to go to the National Zoo in Washington, but the forecast was iffy, a factor that played out when the rain started in Baltimore at about 4 p.m. We didn't get too wet going from the aquarium to the car.

In the evening we ate dinner with Fern at Vantage Point. My mussels and linguine were surprisingly good for institutional food. Everyone enjoyed the time together and conversation. After dinner it was time for the Red Sox and Phillies on ESPN Monday Night Baseball, one of the most satisfying regular season games I've ever seen on TV as the Phillies won 8-2. They opened with two first-inning home runs, one each by Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard. Howard homered again on his second at bat, stretching the Phillies' lead to 4-0. The Red Sox answered with two solo home runs off Phillies' starter Cole Hamels, but the Phils offense struck right back with four in a rally that featured triples by both Pat Burrell (his first triple since 2006) and Howard (the 5th triple of his three year career). The defending world champions were never really in the game, to the delight of the assembled Phillies' fans and Yankee fans who'd come down from New York.

On To Day Eleven