This Year's Vacation Spot: A Rock or A Hard Place?

I've mentioned our vacation conundrum a bunch here before.  What do you do for vacation when your kid is being sort of a jerk about it (but can't help himself) and is accepting no less than ideal circumstances, but you're not sure it's even possible and yet you know that going on vacation as a family should still be a priority?  I feel very stuck on this one and time is ticking down to the point that I don't know that we'll end up being able to do anything, which is not ideal at all.

Jacob is stuck on wanting to go back to Disney.  But this time he wants a lot of resort time.  It must be at Old Key West again, or maybe he'd accept another resort where it's a villa rather than a hotel setup, but probably not.  It must have a basketball court.  Of course, we either have to break the bank (again) or convince Craig's parents to let us use their vacation club points again (ideally with them, but who knows if there's enough for all of us).  Renting points for Old Key West wasn't quite as expensive as I expected it could be if we were to do it ourselves, but it's still significant once you add in flights and food and park tickets (which would likely be slightly less than last time).

We've tried to work through other scenarios that might convince him something cheaper was doable, like an offsite resort that has a court and a fun pool, but those are few and far between and there are obviously drawbacks to that, too.  He'd have to settle for "hotel style" living, which seems like an easy compromise but for him it's not.  I agree that it's more convenient to be on property and Disney gluten-free eating is probably easier as a whole, but it's not cheap and it's not something we anticipated doing two years in a row...even if we're saving a bunch from not paying school tuition this year.  We really need to put most of that money toward house stuff sooner rather than later, but I can acknowledge a trip would still be important.  Our kids will only be at these ages for so long and I think it's good for us to make positive memories now.  Last year's trip was partly to show Jacob that we were hearing him and what he wanted, and this year, it would be much the same--but this time we have to do a trip that is more his style.  That will be a challenge for me and Carter--although we'd likely sneak off a bit more on our own--but admittedly I'm down for more relaxation myself.  

Last trip was a LOT--and I think it had to be.  When it might be your one opportunity, you go and do all the things.  Jacob doesn't get that at all, but I think the vast majority of people that go to Disney understand that's just sort of how it goes.  Yes, if you go more often you can pick and choose and be more selective about how you spend your time.  But last year was meant to be a "once in a lifetime" type of trip so we wanted to accomplish as much as possible.  I had warned him of that, and I think we honestly made the best of the situation by letting them come back to the resort early most days.  It wasn't enough for Jacob, of course, and I know he was frustrated by the time loss of having to do a bunch of travel just to get to a functional basketball court since ours was closed.  That would be better this time, at minimum.  And truly I'd be fine if Carter and I had more park time (but less than last time) while they hung at the resort, and we schedule more resort time, too.  I originally thought we could accomplish the must-dos with a couple days of park hopper tickets, but special pricing on four days of single tickets isn't much more and would likely give us more flexibility.  And now we know better about food places and what we'd really want to accomplish, so I think as a whole it could be a great trip.  But can we make it work and is it worth the money?

We've talked about taking over the DVC membership, too.  Craig's parents have debated getting rid of it, and the cost isn't as obscene as it could be.  One year gets you close to a full week in what amounts to a one-bedroom apartment at a few resorts, so in the end accommodations are probably about what you'd pay for a slightly-better-than-decent average hotel room elsewhere.  It could be doable and give us some fun vacations until the kids are grown.  If Jacob is never going to want to broaden his horizons with other vacations, it might not be worst thing in the world to commit to that for a bit.  But that's probably my biggest concern with it--if we take it over, are we going to get screwed when the time comes to get rid of it?  I know people have trouble with that sometimes, so I have no idea what that might look like here.

There are still other things I'd like to do with the kids, but if it involves Jacob complaining at every turn, I might just have to deal with not doing those things.  I mean, if he had autism or something more severe, we couldn't necessarily do all the things we'd want.  While he is clearly not like that, I genuinely think this is sort of a lesser version of his neurodivergence coming through.  The thing is, he seems normal enough most of the time, so when he throws up an oddball like this, where he absolutely doesn't want "busy" vacations and has very specific ideas of what a vacation should look like, it's hard to remember that this is probably just a quirky neurodivergent side effect.  With all the convincing and logic we've tried to use over the last few years, that's all I can figure because a regular person likely would have given in or understood by now.  He is just "stuck", and that screams to me that this isn't just a personal preference or general stubbornness.  There are things he just gets locked in his brain and there is no changing his mind.  So maybe we find the best compromises we can--do Disney as we're able and try to find other acceptable things in other years.

We've talked about going out west at some point to visit my brother and his kids (and get me to Seattle to Chihuly Gardens and Glass), and I think he might consent to that...but I know he'll gripe at me during and after when I want to do a handful of touristy things.  I'd love to try a cruise, and there are probably a couple other places I'd like to try, like maybe the Outer Banks or Washington DC.  There are other places we'd like to go back to, like Atlanta to get to the Braves' newer stadium and get to the aquarium we swore 11 years ago that we'd go to on our next trip (ha), or return trips to the Jersey Shore or Montreal.  Ultimately, he wants relaxation, a basketball court, and maybe a couple casual activities he can do at his leisure, and he wants a certain level of comfort with food and lodging.  Disney gives him all that, so it's hard to convince him otherwise.  And maybe we just need to be okay with that for now.  So, at the moment, we're working through scenarios to see what works.

The problem, of course, is that we're super short on time.  The hotel and flight booking windows will be getting tight.  It's not a particularly busy time for Disney but that doesn't mean flights are cheap booking too close or that there isn't a risk of days booking up at the parks.  We need to plan for work and (ugh) prepare ahead for whatever start-of-school things might need attention before we go.  And that's all assuming we figure out the lodging situation.  Last year we knew we were doing it no matter what obstacles we encountered--we just had to make it work because we had committed to it after talking about it for so long.  This year feels a lot more along the lines of, if something ends up being way more expensive or complicated than anticipated, we may just have to skip it.  So what happens if that's the case?  Do we do nothing?  That would be a shame.  After not doing much of a family vacation in 2019 (just a couple things in the Thousand Islands around a lacrosse tournament) and then only doing a couple local day trips in 2020, I swore we'd never let that happen again.  But here we are in later July with no plans.  I'm trying to think of an acceptable backup plan, but that's not going well.

Adding to the complication is that I had hoped to do some sort of amusement park trip with Carter later this summer when a chunk of kids were already back in school.  Cedar Point was at the top of our list, though I'm debating that now because one of their coasters is being reconstructed and I would probably prefer to go when that's done.  But I would also LOVE to tackle that park now because it's that good and we'd definitely want to go back anyway.  Or we could go toward Pennsylvania and do Hersheypark, which is also amazing, and maybe hit up Knoebel's, which is a place I've never been but heard great things about.  But I was also looking at that same window of time to make that trip, so if we do end up doing Disney or something else, what does it mean for that trip?  I'm just feeling a little stuck.  I want to feed that coaster addiction while I still have the bodily ability to handle anything, but squeezing that in would be a lot.  But at the same time, it was something we have talked about since last year, and making him wait a whole additional year feels sort of cruel after the wait he had to endure after the Ride of Steel debacle last year.  It may have felt quick to me, but it didn't to him.  So what happens to that if we go ahead with this?  Disney is fun but a thrill ride mecca it is not, and he deserves to explore something better than just Ride of Steel this year.

At the end of the day, I feel like Disney is something worth exploring because when you can get your teenager on board for any sort of family activity, that is something you should grab on to and make happen.  Does it feel like a bit much to go again a year later?  Yup.  I went when I was three and one of my parents' biggest arguments in 50+ years of marriage was about us going back when I was nine (my dad stayed home in protest and my grandma went with us, which was amazing in its own way).  So clearly two years in a row is sort of unthinkable in my world.  But we need to do something, so here we are.

Epilogue: I had most of this post written earlier in the week and got busy.  On Wednesday, Craig got up the guts to ask his mom about using their points again and she said yes.  It looks like we'll start contributing to things a bit to build their points back up--but it still saves us a ton.  So the subsequent few days were full of frantic flight searches and a couple panic moments (like when the only decent flight booking wouldn't take or the last day of our stay couldn't be booked at Old Key West), but it looks like this trip is happening.  Here we go again...bring on the packing lists, the work panic, and the crushing anxiety!

A Week Off...Sort of.

This was probably the most stealth week off ever.  It definitely didn't feel like a week.  Monday was split between hanging out with my family and coming back home after our weekend and getting settled.  Tuesday was the 4th of July, so there was at least a little more effort to make it interesting.  Wednesday morning I had to hop online for about an hour and a half of work (for some year-end reporting and an interview), then immediately left for two hours to take Jacob to a training session, shop a little during it, and then drive home, which killed half the day.  We did some pool time both afternoons, which was nice but probably shorter-lived than should be the case, but between flat-out laziness and the pool not being as warm as would be ideal, it just wasn't as fun as it should have been.  Not to mention that the basketballs get shot out of the pool constantly so someone either has to be outside or get out every couple minutes.  Let's just say my gardening efforts were a little interrupted!  For the most part, I spent a lot of my free time either tired/lazy or puttering around the house and yard taking care of things.  Thursday was a different story--that was a full day at Darien Lake.  And Friday was back to some lazy, but I gave blood around lunchtime and then stopped at Wegmans, at which point my car battery died out of nowhere.  That killed an unexpected extra hour or so of what was supposed to be a "free" day.  And by the time I ate some lunch once I got home, it was already mid-afternoon.  It seemed like all week I was looking at the clock and it was already 4pm.  Don't get me wrong--I needed this week, but in the end it barely feels like I had a week.  It was like an extended long weekend, but with very little down time.  I never really had the chance to get bored or be extra productive.  

As I mentioned, we tried to make the Fourth of July a little more interesting, but in the end it got a little out of whack.  There was a slow start to the day and eventually we got into the pool mid-afternoon, but then we had to figure out some dinner.  We'd had burgers and hot dogs at my parents' the previous day so I didn't want to do that.  I was actually craving a steak kabob, so I offered to run to Wegmans and grab kabobs for Carter and me and some sort of steak for Craig and Jacob.  I was going to do potatoes for the adults and rice for the kids, and picked up corn on the cob while I was at the store.  Just as I was about to start cooking, the power went out!  For no apparent reason other than maybe the grid was overloaded due to super hot weather.  At least we were planning on grilling, but still...it was not ideal.  We did the meat and the corn on the grill and left it at that.  We were planning on doing tabletop s'mores that night anyway, so we ate plenty, but it was a bit of a bummer to have a fancy dinner and have it be less fabulous than expected.  But what we had was delicious.  We went out as it started to get dark to do our s'mores just as the neighborhood fireworks were ramping up, and the power came on somewhere in the middle of that.  I ended up on the porch for a while to watch the craziness coming from a backyard across the street (and later at both ends of neighborhood).

Thursday at Darien Lake was fun but terribly hot.  I had planned on taking Carter there one way or another during the week off to get another use of our season passes, but it worked out to go with my mom, brother, and his kids, much like we did two years ago.  We ended up meeting them at the park-and-ride with the van (once Craig brought it home at the last minute because he forgot I needed it!) so they didn't have to pay the ridiculous $25 parking fee.  It was great to see the kids for the first time since our last trip there together.  Max didn't ride much last time but my brother said he'd done a bunch at Great Wolf Lodge since then and was prepared to ride more stuff.  He started big, as we decided to hit up Ride of Steel first before the lines got longer.  I'm not sure he loved it--he didn't do it again later when we did--but he did it!  Even my mom rode, which was pretty impressive.  She always loved rides, but she's 72 now so it's not quite as easy!  We all had a good time and a good laugh getting them both through it, though.  A few of us rode the drop tower, and then we headed to a big target--Shipwreck Falls.  It seemed like a good day for the big splash boat ride.  We came prepared in our suits, and the super hot weather made it a must.  Well...for some reason it wasn't splashing big!  We got splashed, much like an old school flume, but it didn't even reach the big bridge!  The front row was blocked, so maybe that wasn't creating the same kind of splashdown?  It was a little disappointing, but whatever...we were off to the waterpark anyway.  

In retrospect, we probably should have eaten lunch before going there, because it was super hot and humid and we probably should have fueled up ahead of that.  The pavement in the waterpark was scorching hot.  Some paths were better than others, but it hurt.  We did the racing slides all together, which was super fun, and Max in particular loved it!  We did the lazy river, which we hadn't ever seen open.  Two years ago it was closed during COVID and even last year when Carter and I went, it was drained.  Earlier this year we noticed it was filled but it wasn't open, but this time it was!  Of course, they were also now charging for the waterpark separately (not us) and checking tickets at the entrance, which was weird since it wasn't like that a few weeks ago.  Anyway, the lazy river was pretty fantastic.  My brother said he just needed a beer and could have been in there all day.  My mom agreed!  We then went to the quad slides.  Since our favorite Tornado was closed, as was Carter's beloved Brain Drain, we ended up riding the quads twice.  The line was moving well and we just ended up taking whatever tubes were available, which meant singles on the first run and doubles for most of us on the second.  Kate and I shared a tube on the second run and decided to do the toilet bowl one, which ended up being crazy!  We flew into the bowl and just missed the exit opening, so we got an extra swirl around but that involved getting pelted by the water jets the whole way.  Then we went backward down the tunnel and I tipped out!  Luckily I didn't take in too much water, but it was a bit more than we bargained for!  We were laughing for a while, though!  We decided to walk over to Wahoo Wave next since we wanted a thrill with Tornado being closed, but it was SO hot while we waited and suddenly Kate was getting heat exhaustion.  They ushered her out of line quickly and got her to the nearby wave pool to cool down.  Carter initially didn't want to leave the line but eventually relented, but then we couldn't see them at the wave pool and wandered around a couple times before finally heading back to the locker, grabbing shoes and my phone, and eventually finding them.  Kate was doing much better by then.  We changed into regular clothes and our beloved sneakers (ahhhhhh) before heading to get some (overpriced) lunch.  The clouds rolled in around that time, which helped a little with the heat, but luckily there wasn't any rain with it. 

After that, we hit up the bumper cars.  John's wouldn't work so they ended up stopping the ride to get him into a working one, and the whole ride after that was just chaos!  We went to the Motocoaster, which hadn't been open for us a few weeks ago, and Max was up for riding that one.  Again, once was enough for him, but the rest of us went twice since the line was short.  It's such a fun one.  Four of us did the high swings after that, while Max and John did the antique cars.  Then it was time to get over to Tantrum and Mind Eraser to get Kate on the two coasters that weren't open two years ago.  Tantrum was so much fun and even impressed John, who'd never been on one like that.  He didn't really want to ride Mind Eraser but Kate convinced him, so we did that next.  Luckily lines were SO short.  Mind Eraser was mildly painful as usual, but at least we skipped the Viper this time.  While we were on the coasters, Max rode Sleigh Ride twice, and then he and Carter rode Hornet's Nest, which is a spinning ride where you control your own rudder.  Then they rode that silly Moose on the Loose ride we did last time.  As we walked back toward a now-open Boomerang that had been closed half the day, we stopped at the Fascination parlor.  I showed it to Carter last time we were there and promised we'd play sometime, but Uncle John offered to pay for all of us to play six times ($12 total, for all of us!).  We had a good time, and in those six games, Kate and John each won once and my mom won twice!  There were about 14 players for most of the games, so that wasn't bad!  Carter was lucky enough to get a couple of the tickets to spend, which landed him one of those ice cream cone shooters where the styrofoam "ice cream" ball shoots off the cone.  I got one of those as part of the summer reading program when I was a kid, and it lasted until a few years ago when the core of the ice cream ball detached.  He was pretty pumped about that, and Max spent most of the rest of the day shooting his rubber band gun!  

We headed over to Boomerang and Kate and Carter went to ride it, only to find out someone had just puked.  Awesome.  We noticed that Predator was also finally open, so I took those two on that.  Oddly, I had probably the least jarring ride I'd ever had on there, while theirs was rough.  They were in the back of their car and I was in the front row of my car, right behind them.  I don't get it, but that was interesting to note.  We noticed the Ride of Steel line was short again, so the three of us went on there again.  That was a good way to wrap things up.  We were all pretty spent by that point.  Even with a couple hours of clouds, lots of hydrating after Mind Eraser, and the A/C in Fascination, we were just beat so we were content wrapping up with the two coasters and heading out.  I needed to get gas on the way back, which worked out well because everyone got a cool drink--mostly Slurpees.  Considering they're about $1.50 and the ones in the park are $11 (giant size only), it seemed like a good deal!  We dropped them back off at their car, and that was it!  We hit some accident traffic on our way home and I think we dodged a couple raindrops leaving when we did.  It was a good but super tiring day.  Oh, and I completely fried myself despite putting on sunscreen repeatedly.  Most of my exposed torso skin got it bad, along with a bit on my face and arms.  Not ideal, but it wasn't like I didn't try!  Oh, and I took no pictures.  Well, I actually took one but it was more so I had something to make note of the day, and it was just everyone standing at the Fascination counter looking at prizes.  Otherwise, I think between the heat and fun, there just wasn't a good moment for it.  But when I posted about it on social media, I picked this classic, since this is what it felt like:

On Friday I had a lunchtime appointment to give blood.  I was a little slow to get ready in the morning because there was a pretty nasty thunderstorm and I was hesitant to hop in the shower.  I finally got up and running and everything went smoothly despite my concerns with being mildly dehydrated from the previous day.  I stopped at Wegmans afterward to pick up a prescription and a few other things.  When I got back in my car, I turned the key and nothing happened.  Literally nothing.  No clicking, no dashboard lights, nada.  I called AAA and thankfully it didn't take too long for them to get there.  I was still a little worried about my frozen and dairy stuff, but most of it still felt cold when I got home.  Initially the guy found a ton of corrosion on one of the battery contacts, but testing revealed it was spent.  Luckily he had one on hand to install a new one on the spot.  I just had to pay for the battery and that was it.  It was probably an extra hour or so out of my day, but not as bad as it could have been...like if I had taken my car to Darien Lake, for example.  

Friday night we went to the drive-in.  We had to wait until Jacob was done at a school basketball scrimmage (he wasn't playing--still nursing a sore knee, but he had to be there), but we picked up our Livingston County Pizza order on the way and headed to the drive-in.  We were later than we usually are so we didn't get a prime spot, but we managed.  We saw the new Indiana Jones movie--consensus was that it was fine, minor things we might have changed, but still an enjoyable movie.  We got home around midnight, but it had been a fun night. 

On Saturday we were back to NT for a picnic to bring all of the family over to see John and the kids.  Jacob had training in the morning and I made a salad and worked out, and all of a sudden it was time to go!  It was nice to see a lot of the family--all my aunts and uncles and a couple cousins on my dad's side, plus a couple close friends of the family, and on my mom's side, my uncle (who I hadn't seen since his stroke in October, but did talk to a couple times as he was planning a trip to Rochester with his grandson for the PGA Championship in May), his girlfriend, and my cousin who starts cancer treatments on Monday and his wife.  It was great to get to talk to everyone, some for the first time in a long time.  Carter and Max played whiffle ball for hours, with Craig and Jacob joining in at times.  It was a fun few hours.  

We snuck in a family picture, too, which we hadn't done in a while!  All the kids are so much bigger, especially Jacob!

We stayed maybe an extra 45 minutes after everyone else left.  We had some fun conversations before the rain started dripping and we had to get on the road.  They left this morning.  I really enjoyed spending time with them and hope we can figure out a trip out west soon.

Tomorrow is back to reality for Craig and me.  He has a kid lacrosse camp to work, and I am going back to a boatload of work that probably won't slow down for months.  Still no formal plans for Carter, unfortunately, so we're just winging it for the summer, I guess.  I was focusing on this week for so long and now it's time to start looking toward the rest of summer.  Our vacation is still a big question mark and I have no idea what else we should be accomplishing.  I'd like to do more amusement parks with Carter but we really should tackle the family vacation first and plan from there.  Hitting the 4th of July means hitting the downslope of summer already.  We don't have a ton on our schedule at this point but I know how it normally fills up.  I hope I'm not quite as panicky this summer because we crammed so much into our spring, but summer goes so fast around here.  But if nothing else, we sure had a heck of a start...

Back to the 'Burgh

If you have been around this blog for a long time, you may recall that Pittsburgh was a common destination for us.  We'd been there on our own, with Craig's family, and everything in between.  We went there with the whole family when Jacob was a year-and-a-half, on one of our first family vacations with the three of us when Jacob was two, once with just Craig's dad when I was pregnant with Carter, and once with the whole crew when Carter was about six months old.  And of course, Carter and I went there last year for Kennywood and it was also the last trip I took before I found out I was pregnant with Jacob.  Craig has also been there a time or two with his dad for baseball over the years, but I don't think we'd been to a baseball game as a family since Carter was six months old, meaning it had been 10 years!  How crazy is that?

Seven years to the day of picking out our minvan, we loaded it full of people and took off for Pittsburgh.  We had driven to my parents' the night before to cut some time off Saturday's drive, and picked up Craig's parents in the morning.  Due to various travel needs for everyone else (and the fact I am small and agile), I ended up in the way back with Carter.  

We could watch movies and use our pillows and eat from our snack bags, so it wasn't a bad setup.  Harder to be involved in conversations, but we made do.  We stopped in Erie for lunch (as usual), where the Chick-fil-A was pure insanity, and then continued on.  The weather was pretty iffy most of the way, super cloudy and with periods of hard rain.  But it seemed to stop around when we got to Pittsburgh, and we found a parking ramp near the stadium.  It was a 4pm game, which was a little different, but we got there plenty ahead.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough ahead to get the Hawaiian shirt giveaway they had.  I think Craig's dad was most disappointed, but thankfully we were able to get one from the people behind us.  

Our seats were down at the end of the third base line.  Luckily we could just see the scoreboard and most of the cool skyline view.
  

The buildings and the yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge create such a neat view.

When we got there, the Pirate Parrot was hitting balls in the outfield.  Fun fact: I knew the Pirate Parrot of the early 2000s.  He was the Bisons' mascot Chip when I interned there in 1999, and shortly thereafter ended up in Pittsburgh for a few years.  He was so talented--super silly, and he could do flips!  I Googled him while we were there and he's now just a real estate agent, apparently.  

The beginning of the game was quite a dud.  The Pirates were no-hit through five innings and ended up down 10-0.  We decided to take a walk once we made sure to see our favorite, the Great Pierogy Race!  We love watching the silly pierogies!  

They came back through the walkway afterward, and they just crack me up.

We were excited to wander around the park because we knew there was a lot to see along the outfield walkway.  There are tons of photo ops in the park.  This one was in the concourse.

The outfield walkway has a beautiful view....

...plus a lot of kid-friendly things, including a series of giant bobbleheads!

From our seats we could see this back there, which was new since last time.  It was a giant pirate ship-themed climbing thing, but Carter determined he was a little too big to fit.

We made our way through the walkway down to the kids' baseball field that Jacob absolutely loved when he was little, and much to everyone's chagrin it had been repurposed solely into a playground area.  The base paths had little pedestals of different heights to walk across.  No more whiffle bats and balls to try to hit a homer into the river.  Quite honestly, it's probably way safer and better to do this, but the boys were rather miffed, especially since Carter was never big enough to play on it.  He stood on a baseball instead!

There was a cool photo op nearby, too.  Don't be surprised if this makes it on to our Christmas card!

One more on the way back to the seats...

The Pirates scored a couple runs just as we got back, which at least added a little interest to the game, but they were still behind by a bunch.  I forgot to mention that the game had been delayed in the beginning because of bad weather nearby, and while it didn't actually rain at the stadium, the weather remained iffy all game.  There were a couple sprinkles and lots of clouds, but the rain seemed to pass to the north and south and it was mostly just oppressively hot and humid.  

But sometimes it looked pretty threatening!

The Pirates had an amazing eighth inning, scoring six runs and getting it to 11-8.  And just as they were getting ready for the top of the ninth, the rain started.  The grounds crew must have known something we didn't, because they sprinted out there likes bats outta hell, scaling over the walls to get the tarp out.  We considered getting out the ponchos, but initially we were sort of half blocked by the overhang.  But then it rained harder and we realized it was time to head for cover.  We went up to the concourse and just hung out for a bit.  

I pulled tarp in my intern days and it sucked.  So dirty and wet and heavy...and slightly terrifying if you're small and slow and could get swallowed up by it.

The rain really started to come down, flooding out the warning track and scaring away all but the most crazy fans.  Notice how the seats under the cover are totally jammed (the upper deck is hard to see but it was happening there, too) and there are just a few holdouts in the rain!

After probably 15 minutes, the rain started to clear.  I noticed the sun coming out and shining on the buildings, so I braved the drips and went down to see if there was a rainbow.  There wasn't, but it was cute because I ran into an older woman on the steps who asked me if I was looking for one, too!  A few minutes later the sun was even brighter, so I tried again, and sure enough, there it was!

On my way back up the steps I saw the woman again and let her know it was there now, so she rushed down to catch it!

The grounds crew looked like they had completely botched the removal of the tarp--they dumped so much water in the front part of left field that they had to squeegee it out for a while, but somehow it worked.  They got in an uneventful last inning--so much for the comeback--and that was it.  But at least we got the game in!  We snapped a pic of the cool Willie Stargell statue on the way out.  It's so big!

We were stuck in the parking ramp forever despite half the stadium clearing out early, and finally got to our hotel in the middle of another downpour.  It turned out to be a cool room--there was actually a trundle bed under the couch at the far end, and a divider desk.  It gave us suitcase room and an extra changing space if the divider was closed.  We were thinking of going out and grabbing dinner, but it was pretty late and there weren't a lot of Jacob-friendly places anyway, so we opted to snack in the room and get some sleep.

I can't say it was the best night of sleep I've had.  The bed was comfortable, the air conditioning made no noise, and Carter barely moved an inch overnight, but the train went by about half a dozen times.  Ugh.

Tracks are to the right.  In the distance is a prominent sports medicine building with the Steelers logo on it.

The river was to the left, and as you can see, it was a lovely morning for a baseball game...NOT.

We were a bit worried about the weather again for game two.  It had rained all morning.  It looked like it could let up for the afternoon, but the game start time looked iffy again.  We grabbed hotel breakfast and packed up in time to check out around 11.  We headed over to the stadium and ended up parking right near a really cool store with gear for all the Pittsburgh teams.  Did you know the Steelers' mascot is named Steely McBeam?  We walked down to the stadium and got Carter his Kids' Day giveaway, a pair of sunglasses, which were definitely not needed at that point, but good to have since he has long outgrown his kid ones and our adult ones are just a tad too big.  We walked through the concourse looking for food options since lunch was imminent.  We passed by a bird's-eye view of the kids area.  You can see the former baseball field from here.

My father-in-law is a long-time Pirates fan (and enjoys his beverages) so we couldn't resist getting a picture of him near the Skull Bar!

We found Craig's mom the pierogy stand (the food, not the racers) and she ate at a table in the outfield pre-game.  The rain dripped on and off while we waited.  At times it was almost cool despite the crazy humidity, but by later it was plenty warm again--though not at warm as the previous day.  In between drizzles, Craig took a picture of the boys and me. 

The shirts that Carter and I are wearing were both freebies from past games.  They were both a little big on us, but we made them work!  Craig's dad wore his jersey like that the previous day, and I wore one like Carter's shirt.  Jacob had been looking for a shirt with the 90s version of the Pirate all weekend and finally found one at the store we stopped in on our walk in.  Also, how is he so tall? 

So, when Craig bought these tickets, he did so thinking they were covered.  In most stadiums the 200 level is below the upper deck, so he thought there would be shade.  He figured that's why they were a bit more than our previous seats, but we figured out the previous day that they did not have shade after all.  But guess what they did have?  A super nice club level concourse complete with bars and restaurants and nice bathrooms.  It would have been a huge respite had it poured like the previous day, but in the end, it did not.  But the view from up there was pretty outstanding, and I did appreciate nicer bathrooms.

I took this panorama shot since all of my individual pics didn't really capture the awesomeness of the view.

I also had the presence of mind to take a picture of Craig's parents and all the boys.  The boys were happy to be making memories with their grandparents, and I thought it was important to capture this moment--which was easier on this day with a few empty seats nearby, compared to the sellout the previous day where we were just content to be sardined in.

We had a really nice view of the batter, too.  This was my camera that can zoom, but it looked pretty close to this with the naked eye.

The game started a little better because the Pirates got a home run early, and I managed to zoom in on the ball where it landed by the "Pirates" shrubbery in the outfield.

We almost missed the pierogy race because we were heading out to grab lunch, but it started just before we walked out.  I fumbled around trying to find my camera to zoom in, but just caught the end of the race with my phone camera.  A shark took out Jalapeno Hannah who had a big lead, and Bacon Burt won!

Carter and I had Primanti Bros. for lunch, but we determined that Carter definitely does NOT like the cole slaw or tomatoes on his sandwich.  I guess the fries alone are special enough!  We had another favorite, Chickie & Pete's crab fries, the day before, but I was super annoyed they were standard crinkle fries and not the skinnier ones you usually get.  Next time I think I'm getting the Chickie & Pete's cheesesteak.  It looked amazing.

Before we left home, I had fished our old Pirate Parrot out of the stuffed animal basket in our basement.  He hitchhiked with us to the games, and I decided to have a little fun when we were trying to rally the Pirates after the Brewers took a more commanding lead late in the game.  

Carter was annoyed his hat was turned in this one, but it was such a cute picture I had to include it!

The Pirates lost again, and we headed out to the concourse for a bathroom break before heading home.  As we were walking out, Jacob noticed that the scoreboard mentioned kids running the bases!  We thought they still had it on Sundays, but we hadn't seen anything about it and the website no longer mentioned it.  But apparently it was happening, and since Carter was too small to do it last time, we wanted to get him his chance.  But we knew we were running late at this point, so we rushed down to get in what we knew would be an eternally long line, but one that moves pretty good once it gets going.  Sure enough, the line stretched along the entire outfield walkway.  We hopped on what we thought was the end of the line, but after the fact I realized it may have actually turned a corner and gone down a whole other walkway.  But in that moment no one stopped us and there was a sign about the line starting there about five feet away, and I think a couple people hopped in at the same point we did.  Who knows, but I'm pretty sure everyone got to run anyway, so ultimately it was maybe an extra five or ten minutes.  Oh well.  It was cool to go down the back tunnel (where the players drive in, I think, based on the valet parking) and on to the field near the first base foul pole.

Carter did his run, and unlike his big brother at age two (haha), he followed the rules and did not bolt for the pitcher's mound as he neared home plate.  We still remember the desperate workers running after him, since Craig was still recovering from his torn calf and was probably half a step slow.  Legendary.  Carter enjoyed his run, and even got a bonus baseball ice pack on his way off the field. 

Arriving at home

Happy selfie on our way off the field

By this point the weather had cleared nicely and afforded a nice picture outside the stadium.

We decided to take a little detour on our way out of town.  Craig's dad always talks about Forbes Field, which he went to in the 60s before the Pirates built Three Rivers Stadium.  I knew the Forbes Field outfield wall still existed on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, and I thought it might be fun to take him there.  We got a little turned around by bad GPS on the way, but I got this fun shot of the paddleboat, football field (recently home to the biggest attended event in Pittsburgh EVER, a Taylor Swift concert), and the cool fountain at Point State Park.  We also drove under the pedestrian bridge for the Incline Railway.  Someday I want to get Carter on that.  I think he'd get a kick out of it.

We made it to the spot, which was actually super close to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, where I saw one of my favorite Chihuly exhibits ever on the trip before I found out I was pregnant with Jacob.  I liked this part of the wall because of the ivy...

But the corner below was the farthest point of the outfield wall, and it was neat to see it because it gave a really easy point of reference to look at old pictures and see that odd corner.  There's now a road going through the outfield and a bunch of campus buildings across the street where the infield and stands were.  Apparently home plate is under glass in a nearby building, but it's about 15 feet off its actual spot because that would be in the ladies room!

It was a neat little stop and felt like a nice way to end the trip.  The trip back to Buffalo had more rain, but overall wasn't bad.  Craig was a trooper.  I actually used my laptop to watch a movie I had put on my computer ahead of a different trip, which was fun.  I picked "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2", which felt appropriate post-anniversary, and everyone thought I was nuts because I was crying laughing at one point.  It's such a cute movie, and I can't wait for the third one in a few more months!  We stopped at Jersey Mike's in Erie for dinner, and did a bathroom stop at Craig's parents, so in the end it was a rather late night--we didn't get to my parents' until after 10:30, which meant our initial meeting with my brother's girlfriend (they've been together almost two years, I think, but this was her first time visiting) was brief and tired (they traveled most of the day, too), but pleasant.  We stayed over and were able to hang out a bit through mid-afternoon the next day to get to know her a bit, which was nice.  She left today and now Kate and Max have arrived from time with their mom's family in Massachusetts, so we're hoping to have a couple opportunities to see them while they're here.  It was a great weekend leading into a week off for me (yay), and I'm so glad we finally had the chance to get back to Pittsburgh!