In a New York Minute Maid

This weekend was the culmination of a week's "forced" vacation. My company shut down operations due to the Independence Day Holiday, so I got to play with Cassie and Marissa all week (Angie and Dylan were away at church camp). We played games, went out to eat, rented movies and ate popcorn with M&M's. All told it was a good week - but not quite a vacation - at least until the weekend.

This weekend we've started a new annual tradition for our family. We went to Houston to watch the visiting New York Mets battle the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, and several amazing things happened.

First, the game: A 17-inning pitchers duel that lasted five hours and nine minutes. OK, so I know your thinking that a five year old and two eleven year old girls, and an almost 40-year old woman weren't going to be into that (Dylan couldn't come with us because his all star baseball team made the championships, and he had to stay back to play). The fact is that the girls wanted to stay (all except Cassie, she was done by the eleventh inning). We stayed and saw a couple of amazing plays. The Mets won when Carlos Beltran hit a RBI single in the 17th. He had also made one of the most amazing catches I have ever seen to save the game in the 14th inning.

On Sunday, we drove to Kemah Boardwalk and enjoyed some rides, some games and some great seafood.

Some of the more interesting things from the weekend:

1) Marissa has come to like baseball. Why? Because she learned that David Wright is a cutie. She can't get enough of him. She didn't want to leave on Saturday night. She watched the game on Sunday on TV as we ate lunch. She wanted to see pictures of him on the computer. Ahhh - puppy love.

2) Cassie actually behaved for the entire game. Yeah, she was antsy at time and never stopped talking for the entire five hours, but she was well behaved and even watched some of the game.

3) I got two for the price of one...when we planned this weekend, I originally was going to get tickets for the Saturday night game AND the Sunday afternoon game. Angie said she would rather go to Kemah, so we didn't. However, I basically got to see two games on Saturday night.

4) We pet (is it "petted") and fed stingrays. They're slimy like catfish.

5) When driving hundreds of miles, get behind someone with a radar detector. It will save you money.

6) There are a lot of Met fans in Houston. We sat with many fans with Met's jerseys and hats. Marissa, who is usually more interested in not being embarrassed than having a good time even got into the spirit - she high-fived anyone with Met gear on as we walked out of the stadium after the game.

Next year's schedule isn't out yet, but you can count on us being in Houston for at least one Met game next year. We already planning it.

SL