David and Audrey's Awesome Adventure

David and I planned an awesome trip to celebrate the end of his first year of Medical School. Thanks to grandpa and grandma Anderson taking the kids to Idaho, we were able to pull it off: 6 baseball parks in 9 days! We started out driving to Philly and going to the temple and then doing a bit of sightseeing. Our hotel had bicycles we could check out, so we did and rode around the city much quicker. That evening, as we were strolling around, we heard the sound of someone playing "Ashoken Farewell" (we recognised it from the Civil War documentary by Ken Burns) and we followed the sound until we found the man. As we stood there to listen, fireworks at the end of the block started. We did not even know they were having any that night (June 30th). It was so awesome to have a private concert while watching the fireworks and then heading back to our hotel that had an amazing view of Independence Hall.
The next morning, We checked out the bikes again and took a early morning tour of Independence Hall (our tour guide was amazing!) and then we rode to church. After church we went back to the hotel to change for our first baseball game of the trip at Citizens Bank Park to watch the Philly's play the Nat's. It was SO hot! 99* but we sweated through it. During the game, we realized that we left our passports at home and we were going to need them. We had a great friend offer to meet us in Baltimore, so we met him there at Camden Yards, picked up our passports and headed back to Philly to stay the night. Thanks Brad!
The next morning, we drove up to NYC. We got there at lunch time which was perfect, so we stopped at the Chelsea Market for Los Tacos No. 2 to fuel up for our piece of history hunt we were about to set out on. We were headed to Brooklyn to find the home plate from the old Ebbet's Field. We didn't have much to go on, just a picture we found on the internet. We walked around the apartment complex that now stands there without any luck. All we found was a concrete marker partially hidden behind some bushes. We were both disappointed.
From Ebbet's we went out to Citi Field, home of the NY Mets. The mets were out of town but we were hoping to get a tour of the ballpark, unfortunately, they only offer them on game days, boo. We drove up to Yonker's and checked into our hotel room and then headed down to Yankee Stadium. We were excited about this game because the Yankees were playing the Braves! It was so satisfying to watch our Bravos beat the Yankees at their own house!
On Tuesday we left the Big Apple headed towards Cooperstown and Palmyra. The drive was long, on winding roads, but we saw a whole new side of New York. We arrived in Cooperstown just after the hall of Fame opened, and before the crowds! Watching the video and going through the museum was pretty cool but it was fun to look at and read some of the plaques in the Hall. The Braves were well represented. We were there about two weeks before Chipper Jones was being inducted, but he had signed the space on the wall where his plaque would soon hang. We walked around the town a little before getting on the road toward Palmyra. Our first stop in Palmyra was the Hill Cumorah. They were busily preparing for the upcoming Hill Cumorah Pageant but we were still able to go to the top and see the monument with a statue of Moroni where Joseph Smith received the Gold Plates. There was a very quiet, special, and sacred feeling being there.
We drove past the Palmyra temple to the Sacred Grove, because we wanted to be there before dark. We didn't plan on staying there long, but the spirit that was there kept us lingering longer. We figured we would just go to the temple in the morning, so from the Sacred Grove, we went to the printing press, where the Book of Mormon was first printed. We had amazing missionaries that gave us a fantastic tour where we learned the origins of "minding your p's and q's" and "upper and lower case" letters. After that, it was late and we headed to our AirB&B  for the night. It wasn't easy to find, and when we did, we still weren't sure about it. We drove up the driveway of a dark farm house and found our room (shed). The listing said "glamping at it's finest", I would have to say that was stretching it. There was not a bathroom in the room, but a "modern outhouse" on site. As we searched in the dark with our phone flashlights for the "modern outhouse" David looked over by the barn and as he shined his light in the corral, at least a dozen glowing eyes looked back at him and slowly, they walked away. At one point, I had to walk to the car, and as I came back up, two figures were standing there, yikes! Luckily, it was David and the owner talking. We decided to just go to bed, so we went into our shed to find a small size futon to sleep on and a few spider webs around the room. Yikes again. This was the kind of place that you just sleep in your clothes, in case you have to make a quick exit, so we locked the doors and windows and fell asleep. Luckily, we survived the night and by the light of day, the house looked SO much better and way less shady! Our plan to go to the temple in the morning was foiled because it was the 4th of July and the temple was closed, so we got to walk around it before having breakfast and leaving town.
In a very un-American fashion, we planned on spending the 4th on Toronto. We made a brief stop in Buffalo NY and saw the building Teddy Roosevelt was sworn into office following the death of president McKinley. From Buffalo, we stopped at Niagara Falls. It was really awesome to look at from the top, but then we saw the boats going right up to the Fall's and we decided that we needed to do that also. Cruising right up to the falls and getting wet was way better than the view from the top. From Niagara Falls it was a quick trip across the bridge and into Canada, then up to Toronto. We stayed at the Fairmont Royal York, the hotel Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stayed at when they were visiting Canada for her Golden jubilee in 2002. It was SO nice! SOOO much nicer than our "glamping" the night before! Our hotel was within walking distance of the Rogers centere, so we walked over to the baseball game. The Blue Jays were playing the NY Mets. We had fantastic seats, 3rd row on the first base line. Amazingly, even being that close, there was a lot of foot traffic going up and down the whole game, which was annoying. At the beginning of the game, they sang the American National anthem and the Canadian national anthem (both in French and English). It was really quite nice. The Blue Jays have their own song for the 7th inning stretch, the lyrics of it are quite funny.

 You've got a diamond. You've got nine men. You've got a hat and a bat, And that's not all. You've got the bleachers, Got 'em from spring 'til fall. You got a dog and a drink, And the umpire's call.

Waddaya want? Let's play ball!

Is that a fly ball, Or is it a seagull, Coming in from the lake Just to catch the game? It's the last inning, Our guys are winning Dave's put down a smoker, A strike, And you've got no doubt (You're out!)
Waddaya want? Let's play ball!

Okay (okay) Blue Jays (Blue Jays) Let's (Let's) Play (Play) Ball!

The next morning, we went to the Toronto temple, it was beautiful! After we got back to the hotel, we checked out two bikes (they were BMW bikes) and rode around the city. It is such a beautiful city. We rode to a mall, and then down to the water and watched flights take off and land from a small airport on the island on Lake Ontario. It was a lot of fun.

Then next morning, it was back to the USA, Detroit Michigan. Our first stop was the temple, it is such a small temple, they only have four sessions a day: two in the morning and two in the evening. After the temple, we went to our hotel, changed and headed to the Comerica Park for the game. We got there a little early, but it gave a us a chance to walk around the park and get our pennant before the game started. It is a very nice park, it has a carousel and the only animal to ride is a tiger, Tessa would have loved that. The game and the stadium were great, but they need to up their food game, the main food was Little Caesars Pizza. 

On the 6th, we drove to Cleveland. We had a busy day planned, so we had to get moving. Our first stop was the Kirtland temple. The temple was beautiful and much bigger than we expected. The Community of Christ owns the temple, so they give the tours, they don't talk much about Joseph Smith and the restoration. The guide mostly talked about the pews and the period restorations they have had done. Only at the end of the tour did we all stand together and sang "The Spirit of God", and you could feel the Spirit in the temple while we were singing. From the temple, we went to the LDS visitors center and watched a video they had, and in the video, you could feel the spirit, and the spirit of the saints. It was a big difference from the temple, to the visitor's center. We walked around the town a little and peeked into the Whitney store before leaving. Lunch was a stop at Skyline Chili for some extra cheesy chili goodness. Our friend Jarrod Jacob's would be proud. From there a quick stop to see the "Christmas Story" house from the movie and then off to Progressive Field. We didn't have good seats at the Indian's game, so for a while we stood on the skywalk and watched the game before going to our seats. It was a hot day, but there was a constant breeze coming through, so we moved again and went and stood in the outfield standing room section where there was no breeze. It was a nice park, we enjoyed it, but didn't eat there. We were saving our dinner for Penn Station after the game.

Saturday, we were up and out of Ohio to catch a 1pm game at PNC park in Pittsburgh. It was sweltering! We had great seats, right behind home plate. It was a great day for baseball, and a great stadium to end our baseball park/temple tour. From Pittsburg, it was a short drive back home for a good night sleep in our own bed!  We had such a great trip, just David and I in the car for 9 days visiting 5 temples and 6 baseball parks!