Josh Willingham autographs Tanner’s Baseball
We have a tradition in our family: When our kids turn twelve, we take them on a trip of their choice… anywhere they want to go (within reason). Two years ago Andi opted for a cruise to the Bahamas, and Tanner decided he wanted to go to Fort Myers, Florida and watch the Minnesota Twins at their spring training.
It was SO! MUCH! FUN!
We just got back to the island a couple hours ago, and I thought I’d share a few of the favorite pics we took. We had tickets to two games… the first one got rained out, but the second game against the Yankees went all nine innings, and we have the sunburned faces and necks to prove it.
The big wish, of course, was to get Joe Mauer’s autograph, and while that didn’t happen, there were still some other Twins players who were more willing to be friendly. Josh Willingham, pictured above, is a rising star (he had the team’s best batting average last year) who came and spent a few minutes visiting with us during batting practice. Seriously nice guy! And a bit of a goofball too. He hung around long enough to crack a few jokes and laugh with us.
Tanner also got autographs from a few other, lesser known players as well.
Brandon Boggs, the Twins starting center fielder, takes time out of practice to come sign some autographs
Joe Benson is a backup center fielder
Carina was great at hamming it up and coaxing players to come give autographs. Her charms didn’t work, however, on Justin Morneau or Joe Mauer.
Manager Ron Gardenhire shouts orders from the dugout
Justin and Joe playing catch during warmups
Carina downing the peanuts during the Yankee’s game
Tanner and I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and drove straight to Hammond Field for the game against the Tampa Bay Ray’s (that got rained out). And then Carina joined us the next day after finishing up this round of block exams.
This last block was by far the hardest one yet for her. I’ve never seen her so stressed, worried and wound-up in the eighteen years we’ve been married and the twenty-one years I’ve known her. The good news is that she pushed through and came out of block exams thrilled with her scores! Then she came to Florida with no text books, no flash cards, no notes… no nothing but a desire to blow off steam, relax, and have fun for a couple days.
The three of us. My “Circle me Bert” t-shirt was given to me by Tanner for Christmas a few years ago, and it got several smiles and compliments. (If you don’t know what “Circle me Bert” means, you may not be a Twins fan.)
Burn Notice: The Hunt for Michael Weston’s Loft
the cast of Burn Notice
In between the two games, Tanner and I had an entire day with not much to do. He and I are both fans of the TV show Burn Notice, which is set and filmed in Miami. Michael Weston is the main character, and he lives in a dumpy concrete block building which he nicknames “The Loft”. We decided that for our day with nothing to do, we would try and track down the actual building they use as The Loft (well, at least for the exterior shots, anyway).
We spent some time on Google and found the street address of the location, and headed out. When we got there, however, what we found was not Michael’s loft at all, but… a recently cleared, totally empty lot.
the empty lot where Michael Weston’s loft used to be
Had we arrived before it was torn down, it would have looked like this:
The Loft before it was torn down
The house used for the exterior establishing shot of Michael’s mom on the TV show Burn Notice
We had the rest of the day to kill before picking up Carina at the airport, so we spent the time exploring downtown Miami and some of the beaches.
A view of downtown Miami from one of the islands
Haulover Beach just before sunset
Guard shack on Haulover Beach
Tanner and I kept our clothes on
Kayaking:
A few weeks ago the entire gang (minus Piper) went on an ocean kayaking adventure. The only thing is, I can’t post any pics of it because before I could fire off one single shutter-click, a big wave toppled my kayak and sent my camera plunging into the ocean. Yeah, it’s totally wrecked. So, you’ll just have to imagine the beautiful photos I might have taken of us on our ocean kayaking adventure. (Let me know how they turn out.)
And the worst part is… Cari said before we left, “Are you sure you should bring your camera? What if it get’s wet?”
Scuba Diving:
My time on the island of St. Martin is quickly drawing to a close. A couple weeks ago I said to Carina, “If I leave here for good without having gone scuba diving, I will be sad.”
To this she replied, “Well then go!”
So, I did. I asked who wanted to go with me, and the only taker was Tanner. So he and I enrolled in a Discover Scuba Diving course offered by Tri-Sports (no certification required), and a few days before we headed up to Florida, we spent an afternoon in a crash training course, and then tried our hand at a shallow dive of 30 feet.
Over-all impression: I’m glad we tried it, but I don’t see myself rushing back to it anytime soon.
I’ve heard that St. Martin isn’t the best place to scuba dive, so maybe this wasn’t a fair test. While we both had fun, I thought the cost of the experience was barely (if even) worth the experience. We saw a few small fish and a little manta-ray about the size of a dinner plate, and that was it. Also, Tanner had a head-cold at the time and his ears were giving him problems, so he ended up not staying down for too long.
Before we went, I spent $39.00 on a cheap little disposable underwater point-n-shoot film camera, and the photos turned out TERRIBLE. So much so that I am embarrassed to post them. So, you’ll need to take our word for it that we went.
Overall I’m glad we did it. While it didn’t knock our socks off, it was a fun, bonding and memorable experience for both of us.
Three Weeks Left:
Today is Saturday, March 23rd. In three weeks from today Tanner and I head back to Minnesota so he can join his little league team, the Blue Socks. After we leave, I don’t know if I’ll make it back down here again before Carina is done in August. The idea of not seeing her for five months is heart wrenching, so I’ll try and make one short more trip happen. We’ll see. Tanner doesn’t want to come back as it would mean missing out on baseball games and practices. And I don’t blame him… there’s really nothing here for him. He’s not a lover of beaches and sun and water.
What a crazy season for our family! Sometimes I think, “I can’t wait for all this separation, semi-homelessness stuff to be OVER!” And other times I am able to have more patience and say, “Just take it one day at a time and enjoy the moment.” Depending on the moment, it’s a toss-up as to which of those two feelings is winning.
But this much I do know: I intend to soak up every second of the next three weeks.
My heart breaks for your camera 🙁 It was a very nice one. Hope you can get something again real soon as I know how much you love photography. It’s like when my binocular lenses were out of alignment and I couldn’t watch birds on our trip to the black hills last summer. That ended up being okay, since the drought was horrible and the temps so high I probably wouldn’t have seen any anyway. When you are back in MN, we’ll have to get together with Steve and to a photo trip again.
Ha! Thanks Ryan. Truth be told, it wasn’t all that nice. It was getting old and lacked several features I wanted. And now I have an excuse to upgrade, I suppose. But still, thank you!
I love seeing these blog entries…and your diligence in putting them up…as I well saw each Sunday night here, you spending time with it. Thank you for sharing the pictures…that did turn out…so sorry for the camera…..that’ll teach you to listen to your wife:)
More seriously….I see a lot of growing in you this year Casey….maybe since I like parables so much…the loss of your old camera…perhaps old lenses you used to have with which to observe life have been stripped away…and now you can have new eyes to see things…and soon new lenses with which to enjoy all GOD has for you…even that which he inflicteth upon you….that you might to submit to all things!!!