Go Orioles!

Living in Maryland has made it very likely that we would end up being Orioles fans. But a couple of factors really made me a fan. Firt off, I married a baseball / Orioles fan. Second, we lived within a mile of the Oriole's farm team, the Bowie Baysox for a little over a decade so we spent a lot of time watching future Orioles play. Also, a group of guys from work had an annual trip to Fort Lauderdale to watch the Orioles at Spring Training every year. This tip has been going on for almost a decade and a half. A few years into it, my husband was invited and after that first year without me, he realized that he would have much more fun with his best friend along (me). He convinced the boys to let me join the all boys trip. It wasn't a hard sell since I was pretty much a guy anyway (most of the boys were police officers and we all worked together. Of course, my presence caused the guy to have to give in the following year when another wife wanted to join the guys. But we all managed to have a lot of fun despite the influx of estrogen.

I managed to go a few years, even bringing baby Big Boy along for several of them. But when Lil' Bit came along, the trip became too cost prohibitive so it was back to just my husband and all the boys. Almost everyone from the initial group has retired or otherwise moved on to other careers but they are still making their annual pilgrimage.

What does any of this have to do with my travel blog? Give me a second, I am getting to that.

With the Orioles chasing a playoff spot and my husband having Tuesday and Wednesday off, he decided to run down to Tampa with Big Boy to see one of the last O's games of the season. We made the trip an extension of Big Boy's recent birthday and allowed him to miss a day and a half of school.

My husband's friend, Craig, lives in Florida now so he drove to Tampa to join them. My husband invited all of his usual ball game buddies but only one could run off on such short notice. My husband used a buddy pass to get him down there.

So, my boys (men no, Big Boy turned 10 and fancies himself a man now), left the house at 5:30 AM yesterday morning and caught an early flight to Tampa. They hung out at the hotel while poor Big Boy tackled his homework

And then, it was off to the game

They spent last night in Tampa and then hopped on what was supposed to be an early flight. Their flight was delayed because of the fog in Baltimore... the same flog which caused a 90 minutes school delay for us back home. As soon as the plane landed, the mad eth hour drive back to our town where Big Boy was dropped off at school to at least get a half day of learnin' in. My husband, of course, came straight home and took a nap.

I have no budget report on this trip because, well frankly my husband does not care about tracking these things and sharing them for my blog. But I do know that they went on the cheap. The ball game tickets cost about $50 but Craig used his hotel points to book free hotel rooms and with him in town, there was no need for a rental car. Danny picked up a couple of meals to show his appreciation for the free flight and I don't think any souvenirs came home.

Oh, and the game... The Orioles won!