Baseball made me do it

July 24, 2008

Well my return to Alexandria from Steve and Heather’s wedding turned into a little bit of an adventure but it all worked out in the end.....for the better in my opinion too. I arrived in Toronto with no problems after a very uneventful flight. I had a nice 4 hour layover so instead of going through customs and hanging out at Pearson for a while my friend Joseph,

who lives in Toronto, came out and got me and we grabbed a quick dinner at Boston Pizza (which you can't find in the USA by the way). After some good food and a Canadian beer it was back to the airport. I can honestly say I have never gotten through immigration so fast. It took like 5 minutes and it took me about 2 minutes on the other side to figure out why.

Anyway, I got out of immigration and went to check my gate…..in time to realize that every flight to Washington DC had been cancelled. In fact every flight to the eastern seaboard had been cancelled. Apparently there was a bunch of rain or something like that. Not knowing when I was going to get back to DC the first place I called was work. I was scheduled to work Thursday night, but since I would not be getting there until sometime on Thursday I cancelled myself. My next call was to mom to see if she could re-book me while I waited in line…..at Canadian customs and immigration. Yes, you read that right. I had to go back through immigration. Once you go through US immigration you have technically left the country so you have to re-enter it properly. They asked me where I was coming from, my response “from the airport”. Of course they cannot keep my out of my own country so it really was no issue just annoying. I then had to wait for my bags…….they took forever which confused me since they had not even made it to the plane yet. In the meantime, mom had me booked on another flight in the morning and Joseph was coming back the airport to get me. So I lucked out because I didn't have to sleep on the floor at the airport or pay for a hotel. Good thing I have nice friends.

Anyway, back to the airport the next morning and in the end I made it back to Alexandria just before noon. Since they had already found someone to work for me I ended up having nothing to do so I headed right to Baltimore to catch the final of four games between the Orioles and Blue Jays. The Wednesday night game had actually been postponed (due to the torrential rain that kept any planes from flying that way) so I got to watch the end of one game (a win by the Blue Jays) and then the entire next game (a win by the Blue Jays).

Greg Zaun and Roy "Doc" Halladay warming up

So really I got to see 2 wins by the Blue Jays in one day.

Doc was in fine form all day long.

I also met this very nice family (parents and their 13 year old son) who were on day one of an east coast baseball tour. They were on their way to Philadelphia, then New York and then to Boston to catch games. Last summer they had done the mid-west and next year they plan on heading to the west coast. Not a bad vacation if you ask me.

This is the outside of Babe Ruth's Birthplace. I realize that when I actually visited the place I didn't take picture of the outside so went back to get one while I was in back in town.

It also gave me a chance to go and check out Baltimore’s Holocaust Memorial. It actually takes up a very large area (which I have been told is very highly sought after by developers who might just get it because Baltimore’s Jewish Society does not want to pay for the up keep anymore) and is set up to represent the train cars that took Holocaust victims to concentration camps. There are strips of green spaces that show what victims may have been able to see from the crowded cars.

There is also a flame that is actually quite disturbing to look at because it is actually made up of people. Take a look.

Hopefully someone will come along and help pay for the up-keep of the memorial so that this memorial continues to do what it is meant to do.

Anyway, I did make it to work the next night and life went back to normal.

Julie