More Traveling

Saturday, August 1 to Tuesday, August 4: I stayed in Cape Cod with several extended family members on the Digan side. My dad rented a house about a tenth of a mile away from the beach in Chatham and split the cost with two of his sisters and his mother, my only living grandparent. The highlight was spending the day in Nantucket on Tuesday, biking some 25 miles around the island (most of them with the wrong gears, forcing me to pump about twice as much as I had to). I bumped into Rick Pitino Jr., who (not surprising) did not recognize me. He was a senior when I was a freshman at St. Sebastian’s. He recently joined the UF staff after leaving Louisville.

Wednesday, August 5: I drove up to Burlington, VT, to visit a high school friend. He lives on the second floor of a house about a block or two from Lake Champlain. Highlights included biking along Lake Champlain and getting Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

Thursday, August 6: I met a friend from my teaching program at his lake house in New Hampshire. We kayaked, swam, and simply sat back and chatted for several hours before returning to his native Concord. I saw the film Food, Inc. with my friend and his dad. I stayed the night with my friend at his mom and stepdad’s house. I accidentally knocked off a towel rack in a bathroom, which cannot be fixed without “re-studding” it. You should know that my friend is in a family of Michigan Wolverines fans, so I guess I should not feel that badly about it.

Friday, August 7 to Sunday, August 9: I finally returned to my family’s lake house in southwestern Maine for the first time since spring break 2008. I had been there in the summer since August 2007 when Loulan and Marcus visited. Unfortunately, there was no beach for the second straight summer due to the unusually high water level, which in turns makes for the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. My dad and I enjoyed a relaxing weekend with only minimal work around the house.

After a not-so-mini Digan family reunion in which I saw 6 of my dad’s 7 siblings (meaning that he is 1 of 8) Sunday night, I left for Louisville yesterday morning at 10 AM. It was very uneventful, and I must thank Marcus and Matt for entertaining me over the phone. I stopped in northeast Ohio (50 miles east of Cleveland) for the night last night.

I continued my journey Tuesday (August 11), stopping in Columbus to check out A Ohio State University. I was shocked that I was able to reach the actual field inside Ohio Stadium without anyone stopping me. I did not jump over any walls or break anything to do so –there simply were unlocked gates. This is why I should buy a digital camera! The stadium is massive – I cannot imagine how large it looks with 100,000 + obnoxious Buckeye fans there.

Baseball Trip

Friday, July 17

Pat and I landed about 45 minutes apart in San Francisco’s Airport. We had about 2 hours to kill, so I let Pat roam freely around the Castro district of SF for about an hour and a half. (We actually parked at a Comfort Inn and took advantage of free internet and grabbed a few brochures.) Once we picked up Mike, we made our way to Nolan’s apartment, which is in the Marina district of SF, a very nice neighborhood not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf / Pier 39 for dinner at a restaurant whose name escapes me (Surfboard Grill or something). The hostess liked my Red Sox shirt and hat, so after small talk I found that she is from Maine. Yes, the first person I met in California was from Maine.

Saturday, July 18

We did more walking this day than any other by far. We awoke and found a Jamba Juice a few blocks from Nolan’s apartment (JJ 1 for first Jamba Juice visit). By the way, Nolan was back in Fresno for the weekend to attend a wedding but still kindly let us use his apartment. We walked up and down the hills of SF, walking down the famous winding Lombard Street and continuing on to the Coit Tower. After, we walked back to Pier 39 and walked around to see the various shops and restaurants. From there were great views of Alcatraz, tours of which were booked through the following weekend. Observing some sea lions on nearby docks, we then made our way to a BART station after passing through Chinatown. Bay Area Rapid Transit took us to Oakland / Alameda County Coliseum, home to the Athletics and Raiders. At least Pat and I agree that this proved to be the worst ballpark on the trip. Fellow Zahmbie Ed Madigan joined us for the 11-6 Angels win. He then drove us back to his museum of a house in a nice area of Oakland (side note: his paternal grandfather played at ND under Rockne and coached the St. Mary’s Gael’s). He showed us downtown Oakland and also Berkeley (where I bought a Cal shirt for $8 – beat that, Hammes Bookstore) and some spectacular views of the Bay Area before dropping us off at a BART station. Returning to SF, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and called it a night.

Sunday, July 19

This was the driving day of the trip. First, we drove north to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and then came back over to take the Pacific Coast Highway south to LA. We had breakfast at Joe’s Restaurant in Half Moon Bay. Note: do not take left turns in California, at least those with left arrows. I had to turn around twice to reach Joe’s parking lot, which honestly took about 5 minutes. We got JJ2 in Santa Cruz, home to the Banana Slugs. The rest of the day was mostly spent driving down the California coast and admiring the spectacular views. Highlights included the 17-mile drive around the Pebble Beach area near Monterey and stopping at Carmel-by-the-Sea, a nice little shopping town. I was looking for a restaurant owned by Clint Eastwood that my uncle told me served the Make my Day Burger. It turns out, Clint Eastwood owns a building that contains Hogsbreath, a restaurant that serves the Dirty Harry Burger. Thanks, Uncle Jim. While looking for the restaurant that wasn’t, we passed a directory of all the shops, which I called “the list of all things” instead of a list of all shops. Mike and Pat would continue to mock me for this throughout the trip in between make-out sessions. Third wheeling a gay couple is not as fun as it seems, people. Mike’s uncle met us at his favorite sports bar in Camarillo, a northwestern suburb of LA, to give us discounted Dodgers tickets and to enjoy a beer with us. We stayed at fellow Zahmbie Matt Wrablik’s plush 3-bedroom apartment in LA that night for the first of three nights.

N.B.: As you can tell, it is tough to concisely summarize a trip like we had. I am honestly not even doing justice to the trip itself, but my publisher wants me to condense this so that it can be made into the best 62 53 minutes you’ll spend all afternoon at the movies.

Monday, July 20

We started the morning by having breakfast at Winchell’s and JJ3 in the same plaza about a block or two from Wrablik’s on Santa Monica Blvd. We then walked around UCLA’s campus, which is pretty nice and definitely better than that of USC. I purchased a UCLA tee shirt, and we also bumped into Rick Neuheisel showing a recruit around. That bastard still owes me $5 from a March Madness pool, but we agreed double-or-nothing on USC-Ohio State this fall. There was also a protest of research on animals on campus; all I will say is that I think PETA would hate me if they knew of my opinions on animals. Afterwards, we met Mike’s cousin, Tom Martin, and picked him at his place in Redondo Beach. We had lunch at an Irish restaurant along the beach, which Tom kindly paid for. He then showed us the many ridiculously lavish homes along Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach (?) before taking us to a bar with 777 beers on hand and 80 beers on tap. After about 3 pitchers, we dropped Tom off and headed to Dodger Stadium. Built on a hill, the Stadium offers great views of the LA skyline from the parking lot and has you enter from the top of the stadium, not unlike the Big House. The Dodgers beat my Reds, 7-5. A guy for Westside Rentals would put on Mickey Mouse gloves, a Disneyland wizard hat, and wore a cap all night and would dance between every half-inning. Hopefully Mike can somehow send the video he recorded on the email list.

Tuesday, July 21

This was a pretty relaxing day overall. We stopped at the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills and proceeded to drive down Rodeo. We left LA for San Diego via Route 5 after breakfast at Winchell’s and JJ4. We stopped in San Juan Capistrano and toured an old Mission there by request of Pat Starr. We parked right in front of a BMW SUV with an ND Alumni Association sticker on it. After Capistrano, we stopped in San Clemente for the Rainbow Sandals factory store where Pat and Mike purchased new sandals. Afterwards, we drove straight to SD and stopped at the Hotel del Coronado yet again. Pat was stopped by a police officer / government official for taking pictures of a beach that is U.S. government property – I think he may have gotten a date out of it. Some hotel employee known as the Sandman created sand art on the road next to the hotel, which was very impressive. We then headed to Petco Park, where we met Bryan, his girlfriend Shannon, and friends Casey and Steve (both of whom we had met before) for the Marlins game. Mike’s boss got his 4 free tickets about 7 rows from the field right behind first base. Mike, Pat, Bryan, and Shannon sat there. I sat with Bryan’s two friends about 25 rows behind them in the same section until the 7^th inning, when we moved down to sit as a group. The Marlins won 3-2 for the second consecutive game in front of a mostly apathetic crowd. Petco is one of the nicest ballparks I have seen.

Wednesday, July 22

This was a scheduled free day in San Diego. After oversleeping our alarms (which nobody complained about), we headed to Pipes for some excellent breakfast burritos. We then spent about 2 hours or so walking up and down the beach and even swimming in it, viewing dolphins merely yards away from us. After that, we had JJ5 and then played some baseball catch at Bryan’s house. Dinner at Island Brothers (chicken and steak kabobs) followed by Coldstone Creamery (a San Diego treat) capped our day before we returned to Bryan’s for 20 questions. I proved to be a poor player after eliminating about half of the possible answers to my answer, which was Zahm Hall. “Oh, you’ve been to Chicago, Casey?” Big props to Casey for seeing us both days, props to Steve for joining us at Petco, and no props to Chris “I don’t want to go” Dotson.

Thursday, July 23

We awoke Thursday early to bid Bryan farewell before falling back asleep and chatting with Mrs. Chamberlain during breakfast. We then said goodbye to San Diego after JJ6 to head to Palos Verdes, a peninsula south of LA where Pat’s uncle, Gene Starr, lives. He showed us around the area, including a horse ranch as well as Trump’s Golf Club and a brand-new, gorgeous resort known as Terranea (?). We cut it close and booked it to Anaheim for the Twins game; we missed the top of the 1^st inning, in which Minnesota scored 3 runs. The Angels relied on the Rally Monkey to come back in the bottom of the 9^th with 2 runs and the game-winning run in the 10^th. Tough luck, Joe Nathan. Mike’s cousin Tom, who showed us around Monday, joined us for the game.

Friday, July 24

We only slept 4 or 5 hours Thursday night by taking Tom’s recommendation of rising early to beat the LA rush hour traffic. We left Wrablik’s at about 6 AM and enjoyed breakfast for the third and final time at Winchell’s. We then set our course eastbound through the desert towards Phoenix. We stopped to switch drivers in Desert Center, CA, probably the most deserted “town” I have ever seen. I felt like I was in a movie here. We passed several wind turbines on the way to Phoenix (Souder: our CSEM professor Jane Doering would be proud of our ahhh-deeas being implemented). We had our 7^th and final Jamba Juice of the trip in Phoenix before taking a picture of the state capitol building, which was very unspectacular. We ventured to the suburb of Chandler, AZ, to finally enjoy some In-N-Out Burger. We saw a girl with the 2008 the ND the football The Shirt there. Mike kindly paid for my lunch as a birthday gift. Afterwards, we drove to Glendale to check out the new stadium. We could not have timed our arrival any better, as a $7 tour of the facility was merely minutes away. Pat graciously paid for my ticket. The tour guide did an exceptional job of recommending things for us to do after we told him of our trip and the Diamondbacks game that night. It is a very impressive stadium – I would like to see a Fiesta Bowl there, or perhaps a Jonas Brothers concert. We then dined outside Chase Field before the game, which was a blowout win for Susie’s Pirates. The stadium looks more like a football stadium from the outside. Luckily, it was air conditioned, and we enjoyed a short fireworks show after the game once the roof was retracted. Dinner at Alice Cooper’s Cooperstown restaurant completed our Friday.

Saturday, July 25

Late Friday night, we returned the rental car, a red Toyota Corolla, to the Phoenix airport and spent the night at the airport. Following a 4-hour sleep Thursday night, I slept for maybe 2 hours that night on the floor. I awoke at 3:45 AM and never fell back asleep, instead wandering around the airport like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. We all had flights within 30 minutes of each other, so we hung out all morning in the terminal where Pat and I departed from before saying goodbye.

I got home Saturday evening and spent about 14 hours at home before driving down to NYC with my brother and dad for 2 more baseball games.

Sunday, July 26

We went to the new Yankee Stadium Sunday and watched from on high near the right field foul pole as the Bronx Bombers beat Oakland, 7-5. This represented the third time in 19 days that I saw the Athletics lose. I was very impressed with the new stadium, although from what I remember, it is basically the same thing as the old one but just much nicer. I did root for Oakland, albeit quietly and sans my Red Sox cap. I did somehow say “Go Yankees” when I volunteered to take a picture for a family sitting in front of us. I atoned for my sins the next day by attending noon Mass (only 30 minutes… even Mass is quicker in NYC) at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.

Monday, July 27

I will not bore you with too many tourist details of the trip but will mention a few things: I ran into someone who went to my high school (2 years behind me) while in NYC, and we also saw Ground Zero. Right now, it is a huge construction site. I do not want to show disrespect, but there is physically not much to see there right now. I am sure that will dramatically change in the next few years once the powers that be stop playing “political football” about what to exactly do with the area. Also, I was VERY disappointed to get more compliments than jeers about wearing my Red Sox cap everywhere I went besides Yankee Stadium. Granted, I was in mostly tourist areas, but still. Come on, NYC! There is no way I would not get several reactions if I wore a Yankees cap in Boston. Also, we went to the top of the Rock, or 30 Rock. I wish I could have bumped into someone from 30 Rock while there.

Finally, we went to Citi Field last night to watch the Mets beat the Rockies 7-3 via a pinch-hit grand slam by Fernando “2 grand slams in the same inning” Tatis in the 8^th inning. The stadium was very nice but much smaller than I expected. We sat in front of two Red Sox fans, and we cheered when we saw the Boston lead growing on the AL scoreboard. I finally rooted for a winner by rooting for the Amazins, bringing my record to 1-6 on the trip.

New Harry Potter film

I have not posted in a while, and this will be a short one, but here goes:

I saw the new Harry Potter film yesterday with my brother, and I was impressed. It stayed pretty close to the book but omitted some things that happened at the end of the book, but overall I thought this was the best of the 6 films thus far. It did not seem like 2.5 hours, unlike the recent Transformers film. I would pay to see it again and probably will, but for now, I am getting ready for a week-long trip to California and Arizona for baseball, buddies, and road tripping.

I will have a detailed account of my 10-day journey (MA to CA to AZ back to MA briefly then to NYC) when I return in about two weeks.

Busch Stadium

Last night, I visited my 11 MLB ballpark in St. Louis.

I was very impressed with the park itself. I only wish I had been able to see the great view of the city skyline from behind home plate. My friend and I bought tickets at the game in the bleachers. St. Louis defeated San Francisco 5-2. I was happy to be heckled by a fan a few rows behind me who asked me who I was rooting for since I wore a Red Sox cap. Another guy said he would not let a bird poop on me - I guess that is heckling.

Last night I visited the first of nine or ten ballparks this month. I will comment on the others later.

Happy 4th of July!

Transformers 2 Review

Well, after a two week hiatus, I am back to offer my review of the sequel to Transformers, which opened June 24:

This movie exceeded my expectations. I had heard the night before going to see it that it received a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which usually does not bode well. After spending 2.5 hours at an IMAX theater today, I was very entertained. The movie is a little long, and you may suffer from sensory overload after watching it. Nevertheless, it is mostly nonstop action with a lot of robot fights and a plot that seems to work. Granted, I am the opposite of an expert on Transformers, but you can't expect the plot of a movie about transforming alien robots to make perfect sense. People seem to have attacked the acting in this movie, but I did not think it was poor at all. No one will win an Oscar for this movie, but the main part of the movie is the robots, not the humans. I think Megan Fox gets unfairly criticized for her acting ability because of her good looks, but I don't think she will be winning any legitimate acting awards any time soon. Overall, I definitely recommend this movie as a typical summer blockbuster: a lot of action, explosion, and a plot that works for a movie about this subject.

Next review: either Year One or the new Harry Potter

Movie Reviews

I just got back from seeing Up, and here is my brief review of it:

It is a very good movie overall, although I have to say that I was a little disappointed, only because of the ridiculously high expectations I had going into it. I felt like a kid again during some parts of the film. It was sad at times - I nearly cried twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. This is a film for anyone to see, and in my opinion, it was better than Wall-E. This only enhances my opinion of Pixar, and I will continue to go see any film they make in theaters. I look forward to their next films in 2010. I give it two thumbs Up!

I also saw the sequel to Night at the Museum recently (on Memorial Day). It was about what I expected, especially for sequel standards. I did not think it was as good as the original, but I was not expecting it to be. It would have been to top such an interesting concept, and they certainly did not. Nevertheless, it was a decent movie, and most kids would like it. I would recommend waiting for it to come out on DVD if you have not seen it, unlike Up.My next movie review will most likely be for Year One or the new Harry Potter.

Weekend in Review

I know it is already Wednesday, but I'd like to recap a solid weekend I just had. This was the weekend of June 5-7.

Friday, June 5: I bid farewell to my first job, mostly saying good-bye to people and playing cornhole. I then traveled to Bloomington, Indiana, to visit one of my freshman year roommates. We attended a Coldplay concert in Noblesville, Indiana. It was a solid concert, and I was pleasantly surprised to listen to a good mix of songs from Coldplay. I was expecting to hear mostly from their most recent album, but they played from all 4 albums. On a side note, it was the most lifeless crowd I have ever been a part of at a concert. I have been to about 6 concerts in my life, and this was easily the worst crowd. The only time they made any noise was when Chris Martin mentioned something about Indy or Indiana, and even then it was not very loud. It was a solid concert overall, despite the crowd.

Saturday, June 6: Matt and I ventured to Cincinnati to watch his beloved Cubs take on the surprisingly respectable Reds. Long story short, the Reds won in 11 innings, 4-3. It was a not a particularly well-played game on either side. The second base umpire made a notably bad call against Chicago early in the game, which is important when it ends up being a one-run game. Cincinnati has a very nice ballpark, by the way. This was probably my 5th Reds game, and it was the first time I witnessed a Cincinnati win. Of course, the only NL team I would root for against Cincinnati is the Cubs. Oh well.

Sunday, June 7: Do yourself a favor and go see The Hangover. It was a hilarious movie, and I highly recommend it. I am not very critical of movies - I mainly judge them based on how well I was entertained, and I was very entertained throughout the film. It is not all that offensive, but it definitely deserved an R rating. If you enjoyed Old School and Wedding Crashers, you will probably also enjoy this one.

My next post will come shortly, and it will consist of two more movie reviews: Battle of the Smithsonian and Up.