Traveling and Hunting for the Perfect Present

Its been a long day. My day started at a little after 3 am. Chrissy took me to the Atlanta airport for my 7:00 flight. I got to the airport a little before 5. It was so hard leaving my 2 girls, Chrissy and Maggie. I miss them so much!!! Especially Chrissy. My first flight left Atlanta at 7 and arrived in Detroit, Michigan at 9:30. My second flight left Detroit at 10:30 and landed in Boston a little after noon. I waited for about 2 hours for my Dad to arrive. While I was waiting, I got to see a little bit of the Red Sox getting swept by the bad guys. Maybe they need a little McLeod luck to jump start them. After me and my Dad met up, we spent the next 2 hours riding a bus to the subway, subway to the train, train to the shuttle and the shuttle to our hotel. We are definitely pooped. Neither one of us wanted to do much tonight, but I did want to start my hunt for Chrissy's present. After doing a little unsuccessful present hunting, we came back to the hotel for what they called BarBQ. I guess Mass.'s version of BarBQ is a little different than Georgia/Alabama, but the hamburgers and hot dogs weren't bad. Not many pics today, but I did take a couple. More to come tomorrow. On with the pics!!!!

This might be the most exciting part of my trip so far. I chose this hotel specifically because they offered a suite with a door separating the bedroom from the living room with sofabed. My Dad sleeps like a cross between a fog horn and a chainsaw. The Government wanted to use tape recordings of his snoring for interigating terrorists, but the ACLU made a big deal about it being too cruel and inhumane.

Like I said earlier, we went shopping for a present for Chrissy, but just couldn't find anything in her size. It seems like all that store had was Tedy Bruschi jerseys in my size. It just seemed like a waste, not to get anything after all that time spent shopping.

More to come tomorrow.

Gettin Pumped About Baseball

I'm so excited about this week. After 3 days of work, I'll be flying up real early Thursday morning to Boston for a weekend of baseball. I've got a 2 hour layover in Detroit on my way up to Bean Town. I'm scheduled to arrive in Boston at noon Thursday, and my Dad should be flying in about 2 hours later.

Friday, we'll be checking out some historic sites like Paul Revere's house and Bunker Hill. Friday night, we'll be at Fenway. Tim Wakefield is scheduled to pitch against the Baltimore Orioles. GO SOX!!!

Saturday morning, we'll wake up early and drive down to Mount Vernon NY. We'll take a train from Mt. Vernon into Harlem. From Harlem, we'll take the subway to Yankee Stadium, maybe stopping by Grand Central Station and Times Square if we have time. We'll spend the next 3 hours cheering for the Devil Rays in the Stadium, GOOOOO!!!! Devil Rays!!!. Mike "The Moose" Mussina is scheduled to pitch for the bad guys.

Sunday morning, we'll wake up early (notice a trend?) and drive to the airport in time for my 6:00 a.m. flight back through Detroit to Atlanta. I'm scheduled to arrive at noon and I'm trying to get tickets to the 1:00 Braves game verses the Mets. Not sure if I'll be able to or not though.

The one bummer is that Chrissy will not be able to go with me. This will be the first time we've spent a full day without seeing each other since the wedding. Not looking forward to that. I'll have to bring her back a present. Wonder what I'm going to get her?

Mini-Family Reunion

The McLeods usually have a big week-long family reunion each year. Due to some schedule issues, we had to tone it down to a few days in Jacksonville. Still lots of fun though. Love seeing my family. On with the pics!!!!

McLeods doing what they do best, eating and talking.

ALL ABOARD!!!

(Notice how the guy in the blue hat always has his mouth open during pictures? Wonder why that is?)

My Grandmother, Cousin, and the newest McLeod, Emily Grace

The Monkey Exhibit

Kiddies

Bridge Hunt and Some Bad Medicine

My Dad sent me this article about a covered bridge in my town. I was so excited!!! I love bridges. I've only had a chance to be apart of the construction of one bridge, but I really enjoyed it. I like to read the history on old bridges too. The article talked about how this one is even haunted!!! The bridge is called the Salem-Shotwell Covered Bridge. I did a search for it and found tons of sites on the internet with pictures of it. I decided to go check it out for myself, so I found directions, and headed that way this past weekend. I guess if I would have done a little more research, I would have found this article about the bridge falling down. What a bummer. Anyways, here is what it used to look like. This is what it looks like now: The wonderdog has not been doing so hot. She's been sick all weekend. She acts fine, except she constantly has to go to the bathroom. That didn't work out well with being locked in the house all day while we were at work. I'll spare you the details. By the way, this dog HATES Pepto Bismol.

Poor Puppy

California Vacation Part 4

The last day in San Francisco, we walked to the "worlds most crooked street".

Even in San Francisco, it is great to be a Florida Gator. Here is some sour dough bread shaped like a Gator. Everywhere I went, it seemed like somebody was saying Go Gators to me or Chrissy (since we usually were wearing something with the Florida logo on it). It always makes me smile.
We took public transportation pretty much everywhere we went. I had my handy-dandy map and my itinerary with each location we wanted to visit listed and mapped out. I even had a list of restaurants we wanted to try. We got through about 4 of the restaurants, and all of the site seeing places. I almost had as much fun planning the trip as I did going there. We experienced some good food in San Francisco. Thanks to a recommendation by my Uncle Stann, we ate at a really nice British pub called Lill's Liverpool. I think the best food we had, not to mention the worst for us, was Ghiradelli's ice cream and chocolates. I literally gained 9 pounds from the day I left our house until the day we got back. For the finale, we went to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. You know we couldn't make a trip without at least one stop at a ballpark. Some general notes from the park: 1. Ryan Klesko, the Giants' 1st baseman used to play for the Braves. He was my favorite player while he was there. He's a big, powerful, home run hitter who also strikes out a lot. When a player for the home team gets up to bat, they always play a song that player picked out. Klesko's song was "Long Haired Country Boy" by the Charlie Daniels Band. That made me laugh since he's from California and he doesn't have long hair.

2. There were a few former Sox players and Braves players on each team. Rafael Furcal and Klesko from the Braves 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox players Derek Lowe and Dave Roberts. 3. The stadium is right on the bay. On the other side of the right field stands is McCovey Cove. In around the 5th inning, the fog started rolling in from behind home plate out towards the bay. It looked pretty cool.
4. San Fran was playing their biggest rivals, the Dodgers. The chant they used most was BEAT L A!! BEAT L A!! Not bad, but not as good as Yankees suck!! 5. Our seats were on the very top row of the stadium. Along with the fog, the wind came in as well. Shorts were definitely a mistake. We ended up moving around trying to find a place to sit where the wind wasn't quite as bad. The weird thing about San Francisco fans is half of them don't show up until the 4th or 5th inning. We had to move probably 5 times while we were there.

6. The few weeks before the trip, I was watching Barry's home run totals getting closer and closer to the record. Of course with 4 to go, he decided not to hit anymore. Though I'm definitely not a Bonds fan, I did think it would be exciting to see a record like that broken. Since he wasn't going to break the record when I was there, I started to hope I'd see the pitch where Barry got plunked in the knee with his career ending injury. His line on the night: 2 walks, grounded into 2 double plays, and allowed 5 or 6 outs to drop in front of him for singles. As bad as I hate to admit it, it was really exciting every time he got up. I was happy to see him fail though.
Overall, I'd give San Francisco about an 8 (out of 10) and Monterey about a 3. If you're ever over on the west coast, San Francisco is a great place to spend some time.

California Vacation Part 3

San Francisco was much more fun than Monterrey. I'll let the pictures explain where we went.

Our first day in town, we went to China Town for lunch. Lots of Chinamen like this guy here.

Had a good time looking at the ships at the Maritime Museum.

Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 had a lot of cool shops. Almost bought this poster for my buddy Jim.

We then spent some time at "The Bridge that couldn't be built". It was an amazing engineering accomplishment. Did you know that with the concrete used in the bridge, you could build a 5' wide sidewalk from San Francisco to New York City?

We walked a beach named after my wife, Crissy Field. Honestly though, it didn't do her justice.

We then went to Golden Gate Park. Not too exciting to me, but Chrissy loves that kind of stuff... Flowers and a Japanese Tea Garden.

Stay tune sports fans. More on San Francisco coming soon.

California Vacation Part 2

Californiaaaaaaa Californiaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Here we coooooome!!! We started our vacation in Monterey. Monterey is one of the most beautiful places in the country. I'd say my favorite part was watching the sunset with Chrissy on the beach.

The 17 mile drive is a must see. Beautiful scenery all the way down to Pebble Beach. The waves crashing against the rocks, seals everywhere.

We went on a whale watching trip as well. It sounded very exciting, and based on the web site, we were expecting to see some cool stuff. Really, all we saw was a dark hump rise out of the water. Not very exciting at all. I'd put pictures up, but really all you can see is a lump above the water. It was about as exciting as a watching a log float.

The negatives of Monterey:

Not much to do.

Everything is expensive.

Whale watching was a bummer.

It was really cold (Chrissy)

Positives:

17 mile drive

Lighthouse

Watching the sunset with Chrissy

It was really cold (Chad)

San Francisco tomorrow. On to the pics!!!

Point Pinos Lighthouse

Sea Lions in the Wharf

Chrissy trying hard to stay warm

17 Mile Drive Sunset

The Scenery

Waiting on sunset

We're Back!!! California Vacation Part I

We got back Saturday night.... Actually more like Sunday morning.

Quick overview: We went to Chrissy's parents on Saturday the 6th. We went to Chrissy's Mom's family reunion that day at Noccalula Falls near Gadsden, Alabama.

Monday morning, we flew out for San Francisco and drove to Monterey. Wednesday morning, we drove back to San Francisco and spent the rest of the week there. Not a big fan of Monterey. I really liked San Francisco.

Because I hate long blogs, I'm going to write a little bit each day over the next few until I cover everything we did.

I'll start with the time we spent at Nocallula Falls and Anniston.

I had a nice time meeting more of Chrissy's family. As usual, I ate way too much. The scenery was pretty cool.

2 good lookin fellers

The Falls

Toon in tomorrow for part II of the California vacation.

My Umps

This video was the highlight of Chrissy' trip to the ball game yesterday. They put it up on the big screen.

Little Fenway

Is that the Green Monster? Well, sort of. Its actually the Greenville Drive's little Green Monster at West End Field.

We drove up last night to visit my sister Alisa and her family. Knucklehead Noah threw out the first pitch in front of everyone; of course it was a strike. The Drive is the Single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Their stadium is modeled after Fenway Park. We even sang Sweet Caroline during the 7th inning stretch, just like the big boys do.

2004 Red Sox World Series Champion outfielder Gabe Kapler is now the Drive's manager.

My one claim to fame, at least knowing someone famous, is that I went to High School with Jonathan Papelbon. Pap is the Sox' lights out closer. We played football together for 3 years (he was a year behind me). His 2 younger brother's are playing minor league ball now. Joshua is playing for the Drive. He wasn't in High School with me, but I do remember watching him pitch in college at University of North Florida. He's got a wicked throwing motion. He doesn't throw sidearm, he actually throws even lower; kind of like former Sox player Chad Bradford.

The Drive got drilled 15 to 6, but it was still lots of fun. On to the picks!

Preview of things to come?

Could be the next great Red Sox pitcher.

Another future player enjoying the game from the stands.

Is that a World Series Champion I see?

Kapler signing autographs for the kiddies.

Papelbon warming up.

Submariner.

There's another Green Monster.

Allstar Caroline Huggins

We got to see the Auburn Allstars play last weekend. You should have seen their left-centerfielder playing hard. Rocket arm. Nice swing. I see a scholarship in her future.

Getting Ready to Knock one up the middle

Don't let that smile fool you. She's a fierce competitor