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Monday, August 10, 2015

Mountains, Car Trips, Dodgers, Concerts and the Bus.

This past weekend was a whirlwind. Right after work Friday I drove to Canaan Valley which is a ski resort about two hours away from my house. My wife's family gather there every year to hangout for a long weekend. While my time was short there it really is a beautiful area untouched by most commercial elements. It is the kind of place you want to go if you are looking for some isolation or possibly avoiding a warrant for your arrest. 
 I stole this picture, but this is a nice shot of the lodge.
My daughter approved of the swing. Even in the middle of summer it can get pretty cool in the evenings, hence her jacket. 

The worst part of the weekend was the driving. On Saturday my wife and I hopped in the car and left Canaan to head to Pittsburgh. Mapquest said the trip should take a tad over 3 hours but it was closer to four when it was all said in done. The Pittsburgh area has a lot of major construction going on right now so in order to avoid even longer delays you have take a lot of back roads.  While it was a little bit of an adventure we made it in plenty of time for the game. 

It was a really nice day for a game. I'm a huge fan of the 4pm start times on Saturday. Good bit of Dodger fans at the game as usual when they make their yearly trip to PNC.

The game itself was very wild. Both Mat Latos and Francisco Liriano had command issues. The good thing is Liriano was able to do this....

If you don't follow the Pirates then it might be hard to fully appreciate this moment.  Let's just say Francisco doesn't take his hitting that seriously. The homerun was his first ever extra base hit.

Good as time as any to show the Liriano silver frame. Liriano has so done a good job of justifying the 3yr 39mil contract the Pirates gave him. Every so often he'll have an outing like he did on Saturday, but for the most part he has given the Pirates some pretty dominating starts. The biggest downfall is that being a strikeout guy he often doesn't make it past 6 innings as the pitch count goes up.

The Pirates would go on to win the game 6-5 as the bullpen held the Dodgers to one run.

After the game we were treated to a show by O.A.R.  They played for a little over an hour which gave them enough time to hit most of the songs you would want to hear from them. If you haven't seen or heard O.A.R before they are one of those bands that sound better live than on an album.
I pulled both pics from the bands twitter account. The stage is set up right behind second base.

The games had a lot of national tv exposure this weekend so of course you get a blimp.
After the game my wife and I went to Jerome Bettis's restaurant for some drinks. It was a pretty cool atmosphere as he was getting inducted into the Hall of Fame that night.
This is the mural that is hanging outside.

While it was an exhausting weekend, I did have a blast. With my work schedule and the craziness of every day life, my wife and I rarely get time together. This was a welcome mini vacation. The Pirates were able to cap off the weekend by completing the sweep on Sunday Night Baseball last night. The only frustrating thing is that the Cardinals sold their souls to the devil in order to win every game this year. You would hope to gain a game when you go 7-3 in your last ten, but the Cardinals also went 7 and 3.

Thanks for reading!



14 comments:

  1. I've been to the Canaan Valley in the summer with a summer job I had in 1993 (we installed then-new furniture in the cabins at the State Park). Beautiful area -- though we were told to watch out for black bears. I don't think I saw one.

    I spent two weeks in West Virginia that summer. Of that two weeks, I'd say that the Canaan Valley was one of the lesser out of the way places!

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    1. The southern part of the state is even more isolated. I had a friend that was from Matewan. It was your stereotypical one stop light town.

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    2. Was up their this year and a Black Bear crossed the road while I was driving and the little guy goes Ba Ba Bear and was amazed. It just walked across the road and didn't even pay attention to the cars.

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    3. I actually had one jump in front of my car too. They were out in full force this week. I think everyone saw at least one.

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  2. Man, I'm super jealous about the OAR concert. I still haven't heard them live yet, but I can imagine them being better in person.

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    1. It is easy for me to hit an O.A.R show as they are from Rockville MD and went to school at Ohio State. Lots of shows in both areas. Plus they hit Pittsburgh every year. They are worth checking out.

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  3. Looks like you had a great concert. I've never heard of OAR before but now I might have to give them a listen.

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    1. They are kind of lazily compared to Dave Matthews. I like O.A.R, but not DMB so I don't think that is a good comparison. Check them out. You will probably find one or two songs you like. My favorite is City on Down.

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  4. Francisco's Homerun was featured on Intentional Talk as well. Looks like you had a fun time.

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    1. McCutchen was interviewed after the game and said that he has a ton of power during batting practice, but I'm sure he was still surprised about the actual game time homer.

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