Challenge:

Response:

MapsForUs.org. Just about the funniest thing I’ve seen this year.

Thanks for Marisa for pointing out the former, and Galbraith for finding the latter.

At the beginning of May, we met Lucy Curry and her daughter, Bridget, at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence. We’d never been there, and it was a nice change from Franklin Park, our local zoo. Different animals, a different layout, a highway running right behind the elephants. Sammy and Bridget had a great time pretending to be trains and robots, and trying out brightly colored ice cream and lollipops. Here are some highlights…

Jenn, Sammy and Mark went to California for the last weekend in May, leaving me at home. Highlights included this trip to the beach where Sammy learned about the joys of the boogie board, and Nick attempted to bury himself in the sand. In fact, he was successful, as you’ll see.

I’m working backwards posting photos. Here are some from our trips to the Cape this year, first for Memorial Day Weekend, and then again on July 4th.

This was back at the beginning of June, but man, it’s still funny.

Here’s the link to YouTube if the video doesn’t display here.

We went to our first (and probably only) Red Sox game of the season last night, and we picked a good one. The Sox have been in a bit of a slide recently, while the Yankees have been pretty much unstoppable. There has been much concern in Red Sox Nation, and after a great performance by Tim Wakefield the night before, we needed another from Jon Lester. It was going to be a feel-good experience regardless, since it was Lester’s first Fenway appearance since being diagnosed with cancer last August. Still, he’s been having trouble with his pitch counts, and Tampa Bay was countering with Scott Kazmir, whose personal mission seems to be to beat the Sox whenever he gets the chance. Things did not look good, especially when Lester walked the first batter.

Then he settled down, and left after seven innings having given up two hits, just the one walk, and one run (on a sacrifice fly). Only problem was, the Sox couldn’t get anything off of Kazmir, and it was looking like a 1-0 loss, or worse. Then Timlin got us out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, and Gagne came in to pitch the ninth. Naturally, he was booed, but he struck out the side (giving up a harmless double), the boos turned to cheers, and we were at the bottom of the ninth.

Late-inning heroics have been the hallmark of this team for the last few years, but they’ve been few and far between this year. The only time the Sox have won when losing after eight innings (in 41 chances) was back on Mother’s Day. Still, we believed, or at least hoped. Things looked bleak when Manny struck out, but then Lowell came in and hit one over the Green Monster and the game was tied. One out later, Varitek hit a ground rule double, Coco Crisp got to 3-2, hit a ball into right field and drove home Varitek for the winning run. Cue the high fives, the cheers, and the kind of joy that has been conspicuously absent on a team with the best winning percentage in baseball.

And, of course, throughout the game we got to watch the scoreboard as the numbers kept rising for the Orioles and staying at 0 for the Yankees. Final score there was 12-0. Nice.

Here are more photos from Hawaii, this batch from our six days on Maui. We stayed at the Kamaole Sands in Kihei, along with Jenn’s parents. Mark, Scott and Sarah got themselves another unit in the same complex.

On Monday, we went to the Iao Valley, a rainforest in the West Maui mountains. Tuesday morning was our snorkeling adventure out at Molokini. Sammy went in the water with his flippers, although he wasn’t so keen on the mask. We still have to take the underwater cameras to be developed (digital photography has spoiled us), so we’ll post the fish and turtle pictures as soon as we can. Wednesday was for shopping and hanging out in Paia on the north shore of Maui. On Thursday, we set out for Haleakala, the 10,023 foot volcano that makes up the bulk of Maui. Technically, it’s still active, although the last lava flow was in 1790. Friday was spent in part at the Maui Ocean Center, a small but beautiful aquarium in Ma’alaea.

There was a lot of beach time as well, and Sammy has already made plans for us to move to Maui and buy a Jeep. Failing that, I’m sure we’ll be back to visit again.