Tuesday

Finally, the baseball. Today we went to Disney's Wide World of Sports, where Cracker Jack Stadium is located, which is the Spring Training home of the Atlanta Braves. Greg Maddux got the start and quite a few of the Braves regulars were in the lineup. Maddux pitched four perfect innings. The game was very low scoring and since there is no such thing as a pitchers duel in Spring Training it was a very boring game. At least according to Evan and I. Andrea thought it was exciting. It was very sunny and warm. I did apply lotion before the game but missed some spots. That left some nice red strips along my arm. The Braves won last years great hot dog competition if I remember correctly. I had to get one. They are gigantic, but for $4.25 they should be. With the season tickets the Crawfords are also privileged to preferred parking. This is very nice since there is a special entrance there is no problem getting in. However, the way out needs work, we were stuck for quite a while. Another observation when walking back to the car a guy was talking about going home and playing on his Sony Playstation. Who says that? Is there another brand of Playstation. Is it Playstation 1 or 2? I tell ya, some people.

Beautiful Cracker Jack Stadium.

Maddux got the start.

Scheffield probably flying out.

Chipper.

Julio Franco, who is now about 67 years old.

Maddux gave up no hits in 4 inning of work.

We got back in time to attend a Celebration Pride baseball game. They were victorious 10-0. Unlike the softball game we remembered to bring lawn chairs, mine however was a little bent. Pride games are apparently very popular. There was a Hummer H2 parked at the field and some Asians showed up for the game for about two seconds. We were very confused by the inexplicable Asians. There are no Asian players on the team so we weren't really sure what they were doing. Apparently they weren't either.

We made our first trip to Publix. I had been dying for carbonation since I got there. Personally I was not a big fan of Publix. The produce isle was all the way on the other side of the store. At the checkout we got in the wrong line. The cashier was having trouble reloading the tape for the register. This ordeal was still going on when we left and the same customer was still standing there getting slightly annoyed. When we returned to the house it was my turn to jump in the pool. Evan had the night before but I wasn't up for that so late at night. It was very cold. Corie got thrown in by Evan. Bear is something out by the pool. Whenever someone jumps in he gets very excited, runs around, and then tires to eat the water and the waves come to the side of the pool. Its a site to see. He refuses to jump in but he always ends up soaking wet.

The plan for the night was to go to Margaritaville for dinner. This is a whole night since the wait is usually 90 minutes minimum. Margaritaville is located at Universal's City Walk. There are lots of restaurants and shops around so we didn't get too bored waiting. When you arrive to get from the parking garage to City Walk there is an elaborate system of moving sidewalks. They moved pretty quickly and were a little difficult to manage. Evan and I said that getting on was much harder than getting off. Andrea once again disagreed. You also have the issue of people just standing on the moving sidewalk. To me, the moving side walk is meant to quicken the pace of normal walking speed. To achieve maximum performance you needs to be walking while on the moving sidewalk. The first stop was All-Star Collectibles. Wow. There is so much good stuff in that place. Evan and I wanted to buy everything. All sorts of autographed pictures, jerseys, balls, etc. Everything very expensive. But some day we'll go back and buy it all. We wandered around and took some pictures until it our pager went off. I was lucky enough to be holding the pager when it went off. I felt very special, like I'd won something. I proposed that there should be a spotlight to enhance the experience. When your pager goes off there should be a spotlight on you and people should clap, like you did something really important. Random notes from dinner ... Buffett, Buffett, and more Buffett music, hostess told us our waiter smelled, he wasn't very good, Evan took the napkin, he thought it was very high quality, one Evan's friends had worked there in the past and some guy really liked her, Evan thought he was working so he called her to check, apparently the real guy only had 1 leg, how do you forget something like this?, Evan had a hamburger, later he saw a sign that their hamburgers had been voted best in the city, he was proud.

All Star Collectibles, a dream.

Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

There was a long wait so I found a place to relax.

The idea was to get the Hard Rock in the background but it was kind of dark.

When we returned it was Hot Tub time. We lasted 3 hours in there, not realizing how much time had passed. Very in depth conversations about sports casters, ESPN, sports, middle school, and plenty of other topics that kept Andrea's interest. I didn't think the wrinkles of being in the hot tub for 3 hours were ever going to come out.