leisure

Spring Training 2012: Day One

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It’s (almost the end of) March, which means it’s time for my annual trip out west to Arizona. My brother and I are going a little later in the season this year and also bringing some other people along: his wife, our sister, and my daughter.

The tech arsenal for this trip is pretty much the same as past years: my iPhone (the new 4S instead of the old 3GS), iPad (no Bluetooth keyboard this time), Garmin nüvi (loaded with pertinent waypoints), and new camera. I also ditched the iPad camera connection kit since I now have the Eye-Fi card to wirelessly offload photos from my camera to the iPad.

Anyway, it’s time to see some Cactus League baseball!

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They’re creepy and they’re kooky …

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This afternoon we caught a matinee showing of the just-started US tour of “The Addams Family” musical at the Straz Center.

It was an enjoyable, funny show and our whole family had a good time watching the antics of the Addamses and the Beinekes. I didn’t find the music/songs to be as earworm-worthy as those from “Wicked” or “Rent” but they were still pretty good. As a comedy goes, though, I found myself laughing a lot! If the US tour is coming near you, I recommend you check out a showing.

Dayton: Day 3 (homeward bound)

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We got to “sleep in” a bit this morning, compared to the last two days. By 8:15am, we were checked out of our hotel, picking up breakfast at Starbucks, and back on the road to the Cincinnati airport (in Kentucky).

The travel gods were looking out for us again (plus it was early Sunday morning) so we encountered no traffic or issues on our way. By 10:30am we were checked in, through security, and at our gate. One two-hour, uneventful flight later and we were back in sunny (warm!) Florida.

By 2pm we were back home and ready to relax. My daughter and I had a great time on our trip but tomorrow it’s back to work and school.

Dayton: Day 2 (Go Flyers!)

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The day started early again as we got up at 7am, grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel, and the headed out into the chilly, windy morning over to the University of Dayton Arena for rehearsal with the alumni band. Practice ended a few hours later after we rehearsed the pre-game and halftime shows with the student band on the football field Welcome Stadium.

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Home from Universal; a Disney comparison

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Normally we spend the morning of Labor Day in the hotel pool but since we already had some pool time yesterday, we checked out early and bid farewell to Universal Studios. We had breakfast at First Watch (I tried the new bacon/cheddar pancakes, which were different, but surprisingly good) and then killed some time at Downtown Disney (to keep the Labor Day weekend/Disney tradition alive).

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