One more (unplanned) trip this summer

We technically got home from California in the wee hours of a Sunday morning (we were supposed to get home late on Saturday night).  We took a day to unpack / re-group / etc.

One unplanned activity set up the rest of our days of summer:  going to a baseball game the next day to support friends.  Mercer grew up in Little League. He played from 4 - 14 at the same park. He was in All-Stars year after year there.  He went to the state championship with them several times.  They lost a teammate due to a tragic accident.  They navigated playing ball during covid.  He played with most of these boys his entire baseball career.

This was his "baseball family."  So - of course - when the boys (now called Seniors) in the Little League world were playing in a state championship game across town, he wanted to be there.  After he got off work on Monday, I picked him up and we headed over.

(Little did I know 'til later -- Mercer was in this huddle!  HA!  He is the 2nd kid from the left (a peek of orange) -- next to Chase #9!)  I'm surprised he jumped in.  But thankfully he knew NOT to get into the official photo, above, with the team!! 

 

The East Marietta Little League Seniors won over Oconee County Little League Seniors 10-9.  They won the State of Georgia Little League Championship (like our boys did in 13 u and 14 u) But what was different this year, is the Little League (who had cancelled much of the larger contests with travel due to Covid) did have a championship this year.  

EMNLL would move onto the Southeast Regional Senior Championship in Florida.  Mercer started chattering at the game telling players... I can go with you to Florida if you need another player.  (He was invited to play on this team to compete in the Georgia State playoff team with his old teammates, but we were in California and could not commit.)  He also talked to the coach.  I talked to the other coach's wife who I was sitting with at the game about "well, if he's needed, give us a call... I was planning to go to Florida anyways next week to visit my dad who we haven't seen in a long time....Mercer would have to see if he could get off of work..."   

That call was made.  Mercer was put on the roster and we started making plans to travel to Florida -- just to a different part of the state + on a little bit of a different time-line.  And - he got off of work (WOW - we owe a HUGE THANKS to his boss or else this could not have happened!)  

Meanwhile - throughout planning for this next adventure, Isabella and I were very busy with other things.   I worked 4 days (she worked with me the 1st day) at the MHS baseball concession stand helping with 2 different back-to-back week-long tournaments each week that MHS was helping to host.  

Each night, we were working on converting her bedroom -- getting rid of the "little girl" room that she had for years.  This was one of our goals of things to accomplish over the summer before she started middle school.... and we ALMOST got there!  

Sanding, taping, wiping down walls, priming, painting & touch-up...

she learned some great life skills this week (and really helped me out as my shoulder would not hold out to do it all)!

I'll wait for "reveal" pictures once we have everything in place ??!!

but here's a teaser.... brown?!  

oh yeah - she also saw in action "gypsum board repair."  She did not actually do this herself, though! 

(this was needing to be done since the siding reapair on the outside of our house -- when the contractors did damage to our master bedroom walls too!)  

we worked SO HARD, but this is the last little bit left as we couldn't quite finish everything before we had to leave for the baseball trip.

We hit the road and arrived in central Florida Wednesday night.  We hung out with "grandma and grandpa in Florida" -- my dad and Charlie.  Later, my step-sister Michelle came home from work and we got to catch up with her too.

The next morning, we packed up from our hotel we were staying in for the night and visited dad & Charlie a little bit more, but then we had to hit the road to travel almost 3 more hours to our next destination.  (Dad had a bevy of medicines -- an antibiotic infusion for a foot infection -- that Charlie was preparing to give him.... so it's good that we left and let them do their thing!)

We took no photos though. eek!  Well, I took a photo of this unique VW sculpture that was near our hotel in Mt. Dora!  

We made it in time to check into our air b&b near Clearwater, then head over to the banquet and opening ceremonies....

held in Safety Harbor, FL.  

(our boys are on the far right of the 2nd "overall" photo)  This little league district has apparently hosted the Senior League Baseball Southeast Regional Tournament for a decade.  It took a slew of volunteers to put on the event for the week!

The teams represented:  

West Pasco, FL (the host team from the district / area in which the tournament was held)

Florida Senior League state champs

Georgia Senior League state champs (East Marietta!)

South Carolina Senior League state champs

North Carolina Senior League state champs

Virginia Senior League state champs

West Virginia Senior League state champs

and Tennessee Senior League state champs

Mercer is the one in orange (as the team mom had an "emergency" uniform made b/c he wasn't a part of the original team, but she forgot it at her hotel).  

Thankfully, she got it before the official Southeast Little League host photos were taken!  He's still 2nd from the left, now in navy jersey like his teammates!

Their 1st game was on Friday morning (Game 1).... and holy cow.... we were blown away by the other team!  They just kept scoring and scoring... while striking out our kiddos over and over again.  I think the only reason the boys scored on this team was because the 1st pitcher was swapped out for another and that guy made a lot of wild throws! 

(If this was the "host team" and not the state champs... what were the rest of the teams like?!)  L 17 - 4.  

As it turns out, that team got knocked out of the tournament before we did!  The 1st pitcher may have been their only... and there are pitch counts to protect the boys' arms, so our team may have gotten the best pitching that they had ?! 

A lot of these tournaments are based on strategy about how to keep going throughout a series of days with the pitchers you have.  (Probably part of the reason why they invited Mercer to come to play!)  Mercer pitched a little bit the 1st game and a little bit the 2nd game since he had not gone over his pitch count.

Their 2nd game (Day 2) was on Saturday mid-day (Game 7) and - the boys beat North Carolina to knock them out of the tournament.  W 5 - 0.

Their 3rd game (Day 3) was on Sunday mid-day (Game 9) to beat West Virginia, but this one wasn't without a fight!  Right off the bat, WV scored 4 runs (knocking 2 balls out of the park -- these boys were big!) 

Our boys battled back getting a run or two each inning 'til they took the lead (Mercer crossed the bag to score run 6.-- which happened just moments before the called for a lightning delay!) 

Once the boys came back from the delay, they were able to hold the team to win over West Virginia in a photo-finish type of play at home plate (someone trying to steal from 3rd base to home... an EM player threw the ball to the catcher in time to get the last out) 

W 5 - 6.   

That game had a lot of emotions -- sad when the boys were down 4 - 0. 

Happy when 2 of Mercer's teammates hit out of the park home-runs themselves (both caught here crossing the plate). 

Absolutely elated once Mercer crossed the plate to take the lead and then stunned when the final out happened!  The coach said this was his favorite game of the series because the boys really wanted it and didn't back down. (Pretty cool) 

They lived another day!  

(which meant that I needed to take my 1st day back at school off / fill out a leave form + meant that we needed to extend our stay.  Unfortunately, the air b&b already had the unit leased, so we had to move to a hotel for 1 night (and extend as needed from there).

Their 4th game (Day 4) was on Monday afternoon (Game 12).  It was against the Virginia state champs.  Mercer hit well.  He got several singles and doubles. 

At one point, the bases were loaded with NO outs -- Mercer was on 3rd base in scoring position.  Some people on our team made errors, but their team was solid. Virginia did not make any mistakes.  They were like machines.  And - they did deserve to win that game - which they did.  

This knocked our Georgia state championship team (East Marietta) out... sending our boys home.  L  0 - 6

picture with the moms

Mercer was in a groove.  Todd and I absolutely LOVED seeing him be HAPPY playing baseball with his old crew. 

Several times, he was caught dancing to the music that was playing between innings or as he was going up to bat.  It was nice to see JOY in him at this game that he loves to play!

One of the (OG) moms asked the boys to pose... as she was recreating this photo from when the boys turned 12.

At 12 years old, the Little League recognizes those kids who had played their whole career with the organization.

Looks like the boys kept their original numbers:

Mercer was #1. There are 2 twins (Musterer) that were #11 & #19.  The coach's son, Wrenn was #6, Pearce was #15.

#12 is their friend / teammate that passed away just weeks after this photo was taken.  They wore "Blake socks" (blue star socks) in his honor at this series just played the past week.

There was a (small) stipend that the league gave the teams.  The coach decided to spend it on team-bonding activities or outings.  Once - ice cream.  Once - a late lunch.  But the most memorable for our guys:  a minor league baseball game one night.  

Todd sent me photos of the beautiful sky, but the most unique thing about this game:  the night they went was the last in-service night for the bat-dog. 

She would go out to the field and get the bats that the players dropped as they headed towards 1st base!  She was retiring so they had a party for her after the game!

Mercer also liked the Christmas-in-July jerseys, but they didn't spend (hundreds of dollars) to get one.  

I started to go through the blog and look at past pictures of the boys... took a walk down memory lane.  This is where it started -- Todd coaching tee-ball.  

Isabella and these other kids pictured here also grew up at the ball field!  I remember when Bella Grace was born - a year after our girl.  And Beckett - the boy in the middle - Isabella just kept commenting how he grew a foot taller!  (this was at the restaurant after the final game)  Oh these kids have been dragged to countless numbers of games and tournaments!  They deserve a medal too!  :) 

(OK - if our girl wants ice cream at 10 pm at a diner as a "reward" for sitting through more baseball games... so be it!)

This is the "hardware" that Mercer got. 

(you couldn't see the water from the ball field, but it sure looks nice in this drone photo!) 

Safety Harbor is sort of between Tampa (across the bridge) and Clearwater.  We saw a little bit of Tampa on the drive + when picking up Todd from the airport (he found a CHEAP one way flight down, but.... there was a Microsoft "CrowdStrike" internet outage that had most of the airlines and big businesses down.  His $40 flight that was to take 1.5 hours... had more than 4 hours of delays!   

But he made it and was able to see 3 of the 4 games, so.... we were grateful!

We saw the ball field the majority of our time there.  So we were determined to see what Clearwater beach was all about - we popped over the evening before we came home.... dipped our toes in the water and were rewarded with an amazing & dramatic sky. 

How can you take only 1 picture during the sunset and the moments after it has dropped below the horizon?

This reminds me of the types of paintings Elena Madden does... we have a red & blue water / light painting.  I guess there's just something about this to be drawn to!  

warning - another photo overload of light and water!!  

just stunning!

You could see a storm rolling in over the ocean on either side of the sun!

And the sun did that cool thing where it "changes shape" as it gets close to the horizon -- or so it appears...

I couldn't get enough of this sky!  Even after the sun had set - it was still full of color!

and - yes - the water was clear....  as I'm standing in some in this picture / you can see all of the shells.

Definitely a nice beach.... but very crowded.  Glad we checked it out!

We drove home on a Tuesday -- which was supposed to be my 1st day of work.  The tournament continued (Day 5)... the last day of the entire event.  South Carolina won.  The boys from this team beat Virginia who we thought played really well & knocked out Mercer's team on Day 4.  

Mercer had his hopes on winning the whole thing, of course, and he packed for / thought he would then FLY to the Senior League World Series!  But I suppose the boys from SC were getting on that plane (per the rules in the player handbook).  They would go on to play teams from other countries across the region + even some international teams!!  

It's the closest they ever got.  What a fantastic experience!  So glad he could participate and experience it!! 

The rude awakening happened when - the next morning I had to get up early to help Mercer get to work by 7:15 and I had to go back to school myself + Isabella go to teacher camp that next morning too.  Our summer is technically over, but -- I'm still holding on a bit longer (Plus there is still MUCH to do that we didn't finish this summer... there is still school shopping for my own kids... there is still a bedroom conversion to finish... and unpacking / cleaning beyond words!!)  

eek... why couldn't we steal away a little bit more time?!  

Note added for 2 major historic political events:  

- Former President Trump was shot at a rally. He turned his head and a bullet grazed his ear!  (there was a young man from the area who was seen on video climbing up on top of a nearby building.)  Secret service shot him - but it is unbelievable that the young man could get up there in the first place!

- And current President Biden dropped out of the 2024 election race just months before the election.  Vice President Harris is taking up the nomination in his stead.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR. July 21, 2024

My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.

Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We've made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our Democracy. And we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can't do - when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.