Meet me in Kissimee

A first for the family: Daddy's first trip away without wife and child. Joining his friends for an annual tradition going back to 2008, Sergio met up with his Houston friends to watch Astros spring training games in central Florida. Leaving Sasha with Ivan and a copy of the Sex and the City Movie (really sucked -sasha), Sergio hopped a plane to Orlando for four days of fun, sun, beer, brats, and baseball.

The first game was actually a non-Astros affair, but it did still have some home team appeal:


While Sasha isn't exactly a baseball fan, Michiganders do stick together, especially nowadays. The Tigers didn't win this one but their park is beautiful, their fans devoted (especially against the local bandwagon team the Rays), and for good measure they even serve Kalamazoo's Bell's Beer, which some of you might remember from our wedding. This was certainly a good start.

Next was our first Astros game. Having done this before, Sergio's friends had developed a good system: buy a cheap Weber grill, tailgate and eat some brats before the game starts, drink cheap light beer, and hang out. If there's time, buy a ticket and enter the game for a few innings.

6 dudes in a minivan = HOT...

It's the "wee bit o' garlic" that makes it Irish. (Huh?)

Astros taking on the champs, Roy-O set to pitch.

Success! (in sneaking beer into the park).

SCOREBOARD!

Saturday had us taking a longer trip out to Melbourne, FL where the Washington Nationals train to see the Astros "on the road." This was a nice new park, with a NASA-theme because of the close proximity of Cape Canaveral. But it was still enemy territory.

Only Astros fans understand the greatness of #7.

The broad shoulders of "El Caballo" are key to our coming season.

Anson is not standing in front of a screen, I swear.

Lots of time for this before and after the games.

Alas the 'Stros fell short in this one but we did witness a very cool thing. Around the sixth inning we heard a peal of thunder in the distance which made sense because it had been cloudy all day and looked like rain. But strangely, most of the crowd started applauding. Then the announcer came on the PA system and said "Welcome back, Space Shuttle Discovery!" Apparently it makes a sonic boom when it re-enters our atmosphere but even more remarkable, all the locals seem to recognize it upon hearing it.


And it ain't Florida if you don't see any gators:

By the way, Florida is really weird.

Sunday Sergio had to fly back to Mexico so had to leave the fellas early as they headed to one last game (vs the Blue Jays, Astros won 3-2). It was great to see them and they repped Houston one last time to remember them by.

10 am at the Waffle House...

After one long day of travel Sergio made it back for Sunday night dinner with the crew. There were gifts for all: peanut butter and magazines for Sasha (of course), a new chew toy for LouLou and for the Lil Dude, well, what else?


He seems to like it, no?