We're back -- in Texas. Go 'stros!

Yes, after 14 months (almost exactly) of hiatus due to "the 'rona," we are back on the road. In that prolonged period, known to RR ("recent retiree") as the "year of no fun," Mrs. Intrepid Traveller, yes, retired. Of course thinking that retiring meant lots of opportunities to travel. Whoops! Thanksgiving trip? Nope. Christmas trip? Nope. Spring break trip? There was no spring break on this year's semester calendar. Nope. May trip to London? Nope. You can see why she might be disappointed. Anyway, here we are in lovely (you can figure out if it is surrounded by air quotes or not) Galveston, TX. Why Galveston, you might ask? Well, we were coming down to see Kid 2, and Bro-law X and Sis-law numero uno, and wanted some beach time (there was none, absolutely none, last year -- the year of no fun). So we rented a condo on the water on Galveston Island. First, there's no beach here. The Gulf is across the road and it almost rolls onto the road at high tide, which is surprisingly not much higher than low tide. The Gulf. A strange thing. OTOH, it was 79 and windy when we got up yesterday morning. Can't say it wasn't warm enough. The effin' guy on WBRE weather kept talking about "a chance of snow flurries" last weekend. Where's my eye roll emoji? One of the things we decided to do on this trip, once it was clear it was possible, was to go see baseball games at the two Texas parks. Last night we went to Minute Maid (go 'Stros!) and saw a great game between the 'Stros and the Angels -- Houston broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 8th with 4 runs. And it was quick. Last night's ballpark was #22 as RR and I attempt the much envied "every ballpark" checklist. When we finish a mostly ballpark trip in early July to the southeast, we will be left with just 4 to visit -- Fenway and three on the West Coast. We really liked Minute Maid. One part we liked (which we were told we wouldn't like about Rangers Park next week) is that the park is right downtown and you can see the city through the big windows in the outfield. I guess they did away with the distinctive slope in centerfield some years ago, so it is not quite as quirky a field as it was when it opened. There's still a big wall of shrubbery behind the centerfield fence (not unusual in these newer ballparks, like Philly) and there are seats in a "box" in the leftfield corner -- the "Crawford Boxes" -- which make homers a bit easier to hit there. All-in-all, a good experience. I finish with a photo from our seats. This will be the first of several blogs this next ten days -- we fly home on the 21st -- but they won't be daily. That'd feel like work and RR (when does it become something other than "recent"???) isn't having any hint of that. :)