How Far We'll Go For Baseball And Target

As you may recall, the first few weeks of this school year were some of the most stressful I've ever experienced at work. Thankfully, last week, things seemed to be evening out a little bit more and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

However, on the Saturday morning of Labour Day weekend I was stressed out. So I tossed a load of laundry in the wash and Dave and I were drinking our morning coffee-hot chocolate outside. As is common, I had checked baseball scores already and had seen that the Jays had beat Pittsburgh the night before, in Pittsburgh, and the Jays' Instagram feed commented that "There were so many Jays fans, it felt like a home game."

Dave and I were talking about weekend plans (we didn't have many) and how I wanted new, thick, colourful whiteboard markers. I commented, "I think I bought the last set at Target." and Dave commented, "Well, we could always go to Buffalo and go to Target." I commented back, "If we're going to the US to go to Target, let's at least go to Pittsburgh so we can watch the Jays game."

SILENCE

"Why not?" one of us ventured. "WHY NOT?!?!?!" the other one replied, so after some Googling (to find out how far away Pittsburgh was (a five hour drive), if we'd make it in time for the game (we would), what the weather looked like (we didn't want to go all the way to Pittsburgh and have a rained out game), etc), we randomly decided to drive to Pittsburgh on about an hour's notice.

We woke Sam up, "Hey, do you want to go to Pittsburgh in an hour?!?!?!" He was on board, and Rachel was packed for the night before we'd even decided for sure we were going. And that's how we found ourselves at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on a Saturday night.

I loved being at PNC Park. I loved watching the baseball game and seeing the Pittsburgh skyline in the background.

There were so many Blue Jays fans, it almost felt like a home game. I really couldn't believe how many Jays fans there were.

See all the blue?!?!? (Pittsburgh's colours are black and white.)

Because it was a game celebrating the newly opened Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame, many baseball legends from the Pirates were represented -- either in person or by their descendants -- in a pregame ceremony. After the game, there was a special drone show. The four rows of lights in the middle of the picture were the drones getting ready for the show.

It was soooo cool to see this show!

 

And can I give a shout out to the Pirates fans who warmly welcomed us to their ballpark and were some of the kindest people I've ever met. The Jays' fans basically took over their ball park (the cheers were louder for the Jays than they were for the Pirates), we won the game, and Pittsburgh baseball fans welcomed us with smiles, wishes for a safe journey (as we were leaving), complimented us on our devotion to the Jays, and were so nice.

We stayed overnight at a hotel and hit a Target on the way home. Rachel and I were sooooo excited!!! And yes, I bought whiteboard markers, and because it was Target, we ended up with about $150 worth of other stuff -- books, pajamas for Sam, boots for Rachel, a wifi extender, a mirror for Rachel, and I don't know all what. That's how it goes at Target, right?!?!? :)

 

We drove home and still had a day to recuperate before heading into the first week of school.

We've never done a random, weekend road trip before but it was so much fun, we're already talking about where we might be able to head to watch the Jays play next summer! We might even plan the next one for more an hour before we leave on it :)