Our first night on the boat. Now we’re getting down to brass tacks . . . and “Weakie’s” favorites, the FOOD! And yes, I could get used to this!]
[Just close your eyes and go to your happy place!]
[Our boat’s namesake.]
[Our atrium – I’m on the 3rd floor standing by the computers and looking forward to the lounge we are about the enter. Below, on the 2nd floor is the main lobby and dining room.]
[Apres dinner lounge show, where they bring on board some excellent local talent.]
[And a peak out the window at Budapest by night.]
And now . . . Budapest by night!
[No commentary necessary – just enjoy.]
[Our last good-bye to our hotel.]
[John and Helen rushed to report home what they had just witnessed!]
No matter where you go, there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzi
[I suppose you’re all wondering when does this river cruise thing start? Well, there goes our boat! I just happened to look out our hotel window at 6:00 am just as the Viking Embla was passing by. It was going to tie up by Chain Bridge, and we would all be boarding later that day. But, in the meantime . . . ]
[We still had places to go and things to see. Pam and Tom went separately to see the horse show in the country (we were there last year), while we led the Etniers on a walking tour in the other direction from where we had gone the previous days. Here are the sights along the way . . . ]
{Yes, this time we were walking in the direction of Liberty (though she is on the other side of the river) . . . ]
[On the way to (the view back to Buda Castle) . . . ]
[Central Market Hall! The best way to describe this place, opened in 1897 (and still has the original roof), is Ron’s Warehouse on steroids! From visitbudapest.travel, The largest indoor market in Budapest. Among other things, on the ground floor you’ll find a large selection of sausages, meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables. On the second floor, there are food stands and plenty of vendors selling handicrafts, clothing, embroidery, chessboards and other souvenirs. Paprika and Tokaji are also sold here. In the basement, there is a fish market, a small Asian grocery store, a supermarket, and a small drugstore.]
[But because it is a ginormous market, crossing the street to get to it was life threatening.]
[Whew, we made it!]
[Of course, as men, John and I could only take so much shopping. We told Helen and Ruth that when they were done, they would find us across the street – enjoying an outdoor coffee and watching the world walk by! While sitting there, an older gentleman from a nearby table dropped by and asked if were Americans? Where could he ever get such an idea? Anyway, he was a hoot, from Wales, and just wanted to the talk about the American political system, a total mystery to Europeans we encountered!]
[Always nice to be welcomed!]
[The pedestrian streets of the Old World are such a treat. BTW, we are heading back to the hotel – we had hoped to drop by Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe (Ruthie and I saw it last year), on the way back but we were running out of time.]
[It’s not everywhere you can find a green cow on the street!]
[We checked out of our hotel, schlepped our suitcases down the street a couple blocks, and boarded our boat in time for lunch. Here the Super is checking out the evening’s menu.]
[Our first meal on board – beautiful day for outdoor dining.]
[Plus, it came with a view!]
[Rooftop on the boat. We really didn’t have much time to enjoy these amenities. And we didn’t have many more days like this.]
[We were still on our own for the rest of the afternoon. Time for a walk to Margaret Island, a little over a mile and a half away from our boat, but on the way passes The Shoes, one of the more memorable memorials I’ve ever seen.]
[Attila Jozsef, Hungarian Poet]
[Count Gyula Andrassy, on Parliament grounds]
[And . . . Parliament!]
[John and Helen marvel at the marvel.]
[Gee, I wonder what these are? Budapest is hosting the 2024 Olympics. Gee, maybe I will go back there again?]
[Margaret Bridge]
[Sunbathing on Margaret Island (as we were walking down the road from the bridge onto the island).]
[A sports center here – maybe an Olympic venue?]
[And just like last year, we took a 4-person bike for a ride around island. We put John at the helm.]
[Ahhh, we remember that! I think it’s an homage to Madonna, you know, “Like a Sturgeon.”]
[We probably should have stopped and checked out this place.]
[Pedaling without a license?]
[The island is a mile and a half long . . . and we circled it!]
[Walking back to the boat, we took a more inland route, i.e., the Olympic rings from the other side.]
[Parliament grounds statuary]
[I suspect government buildings on the Hungarian equivalent of Constitution Avenue.]
[The Parliament from opposite river-side.]
[Prince Ferenc Rakoczi II]
[The first Eastern bloc country uprising against the USSR.]
[And we’re back to Count Andrassy.]
[And poet Jozsef]
[And now the boat would become home. We were pooped – 3-mile walk and a 3-mile bike ride, just in the afternoon. Here is our program director, Violeta (from Serbia, as I recall?), welcoming us aboard.]
If there was such a thing as building porn, it would be this. Just looking out the window as your drive or trolley by you think, ‘I want that. Who lives there? Who lived there? What’s it like inside? And where did they go?’ ~ Anthony Bourdain
Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet . . . (of course, that has since been upgraded to “softball, brats, hummus, and river cruises”) But Memorial Day weekend means it’s “Summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime!” That calendar guidepost where, according to our parents, the lakes are now warm enough for swimming; and women can now wear white without creating a rift in the space-time continuum.
May 25
[The longgggg weekend began with our weekly “whoever shows up” Wednesday dining at the golf club.]
. . . then we had to leave early because it was time for BAT’s semi-annual visit to our fair city, beginning at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale.
[BAT and his wife Brenda are road warriors who make Alexandria their only Minnesota stop as they travel America’s highways and byways. They have performed here for I believe five years now. They schedule five performances where BAT will play for four straight hours, no breaks, and segueing from song to song. Amazing!]
[It was also “wine down Wednesday” at SAWA, meaning with a food order you can get a bottle of wine for half price. Needless to say, this is not a wine we order on regular basis!]
[Goodnight, Jami and Danny! Toward the end of the evening, BAT sang Friends in Low Places. Danny at one time worked in a bar long enough that he grew sick of that song – so it was all the encouragement he needed to call it a night! Ha!]
Then, Good night, to table mates, Kathy and Erik!]
[Ruthie takes a final shot – that’s Brenda on the left.]
May 27
[A little tasting at the golf club where we voted on a member-chosen red and white wine for the season’s menu. Out of a field of ten, what’s not to like?]
May 28
[BAT’s first of back-to-back days at Carlos Creek Winery. The weather was iffy, so performance was inside.]
[You all know this one, right? Piano Man . . . “and put bread in my jar!”]
[This turned out to be a great day and venue for a really fun performance. The place was packed all day, people always waiting for seats to open up, so the sing-alongs were performed with gusto much to the delight of the fans . . . and for BAT!]
[Did someone mention sing-alongs? Plus, we were enjoying the latest bottling of Vintner’s Blend, which is 75% Minnesota-originated Marquette grape.]
[Dave and Karin in full voice as we get ready to exit the scene – BAT received a deserved standing ovation from the assembled masses.]
May 29
[Back to the winery in the morning for an all-day doubleheader. Anthony Miltich, an all-time “local” favorite, had the 10 – 2:00 shift, and BAT followed on from 2 – 6:00. Fortunately we lucked into an absolutely beautiful day for sitting outdoors.]
[Since Anthony retired, he has a little longer drive to get to us now. He used to come from Fergus Falls to perform, now it’s from The Cities (well, northern suburbs takes a bit of sting out of the trip)!]
[They did a complete switch at the changeover – Dave and I helped as roadies, moving BAT in and Anthony out.]
[Hi, girls! Having fun yet?]
[Dave airing the dogs.]
[We were joined during the afternoon by Judy and Dwaine Berger, and in the last hour by Helen and John Etnier, our first sighting since we all got home from our Europe trip.]
May 30
[Remember the “softball” part? I picked up old high school buddy, Brad, recently returned to his old hometown, for the section semi-final v. Sauk Rapids-Rice, the No. 3 section seed (our Cards were No. 2). As you can see, another bright, sun shiny day here in Vacationland USA (thoughts of, oh my, sunburn came to mind as we plopped down in the bleachers) for the noon time start on Memorial Day.]
[Now that you have the roster immediately above you, you know that’s Kelsea (1) heading out to right field and Allison (3) to 2nd base. Our sitting position gave me a better angle to shoot to the right side of the field.]
[Pitcher Caley (16), who won the opening round game against Little Falls, warms up with catcher Rev (14). And that’s Calley (2) in center field.]
[Rev’s throw down to shortstop Zieg (4). You can follow the flight of the throw!]
[Ellie (12) on first with Kelsea in right.]
[And the first pitch . . . ]
[No runs for the Storm in the top of the first. A team meeting decides that was a good thing.]
[Batting lead-off for the Cardinals – Allison. Had to chuckle at these photos because I didn’t really notice at the time – she’s a bit into batter’s box foot gardening, à la Joe Mauer.]
[But when she’s ready . . . as I recall, she stung the ball her first three times up, and I thought she should have been credited with 3 hits (a hard shot at a close-in 3rd baseman was scored an error).]
[Then Zieg, a natural rightie bats leftie in the two-hole because she’s usually in a bunting situation.]
[We had heard about first baseman Ellie’s amazing power statistics this year – 6 homers in the team’s last 8 games, averaging about 2 RBI’s a game. So I tried to photo each pitch of her first at bat – on one swing I heard her connect and immediately looked up from the camera to see the ball go over the right center fence – 210 feet away – on a line. Great, compact power stroke – the Cards were off to a 2-0 lead!]
[And the team comes out to greet her.]
[Then Calley . . . ]
[Then Rev . . . ]
[Then Kelsea . . . ]
[Head level, eye on the ball, good extension and follow through . . .
[Great swing, Kelsea!]
[Hayley (13) . . . kinda felt like I was short changing those who played on the left side of the field and batted right handed. Just couldn’t get a good look at them through the screen. Hayley hit well and played terrific left field defense in the two games I’ve seen.]
[I must have missed DH Lauren (11), another rightie, because we’re back to Allison.]
[Then Zieg, a switch hitter.]
[Ellie . . . didn’t see too many strikes the rest of the game after her homer.]
[This looks like Amy (5) . . . ]
[The 3rd baseman, another rightie who plays on the left side. Like Hayley, both hit and fielded well in the two games I’ve seen.]
[I unfortunately got several shots like this! Oy!]
[Here’s Rev again, just another good all-around, multi-sport athlete.]
[Zieg, had a rough day at the plate but came through in our last at bats.]
[Caley pitched the first four innings, only giving up two runs with good clutch pitching because the Storm were putting a couple runners on base every inning. Then 8-grader Ally (6) came on to pitch the last three innings. With the game tied at 3 in the top of the 6th inning, the Storm loaded the bases with no outs. Young Ms. Albers proceeded to strike out the next three hitters, and that essentially won the game for the Cards.]
[By holding the Storm scoreless in the top of the 6th, you knew the Cards were going to score in the bottom of the inning.]
[Ellie . . . this was in the 5th?]
[And Amy, now in the 6th?]
[And Lauren rifled one down the right field line for a hit.]
[Then back to Allison.]
[I think she on purpose swung and missed on strike 3 knowing it was going to be a wild pitch – she made it to first and the runner on 3rd scored the go ahead run.]
[Back to Ellie.]
[Ooops, was that a strike out? It looked like it was going to be a really big inning for the Cards – 2 runs were in and the bases were loaded with only one out. But that was it.]
[Ms. Albers pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 7th and the Cards were winners. A good win against a tough pitcher. The Storm had 13 hits, the Cards had 8 but made the most of them.]
[Attempts at photographing the post game celebration were thwarted by the chain link.]
[Then it was time for the Super to take the three of us for a cruise in the convertible, an activity sure to aggravate my developing sun burn.]
[We stopped out the golf club for an outdoor lunch, and then proceeded to the northern parts of Alex Brad hadn’t seen for many years.]
[Past Rotary . . . ]
[And the theater . . . ]
[And Geneva. All-in-all, a pretty decent weekend.]
Summer bachelors like summer breezes, are never as cool as they pretend to be. ~ Nora Ephron
And so it came to pass, after winterless winter tumbled into erratic spring an old man’s fancy, once again, turned to . . . travel? Hence, I covered very little of the Alexandria Area High School (AAHS) spring sports scene and am in danger of losing my “press pass.” In fact, this is it, from most recent to waaaay back in mid-April: 1) the softball team’s first section game (missed the whole regular season); 2) the conference track championship meet (well, a little); 3) the first (or 2nd?) baseball game of the season (well, a little).
May 26
[A day of reflection, as we had (as I recall?) our first reunion luncheon since the big 50th last fall. I picked up Brad, old classmate buddy recently moved to Alex, at Bethany Manor. We had fun with a “usual” group of about 10 at Angelina’s. Then later that afternoon our Cards hosted Little Falls in the first round of the softball sections. Brad and I sat in sunburn sunny, 77-degree weather as our Cards won 10 – 0 by mercy rule in the 5th inning. The new field has no photo access, so all shots are through the field-surrounding chain link fence.]
[When we arrived there were games being played on all three fields. I thought we were late? But AAHS was hosting section games for other neighboring classes. On “our” field, the Thunder and Patriots were having at it. I had no idea who they were. Later it dawned on me – smaller classes often consist of consolidated schools and it’s impossible to put all the town names, hyphenated, on uniforms. It was Long Prairie, et al, v. Pequot Lakes, et al, and I overheard a Pequot fan say these were the best softball field he had ever seen. Another guy said, “Well, they paid $73 million for it!” So I said, “And I was happy to do so!” They got a chuckle out of that. Anyway, as often happens, our game was 45 minutes late getting started.]
[Pre-game meeting to decide post-game dining . . . ]
[Coach Randy Albers and his captains.]
[Assistant Coach Mitch Loch checks his investment portfolio.]
[The bleacher bums?]
[I was using the telephoto lens in an effort to thwart the fence, but with our seating, first row behind home plate, I didn’t have enough wide angle to get the entire team in one shot.]
[McKenzie Revering (14) received the warm-up tosses of winning pitcher Caley Haugen (16).]
[Batting lead-off for the Cardinals, 2nd baseman, Allison O’Kane (3) (also a hockey player).]
[Batting 2nd, shortstop, Emma Ziegler (4) (she plays every sport!).]
[Batting 3rd, Ellie Ronning (12), first baseman (also plays tennis), our home run and RBI leader (as I recall).]
[Batting clean-up, another hockey player, centerfielder, Calley Richardson (2). You may have noticed, all underclassmen so far.]
[A Cardinal on 2nd tries to bet back to the base before I can get the shot!]
[“Little Rev” on deck. After next season, she’ll be moving on to play hockey at UMD.]
[Now without numbers I’m going to have problems – looks like Calley on 3rd.]
[Looks like Zieg – she’s a switch-hitter befitting her status as an all-around “jock” (meant as a total compliment!). If she’s batting leftie, she’s likely bunting for a hit.]
[The Cards finally broke through in the bottom of the 3rd as Ellie comes up again.]
[The wind was blowing in from rightfield, so it wasn’t likely there’d be any “taters” on this day – and there weren’t.]
[As you see, directly behind home plate is not a good angle! But the earlier game had limited our seating options.]
[3rd baseman (and our longtime hockey goalie), Amy Jost (5). She had a hit and made some nice plays at 3rd. Sorry I did’t get any photos of Hayley Burns (13), our soccer star leftfielder who had 3 hits in the game.]
[A big leftie swing – we have several, so which one?]
[Zieg rounding 3rd and heading for home. I knew we had a pretty good hitting team – what I found most impressive was our overall team speed.]
[Calley and Ellie have provided a pretty formidable 1-2 punch from the 3-4 slots.]
[And here comes the walk-off run that ended the game. We had runners on 2nd and 3rd, and noted that a single would score both runners and give us a 10 – 0 win. As I recall, this is Kelsea Navratil (1), rightfielder, scoring on a single by Allison.]
[Yay, we win!!]
[Oh, that may be Haley behind Rev.]
[Up next, Sauk Rapids-Rice, the No. 3 seed.]
May 24
[The previous day’s forecast had been stormy all day – it was actually sunny and warm. On this day the forecast called for 85 and sunny – I left after four events because the field and stands were cleared because of lightning in the area! I could have stayed but skies still looked ominous. The meet was subsequently completed. I saw the girls’ team finish 3rd in the 4 x 800, the boys were 6th (I believe); and we got 2nd (Syri Wlliams) & 3rd (Kaye Pascha) in the 100 meter hurdles. The girls later placed 1-2-3 in the 100 meter dash – we got speed! The Hasz sisters did a 1 & 2 in both the 1,600 and 3,200. The girls won big overall, the boys finished 3rd.]
The entire results can be found here: http://www.fastfinishresults.com/
[The first race – the girls’ 4 x 800 . . . ]
[Looks like Morgan Melrose on our lead-off leg . . . ]
[And I believe this is Bethany Miller on the anchor leg. We finished 3rd with Kylie Larson and Whitney Olson running the middle legs.]
[Out of the blocks for the girls’ 100-meter hurdles.]
[Syri and Kaye on the far right. We host the section meet in a couple weeks.]
April 14
[The set up: It was 80 degrees, strong winds, high early spring sky, and they’re just high school kids. Alex was hosting Brainerd – our 2nd game of the year, maybe their 1st.]
[Sorry, this was so long ago I can’t remember who was pitching. Things didn’t start well for us as their lead-off hitter singled and their 3rd-place hitter launched one into the lake beyond the centerfield wall. It was a portent of things to come.]
[3rd baseman, Connot Hammerback (4), spun out of the way of the pitch. Not a good day for the batteries – wild pitches, passed balls, pitches thrown behind the hitters . . . ]
[Brayden Amundson (7), centerfield]
[Noah Hittle (22) took a couple inside then rifled a single to left.]
[Henry Wirtjes (16) has a swing at it . . . ]
[Then Sam Helgeson (2) has several . . . ]
[And now the storyline. This was the most bizarre baseball game I can ever recall. With the wind and the sky, high flies and infield pop-ups were uncatchable. Both teams hit hard ground balls that as they approached a fielder would hit something and sproing 20-feet into the air for clean outfield hits. Clouds of dust would roil across the infield with every gust of wind. When infielders could field a ball, it was 50-50 whether the throw would be catchable by the first baseman. Pitcher pick-off throws often ended up in rightfield. It was not a game for the faint of heart.]
[We changed our battery at the top of the 3rd. Brainerd’s starter, Chris Peterson, was a guy I was familiar with – he’s 6’6″ and a star in both football and basketball. He looked like he had good stuff, but while I was there all the pitchers were getting lit up like a WalMart Christmas tree.]
[This is when I left. It had taken an hour and a half to play 2 1/2 innings. The final score, I subsequently learned, was 18 – 17, for Brainerd – it must have ended close to midnight? Both teams have talent – I’m sure they played much better the rest of their seasons!]
He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings. ~ Torrin Polk (University of Houston football player)
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