West Point Football…Go Army!

We’re off again.  This time we’re headed to West Point to watch the boys play football.  Oh wait! Maybe you didn’t know.  Brendan is not the only West Point cadet in this family.  James was accepted this year as well!  Both boys play on the sprint football team.

It was a very early day.  We got up at 4 am to catch a 7 am flight.

And we weren’t the only ones!

We got there in plenty of time for the game.  There was even time for a little tailgating.

West Point is right on the Hudson River.  The campus has a rich history and is in a beautiful part of New York.  It’s in the Hudson Valley, which is so different from Texas.  It’s a nice change.

It was a gorgeous night.  The weather was very fall-like.  A perfect night for football.

Brendan, #4, is on the defensive line.  All the jerseys have either "Duty", "Country" or "Honor" on the back instead of the names of the players

James, #30, is on special teams and is the long snapper.  On the sprint football team, all the players must weigh less than 178 pounds.  They were playing University of Pennsylvania.

I always wondered what the refs did during half time.

Final score, Army 38, Penn 13.  Go Army!  

James, Brendan and teammates stop by after the game.

Proud parents.

We stayed at the worst hotel I’ve ever been to.  It was supposed to come with breakfast but when we went down there, they had no coffee and one sad looking bagel.  We decided to go to Starbucks.  Today we were going to the Army/UConn game.  And Emily was coming with us.  She and Courtney were supposed to come up the night before and spend the weekend with us. Unfortunately, Courtney couldn’t come, and Emily was delayed.  Aside from missing Courtney (and we did miss her!), it all worked out.

Cousins.  John and Emily.

Here at Michie Stadium, the cadets salute during the national anthem.  All the cadets have to attend the game.  The whole section directly across the field is for cadets.  James and Brendan are in there somewhere.

During the pregame, there are lots of activities.  The have parachuters jumping from helicopters.  They are so precise.  They all landed right on the logo on the 50 yard line.  It was amazing.

The Army mule.

Top of the second quarter Army 14, UConn 0.

James and friends come by to visit.  We were in direct sunlight until about 2.  The cadet section is in direct sunlight the entire game and these are the uniforms they have to wear.

Brendan entertaining the troops.

Family photo.  Emily, Brendan, James, me and John.

Brendan and James.

One thing that I seem to forget is that all the students here are cadets and they are all in the Army.  See these cheerleaders?  In the Army.  Every time the team scores a touchdown, they do push-ups in the end zone.  I’m not talking girlie push-ups, I’m talking the real kind…that are hard to do.  They did a lot of push-ups today!

Final score?  Army 52, UConn 21.

View of the Hudson from the West Point Campus.

Saturday night family dinner at Long Horn Steakhouse.

The next day we drove to Hawthorne, NY to the Gate of Heaven cemetery.  John and Emily's grandparents are buried here....somewhere.  The cemetery is huge but very peaceful.  We drove around looking for the headstone.

Lot's of famous people are buried here.  We found this one.

This would be the grave of Babe Ruth.  There are bats and baseballs piled in front of the stone.  This hat and bat look like they've been here a really long time.

We never did find the grandparents but we'll be back.  Next time we'll call ahead and find out what section they are in and that should make for a shorter search.

From there it was back to the airport and home.  It was a quick but fun weekend.

Here's the video of the parachute jumpers.  This was so cool that they could hit the target!

Phoenix for Labor Day

This was our first time back on a plane since we narrowly escaped New York as the Corona virus began it's silent attack back in February of 2020.  We were nervous too.  We'd read all kinds of travel horror stories about airlines cancelling flights, rental car places not having cars, you name it!

Still, we haven't been to Phoenix since 2019.  We wanted to see the kids.  OH! and my sister and Kevin, of course.  So we decided to brave it.

The trip could not have gone better.  The flight was on time.  Granted, you had to wear a mask the whole time.  There were no crazy people who were arguing with the flight attendants.  It was quite pleasant.

We brought a Subway on the plane and took the mask off to eat but it went right back on when we were finished.  It was a good thing we brought a sandwich, too.  Remember how the airlines used to sell food on the plane?  Not anymore.  Oh, and no alcohol.  I heard the flight attendant tell the guy they wouldn't sell alcohol on the plane until mask were no longer required.

When we arrived in Phoenix, I was really stressing about the car because I was using a new credit card and the app said I had to go to the counter.  There was no one at the counter and I'd said that I'd pick up the car at noon and it was almost 7pm.  I thought for sure we were hosed.  Nope.  Down in the garage, I picked out a car from the Emerald Isle and checked out with the new card just fine.

Once we got the car, we got to sit in traffic on the way to my sister's but check out that sunset!

The next morning, we got up at 6:30. AM! We met up with my sister and this time she took us on a walk around the mountain. (Last time we climbed up the mountain). Around was much better.

Along the way we saw some really pretty plants. I think this is a ruby ball cactus. It was pretty.

This was about 30 minutes in to the walk. We still had a long way to go.

After that lovely walk, we needed sustenance. Kevin and Atticus joined us at the Haymaker for breakfast.

I got this amazing pulled pork skillet. It had pulled pork, eggs over easy and hash brown potatoes as the base. There was also some kind of green chile sauce but there wasn't enough to actually taste it. It was good. John got a biscuits and gravy dish with his eggs. Kevin got biscuits and gravy with chicken fried steak, I think. Everyone started so fast I didn't get pics of their food.

This is a plant in my sister's yard that I thought was pretty. I need to do something with my yard and I thought this might look nice.  I'll have to figure out what it is...

After a break at the hotel, we were back at my sister's. Harper is up to something, I just don't know what. She's always checking things out on line. She has an interest in historical fashion, which I think is very cool. I can't believe how pretty she is. But I'm not biased or anything.

So this was embarrassing. Harper was signed into the laptop on her account and my sister and I are trying to figure out how to log Harper out and log into my sister's account.

John is quite amused.

My sister is chopping up garlic because she's making homemade lasagna.  Oh kids!

There are two dogs here.  Bella and Princess.  Bella is a barker and she barked at us nonstop all of Friday evening while we were there and then occasionally on Saturday, when she wasn't sitting in our laps or climbing all over us.  This silly dog, I think, is Princess.  She has garlic paper on her nose because she's been sniffing around the kitchen floor hoping my sister will drop something good for her to eat.

Atticus' job is to grate the cheese.  There's a story here....

Look at that sauce (or as the Italians call it, gravy).  It smelled so good.  It tasted even better.

And, as if lasagna wasn't enough, Tres also make meatballs.  These have ground beef and ground Italian sausage with some kind of spices - garlic and parsley, I think.  Then she baked them.  I knew my sister was a good cook but it just didn't register.  Every time we come she makes something very tasty.

Then we had a little meatball appetizer.  Yum!

Every time we go, we end up playing some kind of game.  Last time was a computer game where you had to guess who...did something.  I don't remember other than it was fun.  This time we played spinner.  It was kind of a dominoes game where everyone gets tiles and you have to match the dots on your tile to the dots on the tile that's on the table.  It was pretty fun.  The goal is to have the least amount of points possible.  You could be in first place after one hand and then be in last after another.  Harper didn't want to play so it was me, Tres, Atticus, John and Kevin.  It was pretty fun.

John trying to figure out his next move.  There's strategy to the game, I just couldn't figure it out.

Harper came in to check on the score.  I don't remember who won.  I think it was Kevin.

Then it was time to put the lasagna together.  Atticus went to get Dora so she could join us.  

The lasagna had layers of noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and then sauce.  I looked at that pan and thought that wasn't going to be enough for all the people.  Boy was I wrong.

This is Bella sitting on me after a day of barking at me.  Apparently, now we are best friends.

Atticus and Dora.

Sunday, we had time in the morning so we drove over to Surprise, Az, which is where the Texas Rangers have their spring training facilities.  They share the place with the Kansas City Royals.  There was another field across the street from our hotel where the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners had their training facility. 

It was really a nice place.  We were thinking that we should come back during spring training and check it out.

Buck O'Neil Way!  I love him.  He played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro league.  He was in Ken Burns' Baseball documentary.  

Atticus waits tables (and busses and hosts) at this Sushi restaurant called Kawaii Sushi.  We decided to go there for lunch so that he could wait on us.  

We got a lot of food but we powered through and ate it all.  Everything was very good.  Kevin had left to go camping earlier that day so he wasn't with us.  But we were delighted when Harper said she'd go.

We had a great time talking to her.  She was looking up different styles of clothes on her phone and we were checking it out.  Then we were talking about Elizabeth I and the clothes that were worn during that period.  Turns out we like a lot of the same stuff.  After lunch, it was time for us to head back to the airport.  

We had such a great time and we loved spending time with everyone.  We'll definitely be back sooner rather than later.