Clevelend

On the way home from Louisville we stopped in Cleveland to see a baseball game. The Cardinals were in town playing at the "The Jake" (corporate bastardization: Progressive Field) which almost never happens, so we couldn't resist.

The other big draw of Cleveland is Catherine Ross-Stroud, whom we've been friends with since grad school but rarely see. She had never even met Jackson, so she so we all met up for dinner before the game.

Given Jackson's gene pool and upbringing, it was no surprise that Jackson fell in love with Catherine right away and flirted with her through his whole meal. We are certainly going to have to get together with her more often now that she is living so close to us.

After dinner we booked it over to the game and made it just in the nick of time. Of course it was a 15-minute hike up to our seats in the super nose-bleed section, but we still had a great view, and Jackson prefers a little distance between himself and all the crowd noise.

As we checked out the ballpark, we realized we were sitting just above the announcer booth and it only took us a minute to spot Mike Shannon. It's hard to see in this picture, but he's the little dot in the yellow shirt and gray sweater vest in that middle level.

We had a good time, and Jackson lasted almost 6 innings before the combination of fireworks and exhaustion got to him. On the way down we got more time to check out the lower level of the stadium. It really is a nice park, very open and easy to navigate.

It was a great little stop over, and now we can add one more ballpark to Jackson's growing list of baseball stadium visits. He's seen three major-league parks, and he's only 18 months old. . . not too shabby.