Wedding, Baseball, Family, Boating, and the US Open

We are currently sitting on the southbound Northeast Regional heading to Washington, DC. We just spent the last couple of days in New York.

Last Friday, we left Rehoboth Beach for Cleveland, where we were attending a wedding on Saturday night. Our drive from Rehoboth to Cleveland included a stop in Bethesda for a failed dentist appointment (not worth going into detail about). Our third passenger in the car was Riley, our one-year-old Australian Shepherd whom we rescued in June. Riley is a wonderful passenger and is very content riding in the back seat.

Saturday afternoon, my mother, Jane, and I took Riley to the dog park in South Euclid, the suburb where I grew up. Riley fetched some tennis balls, but unfortunately, there were no other dogs in the park while we were there for her to play with.

Saturday night, we attended a beautiful wedding. The bride was the daughter of my friend Dominic, who grew up across the street from me and is someone I don’t remember not knowing, in other words, a lifelong friend. The ceremony took place at Reinberger Chamber Hall in Severance Hall (home of the world famous Cleveland Orchestra) and the reception was across the street at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. The setting for the reception was truly spectacular, with the tables and dance floor arranged around a reflecting pool with beautiful floating candles. We had a wonderful time at the wedding.

Sunday, Jane and I headed to Progressive Field to see my Cleveland Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals 11–1. We had dinner at my mother’s Sunday night, where we grilled one of my favorites, lamb chops.

Because of our membership in Freedom Boat Club, we are able to reserve boats at locations outside of our home marina. This reciprocal arrangement is one of the great benefits of FBC membership. On Monday, we took a pontoon boat out of Whiskey Island Marina in downtown Cleveland. This was the third time I have taken a boat out of this marina.

We boated down the Cuyahoga River, passing new buildings and rowing clubs before entering an area filled with steel mills and other assorted manufacturing industries. On our way down the river, we had to hug the side and wait for a large ship to pass us. Cuyahoga means “crooked river” in the Native American language of the Mohawk, and yes, the river is very crooked. We finished our day of boating with a ride on Lake Erie.

Monday night, we headed to Burton to have dinner with my sister Renee and my brother-in-law, Pierre. We toured the in-progress addition to their house. While we were there, I picked up some of their award-winning maple syrup. Their syrup and Airbnb were featured in the New York Times this past spring. To check out their syrup, visit here.

After dinner, I had to make one important stop: We headed to the supermarket to pick up Great Lakes Brewery Dortmunder Gold and an assortment of Market Garden Brewery six-packs.

Tuesday morning, we left for our drive to DC. We met Kyle at his townhouse in Silver Spring and dropped off Riley. Then Kyle, Jane, and I took the Metro to Nationals Park. Kyle, as a Nationals season-ticket package owner, he was able to secure passes for us to be on the field for batting practice. This was a very cool experience, as we were just steps away from the batting cage while the Nationals and Braves took BP before the game.

Soon after the game started, the three of us had to divert our attention because we had our Walter Family Fantasy Football draft. Luckily, the draft only lasted three innings. As a bonus, the Nationals beat the Braves.

Tuesday night, we stayed with our friends Karen and Jeff. The four of us had a morning train to New York on Wednesday.

After arriving in New York, we walked a bit to grab a slice of pizza. As we were enjoying our slices, it started to rain, so we did the only thing to do when it rains like that, we headed to a bar.

Wednesday night, Jane and I took the subway to Astoria to have dinner with Hannah and John, along with his parents, Anne-Marie and Tom, at Off the Hook. We had a lovely evening and heard that the countdown to the wedding was now at 81 days.

Thursday was spent at the US Open. This was our fourth time attending in the last five years. The weather was perfect, and we saw some great tennis.

The first match we saw was Madison Keys vs. Anna Bondar. Jane and I left after two sets to see Felix Auger-Aliassime play Karen Khachanov in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Another highlight was seeing Alexandra Eala. We saw plenty of other competitive matches during the twelve hours we spent at the Open.

It was especially cool seeing the doubles team of Ingrid Neel and Giuliana Olmos win their match. They are coached by the owner of the tennis club where I play in Rehoboth Beach. Another cool match was watching 22-year-old Michael Zheng win while his Columbia University tennis teammates rooted him on.

We also saw Gaël Monfils play in his last US Open, where he lost to Learner Tien. We sat in the first row on one of the outer courts for an exciting match between Cristina Bucsa and Himeno Sakatsume.

The train just left Philadelphia. We will meet Kyle at his house to pick up Riley, and when we arrive in Rehoboth Beach tonight, we already have friends waiting for us, as Ruth and Jorge arrived last night.

After playing tennis tomorrow morning, we will all go boating.