Definitely ready for some football

With the Orioles having another not so stellar season, we have both been looking forward to football. And maybe I can't blame it all on the Orioles, it could be the record breaking summer we had and we want the cooler weather, or even the fact we are ready for some tailgates that include friendly games of cornhole and finally getting the chance to use our firepit. Well whatever it is, we are ready to watch the Washington Huskies on Saturdays and Baltimore Ravens on Sundays!

With all that being said, the first Ravens home game is not until the end of September. So while we were ready for them, they weren't coming down to Baltimore for a little while. Also, we were unable to get to training camp because it is an hour outside of the city, and typically Monday-Friday while we are at work. However... the Ravens brought one training camp session down to M&T Bank stadium on a Saturday, so we walked down and got to take in a day of football.

The Ravens opened the stadium to fans, so we could sit wherever we wanted. We were able to make it about 8 rows back to watch Baltimore QB Joe Flacco warm up on the sidelines. (And for those of you in Seattle, that is in fact Jim Zorn to the left of Flacco in the white shirt and black shorts. Brought on as Baltimore QB coach)

My personal favorite Raven, Todd Heap. A Pac-10 product out of Arizona State. Can't wait to hear the Heap chants this fall!

Offensive line drills. Tyler used this practice as a chance to get soem drills for his Lansdowne High team.

QB huddle. Troy Smith out of Ohio State and a Heisman Trophy winner, Joe Flacco who is probably the first franchise quaterback in team history, and Mark Bulger.

After individual drills, the team also ran some inter-squad drills.

Team huddle at the end of the three hour practice.

Number 74, Michael Oher. Many of you may remember his story that was brought out in the movie The Blindside

Joe Flacco again, still focused after practice ends. Ready to win a Super Bowl in Baltimore!

Self-taken photo. We are getting pretty good at these!

And then a nice couple took a picture for us. It was a great day, and now we are ready for the regular season!

Bahamas Cruise

At the last minute, we decided to book a cruise for our summer vacation. Conveniently enough, there are cruises that go out of Baltimore that go to fabulous places in the Carribean. So we booked a cruise that headed for the Bahamas at the end of July! We had an amazing week, and here are a few pictures of our adventure!

Ready to set sail! After dealing with a broken air conditioner and 100 degree temperatures in Baltimore, we were more than ready for vacation. So we grabbed a welcome cocktail and found our room that had a fabulous balcony view.

Our first stop was in Cape Canaveral, Florida. We decided to go for an airboat ride along the river.

And we did see gators! The dark spot that looks like a log is one of the gators that we saw.

After the boat ride, we got the chance to hold a gator who was rescued from a swamp. He is someone's pet now and this is as big as he is going to get.


Tyler being "eaten" by a gator.

The next stop was Nassau, Bahamas. This was our ship parked at the port in Nassau.

This is apparently a famous lighthouse in Nassau. We were both just so taken aback by how many different shades of blue the water was.

We took a catamaran tour of Nassau, and got to go snorkeling at a reef.

After the snorkeling trip, we went to Senor Frogs for some lunch.

Here we are sitting on the water with our "yards" of Bahama Mamas.

We cleaned up and then headed back out in Nassau. Much to our surprise, everything pretty much closes at about 6pm there, so we found a Hard Rock Cafe and had Bahamian Beer.

Our next stop the next day was in Freeport, Bahamas. We decided to head our seperate ways because Tyler wanted to go scuba diving, and I can not scuba dive.

Not only did he go scuba diving though, he went scuba diving with sharks!

And here is my idea of relaxation... sitting on a beach with a good book watching the ocean.

Our last night on the boat was a formal night for dinner.

And when we would come back from dinner every night, we always found towel animals. Here is one of our favorites from the last night. Two seals!

It was a fabulous week that we didn't want to end! A big thank you to Mama Rogers for dog sitting while we were away!