Out-of-Town Company - A Night at the Ballpark

We had a special weekend these past few days due to the visit of Marilyn's brother George and his wife Ann, plus their kids and grand kids, George, Claire, Lizzie, and Andrew, visiting from Socorro, New Mexico.....

(Unfortunately, Claire didn't make it to the ball game)

 and Bonny, Michael, Mara, and Sophie, visiting from Durham, North Carolina....

As you can see, the high point of the visit was a trip to see the Pirates play the Mets at PNC Park.  The game itself was a good one, an eleven inning 3-2 Pirates victory, won when Josh Harrison delivered a walk off double in the bottom of the eleventh.

The trip to PNC Park was especially exciting for five year old Andrew, who came prepared to show that he is the Pirates biggest fan in the State of New Mexico:

He also offered full support to Mark Melancon when he came in to pitch the ninth inning:

Attending the game with these folks gave me a valuable lesson, and that is to be fully appreciative of being able to attend a major league baseball game whenever the mood strikes me, by simply getting in my car, driving for twenty minutes or so, and buying a ticket. For our niece, Bonny, this was the first time in her life that she had ever seen a major league game.  For George and his kids, well, maybe that can get on an airplane and fly to Denver from New Mexico to see a game, but it's not an easy proposition.  It is easy for me to take for granted the ease of going to a Pirates game, but I was given a nice dose of perspective the weekend, thanks to our nephew, niece, and their families.

By the way, they loved PNC Park and their visit to the City of Pittsburgh.  They're ready to do some commercials for the Visitors Bureau!

We left the ball yard on Friday by experiencing the Left Field Rotuda, where I took these pretty cool photos of us departing the Park.