America's Pastime

Barry Zito (75) and Tim Hudson (15), the good old days

After a late night, I woke up half past eight to join our cohort for breakfast. We soon met Mr. Chan-Law at 10 o'clock to leave for Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Again, the drive was beautiful, at one point it even started to rain! After two and a half hours we arrived and grabbed a bite to eat at Alex and Ika's Restaurant.

Unfortunately, the service was not too good at Alex and Ika's. We waited for our drinks to arrive for about 45 minutes and received our appetizers about an hour after that. Though we spent more time in the restaurant than we wanted to, we could take away that this time was a good bonding experience. Both groups had been especially busy over the past week and this was a good time to catch up with each other. 

Ball used in Dallas Braden's perfect game,  5/9/2010

Afterwards we headed to the Hall of Fame. Being a total baseball nut I was really looking forward to the visit. In addition, as an Oakland Athletics fan, a team that currently does not receive much attention in the majors, well-deserved attention was given to the team at the museum, who has a very rich and successful history. The Hall was organized with the gallery on the bottom floor and two floors of historic artifacts and exhibits above, my favorite being the individual team lockers display in the Today's Game section. Visiting the Hall one day was something that I have always really wanted to do to witness the history of “America’s Pastime.” We left in the early evening after a long, but eventful afternoon.

Around 7:30 we arrived in Ithaca and dined at the Saigon Kitchen. After a long lunch, the quick but tasty dinner was refreshing. Dining outside the community center with our group was a refreshing experience, it reminded me of our days in Philadelphia. We arrived back to Cornell around 9 to do laundry for the week and spent the rest of the night relaxing in the Donlon lounge, like always.