Birthdays get trickier as you get older. Or maybe its just me. I didn't want to have a huge birthday party this year, so I decided that the perfect birthday would be dinner with a few close friends at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, right here in little Old Town Fairfax called the Coyote Grill & Cantina. My mom laughed at me when I started telling her who was there, because she didn't consider a group of 16 "small" ... but it was fantastic.
They had us all set up on the patio outside, and everything was perfect. Well, before everyone even arrived, the thunder and lightening seemed to be getting closer, and Charley (our waiter) kept going to check on the clouds. When they were definitely ominous, he strongly suggested that we move. Reluctantly, we did.
We moved around the corner, still outside, but now underneath the cover of the roof. Sure enough, about 5 minutes after we moved, the rain came. It POURED. It was a typical Virginia thunderstorm, and it was actually really cool to be outside watching it, but under cover (although when the wind started blowing I think a few people got a little shower). 
Apparently the theme of anything to do with my birthday this year involved rain ... the Nationals game (which at one time I thought was what I wanted to do with everyone for my birthday - boy am I glad I reconsidered that!), the trip to Cooperstown (although it was beautiful while we were there, it poured almost the entire time we were driving), and now on my birthday dinner?After we finished dinner, Jenny went to get the most amazing cake in the world out of the freezer ... a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's. Seriously, it was incredible. I think almost everyone had seconds (some thirds) and it was divine. And, you'd think with one little candle it wouldn't be a problem right? I think it was whoever teased me that I wouldn't blow it out that jinxed me ... because I don't know where I blew, but I really almost didn't make it! But, I did. I guess that wish has to come true now, right?! :)
And yes, those are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top of the cake. Thanks to all my friends who came to celebrate with me that night. It was the perfect low-key birthday that I wanted this year. 
And the prize for the coolest birthday present goes out to Jimmy ... a baseball trophy. Not one that he'd swiped from a little league tournament, but one that he had inscribed on the plaque, "Shanna Lillywhite * 30 Ballparks Before 30 * MLB 1987-2008." 
I should have known there was a reason he asked me if I remembered when my first baseball game was! 
(And by the way, if you're going to get technical, it is actually 36 ballparks - 6 of which are old ones that don't exist anymore, starting back in 1987. Of the current 30, I saw my first one in Baltimore the summer that I moved to DC.)
Birthdays are the best when you have good friends to share them with. Sorry to those of you who got wet, who had to drive through a torrential thunderstorm after a long day of work or after a late class - I really have the best friends EVER. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great day!
The sign said "Private Property - No Trespassing" but I don't really think it meant "No Pictures!" I don't think this baseball was meant to be walked (or sat) on either, but did that stop us? Apparently not.
From there, we continued down the road until we actually entered the "Village of Cooperstown" - Population 2,032. I love that the welcome sign says "Home of Baseball" on it. Notice the trees behind us - it was absolutely gorgeous there with Fall definitely on its way! 
Seriously, these pumpkins were HUGE! Most of them were very deformed, and certainly nothing that you would carve a Jack-o-Lantern from, but WOW, talk about massive. We were there right when the judges were going around putting harnesses on each pumpkin, so that the crane could lift it up and weigh it. Really.
So how much do you think these pumpkins weighed? The largest one we saw on the scale was 420.5 pounds. However, I found some other pictures from the festival online and it looks like the ones we saw weren't even close to the heaviest ... 
Oh, but that's not it! The winner, weighing in at 1,248 pounds ... 
I guess that's what you have to do in a small town like Cooperstown. It certainly was a sight to behold though! Not one that I need to go back to, but definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The one thing that we did miss happened on Sunday morning after we left ... apparently they hollow out the giant pumpkins and have canoe races inside of them around the lake!! One guy at our B&B told us that last year someone got stuck - upside down in the water - inside of his. So this year, they had paramedics on hand. Wow!
We did take a look around Doubleday Field, where they have games most of the time, however, since it was a rainy day, no games were scheduled while we were there (sad)! The seats inside are all wooden, and its definitely got a lot of character.
Up next ... The Hall of Fame! This little statue of "The Sandlot Kid" helped put us in the mood:
The guy at the ticket counter obviously didn't see it, because he asked what we were doing there. Um, hello, we are here to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame! Really? 4 girls came all the way here just to see the Hall of Fame? Of course! Why else would anyone go to Cooperstown?! Here we are, waiting in line to get inside ... 
We had our tickets, our hands were stamped, and we were each equipped with a map. Baseball Hall of Fame ... here we come!
The first thing we did was sit in the Grandstand Theater, which had the makings of a baseball stadium all the way around it. The dark green stadium seats were just like the ones at Camden Yards in Baltimore, there were (fake, painted on murals) crowds in the stands, announcers calling out the plays, etc. My favorite part was when the soundtrack played welcomes to a number of ballparks, which reminded me of the trips I'd taken to each of them. Then it changed to a Baseball Tonight backdrop, a smattering of baseball's greatest moments were called out over the loudspeaker, and giant baseball cards of players appeared overhead. 
We watched and listened in awe to the little presentation, wondering what was in store for us in the next few hours as we explored the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I usually don't have the greatest attention span in museums, but I had a feeling this one might be a little different ... and I was right. 
And with that, we were off ... off to start exploring through baseball's history, culture, diversity, controversies, and to see some of the greatest men to ever play the game. Who does it start with? None other than Babe Ruth, of course. I couldn't help but think of the Sandlot when I saw this sign ... "The Sultan of Swat."
Did you know that Babe Ruth was a bowler? True fact. They had his bowling bag and ball in the Hall of Fame. What is his bag inscripted with? "The Babe" of course! One of my other favorites was a bat that he'd used that he later signed, along with his own written synopsis of his baseball career. Pretty cool. And you could actually read it, unlike many players' writing today!
Back to the locker room ... here's a fun collection of things from Braves history that is displayed in the Museum (this was the part that had all 30 teams - one of my favorite parts of the day).
So the Braves won their division 14 years in a row. Amazing, right? But what do they have to show for that? One World Series. Yup, just one. But one that I will always remember! 
And here are the rest of the World Series rings ... they have pins above for the two teams playing, and then the team that won boasts its big ring below. Its kind of hard to see, but it was pretty depressing to see so many Braves pins and only one ring! But hey, at least they have one!
One of the greatest things about the Hall of Fame was remembering all of the history. The Boston Braves (known as the Boston Red Stockings - not to be confused with the Red Sox, different ballclub), the Milwaukee Braves, and now the Atlanta Braves. Hopefully they can get back on the bandwagon soon!
This might be my personal favorite ...
This, I'm not really sure what it even means. I had no idea that cows were Yankees fans?! I am very confused (btw, this was in the Hall of Fame). Cows in pinstripes ... that's a new one!
So for as much as I don't like the Yankees, I will give them credit for providing some entertainment while we were there (and just as a disclaimer ... for everything against the Yankees, there was equally as much against the Red Sox. After all, Cooperstown is in New York)!
We walked back to our B&B and tried to come up with a good game plan for the night. We weren't too thrilled about the idea of hitting up the few bars "in town" so we finally decided that we would drive back to a little place we spotted on our way in earlier ... more to come on that!
Apparently people in Cooperstown don't get out much - because they were shocked that we drive EIGHT MILES that night! What else were we going to do?! We got up on Sunday morning and dressed for church, and that really threw them for a loop when we told them we were going to church all the way in Oneanta (about a half hour away).
I wonder what the locals in Scranton think about its new-found popularity? It was pouring rain outside (again), so we didn't walk around or even drive around to find anything else Office-related. Here's the painted cement as we left though ... 
