Pacific Northwest!

Well it has been quite some time since I last posted here, and I apologize for the lack of information. We have had many hotels that have had no internet, or extremely poor internet, and I have been extremely lazy in my efforts. So this is my attempt to "get caught up".

I last left you with our Chattanooga experience, and since then, much has happened. We flew from Chattanooga, Tennessee on Saturday July 26, 2008 to Charlotte, North Carolina and then off to Seattle, Washington. We were scheduled to be up in Everett, about 20 minutes north of Seattle. Seattle, and that area of the country is extremely nice, and I really did enjoy the Pacific Northwest. We got the see the Boeing Headquarters, the Pacific Ocean, some of the wildlife that is in that area, eagles, whales, etc. and it was a great few days up in that area.

Our game at the Everett AquaSox, the Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, was a good time and the organization there is awesome. I was very busy when we were up there because I was completing my final project for my internship which was due by July 30, 2008 and I did not get it in the mail until the 28th!!! But it made it to BGSU on time, I did recieve an A for my project and an A for my internship which gave me a 4.0 for the semester, I recieved 15 credit hours, and made the Dean's List! Believe it or not, there was actually an intern at the AquaSox who was alos a Sport Management major at BGSU. Although I had never met or had class with him, it was kind of funny to see a some-what familiar face!!

We were only in the Seattle area for 2 days, before we had to fly Bend, Oregon to work for the Bend Elks, who are a collegiate summer league team. They actually recruit college baseball players who need some development and they play all summer long to improve their skills. It is a an awesome league, but I will get to that shortly. Our flight to Bend was the worst flight in the history of aviation!!!!!

We had a 7 a.m. flight out of Seattle, Washington on July 29, 2008 which was scheduled to go to Portland, Oregon, and then to North Bend, Oregon, scheduled to land around 1 p.m. We arrived in North Bend, Oregon and I made the comment, and I quote, "Hey, we flew over the Pacific Ocean on our way into the airport," my boss, Ted then said, "That's not possible, Bend is in the middle of the state," then I stated "Wow, that is a big f-ing lake," not thinking that we flew into to wrong airport. That is right, North Bend is a luxury resort community located right on the Pacific Ocean, and Bend, Oregon, which is in the middle of the state; they are 5 hours apart! We realized this after we had sent the boss to the hotel to check-in (yes, ironicly there was a shuttle to a Red Line Hotel, and we were scheduled to stay at a Red Line hotel in Bend). It was a major, major problem, but the way it was resolved was INCREDIBLE.

We were flying Horizon Airlines, part of Alaskan Airlines. Let me just stated that Horizon Airlines was pulling out of the North Bend Airport within a few weeks. Jennifer West, a rep for the Horizon, literally got us FREE, yes, FREE flights for 5 of us back to Portland, back to Seattle, and the Bend, Oregon, because she said this happens atleast 5 times a week!!! Absolutely incredible because she could have charged up up to $1,500 per ticket to get to Bend, Oregon, who's airport is the Redmond Airport. It was a major screw up to say the least, but we made it into Bend/Redmond after midnight and we did not miss anything!

So after the cluster, we did our game on July 30, 2008 in Bend, Oregon of the Collegiate Summer League. It was a new experience because they have never had the Chicken in to do a game. We had a blast, but obviously we were all spent due to the long day before!

I will continue to post until I get all caught up!! GOD BLESS!