Happy Birthday America! (and me!)

For the 4th of July this year Emily and I took it pretty easy. We went and saw the new Transformer movie in the morning (maybe 'saw' is the wrong verb for Emily, since she slept through most of it. Maybe a better word would be 'accompanied'). When we came home we prepared our picnic lunch for the look-out loop at Flattop and Emily made me birthday cupcakes. Then we had our picnic and took a little walk on Powerline Trail. And let me tell you, it H-O-T hot! Probably the hottest I've ever been in Alaska.
When we got home from Flattop I talked to my Mom, Dad, and Scott who were up on The Juan. My Dad said that in 6 years he wants to have a three-generations of Hoff's compete in the doughnut eating contest they have at Roache Harbor. I said I'd be game.
After that I opened up presents and had some birthday cupcake. Ruth got me a fancy Sounders FC scarf, while Jeane sent me $29 dollars and scored me two tickets for a Mariners/Yankees game in September, when we'll hopefully be down. Emily got me some sleep shorts, some biking shorts, and the third season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And Banjo got me a new wallet, since he was sorry he chewed up my old one.
After that we walked over to the catch the Anchorage Bucs (black) battle the Anchorage Glacier Pilots (grey). They play in the Alaska Baseball League, which is summer league that college kids play. These teams had players from Gonzaga, Oregon, California-Riverside, and LSU. It's cool because the stadium is about a 15 minute walk from our house. They were playing a double-header on the 4th, with fireworks following the last game at midnight (they only played 7 inning game due to the festiviteis). We just stayed for the first game, which the Pilots won 9-7.

Emily and Banjo enjoying a 4th of July picnic on Flattop.
It was a really sunny day, but still a little hazy. Anchorage is down in the background.

Me and the 'Dood out for a birthday hike. Not only was it my 29th birthday, but Banjo turned 21 (months that is)! How cool that we have the same birthday?Now I can support the Sounders FC in style. Hopefully Cam can hook me up with a ticket when I'm down in September.We were pretty close to the action in the bleacher. So close that a lady got hit by an errant ball right in the shin during warm-ups. Ouch!
What's more American than enjoying a game of baseball on July 4th? How about seeing a kid jack a Grand Slam in the first inning, which a player on the Pilots did. They scored 5 runs in the top of the first before the poor Bucs pitcher could get an out (he ended up leaveing before he even recorded one out - rought start). But then the Bucs came back in the bottom of the First and put up 6 runs themselves. The Pilots took the lead again with a 2-run homer in the top of the Second, and held it for the rest of game.
Things got a little testy in the later innings when the manager of the Bucs started jawing with the Pilot's pitcher. The benches cleared, and the manager was ejected, although there wasn't a fight. I forgot to take a picture until both sides started going back into the dugout.