Beautiful Day at the Ballpark

Ever since we met him at the Quad Cities Easter Egg Hunt, Adessa, you've continually asked about "the Fox" -- i.e., Rascal the Raccoon, the mascot for the Quad Cities RiverBandits. The RiverBandits are the local Class A minor league baseball team and play in a beautiful ballpark in downtown Davenport.

So you got really excited when I told you we were going to visit "the Fox's house" and go see a baseball game there. In fact, once I told you, all day long you asked "When are we going to the baseball game? I want to go the baseball game. I want to see the Fox and Elmo." (We saw Elmo at the Easter Egg Hunt, too, of course... and you were hoping the two of them were a matched set.)


It was a wonderful -- dare I say, picture-perfect -- day to be at the ballpark. Right away, you were scanning the stadium for any sign of Rascal.


"Have you seen Rascal?" you asked these fans. Unfortunately, they hadn't. We soon found out that Rascal doesn't typically make an appearance until the bottom of the first inning... so we had a ways to go since first pitch was almost an hour away.


That was little problem though because Modern Woodmen Park is very kid-friendly, with lots of things for little ones your age to enjoy, such as a bouncy house...


...and a mini-batting cage...


...swing, batter-batter-batter-batter-batter swing!


There was also a giant inflatable slide that must have appeared to be the size of the Sears Tower from your perspective. Still, when I asked you if you wanted to do the slide, your answer was an unequivocal, "Yes!"


Scaling the Mount Everest of kiddie slides.


The slide was big enough that you wanted to me to join you for moral support and we slid down together. The look on your face here as we sat, poised at the top to take the plunge, says it all.


While we were walking around, a very nice man who worked for the ballpark came up to you and asked, "Would you like to have a home run ball?" This awesome souvenir came in handy as we happily played catch out on the outfield berm for a couple innings.


Finally, after an hour-plus of searching, asking, and waiting for Rascal, we soon found ourselves face-to-face with him! You were speechless with joy!


Here you are getting a photo with not just Rascal, but Mrs. Iowa 2010... but your gaze never wavered from ol' Rascal. You couldn't get enough of the giant raccoon.

Oh, yeah, we heard that there some sort of baseball game took place, too. We hardly saw any game action but when we left in the fifth inning the hometown team was doing the Quad Cities proud as they were up big and pitching a shutout.

I have a feeling we'll be back for another baseball game in the not-too-distant future... especially because later in the year they'll be having post-game fireworks!

Daddy