Hoooo boy! It’s been hawt here in Greenville, SC this past month. A heat wave scorched the area with temps in the 100s for a solid week, and if you take this simmering sunshine, heap on a generous helping of humidity, and … sprinkle on some parmesan, well you have the makings of a delicious baked ziti.
Yet as sweltering and drippy hot as it’s been this summer so far, we’ve felt nothing but refreshing hospitality from the locals. Let’s take Independence Day, for example.
Some backstory: Max took a toddler art class downtown last week at the Kindermusik/South Carolina Children’s Theater. His teacher Sydney and I hit it off, and we discovered that we both work out at CrossFit Reaction.
Sydney’s boyfriend Jeremiah Dew, the on-field emcee for the Greenville Drive (the minor league baseball team affiliated with the Boston Red Sox) was kind enough to give me six tickets to a home game at Fluor Field, on July 4th. How awesome! Can’t get any more American than that, unless we binged on apple pie too. Cause we never do that.
So to start the holiday, we had the Cordileones over to our pool at McBee Station Apartments for some grilling, drinking and swimming before we headed to the game; Theresa and Zola also joined us from their apartment within the complex. It was already 100˚. We were the only families with kids on hand, as the demographic living there was mostly good-looking, sexy singles in their 20s. I like to call the pool scene the Greenville Club Med.
Max was his usual lothario self in the water — in fact, he had a fit when we pulled him away from his flirtation with these women in bikinis near the steps of the pool. He repeatedly screamed, “I want stairs! I want girls!” Ohmigod. So I would bring him back to the stairs. Then he’d proceed to swim, blow bubbles in the water, and tickle them. His efforts to impress paid off, as they giggled and fawned over him. He even hit on one girl so hard in front of her boyfriend that he said to Max, “Wow, dude. I’m right here!” And the girlfriend rebutted pointedly to her man, “You might have some competition. He’s also a better swimmer than you.”
Downtown Greenville threw a little street fair with food vendors, live music, and a kids’ amusement area. Max refused to go on any rides alone, so Mike carried him into this jumpy house. And carried him all around inside. And carried him out. When they emerged, Mike was drenched in sweat and he said he probably picked up the flu while inside, it was that dirty.
We grabbed concessions on our way to the ballpark, including funnel cake.
As we got closer to the park, we spotted a parking attendant waving a flag towards the lot. Or so we thought. We got closer, and saw it was a dummy with an arm on a motor! As we leaned in to take a photo, a little walkie-talkie in her pocket crackled and spoke: “This will be a nice picture. I’m smiling.”
We got to Fluor Field, where Ben Lipitz (Pumbaa) was waiting for us. To say it was a beautifully cute park would be an understatement.
Evidently, Jeremiah had my name put up on the Jumbotron at some point during the game — but I wasn’t paying any attention, and missed it.
We sat along the third base line, in foul ball territory. Nick took this photo below, and let me tell you we were all sweating… a lot.
The stadium shares the dimensions of their parent club’s Fenway Park, and boasts its own “Green Monster”, with a manual scoreboard and “Pesky’s Pole” in right field.
Nick took this one of the manual scoreboard…
Max saw the mascot “Reedy Rip’it” up on the concourse and stood waving at him frantically from about 5 feet away. When I implored him to get closer so I could snap a shot, Max looked terrified, and refused. Hero had to pick him up to get him close enough!
The game started at 6pm, and lights went on right around 8:45pm.
After the game (the Drive lost), we were allowed to stake out a place on the field so we could get a clear view of the city’s fireworks display.
Hero and Mike boogied a bit, to get in the proper Independence Day mood.
Amy snaps a photo of sweaty Max.
Hero kept cartwheeling around on the grass, and Max would also do it — in his mind. He’d close his eyes, take a breath, and jerk his body slightly. Then smile, as if he were done.
Well, the fireworks began and it immediately was clear that Max was not a fan. He was so upset, as if he were being gutted in a war zone. We thought he’d react better than he did the Epcot Center fireworks in Orlando, but no dice. Thanks Amy and Nick, for capturing these priceless moments for us!
Towards the end, he stopped crying but still refused to turn around to look at the night sky. Max now sees this photo and remarks, “Max is sad.”
Overall, what a (hot and sweaty) blast we had this holiday. Thank you to Jeremiah and Sydney for such a memorable July 4th in Greenville!
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Sending the 3 some love from an actual war zone!
DC! Miss you so! Hi to Leah and the Holy Land!
NEVER HEARD OF THEM, BUT GO GREENVILL DRIVE!!!!!! AND GO LION KING!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS BLOG
You are such a riot, Angelique! <3 to you!
Hello 3 for the Road Crew! I saw The Lion King last week and was just so blown away. I saw Michael play Pumba and you were hysterical! Thank you for entertaining Greenville for the time ya’ll were here!
Stacy, we are so glad you enjoyed the show. Greenville entertained us as well, and made us feel so incredibly welcomed. We will miss it!
Lion King is a tremendous show and I can’t wait to see it again,. This is a great little blog and I look forward to keeping up with your travels.
We are glad you are along for the ride PW 🙂 Please do drop us a line often!
it looks like the hollicks have fun wherever they go. a few tears sometimes means good times too =)
Steve, yes, the presence of tears means that is was a memorable time for sure! We had a great time and will miss Greenville’s charm.
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