Before heading to Clemson, we met the group at Fluor Field in Greenville, home of the Greenville Drive. The team was initially named the Joes by the people of Greenville in honor of native son Shoeless Joe Jackson, but the parent club, the Boston Red Sox, nixed the name and rejected the will of the people citing Jackson's permanent ban from baseball. Instead, the powers that be named the team the Drive, an obvious reference to BMW, which has an enormous plant in Greenville. Sitting on the grass down the third base line, we were able to enjoy the entire game, and Ava entertained herself for most of the game by eating her puffs.
As with all minor league stadia, one of the highlights of the experience is trying the local food. My meal from the Textile Grille - a hot dog with a side of mac cheese for an extra $1.50, and a beer for just a couple bucks - did not disappoint. This wasn't just any old hot dog - it was sliced in half and placed in a buttered and toasted hoagie roll. And this definitely wasn't your normal mac and cheese - instead, it was fried mac and cheese! Biting into it you could see that it was essentially highlighter orange Kraft mac and cheese that was battered and deep fried. So bad for you, yet so good.
After witnessing the Drive get pummelled by the Greensboro Grasshoppers, we walked a few blocks to downtown Greenville, which has been heavily redeveloped with lots of new shops and restaurants, and we walked over the Liberty Bridge at Falls Park. It may not quite be Niagara Falls, but the falls are a great sight - a nice surprise in the middle of an urban setting. Although I'm normally quite fearful of walking over bridges - you may recall that in London in 1998, I made it about 20 yards over one of the bridges over the Thames before running back to the safety of the shoreline - I think my gephyrophobia may be gradually decreasing over time, and didn't think twice about walking on the curvy Liberty Bridge.
Walking back to the car from the falls, Ava finally gave in to her tiredness and fell asleep in her stroller, which pretty much never happens at home. We then made the hour or so drive to Steph and Greg's house in Clemson (techinically it's in Seneca). Before visiting High Point/Sophia, I probably would've said that Clemson/Seneca was in the sticks or the boondocks, but relatively speaking, Steph and Greg's neighborhood is much more suburban (they can get to the grocery store in 5 minutes). Continuing our goal of trying to have a relaxing trip, we spent a lot of time hanging out with Team K. Hania shared her toys with Ava, and Ava did a good job of not attacking little Amelia. For any would-be parents out there - make sure you get your kid some bubbles. Hania loves her bubbles almost as much as Jack loves his, and she even tried to blow bubbles herself - although she came closer to eating the bubble wand than actually blowing bubbles.
Since Greg teaches at Clemson, we took one afternoon to stroll around campus and meet up for lunch. Other than seeing students wearing Clemson's garish orange and purple colors, the Clemson campus is quite nice with lots of grass and trees - although, unlike California campuses, no one seems to take advantage of the grassy areas by laying out or having an outdoor class. One of the highlights of our little tour was seeing Memorial Stadium (aka Death Valley). The stadium even houses Howard's Rock - a rock that was stolen from Death Valley, CA and given to then-head coach Frank Howard (not to be confused with the former Dodgers star of the same name). The rock is kept under glass naturally to protect it from students from the University of South Carolina (the other USC).
While in visiting South Carolina, Steph and Greg introduced us to a couple local bbq places where we had some great ribs (from Sardi's) and brisket (from Big Dave's). This was in addition to the excellent hushpuppies and bbq that we had from Carter Brothers in North Carolina (John is a hushpuppy connoiseur and also introduced us to sweet tea, which Abby became addicted to). I'm not sure how we survived eating such heavy food, and we still had a couple days to go.Our stay in South Carolina was pretty short - just two nights - but Team K visits California quite frequently, so I'm sure we'll see them again soon. And who knows, maybe they'll come back to California. If they do, we'll have to ask them to bring some bbq with them.
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