Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 3:30 a.m. in "The City.

Well, there's a first, or nearly so, as I woke up in my chair at 2:45 a.m. and found myself watching an old rerun of the TV series, Mannix, in the media room, after a three hour nap. Mary is able to fall asleep like that without a problem, but I never do.

At any rate, tonight/today, there was no T-storm to provide an alarm and the temperature has finally started to reach more spring-like levels. We have a current temperature of 54° under partly cloudy skies and those same partly cloudy skies will continue today and Thursday as we see high temperatures of 73° and 79° respectively. We are planning a trip to GR on Thursday for an exhibit at the Public Museum there that Mary has been wanting to see, but which we have been postponing due to the chilly weather.

Baseball news yesterday was once again a 50/50 proposition. The 22 - 17, now 3rd in the NL Central Cubs, were looking lackluster until they added two runs in the bottom of the 9th to take one from the 25 - 16 Braves, 3 - 2. The Cubs now trail the Brewers and the Pirates by one game in the NL Central.

My beloved 28 - 14 Red Sox, now in 2nd place in the AL East, one scant game behind the 1st place Yankees, who had their game suspended against the Washington Nationals due to that big storm that slammed into parts of the Northeastt last night, bringing heavy rain, T-storms, flash-flooding, hail and isolated tornadoes with it. The 28 - 18 in the AL East Yankees were in D.C. to play the 24 - 18 in the NL East to play the 3rd place Nationals. They will resume their game tonight.

But I digress. The Sox could not handle the 21 - 21 Oakland As last night as Eduardo Rodriguez was once again inconsistent on the mound and so they lost the game, 3 - 5. I know the season may seem young, but the season has already seen 25% of the games played. Time to get moving Sox. The Sox and the As play again tonight @ 7:10 p.m.

The 19 - 22, 3rd in the AL Central Tigers, pulled out a win over the 1st place, 20 - 21 Indians last night, 9 - 8, in another battle in that weak AL Central division. The Tigers and the Indians play this afternoon in Detroit @ 1:10 p.m.

The 20 - 17 in the MWL East Caps dropped the 15 - 21 Ft. Wayne, IN TinCaps last night, 4 - 1. to move up to 3rd place in their shared division. Those two teams play again today @ 11:05 a.m.

We spent much of our day yesterday either getting ready for or actually enjoying our trip up and down the Grand River aboard the Grand Lady riverboat under the auspices of the Ottawa, County Friends of the Parks. The weather turned out perfect and the cruise was filled with people of a certain age, like ourselves. We met many nice folks and also learned a lot about the flora and fauna of the Grand River Watershed, including the current state of the parks and their future plans for acquisitions and building.

Naturalists from the park system were aboard to speak about the over 100 species of fish that can be found in the river and the various species of birds that call the river area home, including bald eagles, one of whom we were lucky to see on our journey. He was one-half of a pair that has called the river area home for at least nine years. We took far too many pictures, but I'll endeavor to add a few here to inadequately show the environs of the Grand River.

The Grand Lady launched from the docks at the Grand River Park for our trip.

She is a stern-wheeler type of craft, modeled after the type that used to ply the Grand River in days of yore.

Although not easy to discern, the river is up several feet this spring.

Same here.

As I said, the weather was perfect, with mostly cloud-free skies.

This is Curt, one of the Ottawas, County Parks staff naturalists, describing the map turtle, one of the species thst inhabits the Grand River.

We sat near the bow as we traversed the river.

Just a few puffy clouds that made the trip perfect.

We watched as the happy trippers left the landing area.

In addition, we boarded Ginger for the afternoon so that her big sister, STWD, could have the house to herself without babysitting Ginger. I think they were both happier.

On the way home, we stopped at the Embassy Bar and Grill for some of their onion straws that are similar to the ones served by the Hackney's restaurants in the Chicago area. Then it was time to pick up Ginger after refueling the Kia Soul™ near home. The sun will rise today @ 6:20 a.m. and set tonight @ 9:02 p.m. Ciao.