Near the conclusion of a family gathering yesterday Heather and I decided to have a good, old-fashioned foot race. She decided actually and I reluctantly agreed. After giving her a good five foot head start I proceeded to race her into the ground in front of my whole family. In front of my uncle, two cousins, and father anyway...far from my whole family. The word was that I ran like lighting, Forrest Gump, or a nerd. I'm not sure what the final decision was. We'll go with lightning for the sake of this blog. This post isn't about footraces, although I do recommend a good foot race anytime you have a worthy competitor close-by. I'll take anybody anytime of day and I urge you to challenge me to that.
Foot races are summery. After this footrace I realized that I hadn't really done much of anything summery this whole (summer). July is half-over and I haven't even had a snowball from my favorite Russian snowball stand which is only blocks away from my house. There are plenty of things that I like to do in the summertime, but I think this summer has felt a lot less like summer (even though it has been pretty hot out) because I haven't made it a point to do most of them. Some of my favorite summer things that have been missing this year:
1. Ziggy's No-Balls
2. Sunday Baseball/Softball
3. Ocean City, no matter how dirty
4. Pretty Boy Reservoir
5. Andy Nelson's for lunch
6. Rita's Italian Ice
7. Wild Wood NJ
Now that I think about it I haven't even been in a pool yet this summer, and summer is more on the way out than on the way in. Some of these things I need to take care of fast. Ocean City might not happen, and I'm OK with this. I suspect that I would gladly substitute
Switzerland for OC any summer of my life. Swimming in Pretty Boy Reservoir, no matter how illegal it becomes, is something anyone living in the Baltimore area should do at least once a summer. If you don't know where to go, I'll give you the spot. The other things on the list (minus Wild Wood) I can take care of pretty easily.
Possibly the biggest hole in my summer fun has been no visits to my good friends Ziggy and Ziggy's wife at No-Balls snowball stand in Parkville. It is called no balls because a sign that should read Sno-balls has been without lights in the first "s" for as long as I've been going there. Without going into a series description of what I get there (because everyone has different no-ball tastes) I will just tell you that they are hands down, without any competition the best snowballs that I get in Baltimore. You want a delux delight reeces peanut butter cup snowball? You got it. Ziggy's got you covered. Even if it makes the thirty people behind you really mad because Ziggy puts everything he's got into that four dollar snowball, and it always takes at least two minutes to make. You like the standards? They've got the standards, and they shave their ice so it always tastes better. Can't decide on one standard? Get three flavors rainbowed! Man, this place is awesome. Just talking about it makes me want one. How do you get there? You can't really google it because I don't know the technical name of the place (it might be Ziggy's, but it might not). It is pretty much on the corner of Old Harford Road and Putty Hill, just up the hill from the Charcoal Grille. More detailed directions are available upon request.
So here's my question for the readers. What are your absolute favorite summery things to do? Things that if you didn't do them, it just wouldn't feel like summer. Sound off.
*Disclaimer: The snowball pictured is not a Ziggy's No-Ball. It isn't even a snowball that I would ever purchase myself. But it is the best I could find. No marshmellow here.
