[Note: For sports haters, scroll down for baby-related content]

Before last weekend, I had only ever seen a team I root for play in an opponent’s stadium once, and even that sort of didn’t count.

Shortly after Major League Baseball began interleague play, my family went to see the Atlanta Braves (my former team) at Baltimore’s Camden Yards.  I discount that one both because I have swapped allegiances (let’s go Nats!) and because back then I didn’t mind watching the Orioles too.

On Friday, my brothers and I saw the Washington Capitals play the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh.  My older brother lives there, so it doubled as a chance to visit.  The Caps played disgracefully, but we still had a great time.  It was hard to argue with our view, which was much easier to acquire down there than at the Verizon Center:

The real highlight of the trip though was getting a high-five from my niece.  The first night we were there she totally left me hanging, which from a 15-month-old is pretty demoralizing.  Fortunately I found her weakness — peek-a-boo.

We played a modified version in which she would bring me her blanket and lie down on the ground, then I would put the blanket on her, declare my inability to find her and finally pull it off to everyone’s delight.  Of course then she decided to start lying down farther and farther away each time, to the point where I was throwing the blanket as far as I could just to reach her.  She found that hilarious.

She was also pretty entertained by looking out the window at the rain.  Notice she is sitting on what looks like a toddler-size ottoman.  In fact, that’s exactly what it is.  Here’s her Uncle Pat testing out the full chair-ottoman combo:

Some would say he’s too big for that piece of furniture, but I would argue that as the baby of my generation, it’s just right.