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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:37 PM  
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wizzo
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Thumbs up There's No 'F' in Adele (Don't Stop Believing) Day 11

Day Eleven 23rd September 2012

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My retinas had enjoyed a few days rest since the last time Lynn had her searchlight on reading her Kindle so this morning, normal service was resumed. The hour was 7am, my mood was now…….less than brilliant. I don’t hold a grudge long though and decided to see if I could find the Grand Prix on the telly. Imagine my surprise when I flicked over to “Speed” and saw the grid all lined up! What a result. We weren’t in a rush this morning as we were headed to Tampa to watch the baseball after lunch, so I settled down to watch it. I have to say that Will Buxton’s grid walk isn’t in the same league as Martin Brundle’s!

Lynn was soon up and faffing about, I watched the GP up to the point where Hamilton’s gearbox went ‘South on him’ and then got up and had a wash.



The plan for today was to have a leisurely morning, a spot of breakfast and then off to the baseball game before heading to St Petes beach for a one night stay in the Grand Plaza Hotel. The next day would obviously be a beach day.

We set off at 10am and in an absolute master stroke on my part, I called in at Winn Dixie to get some buckets and spades cheap to avoid being right royally robbed tomorrow when we were near the ocean.

I4 wasn’t busy at all and we stopped at Exit #33 to get a couple of Starbucks for the journey. Two Latte’s for less than $7, half the price of the Florida Mall!

Now I know the phrase “We’ll put a pin in that” is awful but it really does describe what I do sometimes on these holidays (and indeed in life). You see, there are times when you’ve got your nearest and dearest around you and everything is just perfect and these moments are great at the time but easily forgotten. I literally make a mental note of these moments in a way that I can’t explain but they’ll last forever.

The memory is summed up like this…..Blue Sky, Open Road, Kids and Lynn laughing away, Starbucks Coffee, Baseball/Beach to come and last but not least, this memory is helped by a soundtrack. You see, our ‘mix cd’ was playing FloRida, ‘Whistle’ at the time and it was like that moment was just predestined to happen. It was pure magic, I’ve rarely been happier in my life and it was only a car journey!










I read this as "Scrotum loop" as we drove past, much to the joy of Lynn!

Okay, Okay that’s enough with the bloody sentiment! You’re going to think I’m some sort of ‘Metrosexual new man’. I’m not…..I’m a “Man’s man”. Oh hang on! I hate that expression; it’s got to be the worst description of a straight bloke ever hasn’t it? Surely it means the opposite! ?

I have to add at this point that even after this long road trip, we still hadn’t heard an Adele song on the radio! Contrast that with our April holiday and it was in this day that the concept of there being “No ‘F’ in Adele” was born!

It was a brilliant journey down, full of toilet humour, bodily functions and children’s laughter. We arrived at Tropicana Field (The Trop) at 12pm and because it was a Sunday and we had four in the car we saved $20 on parking and parked for free instead. It was Family Fun Day too which meant cheap seats and give-aways.





Once inside, the kids received free ‘Bobble Heads’ and had their photo taken with a tall bloke.



It was a big day for me, as some of you know I’m a big baseball fan and it’s been more than a decade since I last attended a Major League game in the flesh. I wanted to make it special for the kids too so we went to the Rays shop inside. The girls got fluffy mascots, pink Rays caps, I got a Rays hoodie and even Lynn got into the spirit and got a ladies Rays shirt. We spent so much that they gave us a free framed photo of the Trop complete with a piece of a game used ball, piece of a base, a coin used in the toss up from a game and a handful of real dirt! I was chuffed to bits and it now adorns the wall in our En-Suite.

Now I’ve got to warn you there are a lot of photos of the stadium and game coming up. I know it’ll bore the life out of some of you but I wanted them all in for us in the future if nothing else.

We went up a couple of levels and found the ray pool but decided against joining the queue to stroke the rays as it must have been 200 yards long!

We walked half way around the concourse to get to ‘home plate’ and were shown to our seats. Within seconds someone appeared to take the most shocking photo of us ever. To say we look surprised is an understatement!




The view from our seats

Our seats were perfect, just to one side of home plate and pretty close to the front. This also means we were behind the screen so we didn’t have to worry about anyone eating a foul ball!

It’s something to bear in mind if you go to a game (especially with little kids). If you’re down the left or right field lines you must watch every pitch. It’s doesn’t happen often but foul balls do end up in here and you need to be able to duck!

Our (my) next priority was food and beer so I made a couple of trips to the concessions around the concourse. Lynn and I had Cuban sandwiches and fries. Maddy had her usual pizza and Lauren had a burger and fries.



My god I’d missed this, the atmosphere, the food, the ‘ice cold beer’, popcorn sellers etc etc. If you’ve never been to a game, plan it for your next trip, Major or Minor league, you won’t regret it I promise. Even if you have no interest in sport like Lynn. In fact she said she’d happily go back as she really enjoyed the whole experience.



The game was one for the baseball purist really. A real pitching duel, not too many runs scored and some great defence. It didn’t take long though for BJ Upton to fire the Rays in front with a homerun.




Pretty relaxed at first base









Continued...
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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:38 PM  
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At one point the now customary race between foam clad blokes happened. At the Trop it's bottle of soda! Pepsi Max won but there was some cheating going on!





At one point (being the only Pittsburgh Pirates fans in the stadium) we tweeted a photo to @pirates showing our support even down in Florida at a different game.



I won’t explain the Zoltan signs, it’s a Pirates thing but you will note that Maddy’s is more a ‘2’ than a ‘Z’



Even Umpires get thirsty!



One for the Dad’s





That moment a pitcher dreads... the manager appears and his day is over.



A lady is delighted to catch a foul ball



We are invited to spot a cow in the crowd









SAFE!




This is the Rays’ star player Evan Longoria. They pay him $6 million a year to scratch them!



Some girl does a decent job of singing “God Bless America” in the 7th inning stretch.



“Over here love! ”



One for the Dads



The kids loved DJ Kitty



Continued...
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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:38 PM  
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One for the Dads



Another run scores! Let’s go RAYS!







One for the Dads



One for the Ladies (You don’t have to thank me)



Someone was loving it, just like her Dad!



The Rays’ best ‘closer’ comes out to try and finish the game of, Fernando Rodney.



He wins it and this is his famous “Arrow in the sky” victory solute!







The Rays win 3-0 and we head for the exit. Lauren loved the whole experience but it was a bit long for Maddy. I made a pal in the seats in front of us who wanted to know more about cricket as it was “so complicated” but he’d like to watch it. I put him right and explained that a) Baseball is a far better game and b) The rules of cricket are nowhere near as complex as baseball. He was shocked at that.

The most amazing thing to come out of today was that Lynn said “I’d go again, it was good”. Lynn can’t stand sport, but as I explained to her in the months leading up to the game “This is Americas favourite pastime” it’s not just about sport.

Right that’s enough baseball, I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about it.

We got back to the car in double quick time, set the TomTom for St Pete’s beach and hit the streets of Tampa. Unfortunately, the cops of Tampa close some of the roads around the stadium to force traffic one way and that through the TomTom in to all sorts of trouble. Lynn was in charge of the camera and captured the dodgy neighbourhood we ended up in!



I put my foot down and used my internal navigational skills and soon got us back on track, leaving Lynn to worry about photographing the journey to the hotel.



Not all the photos were of Lynn’s body parts. This one was taken to remind us that at some point in the future REALLY we need to buy a waterfront property in Florida!





Before long we arrived at the Grand Plaza car park.



As is customary in hotels like this, I’d bought the cheaper ‘Bay View’ room, only to be offered a sea view for an extra $22 at check-in! Before I had chance to say “No thanks pet, we’re happy with the room we’ve booked”, Lynn was giving me that look that says “Stop being a tight @rse!”

So, through gritted teeth I told the receptionist that “I’d be delighted to upgrade to a sea view room”

The room was fine, nothing overly flash but better than a Travelodge, just what you want and it was a reasonable price. The $22 got us this.



We dumped our bags and decided to have a walk along the beach. “Pin in it” moment again here. This evening was just brilliant; our impromptu walk on the beach was just bliss. I didn’t take a camera, so only had my iPhone but it looked like this.







Continued... ...
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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:39 PM  
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We spent an hour on the beach before heading back to the hotel. The intention was to go straight into the beach bar for some food but the kids had been in the sea and then in the sand and Maddy’s shorts were full of sand. Chaffing was a problem, so we had to whip her shorts and pants off and she walked back in a towel!

After a quick stop in the room to get her changed we made our way down to the beach bar where we just about saw the sunset and got our free sunset shots. Just in the nick of time!





We got a lovely table on the beach and photos were taken.





I promise I was just messing about when Lynn took this next photo! I don’t normally sit like this! I have to be fair though and include the ones of me looking like a moron too! I’ve put plenty of photos in these reports that Lynn hates!



Food soon happened and was lovely. Lauren and I had burgers, Lynn had a Margarita flatbread and Maddy had Chicken strips and fruit.













Including a couple of beers it came to a very respectable $48

The kids messed about on the beach for a bit and by 8:30pm we were all starting to flag. We made our way back to the room, dropped the kids fold down bed and tucked them up.





What did I do before turning in……………………….watched some more baseball of course!



Tomorrow………………….Our beach day.
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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:51 PM  
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Wow fab day, the baseball pictures are great x
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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:54 PM  
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That looks like fun, do they play during December, or have I missed the season?
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Old 22 Nov 12, 10:56 PM  
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What a lovely family day
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Old 22 Nov 12, 11:10 PM  
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Originally Posted by Disney_Diva View Post
Wow fab day, the baseball pictures are great x
At least one person likes them! THANK YOU!

Originally Posted by Twiga6 View Post
That looks like fun, do they play during December, or have I missed the season?
Sorry, the season runs from April to October

You might find a winter league game going on somewhere though. They play in florida to keep or get fit for the next season.
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Old 22 Nov 12, 11:21 PM  
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Wow what a great day with some great put a pin in it moments! So true what you say some moments just stick with you! Great idea going to beach and seeing a baseball game, never have watched a game looks very complicated! I do like American Football and have been to a couple of games when out in America and probably a bit like a baseball game the atmosphere is amazing!
Some great pics, especially the ones on the beach!
Keep up the great reports loving them!
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Old 22 Nov 12, 11:53 PM  
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Excellent action shots here
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