Let's Get Away From It All
Our trip to Florida is here. This last week has been hectic as we have prepared to go and I have been wrapping up a bunch of school stuff I had to finish before the trip. Last night I finished up my cost accounting class and then Blake, Debbie, and Alison picked me up at the U and we headed to the airport. I was so excited. It will be nice to put everything else aside for a little while and to just relax with Alison.
We are taking a red-eye flight. There are plenty of things to hate about red-eye, but we get an extra day of vacation without paying for an extra night in a hotel. This one wasn't too bad. It was a crowded flight, but Alison and I boarded early and we were mostly asleep before take-off. We didn't sleep great, but we were able to sleep for most of the flight.
We got to Orlando at 6am. The Yankees have spring training in Tampa so we picked up our rental car and drove out that way. It is about an hour's drive from Orlando to Tampa. We were unbelievably tired. We got to the hotel and early check-in was not available. There was a really nice lady at the front desk who took down our number and promised she would call us as soon as she could get a room ready. She also recommended we grab some breakfast at Mom's Place. Mom's Place is a great little local place right near George M. Steinbrenner Field. I liked it right when we walked in. On the wall above the register, they had a bunch of pictures of various Yankee players, and all the pictures were signed. It was pretty cool. All the staff was also wearing Yankee shirts. They served a great breakfast. As we were paying our bill, Alison asked about the pictures and the cashier told us Yankee players often frequent Mom's Place. She also told us George Steinbrenner used to eat there a lot when he was alive. We will certainly eat there a few more times during our trip.
After breakfast, we hadn't heard anything about our room so we headed over to the Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Area. We thought it might be similar to the sea lion viewing area in San Francisco. It was completely different than we thought. It ended up being about a 30-minute drive outside of Tampa. As we got close we noticed a few large chimney stacks with steam billowing out. We realized this viewing area is a conservation area built around a giant power plant. It ended up being really cool.
We walked around the manatee viewing area. We didn't see any manatees but we did see a lot of other cool wildlife such as giant fish, crabs, and a stingray.
We woke up and got all ready for the rest of the day. We were hungry and decided we wanted to go to one of our favorite places to eat on vacation: the Hard Rock Cafe. We have loved going there ever since we had a great experience on our honeymoon. There is a Hard Rock Cafe in a casino that is built on Indian land near Tampa. This location was really cool. It had a fun ambiance, and as always it did not disappoint.
After going to the Hard Rock we drove around Tampa. We went out to Bayshore Boulevard, which is a nice walkway along the ocean. We drove up and down it enjoying the beautiful views. Tampa has been a little different than we were expecting. For one thing, we are further away from the beach than we thought. We expected we would be at the beach today, but the nice beaches are at least 45+ minutes away. Getting out to the beach will be one of our priorities tomorrow.
Then it was finally time to go to spring training. We parked in a field over by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium and walked over to Steinbrenner field. It was a beautiful night for baseball. It was so nice Alison kept telling me that she could live here. The stadium is really neat - it is the biggest spring training stadium and is built to be as similar as possible to Yankees stadium. We walked around outside the stadium. There are a bunch of monuments - a memorial to 9/11, a statue of George Steinbrenner, and recognition for each retired number.
Inside the stadium is like a really laid-back Yankees stadium. It has the trappings of Yankees stadium, but the size/feel of the Bee's stadium. We had really fun seats. We were in the Walgreen's deck area (Since the dimensions are the same this would be the short right-field porch in the actual Yankees stadium). We had a little counter in front of our seats, which was really helped Alison while she was keeping score. Keeping score during spring training is a lot more challenging because both teams cycle through a ton of players.
Spring training is a lot different than the regular season. It was a lot of fun, but much more laid back. I was really excited to see Masahiro Tanaka's pitch. When we first got to our seat Tanaka was playing catch in right field. We got to sit and watch him go through his warm-up routine. Tonight's game was the first time he pitched this season. He tossed two perfect innings and looked great.
The Yankees played the Braves and one really strange thing happened. After the Braves' first pitcher threw their first pitch the Braves' manager came out of the dugout and was really upset. After a brief argument, the umpire tossed him out of the game. It was a really strange occurrence for a spring training game.
We were also excited to see the new Yankee shortstop Didi Gregorius. He will never be able to replace Derek Jeter, but he is young and has the potential to be with the Yankees for a long time. He did not disappoint tonight. He made a few good defensive plays and had one big hit. It was a long hit over the head of the left and center fielders. As they both ran back to grab the ball Didi upped his speed and stretched the hit into a triple. He has wheels.
For the first few innings of the game, the projected Yankee regulars were in. This team has a really good defensive alignment in the infield and tonight we saw some great plays. It is going to be fun to watch this team make those types of plays all season long.
They use a lot of the traditions from Yankees Stadium here in Florida. One of our favorites is the hat game. On the big screen, they hid a ball under one of three Yankee hats and then scramble the hats to see who can guess which one is covering the ball. It is a fun little tradition that reminds me of Yankees games. They also play YMCA near the middle of the game. The ground crew sweeps the infield while the song is playing and they stop a few times to dance. This ground crew was not nearly as enthusiastic as the ground crew in New York. The 7th inning stretch is marked by Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America" just like in New York. This is followed by "Take me out to the ball game," but here it was weird - they even sang it twice. Alison refused to sing the second time in protest because it was weird - they don't do that in Yankees stadium. The Yankees won tonight, which resulted in them playing Frank Sinatra's, "New York, New York" as we were walking out of the stadium. This song captures the feelings I have when I think of Yankees stadium. It encapsulates the greatness, the energy, and the tradition of the Yankees. I heard that song and thought #BaseballBegins.
After going to the Hard Rock we drove around Tampa. We went out to Bayshore Boulevard, which is a nice walkway along the ocean. We drove up and down it enjoying the beautiful views. Tampa has been a little different than we were expecting. For one thing, we are further away from the beach than we thought. We expected we would be at the beach today, but the nice beaches are at least 45+ minutes away. Getting out to the beach will be one of our priorities tomorrow.
Then it was finally time to go to spring training. We parked in a field over by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium and walked over to Steinbrenner field. It was a beautiful night for baseball. It was so nice Alison kept telling me that she could live here. The stadium is really neat - it is the biggest spring training stadium and is built to be as similar as possible to Yankees stadium. We walked around outside the stadium. There are a bunch of monuments - a memorial to 9/11, a statue of George Steinbrenner, and recognition for each retired number.
Inside the stadium is like a really laid-back Yankees stadium. It has the trappings of Yankees stadium, but the size/feel of the Bee's stadium. We had really fun seats. We were in the Walgreen's deck area (Since the dimensions are the same this would be the short right-field porch in the actual Yankees stadium). We had a little counter in front of our seats, which was really helped Alison while she was keeping score. Keeping score during spring training is a lot more challenging because both teams cycle through a ton of players.
Spring training is a lot different than the regular season. It was a lot of fun, but much more laid back. I was really excited to see Masahiro Tanaka's pitch. When we first got to our seat Tanaka was playing catch in right field. We got to sit and watch him go through his warm-up routine. Tonight's game was the first time he pitched this season. He tossed two perfect innings and looked great.
The Yankees played the Braves and one really strange thing happened. After the Braves' first pitcher threw their first pitch the Braves' manager came out of the dugout and was really upset. After a brief argument, the umpire tossed him out of the game. It was a really strange occurrence for a spring training game.
We were also excited to see the new Yankee shortstop Didi Gregorius. He will never be able to replace Derek Jeter, but he is young and has the potential to be with the Yankees for a long time. He did not disappoint tonight. He made a few good defensive plays and had one big hit. It was a long hit over the head of the left and center fielders. As they both ran back to grab the ball Didi upped his speed and stretched the hit into a triple. He has wheels.
For the first few innings of the game, the projected Yankee regulars were in. This team has a really good defensive alignment in the infield and tonight we saw some great plays. It is going to be fun to watch this team make those types of plays all season long.
They use a lot of the traditions from Yankees Stadium here in Florida. One of our favorites is the hat game. On the big screen, they hid a ball under one of three Yankee hats and then scramble the hats to see who can guess which one is covering the ball. It is a fun little tradition that reminds me of Yankees games. They also play YMCA near the middle of the game. The ground crew sweeps the infield while the song is playing and they stop a few times to dance. This ground crew was not nearly as enthusiastic as the ground crew in New York. The 7th inning stretch is marked by Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America" just like in New York. This is followed by "Take me out to the ball game," but here it was weird - they even sang it twice. Alison refused to sing the second time in protest because it was weird - they don't do that in Yankees stadium. The Yankees won tonight, which resulted in them playing Frank Sinatra's, "New York, New York" as we were walking out of the stadium. This song captures the feelings I have when I think of Yankees stadium. It encapsulates the greatness, the energy, and the tradition of the Yankees. I heard that song and thought #BaseballBegins.
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