Beachin' and Baseball and a Little Disney Magic

Alison and I took the red-eye to Florida last night. We left SLC at 10:45pm and landed in Orlando at 5:00am. As far as red-eye flights go this one wasn't too bad. We never really want to take the red-eye but circumstances often make it the best option. The more I take red-eye flights the less I find that I dislike them. On this flight, we got a solid 3 hours of sleep. When we arrived in Orlando we were pretty tired so we picked up our bags and we went and got our rental car. My grandparents had taken an earlier flight the day before so they were staying at an airport hotel. We had prearranged for them o call us when they were up and ready to go. Since we had a few hours we drove to a nearby Walmart, parked our car, and slept in our parked car. We got a couple more hours of sleep before my grandparents called. We picked them up and we were on our way down to St. Petersburg.

Our first stop was in Tampa. We wanted to eat breakfast out at our favorite breakfast spot - Mom's place. It has been frequented by many Yankees players and was a favorite dining stop for George Steinbrenner. They make a great omelet. I had a ham and cheese omelet and Alison went with her favorite - a western omelet. After breakfast, we drove by Steinbrenner field to show my grandparents where the Yankees play Spring Training games. Then we headed to our hotel in St. Petersburg. It had been cloudy and rainy most of the drive, but right as we pulled into the hotel parking lot it was clear and sunny. Alison, my grandma Sue, and I decided to go to the beach.

We went to St. Pete's beach. Alison and I went to this beach the last time we were in St. Petersburg and it was actually the first time we had been to the beach together. It is a beautiful sandy beach. On this trip, there was more debris on the beach, likely because of the hurricane that came through last month. We didn't actually spend much time on the beach. We all waded out and floated in the ocean for a couple of hours. It was so relaxing. We just talked and played in the ocean. 

When we were done we headed back to the hotel and Alison and I took a quick nap. Then we headed to Tropicana Field for the baseball game. Tropicana Field has the reputation of being one of the worst baseball fields. We had pretty low expectations going in, but it turned out the stadium wasn't so bad. We walked in and stopped by the touch tank, where you can touch some rays and other sea creatures. Then we walked around and found some food to eat. I pointed out a mac and cheese stand and Alison was sold. I found a Cuban burger and decided to give that a try. We also stopped and bought a souvenir baseball commemorating our attendance. This is the 9th MLB stadium Alison and I have visited together. We have almost been to 1/3 of the stadiums together. 

The game was great.  It was the penultimate game of the season. Neither the Rays nor the Orioles were in the postseason race, but it was still fun to be at a major league game and it was even more fun to have my grandparents there with us. My grandma was so excited. Alison kept score. Chris Archer was pitching for the Rays and he pitched very well. He wasn't very efficient, only lasting 5 innings, but he struck out 6 and kept the Orioles from scoring. The Orioles kept the Rays from scoring as well until Brad Miller smacked a three-run home run. A couple batters later Buck pulled his starter. Buck seems to have a knack for leaving pitchers in just a little bit too long. The Rays bullpen nearly melted down allowing the Orioles to score two in the eighth and one in the ninth but ultimately the Rays held on to win the game 4-3. 

One pretty cool experience was watching Darrin O'Day pitch for the Orioles. O'Day has been a pretty dominant bullpen pitcher for a couple of years, but what made it cool was that we found out we were sitting right by his family. We visited with his aunt and she told us all about his family. It was a fun connection to make. 

After the game, we swung by a grocery store to pick up some food that my grandparents could eat for breakfast. Alison and I weren't planning on eating breakfast because we wanted to sleep in as late as possible to make up for the sleep we lost by taking the red-eye. 

On Sunday morning we woke up and headed and drove down the gulf coast. The coast and ocean are amazing. We listened to a few of the conference talks that we missed while we drove. Elder Holland's talk was amazing. We drove over Tampa Bay. It is this really cool bridge called the Sunshine Skyway bridge. It is one of the biggest and longest bridges I have ever driven over. We drove down the coast to the Chart House in Longboat Key. We love the Chart House. It is a seafood restaurant with a perfect view. This one was right on a key off the coast of Florida. We usually eat there for dinner, but today we had lunch. It was delicious. the clam chowder was particularly good. As much as we enjoyed the food and the ambiance we enjoyed being with my grandparents even more. They both told us stories about their missions and special experiences that they have had during their lives. These two days have really afforded us some good opportunities to talk and become closer with my grandparents. 

After we finished our lunch we drove to Orlando. It is a pretty long drive, and we were able to catch some of the conferences on our way. After a couple of hours in the car, we arrived at the Disney Caribbean Beach Resort. It is a fairly nice hotel, but we chose it because there is some construction and as result, they gave us some gift cards for staying here. It was basically an immediate rebate on the room. They gave us a room right next to my grandparents. My grandparents settled in while Alison and I returned the rental car. Since we are staying on the property we won't need a car. 

We got back to the hotel and headed over to Disney Springs. Alison follows someone on Instagram who posts pictures of what they have decided is the "best" Disney food. The other day they posted a picture of cake pop and Alison decided she must have one. This was compounded by the fact that we did no sugar in September and it had been 30 days since Alison had eaten a dessert. We found said cake pop and it was truly a delicious treat. We got some dinner at a great burger restaurant and then my grandparents headed back to our hotel. 

Alison and I caught an Uber and visited some friends. There is a girl, Darci, who works at Walt Disney World, that lived in my ward while I was in high school. She was really good friends with my sister. I reached out to her a while back when we were planning this trip to let her know Alison and I would love to catch up with her and her husband. Then it turned out that her brother, Josh, and his family were visiting the same week as us. Josh was one of my best friends during high school. He has been living out of Utah so it has been a really long time since we caught up. It was great to see them. We caught and heard what they have been up to for the last few years and Darci told us all about her experiences in the park. We planned to meet up and share a magical moment in the park on Tuesday. Then Alison and I caught an Uber back to our hotel. 

These two days was a whirlwind. My grandpa commented that these two days felt like two weeks and I reminded him that we have six days left together. It has been such a fun start to our vacation and we are excited for the fun adventures that are coming up.