On Friday, we spent most of the day in Dunedin, Florida. Jeff and Ryan slept over, and we got up and swam in the morning. It was a clear day, but rather chilly. After swimming we had scrambled eggs and real bacon (not turkey) and then got ready to leave.
It took us less than 2 hours to get there (I wish we could say that about the trip home). The girls (Lisa, Grandma, and Christine) dropped us off at Jeff and Ryan’s hotel and they went off to shop. They had intended to go to the beach, but it was just too cold.
We got to the ballpark early, and saw the New York Yankees taking batting practice. The game was a “premium” game (it cost more), but unfortunately the Yankees had a split squad. Half the team was in Dunedin to play the Blue Jays, and the other half was at another ballpark to play another team. We got the “B” team, so there were only a couple of recognizable names.
We walked around the ballpark and checked out the gift shop and the concession stand. Matthew ended up getting a very cute stuffed toy that is a big round blue jay. Andrew got a baseball that has the word Jays on it.
The starting pitcher for the Jays was Kyle Drabek. He is one of the highly touted prospects the Jays have, so it was nice to see him pitch. He did very well, and pitched for 4 innings. I don’t know if it was because the Yankees had their B team there, but the Jays had a great game. They won 10-3 and hit a couple of home runs and 17 hits. The Yankees only had a few hits, a couple of errors, a couple of wild pitches, and hit a batter. Not a good day for them.
The boys wanted to eat from the moment they got to the park, but I told them they had to wait until after the 3rd inning. We then went and got nachos, frozen lemonade, pizza, pop, and more.
Near the end of the game, Matthew asked me how much longer the game would be. I told him 2 outs, and he misheard me, and blurted out “2 hours?!?!”. Several of the spectators around us thought that was funny. I explained that 2 outs would only take a couple of minutes and he was good with that.
After the game, we got a couple of signatures. Andrew also got his baseball signed by Brian Jeroloman, one of the catchers.
After the game we walked back to the hotel and met the girls. Jeff and Ryan checked in and we drove home. Unfortunately, Friday at around 4:30 means heavy traffic through and around Tampa. It took us 3 hours to get home.
Even with the long drive, it was worth it to go to our first Spring Training game.
I think that Saturday will be a little slower. We need to get our rest for another trip to both SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, and at least one trip to Aquatica.
Oh, and here are some more plates that we’ve seen over the last few days:
- Quebec
- South Carolina
- Nova Scotia
- New Brunswick
- Colorado
- West Virginia
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- We also saw another one that said Birthplace of Golf on it. It was an American license plate (not Scotland), but we couldn’t tell which state it was from.
UPDATE: Alisa found out that it was South Carolina, so as you can see from the list above, we already had it.