As we approach year three of this quest, let me recap. In 2014, we started this journey as we traveled to Cooperstown NY for the Hall of Fame inductions. We decided to see as many stadiums as we could while driving to and from New York. That took us to 5 parks: Philadelphia, New York Yankees, Boston, New York Mets, and Baltimore. We intentionally skipped Washington as we knew we would take the boys to DC eventually someday for a big Social Studies Field Trip. Year two took us to 5 more: Cincinnati, Detroit, Toronto, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. And if you go ahead and count Atlanta, we were at a final total of 11 Ballparks. We had covered most of the eastern United States with a couple exceptions down south in Florida.
To plan out your strategy of seeing all 30 MLB Stadiums, for us it was best to do it chunks, or to try to cover certain regions each year like we had done in years one and two. Sometimes it works out pretty well. In other places, it may not. So, in year 3 we decided to check off the two teams in Florida - the Marlins and the Rays. To only get two stadiums in seems a little like a waste of time and resources. So, in true Jensen fashion, we are going to make it bigger. We are going to go on a cruise between stadium stops!
Now the boys had never been on a cruise so this would be something that they would really look forward to. And to make it better, we invited our families to go along with us. My brother Joe and his family and Tammy's sister Lisa and her family would join us on a Carnival Cruise to the Caribbean. The boys were so excited to be going on a week long cruise with their cousins.
For us, it was a logistical challenge, but we are used to those by now. We would go to Miami to see the Marlins, and then we would rendezvous with the family at the cruise terminal for to board the ship. And then, on the way back home, we would stop in Tampa to see the Rays.
First stop - Miami. I was a little concerned about this one because I had heard Miami could be a little sketchy, but hey, we had survived Detroit so this couldn't be that bad. Surely we would be fine in Miami too. And we were. There was a lot of beautiful scenery in South Florida. Palm trees, nice beaches, and cool cars. We drove by a Lamborghini dealership because you don't see those everyday and we had to stop. The boys are 9 and 11 now and are just getting in to cool cars. And these rank near the top as being some of the coolest!
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| It was Lambo overload as we go to see a lot of really nice cars! |
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| Tate got to sit in this car with the engine running. |
After spending some time dreaming about driving these unbelievable sports cars, we made our way to Loan Depot Park, Home of the Miami Marlins. This was one of the newer stadiums in MLB and it had a really appealing quality in that it was enclosed, which means air conditioning. The picture below really doesn't do it justice. It was a pretty nice ball park with bright colors, fairly new amenities, and did I say air conditioning? The team was not really that good and they were hosting the Chicago White Sox. Not the ideal matchup, but we enjoyed the game.
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| Panoramic view from the Left Field Foul Pole. |
A couple highlights from the game - Todd Frazier was playing for the Sox at the time and was nice enough to come over and give the boys an autograph and to interact with them some. Good dude!
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| Trey always enjoys getting an autograph. Thanks Todd! |
Another highlight was to be able to see Ichiro Suzuki. He was playing for the Marlins that year and was approaching retirement so we were glad to be able to see him play in person. We got to see him hit a double down the right field line and the fans were very appreciative. You can see that in the attached video. Ichiro hitting a Double! All in all, the Miami ball park was pretty nice. It did not have the nostalgic flair that many of the older parks have, but it was a nice place to watch a game. And you could get a good seat as demand for their tickets is not that high unfortunately for them.
The next day we boarded the Carnival Magic to start our cruise. Rather than bore you with details about that, I will just post some pics of the highlights:
The family had a blast but it was time to get back down to business as we had one more stop to make before heading home.
Tampa - Tropicana Field does not get much acclaim as far as being described as a nice ballpark. It is somewhat dated as it opened up in 1990 and has some issues that need to be addressed, but we tried to be open-minded as we went in and we were pleasantly surprised at some of the features of the building. We make our way to the park to watch the Rays as they host the Texas Rangers.
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| Tate and Trey outside of Tropicana Field |
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| One cool feature was an aquarium tank with real live Sting Rays in the area beyond centerfield. |
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| A view of the scoreboard and you can tell the turf is quite worn and probably needs to be replaced. |
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| Trey getting an autograph from Cole Hamels before the game. |
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| Pretty good seats and yes, Trey has already got his Rays souvenir T on, but still supporting the Braves |
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| A great shot of the dome above Tropicana Field. Not a very endearing quality, but the building was air conditioned! |
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| To enhance the fan experience, they did let fans walk out on the field after the game which was kind of cool and the boys enjoyed that. |
So we were able to get two more stadiums down sandwiched between a family cruise. Lots of good times were had and some good memories were made. As far as the map goes, we had now covered the entire eastern side of the US except for one place - Washington Nationals Park. And we had a different plan for that which was going to be an All-Star Experience!
