Spring Break 2019

For the past several years, we've done a road trip on Spring Break, but this year we kept trying to think of where to go with the days we had available, and there wasn't anywhere *new* to drive that would work.  About 2 weeks before Spring Break, we decided to join the masses at the airports and spend the money to fly somewhere instead.  I researched several options, and in the end we opted for sunshine!  We've had a dismal, grey, rainy, and cold winter, so I felt like heading (even further) south for some sun would be ideal!  It worked out that Spring Training baseball was in full swing, so we decided to head to the Tampa Bay area.  We had never been to that area of Florida before, so even though we didn't get to a new state on this trip, we still got to see new places and do new things!  We knew that Leighton would be so thrilled to see the Yankees and that Riley would love being at the beach.  It was perfect for everyone!

We flew out on Tuesday night after Roy got off work.  The airport was so quiet and empty - it was great!  Our fight was delayed an hour though due to foggy weather holding up our pilot from landing on his previous flight.  The meant that our already late night would get a little later!

The next morning we took Roy to the Yuengling Brewery in Tampa.  This is one of his favorite beers but it isn't sold in Texas ... yet ... hopefully it will make it here since it's spreading more places.

Then we drove to the Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center.  I had read that it would be hit or miss if the manatees were there, but we gave it a shot!  Luckily there was one that had recently been rehabilitated and released and was still hanging around.  We also saw one more that was still in the area.  So, there weren't huge numbers, but 2 was better than none!  And we saw some sharks and crabs, too.

For lunch, we went downtown Tampa to a pizza place I had read imports their water from New York for the crust.  Of course we had to try it!  It was definitely worth the trip!!!

We had originally planned to go to Ybor City but were running too short on time and didn't want to pay to park again, so we played around on the riverwalk area for a while instead.

And then it was off to George Steinbrenner Field for our first game.  The gates open 3 hours prior to game time to watch batting practice, so we were there early and got a great parking spot.  We watched some of the practice on the side field before heading into the stadium.  The kids had a blast running around after home runs and asking the fielders to toss them balls.  Leighton had an Aaron Judge ball tossed to him by another player, and then when Aaron Judge was in the outfield, he threw a ball right to Leighton!  Aaron Judge also hit a home run that a lady next to us caught, and she gave the ball to Riley.  It was very exciting and the perfect start to our Spring Training experience.  There were some full service bars at the field, and they happily gave the kids cups of ice water, which was very welcomed in the hot sun.  I wish all fields let you bring in your own water.  $4 a bottle is just too expensive!

We had great seats down the 1st base line.

And in the 7th inning, a man tapped me on the shoulder and gave us his tickets for the section right behind the Yankees dugout because he was leaving with his group of 4.  We moved down there for the rest of the game.  All the big name players were mostly done for the night, but it was still fun to be up close to those who were left.

The game went late, and our hotel was about a 20 minute drive from the field, so by the time everyone showered, we were in bed late!  We didn't wake up and get going as early as we had kind of hoped, so we missed the first part of batting practice of our next game, but it worked out just fine!  We were heading to the Blue Jays stadium in Dunedin and they were playing the Yankees.  This field is way smaller that the Yankees stadium from the day before, but it also gives a lot more access for autographs.  The kids got several and had lots of fun waiting for them!  It was an afternoon game, but I had researched where to sit for shade, so we stayed cooler - and this stadium allowed you to being in a water bottle per person.

After the game, we went to the nearby Honeymoon State Park to go to the beach for a couple hours before a later dinner.  We played in the sand, collected shells, and watched a wedding!

Just across the causeway was a restaurant I had read a lot about.  It was super busy, but we waited anyway.  The food was just ok, but the atmosphere and drinks were great!

We had a no baseball day on Friday.  We spent the morning at the Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks.  After looking around for a while, we had lunch at one of the many Greek restaurants.

We then went to Sand Key Park in Clearwater.  I had read it was great for finding shells and easy to find parking.  And it was less of a 'scene' than Clearwater Beach.

From there, we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  We got to see Winter and Hope from the Dolphin tale movies!

We were excited to find Culver's for dinner!



Saturday, we checked out of our hotel and made it to the Phillie's Spectrum Stadium in time for the gates to open.  The Phillies were half way through their batting practice, and then we saw all of the Astros'.  Leighton had one of the Phillies players he likes toss him a ball and a little boy gave his to Riley.  And then Leighton scrambled after a Springer home run ball with a bunch of other people and got it!!

I had again researched shady seats, and we were right by 1st base behind the Astros dugout.

The Astros had a really long inning that made the game run super long, so we had to leave after the 8th inning to make it to the airport.  Nobody likes to leave a game early, but oh well!

The kids really liked the shuttle trains at the Tampa airport!

We had a really great time.  It was fun to see a new part of Florida, and we loved seeing the three different stadiums and different teams playing.  A couple stops at the beach was perfect, too!