Run to the Sun - Day 5

Another day, another breakfast at McDonalds. I could think of whole lot worse things than starting your day on McGriddles...right?

Today's adventure took us to St. Petersburg and Tropicana Field - home of the Tampa Bay Rays. The game was the last exhibition for the team, and they were playing the "Future Rays" - or a bunch of guys from the minors. We got there in plenty of time since Sam wanted to get a good seat, but when we did get there, he found some young kids and hung with them - in the handicapped section in the concourse. Even so he was able to snag as many as 6, SIX, baseballs from batting practice. Not too shabby.

The game itself was a bore, but it was nice to see the starters from the Rays play a few meaningful innings. The dome itself wasn't as bad as I thought - not as sterile. Looking around I know the team did as much as they could to bring character to a facility built quick on the cheap, and really not meant for baseball. The dome itself not only slopes down towards the outfield, but has no less then two levels of catwalks (??) which practically interfere with fly balls. I've been to domes before, and still have no clue why this stadium has so many of these walks. Another weird thing was that only 5,000 showed up - if that - and due to the small crowd, you could practically hear a pin drop between pitches (save for the loudmouth fans that want to hear themselves echo).

After the game we headed to downtown Tampa, to a spot called Ybor City, to meet up with Chris Berger, who is the younger brother of my high school bud Brian. He lives in the Tampa area and works in Sarasota. We both arrived a bit late since traffic was nuts. Sam and I got stuck on the bridge crossing over the bay...lovely. Chris was even later. Ybor City is a historic cigar-making district gone nightlife spot with bars everywhere...dotted by tattoo parlors. It's basically a duplicate of the French Quarter in New Orleans...even down to the architecture. We had a nice dinner at a local brewpub, and headed back.

We arrived back at Jim and Laurie's to actually see them before their bedtime. I took a nice walk with Jim around his neighborhood to catch up on some issues. After I returned Sam was itching to play basketball, so we found an old ball outside a daycare nearby, and shot around. Then a bit of tennis afterward, and played until the lights shut down on us. We came back, showered...and off to pillow world.