A week of baseball, then a week of hockey, now a week of both (plus a bonus trip to Disney!)

Day 12 – Saturday, March 21

My sister and I woke up early to catch our Uber out to SeaTac for our flight to Tampa. I’ve seen long TSA PreCheck lines here before, and with the government shutdown affecting security lines at other airports I was a little concerned but there was almost noone in line and we got through in just a few minutes. We ended up with the middle seat between us open the whole way, so it was a nice relaxing flight back to Florida. We landed just before 5:00pm and my wife picked us up (she had also been travelling for the past week and was on her way home too). We stopped for some groceries and then once we got back to the house I fired up the grill and cooked dinner (chicken and steak kabobs (with peppers and onions), grilled asparagus, and baked potatoes). Then we just settled in and relaxed for the evening, filling in my wife on our adventures over the past two weeks in Arizona and Seattle.

Day 13 – Sunday, March 22

Time for one last baseball game (game #9)! We all got to sleep in a little and then just before lunch we headed 11 miles north to Dunedin and TD Ballpark, spring training home of the defending AL Champions Toronto Blue Jays. Despite being close to home, I hadn’t been to this park since 2017 and it has had some extensive (and really nice!) rennovations, like a boardwalk around the entire outfield. It was another hot and sunny day but our seats actually had our heads in the shade (but not our legs). It was a great day for the home team, but not my Tampa Bay Rays … when we left in the 8th inning it was 13-1 in favor of the Jays and they tacked on another run after we left. Ouch.

On the way home from the game we stopped at Skyline Chili in Clearwater for a mid-day “snack” … 4-ways (IYKYK)! There was a Skyline stand at Goodyear Ballpark in Arizona (since in addition to the Cleveland Guardians it’s also the spring training home for the Cincinnati Reds) but my sister didn’t get a chance to eat there (and we lived in Cincy for a while, so we love Skyline).

Days 14 – 16 – Monday, March 23 – Wednesday, March 25

These were more working days, this time with my sister doing the same thing I had to do while in Seattle at her place except she worked her normal Pacific time schedule in Eastern time (which meant she could sleep in a bit but then had to work until about 8:00pm).

Day 17 – Thursday, March 26

Another work day, except this time my sister adjusted her schedule so we could leave the house right at 5:00pm when I was done with work and my wife got home. The three of us headed downtown to see the Lightning take on the Kraken for our final game of the trip (game #10 for me!). Just like I got to see the Bolts win in Seattle, my sister got to see a 4-3 overtime win for her Kraken in Tampa.

Day 18 – Friday, March 27

Both my sister and I had today off, our final vacation day of the trip, and we spent it over at Disney World. We drove over to Hollywood Studios in the morning, arriving slightly later than expected around 10:30am. The park was crowded but we managed to ride Slinky Dog Dash, Smuggler’s Run (single rider lane), and Tower of Terror before taking the monorail over to Epcot. We met up with an old high school friend of mine who was in town as a chaperone with his daughter’s marching band that was performing at Disney this week. He was free for the afternoon so after grabbing a late lunch at some of the Flower and Garden Festival booths, we rode Test Track and then Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. It took us almost 2 hours to get through the line as there was a shutdown while we were inside, but this was the first time my buddy had gotten to ride so it was worth it. By then he had to get back to chaperoning duties so my sister and I took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and managed to be on the PeopleMover as the fireworks show started. The show was still going on when we got off so we managed to get out of the park relatively easily despite the huge crowd and get on the first ferry back to the Ticket and Transportation Center. The drive back to Tampa on I-4 was uneventful and we made it back home just a few minutes before midnight. Long day!

Day 19 – Saturday, March 28

We slept in a little on Saturday morning but then headed down to the Saturday Morning Market in downtown St. Pete for breakfast and shopping (I had my traditional LEC (linguiça, egg, and cheese sandwich) from Crooked Johnson). It was a beautiful morning so we spent some time wandering around the various booths. We had to get home so my sister could pack and prepare for her flight back to Seattle and had a little more time to relax at home before heading for the airport. We grabbed a quick lunch at Rocco’s Tacos at International Plaza and then dropped her off.

So that’s the end of the trip … about 5,800 miles, 2 countries, 3 states, 7 baseball games, 3 hockey games over 19 days. Epic!