parting thoughts of Tampa/St. Pete

As my mind usually goes, I got off track of my World Series adventure in Tampa/St. Petersburg. Here are a few more thoughts and photos...



Beth's daughter KC, David and Beth before game one.




Wow - game one.





Beth and I had loads of fun, however we were a little disorganized. Ex: Once parked, it took us a half hour to get ready to walk into the ballpark. Here's Beth, looking for something: hairbrush, jacket, a snack, or bottle of water? We were really messed up. I mean our things were messed up...



David in his office at the Trop...ready to leave at the end of a very long day.


I call this the "Elvis Diner," since they claim Elvis ate here in the 50's. It was fun to eat here Friday morning.



My good friend Patti joined us on Thursday/Friday and we checked out Fort DeSoto...a beautiful park at the southern end of St. Petersburg. Here we are -- Patti's hiding!




Campaign signs were plentiful, and this was my favorite...a candidate with ALMOST the same name as my hubby.


Now guess where this is .. go ahead, guess. THE TAMPA AIRPORT! Bless the young woman at the Delta desk who said: "If you go upstairs to the Marriott, there's a pool right off their lobby. They don't mind if airline passengers use it." Since I had EIGHT HOURS to kill before my flight, this worked out just dandy. I bothered a gentleman across the pool to take my photo. It was odd to see people sunbathing alongside their luggage.

Words fitly spoken

Game one in St. Petersburg: the National Anthem


Moms and dads....you know how we try to teach our kids good sportsmanship? "Do your best, have fun, and don't worry if you win or lose." Yeah, right. Sometimes even WE could hardly stand the losses.

As I watched our Tampa Bay Rays go down against the Phillies last night in game 5 of the World Series, I couldn't help but remember the losses of my kids years ago. The tears. The sulking.

But these were grown men, and refreshingly, they were acting like it. Disappointed, of course, but fully aware of the amazing season behind them and grateful for it. Worst to first. Beating Chicago, then Boston, then on to the World Series.

Perhaps first baseman Carlos Pena summed it up best: "We're a family, because that's what we are, so even though I'm extremely disappointed, at the same time, we don't want to waste too much time focusing on that. Instead, we just say, 'Thank you God for letting us get to this point' -- where we actually were able to experience defeat in the World Series, where so many have not even done that."

I'm not really a sports fan. But I am a fan of those who look at life with a proper perspective, conduct themselves with respect and walk humbly. Like the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.

hop to the Trop

I love that name: THE TROP! I felt very hip just saying, "Beth, we're almost to the Trop!" And, "Beth! There's the Trop!"



...getting closer ...



...and closer!




There's the Trop, behind us. I can't tell you why we squatted for this photo. It was kind of hard to get up....





It's Tropicana Field, home of the Amazin' Tampa Bay Rays. Until I arrived, I thought an indoor ballpark in Florida was odd and how could I ever like such a thing? But it was very cool. The hallways reminded me of old-style brick ballparks, with unusual things on the walls. (I read on the Rays website that the 8-story entrance to the Trop was modeled after Ebbets Field in Chicago, using 1913 blueprints!) Then there's the ray tank, where you can actually pet the "cownose rays."



Rays fans pet the rays....


The roof of the Trop is a truly magnificent sight: it "features the world's second-largest cable-supported domed roof (Georgia Dome is the largest). It's made of six acres of translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass and it virtually supports itself with 180 miles of cables connected by struts." (thank you, tampabay.rays.mlb.com) Don't you just love superlatives? I do and I was humbled to watch two World Series games under the big Trop Top!





Of course the highlight was being with David, meeting his peeps in the media area, and then spotting him in the front row of the press box. I was quite bold in trying to photograph him "on the job" and one security man warned me that "security across the park" were watching with binoculars. Am I that suspicious-looking?



See the blue wall behind the guys at the desks? That's the press box and David's in the front row, about second from the far right. (click on pic) Yes, I promise you, that's my son!



OK, here's a better photo ... David's in the foreground there in the press box.



David and me before the start of game one. David's busiest time is the hours before the game ... during the World Series, about 500-600 media people were in the stadium!

the time of my life

Never would I have dreamed of going to two World Series games. But that's what I did and it just goes to show: I can and maybe should get out of my comfy little coccoon and do wild and impetuous things.

I flew to Tampa last Wednesday and thanks to my wild and impetuous friend Beth, we were at THE TROP (Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays) a few hours before the start of game one. David met us and though he was working and quite the busy media man, he checked in with us throughout the evening.

More on this excellent adventure, but for now I'm watching game four. Go RAYS!

the amazin' Rays!

Yep, they're amazing, the young Tampa Bay Rays, winning the American League pennant in game seven on Sunday night! Now it's on to the World Series. The WORLD SERIES! (though there are never any WORLD teams in the Series...go figure.) Life for my son David in the Rays' media department is insane. Well, mom gets to check in on him because I'm headed to Tampa tomorrow for the first 2 games!

Thanks and hugs to my sweet husband, who encouraged me to go on this trip ... I'll be hanging out with my friend Beth.

So I'm on a blog hiatus! Go RAYS!!