Everglades

With our baseball adventure completed for the time-being, we decided to work on a previous (and unfinished) parks tour -National Parks.  Jim and Ann have now seen 25 National Parks, but most of those happened long before the kids came along.                    

                                    

                                     

Today's visit was to Everglades National Park, found in southern Florida. It covers 1,542,526 acres of both fresh and salt water ecosystems, and is host to countless species of animals, some of them quite endangered.

SO beautiful!!

We saw an amazing variety of birds

two kinds of turtles

and two kinds of lizards

as well as a startling array of insects

But we REALLY got lucky with this guy!!

Does anyone else find this funny?

With only a day to visit, and much of this cut short by weather, there was much of this vast park we were unable to see.  This beautiful photo display was based on only a couple of short hikes.

But from that, our assessment is that this is a must-see park.  

However, a warning:

BRING YOUR INSECT REPELLENT!!!!

...or better yet, a complete net bug-suit (repellent only partially works)

Nobody will tell you in advance about the SWARMS of mosquitoes.  

Think Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but much smaller!

If you are not armed, DO NOT get out of your car!

Well, this is pretty much the end of the 2014 adventure.

We have one more day to be Miami tourists, and then on our way home.

Carter's Mascot Report - 6/29

Billy, the Marlins' mascot, is honestly a stupid mascot. He's kinda energetic, but the name "Billy" doesn't work -not only because it is bland, but because there is a another more obvious and better fitting name for him: Marley. Besides that, he is still a pretty bland mascot. We couldn't find him anywhere before the game. He was out in the crowd a bit during the game, but he was mostly on the field in-between innings.   The chant that he says to encourage the players is "Let's Go Fish." Pretty stupid, right?  I give him a 3 out of 10 on a scale of mascot coolness.

Robert's Sport Report - 6/29

Today's game was the visiting Oakland Athletics playing the home town Miami Marlins. This game was the third time we saw our Athletics play in a different park during our baseball pilgrimage.

At first it looked like it was going to be rough day for the A's. In the bottom of the first inning the Marlins' lead-off guy hit a ball in the gap to the wall.  He then tried to go to third, and Alberto Callaspo's throw was off-line.  It bounced pass the third baseman and allowed the runner to go home, resulting in a double with an error and an unearned run. This was not the only error that was allowed during the game. With a runner on second base, the Marlins hit a hard line ground-ball right back to the pitcher. Milone, who was pitching today, got the ball.  Instead of running at the runner -who was caught off the bag- he threw it to second, giving the runner enough time to get safely to third.

Until the 6th inning things were looking quite bad for the A's, even though the score was only 1-0. The way they were playing suggested bad news. That is, until a 6 foot 8 batter came to the plate by the name of Nate Freiman. Freiman, who was in the game because Josh Reddick went out of the game with a strained knee yesterday, was in Sacramento playing AAA, and had to make an overnight flight to Miami to play in today's game. In his third at-bat he had runners on first and third when he hit a smashing home run that went way over the fence. This made the lead 4-1 as the A's scored 4 runs in the 6th. The bottom of the 6th a pinch hitter for the Marlins' starter hit a home-run, making the sore 4-2. The Marlins also managed to scrape a run in the 7th inning, making it 4-3.  This ended up as the final score of the game, giving the Oakland Athletics a three-game sweep over the Marlins.

In total, 21,917 people were at the game watching as the Marlins got four singles, a triple, a home run, and two walks. The A's had seven singles and one home run. The winning pitcher was Tommy Milone, and the losing pitcher was Heaney, Ryan.
Cook for the A's was given a save.

29 on the 29th!

Miami!  We finally made it!  Our last US ballpark...
And, to make it even better, we got to see this game against our beloved Oakland A's!

The first thing we noticed at Marlins Park, is the lack of signage.  We walked around the entire exterior of the stadium, looking for a photo-op for our buddy, Jack.  But there was none to be found.  Jack had to be content with this peek-a-boo inside.

The next thing we noticed is that the park is not nearly as ugly as it appears on TV.

And "the thing" (if it has a name, we couldn't find it)

is not nearly as large as it appears on TV.

Although we really like the open-concourse look of this stadium,  there is very little to see or do, besides watch baseball.

nice mural

Where this escalator goes nobody knows , since visitors are not allowed on this level without a ticket.  

Points have been deducted for segregation.

For kids, the choices are balloon animals or face-painting.

Concessions boasted a few specialty items, including a kosher, gluten free, and, of course, Cuban food.

Although most were not, some concessions were on the CORRECT side of the concourse.
(Note how you can watch the game while waiting for your food!)

 The Marlins did a fair job with between-inning entertainment.

Conine's Corner instructed us in how to catch a fly ball.

Marlin's Pictionary - a great idea!

Name That Tune - an oldie but a goodie

This is their version of the character race.  At other parks we have seen sausages, presidents, former players, and condiments.  But Beloves found these sea creatures to be the cutest.

Marlins cheerleaders and Energy Team dancers
- hmm  we weren't sure there was a need for that in baseball.

foul balls into the stands - "mine, mine, mine" yell the seagulls

The worst part of this stadium?

The national anthem.  They just could NOT hit a note.  (Did anyone hear howling?)

The BEST part?  

You mean BESIDES the fact that the A's swept the Marlins 3 games?

Carter got 6 A's players to sign his ball -and 4 of them to sign the back of his jersey.

Score!
...and a constant 73 degrees!

Oh, yeah, and the Beloves made it onto the big board! 

(Rare for visitors wearing the opposing team's colors!)

,,,sorry, no pic of that!

All in all, it was a very fun way to end our US baseball park tour.

What's next?

We are happy to take donations to help us get to Canada.