Hollywood to South Beach to the Marlins in Miami

May 14, 2015

Day 37

We packed up camp and headed off to Hollywood, Florida. We arrived early and drove over toward the beach, parked and walked the boardwalk where there are all sorts of restaurants and parks. Another beautiful Florida beach!

Hollywood Beach, Florida

 At 5 we went to the fabulous home of Anita and Gerard, brought our stuff in and headed off to dinner with them at a restaurant on the water. They had a Thursday night special of $14.95 Maine lobster so Jodi could not resist. Delicious. Jack was nervous about being allergic, so ordered prime rib instead. We got to know our ATC hosts.We sure love the travel club and really enjoyed our evening with Anita and Gerard!

May 15, 2015

Day 38

We had a great breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs and English muffins and then headed like Lebron and”took our talents to South Beach.” Haha. We parked and walked and walked and walked all over checking out the art deco hotels, the tourists, the beach and all the beautiful people. We found Espanada street and had a wonderful lunch at a small French restaurant. 

South Beach

Espanada street - had lunch at a great little French restaurant

 After a bit more wandering we drove to the Wynwood Walls which is a neighborhood where they have allowed artists to put huge murals on the buildings. One section was private but they allowed people to wander through. Really an interesting way to revitalize a section of town. There were art galleries, restaurants and new businesses. 

Wynwood neighborhoos

Wynwood walls

 We drove briefly through Little Havana but elected not to get out and then drove over to the stadium to find parking.  We actually found on street parking right next to the stadium and hung out there for an hour. We walked around the stadium and took photos of the Orange Bowl Miami letter art that was supposed to be symbolic of the letters falling off the stadium when they imploded Orange Bowl Stadium to build the Marlins Ballpark. Quite creative. 

 The stadium had $1.00 hotdogs so we had to try one! Not too bad for a hotdog. We really enjoyed the Bobblehead Museum, so cool to see the hundreds of Bobbleheads so we had to photograph all the Mariner's players represented. 

Finally saw the San Diego Chicken

Mariner's Moose with Raymond and Paws

Barry Williams/Greg Brady of the Brady Bunch

 Attendance was quite low, especially for a Friday firework night with $1.00 hot dogs. They don't even sell the upper level seats so those are completely empty. Kind of sad. I guess a brand new state of the art facility does not necessarily bring the fans. This stadium has a retractable roof that is closed about 70 of 80 games, so they can keep the temperature a comfortable 77 degrees. I couldn't believe after cooking and sweating all day that I was actually chilled. They had 2 large aquariums behind home plate but we couldn't get close enough to photograph them.  Barry Williams (Greg Brady of the Brady Bunch for 70's night) threw out the first pitch.

Fun when a homerun by the Marlins is hit

  It was fun to see 2 of our Unbound players in one park. Giancarlo Stanton hit 2 homeruns

Miami skyline from inside the ballpark

 off of Atlanta pitcher Julio Teheran but that  wasn't enough to keep the Braves from defeating the Marlins 5-3. After the game we had difficulty getting onto the freeway again due to traffic control. We had our GPS set for no tolls, but got caught unexpectedly and flashed to go 30 feet to get on the I-95 which is a non-toll toad. Looks like we will be paying another fine. Road Trip home was slow as they had 2 lanes closed for road construction. We made it home about midnight and fell into bed.