Monday Mar 2 – Jupiter Florida

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Today is our first Cardinal baseball pre-season game. The stadium is in what is known as Jupiter Florida but we actually stayed in West Palm Beach last night.

The hotel is a Red Roof Inn Plus. It is not particularly fancy, but it is quiet and we had a good night’s sleep. We got up about 8:00 and went next door about 9:00 to the Cracker Barrel Restaurant for breakfast. We eat in one of these restaurants about once a month, but this was pretty much the first time for the Sieberts. The food was good, and we all got plenty to eat. Then we had a little time in our rooms before we left for the stadium at 11:00.

The drive is only a short distance up the highway. Janet and Kathy were able to get out and sit across the street from the stadium while Jim and David took the car to the parking garage. After joining up again, Jim and Kathy went to collect the tickets for today’s game and for tomorrow’s also. There were 2 sets of 2-seats – one pair about 4 rows behind the Cardinal Dugout and the other pair were 5 rows behind the Cardinal’s Bullpen. Each gave us a really close view of the activities on the field. Janet was able to use a ramp with her walker to get up to the main level in the stadium, so she only needed to walk a dozen stairs to get to her seat. We also got to keep the walker with us, so it was available if she needed to go somewhere during the game. About halfway through the game, Kathy switched seats with David so she could spend the rest of the game chatting with Janet.

Good News! The Cardinals beat the Twins 6-1. We are not going to replicate the sports-report, but the game was very enjoyable. The temperature when the game started was 74 here but only 40 in St Louis and 32 in Minneapolis – that’s what they announced in the stadium. The high today was 76 and our seats were in the sun the whole day. We wore red Cardinals shirts, but also had a good lathering of sunscreen. Happily, we can report we did not get sun burned so we did not look like out shirts. And as we said, we enjoyed the game and are glad we extended our vacation beyond the basic cruise.

After the game we came back to the hotel to clean up. During the game we had each gotten a hot dog to eat - coming off an all-you-can-eat cruise ship, that is practically starvation rations. There are plenty of places to eat within a few miles of our hotel so we had plenty of choices. We went to a Chili’s Restaurant and we all ate a large and tasty dinner.

Now we are back in the hotel and settled down for the evening. Tomorrow we will have another fun time, although the temperature is expected to be even warmer. We will just have to struggle through the hot temperatures. ? Good night!

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