Home again

Our final night of the trip was spend at The Point Resort, on the doorstep of Universal Studios in Orlando. Originally, I thought we might go over there for a bit after arriving, but both of us were tired so we just went to the supermarket and got frozen meals which we cooked in the microwave. We had a peculiar sort of two bedroom suite here, which is really two separate rooms with a common entry. One room had a full kitchen, living room and washer/dryer. The other had what they call an efficiency kitchen, which is a term I never understood. There's nothing particularly efficient about it, aside from the space usage. It had a sink, minifridge and microwave. At one point my daughter asked if she could use my microwave and I said yes, not realizing that this would involve making and slightly burning popcorn. Yes, I understand that she wouldn't have wanted that in her room.

The next morning we headed out to Osceola County Stadium, spring home of the Houston Astros. The literature describes it as state-of-the-art, though I'm not sure of which they to which they are referring. Maybe for like a community center softball field. It's a very bare bones sort of place, lacking in most modern amenities of a ballpark, including sufficient rest rooms or any sort of food for a non-meat-eater. I can't remember the last ballpark I've been that didn't have at least pizza.

They also seem to have either miscounted or misplaced something, because the first row of seats is row 2, which was certainly a pleasant surprise for us. We were seated, as it turned out, directly in front of the warmup mound, which meant that we were staring at first Cole Hamels,  and then the rest of the Phillies pitchers that day. This was a marvelous diversion. We got a foul ball which we then had autographed by Raul Ibanez. The game was long and a bit draggy, and we had to leave for the airport before the end, but we did get to see the Phillies pull ahead in the the top of the 9th inning, when Michael Martinez, a Rule 5 pick trying to make the team, walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and then made a big turn around third and scampered home when the catcher tried to catch him off the bag.

We then had to leave for the airport. After a ridiculous check-in procedure (airlines are trying to automate it but they also have to check ID's so it's a messy blend of do-it-yourself and professional and it ends up taking much longer than it did when the ticket agent took care of everything) the flight was easy and a half hour early(!).