On our last day in Tampa, there were still two things we wanted to do, so we did them both! In the morning we visited the Tampa Bay Rays stadium, which is a new thing we like to do in cities we visit (starting last year when we visited the San Diego Padres Stadium) and in the afternoon we used our science center membership to visit the Tampa Museum of Science & Industry. Normally I might split these two visited places into two separate posts, but I know everyone is waiting for my Disney posts and this way I can start those next week!
Tropicana Field is located in St. Petersburg, so in the morning we headed that way. Just yesterday it was announced that the Rays want to build a new park in Tampa – the smallest in the MLB but with a fixed roof. The current field is also inside a dome due to the rain in Florida. It is also air conditioned for comfortable games.
The stadium includes a tank of sting rays that game watchers can visit! Homerun balls have been hit into the tank 6 times.
We walked around and got an overview of the field. There is an arcade area and a pitch simulator that are free on Sundays and an art studio and interactive playground that are free every day.
Inside one of the restaurants is this bat display showing the division standings. Apparently people like to mess with it and move the bats around and out of order!
We visited the press box and a room where people were working on something for TV, I believe.
These are some comfortable, expensive seats.
In the dugout:
The turf and dirt areas are all FieldTurf.
We ended our tour with a visit to the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame, which is the largest baseball museum outside of Cooperstown. We found some interesting displays:
From there, it was time to head on to the science museum.
Outside whisper dish:
We had fun playing with brain teasers:
Gotta love an optical illusion!
Although we got in free, we did pay extra so the kids could go on the Sky Trail Ropes Course. Zachary loves these things and Gabbie is always helpful with Simon when he gets nervous about the obstacles.
After that it was back inside to play a bit more!
Gabbie and I both tried the bed of nails – whoa!
After those two activities, we were done with all we wanted to do in Tampa and ready to head to Orlando the next day!