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On the water
With hopes of seeing a few gators, we stopped at a place called Everglades Safari Park, which offered several different tour options. The one we chose, the cheapest, was 25 bucks and it takes you on the water in an airboat for 30-40 minutes.
The tour taught us a lot about the Everglades and the animals and plants that inhabit the area. Our tour guide, Laz, told us about a couple different trees and plants that can be seriously harmful to anyone or anything that ingests or even comes in contact with them.
Laz told us that alligators are actually peaceful creatures, and it's crocodiles that are more aggressive and dangerous. However, he also said they are starting to find more and more crocodiles in the Everglades, along with Burmese Pythons.
We only saw a few alligators on the tour, which was about what Laz expected. We thanked him after the tour and he told us that the heat causes a lot of alligators to hide under water. He suggested that we take our bikes out some evening on the Shark Valley trail, where he assured us we'd see plenty orange eyes staring back at us from the water.
After the boat tour, there's a movie to watch followed by another led tour down a trail near the water. Laz told us they had smaller gators at the end of the tour that we could hold, but he also said we'd be miserable, and frankly unsafe, on the trail if we did not have any mosquito repellent. We didn't feel like getting eaten alive by mosquitos, and we wanted to get back on the road, so we decided to skip the movie and the trail and continue our trek to Miami.
The beach
We got to Miami and knew we wanted to go straight to the beach, so we made our way to Miami Beach. We stopped at a place called Taquiza to get some tacos, and they were amazing; small, but still very good.
They had several different kinds of meat and different ways of preparing it. They also offered some good beer choices and delicious sauce toppings. And with the fun, outdoor seating, it was a great place to eat.
We then made the short walk to the beach, which was packed with people. The waves were definitely bigger than they were in Tampa, and that made it a little more fun to venture out into the ocean. We tired ourselves out pretty well just playing in the water and had inhaled enough salt water to care for, so we decided to just walk the beach for a while and soak up the sun and the atmosphere.
The beach was lined with tons of beach chairs and umbrellas for people to rent. People of all ages were playing in the sand and the water, and the ocean breeze made it a beautiful day to be at the beach.
When we got back to the hotel, we lounged a little bit at the pool and started plotting the rest of the night.
We were in the mood for some Chinese food, so we ordered in and started looking up some clubs to go to — after all, isn't that what you do when in Miami? Unfortunately for us, we were in Miami on a Wednesday, so most of the clubs weren't open; and the ones that were weren't open late like they would be on a weekend.
We found one club we were interest in and ordered an Uber to take us there. After a failed Uber attempt — a severe miscommunication with the driver — we our second driver came and got us, and he was outgoing and a lot of fun.
He took us to one of the few clubs open, and we immediately felt out of our element. Everyone was walking in wearing suits and dresses, and here we were in jeans, shorts and t-shirts. We took one step out of the car and quickly got back inside of it.
Our driver was cool enough to take us to another place, somewhere he recommended, but when we got there, the place looked like it had been closed down for some time. Our driver felt very badly about leading us astray, so he took us to one more spot.
This place ended up being a lot of fun. The bar is popular with the Russian population in Miami, but our favorite part about it was the $2.50 beers they were serving. It had an outdoor seating area, but everybody moved inside once the rain started coming down. And it was coming down hard.
We sat at the bar for a good portion of the night before making our way to the pool table, once it had finally opened up. We also ordered a plate of nachos, which was huge and very tasty. The bar stayed open until 3:45 am, at which point we called another Uber — had another mishap with that one — and eventually made it home with our fourth Uber call of the night.
The game
Our final game of our trip was at noon, so we didn't do a whole lot early in the morning before heading to the stadium. There were a few lots where businesses and organizations were charging people to park, so we found one a couple blocks from the ballpark that was charging 10 dollars and parked the car.It started lightly raining on us during the walk to Marlins Park, so we were thankful that the Marlins have the ability to close the roof. Upon entering the second-newest stadium in the majors, we were in awe.
One very unique and fun attraction at Marlins Park was the Bobblehead Hall of fame.
We walked around the venue and thought it was gorgeous. We were there in plenty of time to walk around the whole concourse with hardly anyone there — which is kind of the norm for a lot of the Marlins' games.
We headed to our seats, which were not very far behind home plate. The nice thing about a low attendance is that tickets are cheaper, and we had pretty darn good seats for paying just 30 bucks.
Our stomachs started growling, so we went in search of some good food. Nate and Nick B. went part of the stadium called Taste of Cuba, which was kind of hidden from the rest of the food options. Nate got Cuban nachos while Nick had a Medianoche sandwich. Meanwhile, Ben found a place in the stadium that served sushi — something he had been begging for the whole trip.
The game actually had the potential to for a first for our journey. The Washington Nationals' starting pitcher Max Scherzer had a no-hitter going through 7 1/3 innings. The stadium, which was filled mostly with little kids from several summer camps, started buzzing about the chance to witness history. But with one out in the eighth inning, Miami catcher AJ Ellis ended that opportunity with an infield single off of Scherzer's glove.
A fielder's choice gave the Nats, who were leading 1-0, two outs in the inning, but an error kept the Marlins at the plate. Scherzer hit the next batter and then the tying run scored on a wild pitch. The Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton singled home the go-ahead run, despite a potential insurance run being thrown out at home. But the Marlins had already done their damage.
Miami's AJ Ramos came into the game to pitch in the top of the ninth and earned the save. Scherzer threw eight innings and gave up just two hits and no earned runs while striking out 11 — an amazing game for any pitcher, and yet he was saddled with the loss. But it was a great game to watch, and the home fans celebrated as they left the ballpark.
The long road back
After the game, we went to the hotel and got some rest. We decided to leave Miami in the evening rather than waking up before the sun comes up to begin our trek home. We ran into more weather from the tropical depression, which started out as Tropical Storm Cindy. We also ran into a delay which lasted more than 40 minutes.By the time everyone had made it to their respective homes, we had been on the road for roughly 30 hours.
Ratings
We had a lot of fun on this trip, but it was hard to rate. For example, we loved the modern look of the stadium, but the crowd at the game would have been non-existent if it hadn't have been for the day care field trips. We also loved the beach, but the traffic was terrible and getting an Uber was more of a hassle than anywhere else we've been.Overall, the trip was an 8.4 and nestled in ahead of Kauffman Stadium and just behind Sun Trust Park. Like we stated, the sex appeal of the stadium and the food choices boosted Marlins Park when it came to rating the venue.
| Rank | Stadium | Rating |
| 1. | Petco Park (Padres) | 8.9 |
| 2. | Sun Trust Park (Braves) | 8.4 |
| 3. | Marlins Park (Marlins) | 8.4 |
| 4. | Kauffman Stadium (Royals) | 8.4 |
| 5. | Target Field (Twins) | 8.3 |
| 6. | Angels Stadium (Angels) | 8.3 |
| 7. | U.S. Cellular (White Sox) | 8.3 |
| 8. | Wrigley Field (Cubs) | 8.3 |
| 9. | Busch Stadium (Cardinals) | 8.3 |
| 10. | Chase Field (Diamondbacks) | 8.2 |
| 11. | Miller Park (Brewers) | 7.2 |
| 12. | Coors Field (Rockies) | 7.1 |
| 13. | Dodger Stadium (Dodgers) | 6.2 |
| 14. | Tropicana Field (Rays) | 6.1 |
On deck
Well, that does it for this year's journey. We're already excited for next year's trip, which will take us out of the country! We'll be going to Detroit to see the Tigers at Comerica Park and to Toronto, where the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Also like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, @MLBjourneymen, and check out our Instagram account, mlbjourneymen.
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