back to florida

florida shop!

send questions
or comments to
MartyTours

Florida 99: 5 Sports in 5 Days!

The idea was simple: While on vacation in florida, attend 5 different sports events in the 5 days we were in the state. In late march, we have the annual tennis tournament in key biscayne, there's NHL hockey and NBA basketball in several cities in the state, spring training baseball all over the place, plus the pga tour has a little tournament called the players championship at TPC sawgrass up in ponte vedra beach (near jacksonville). So off we went!

official schedule of events

wed | thurs | fri | sat | sun

Wednesday: Day 1
We arrived in miami and checked in at the bahia cabana in fort lauderdale. It's a medium quality motel, but was recommended in frommer's, especially for its great bar that right on the marina (see my around town pics). Tremendous! Of course, we had all sorts of appetizers at the bar. I also hung out on the beach briefly, where a model shoot was underway! At night, we headed over to the florida panthers game vs. the new york rangers in the final year for the great one, wayne gretzky (see my hockey pics). Afterwards, we listened to some live music at mangos on los olas in downtown lauderdale.

Thursday: Day 2
Bill V was in a lot of pain this morning, and had to go to the doctor. He got some medicine, and then a fruit smoothie, and we headed over to key biscayne for the lipton tennis tournament (now called the nasdaq 100). I hung out on the outer courts and watched the monica seles / mary joe fernandez doubles match (see my tennis pics), and then got their autographs after their win! For dinner, we tried the highly rated joe's stone crab restaurant on the southern tip of south beach. I've never had stone crabs before, but now I am hooked! This place is unbelievable and is now a must on any trip to miami.

back to top

Friday: Day 3
We had breakfast and drove up to jupiter for the cards vs. mets spring training game. This was our first time at the new roger dean stadium shared by st. louis and the expos. It is nicely done and the perfect size for spring training. We bought tickets from some guy on the side of the road for $10, which got us to the bleachers, but by the 2nd inning we were sitting behind 3rd base! I got some nice pics of mark "big mac" mcgwire running the bases, but no home runs (see my baseball pics).

Out of the blue, we decided to go back to the lipton for the women's semifinal match of venus williams vs. steffi graf. Bill V did an excellent job working over a scalper and getting a good price. We met some girl with prudential securities at the match, who couldn't find her car in the parking lot afterwards. We are good samaritans of course, so we drove her around until she found it. She suggested we all go to a bar, not in tourist trap south beach, but in downtown miami. It was a club in a converted fire house, and this place was hopping! We eventually felt a little out of place (read: old), so we went to tobacco road, a nearby blues club, checked out a band playing upstairs, and had a very late dinner out on the patio.

back to top

Saturday: Day 4
We got up early and flew on southwest airlines from fort lauderdale to jacksonville (via tampa!) and picked up our new rental car. Conveniently located nearby was a waffle house, where we stopped for some waffles and their awesome hash browns (check out the menu in PDF format). We then drove over to ponte vedra beach, where the annual TPC golf tournament is played. It was so cold up here that we unpacked our bags and wore pants and shirts over our shorts and T-shirts. Like everybody else, we followed tiger. On a par 3 hole, he hooked it into the trees and almost hit Bill V! Everyone gathered around the ball and snickered when woods approached the ball — this happens at every golf tournament when somebody hits it near the gallery!

Overall, though, it was just too cold so we left early, grabbed some lunch, and drove toward daytona and then orlando. When we arrived at disney's boardwalk inn, a computer glitch has overbooked the place and shut us out. But we got a free room over at the yacht club just across the lake! We had a brew at the brewpub and dinner over at disney's westside, at bongos cuban cafe (gloria estefan's place).

back to top

Sunday: Day 5
We had upper deck tickets to the orlando magic vs.miami heat game at the o-rena, featuring timmy hardaway vs. penny hardaway (see my basketball pics). At halftime, I managed to sneak down to the lower level, getting a seat right at mid-court! Nobody else got past the incredibly tough ushers. After the game, mike headed down to tampa to visit his brother, while bill v and I checked out epcot and the new test track ride. Later, we all hooked up again, made it to the airport and then flew home.

back to top