The 4th of July: The Real Deal

Happy 4th of July everyone!! While Lakeland had it's big 4th of July celebration on Friday, we wanted to do something fun and celebratory on the actual day as well. We decided that it would be a lot of fun to go to a baseball game, and lucky for us there is a Minor League team in Lakeland! The Flying Tigers (associated to the Detroit Tigers who train in Lakeland) stadium is a mere 3 miles from our house, tickets are 7 bucks, and to top it off, today the tickets included a concert and fireworks! Since the stadium is close, and our car isn't in Lakeland yet, we biked over to enjoy the game.

Can you tell it was hot out?? If not, take a closer look at Nate's shirt....

We had really good seats, right behind 1st base (prime foul ball region as I soon found out) but there was no shade whatsoever. Luckily around the 2nd inning it got cloudy and then rained which made it about 15 degrees cooler.

We were about 4 rows back from the field and before the game, the players came out and signed anything and everything (including a spatula??) for the kids at the game. It was really cute especially when one players asked a kid if he wanted an autograph and the kid said no...

Part of the 4th of July celebration was that they had two guys jump from a plane (below is the first guy) and land on the field. The second guy had the American flag hanging from his feet and as he came down they sang the national anthem. It was pretty cool.

The Tiger's unfortunately didn't win, but here are a few shots from the game.

Once the rain stopped it was much more comfortable out; notice Nate's shirt is dry. It cleared up quite nicely and made for a really nice sunset.

The concert wasn't super great but it was nice to relax outside for awhile, and then once it got dark, the fireworks began. This was one of the best firework shows I've ever seen.

Fireworks are also legal in FL, and so we got a nice show during our bike ride home. As I write this I can still hear them going off! Hopefully everyone had an equally enjoyable 4th of July!