Traveling with Kids: the new Miami Marlins Park

One of the things I miss dearly living abroad is baseball, and in particular going to see a game. I was lucky enough to be in Miami for the last game in a 3-day sweep that the Marlins had over the Cubs at the brand new stadium. I had previously been to a few games in the old park (still home of the woeful Dolphins) and found it to be a pretty lame park for baseball owing to its bizarre hybrid layout and its phenomenal distance from Miami. The new stadium is right downtown on the site of the old legendary Orange Bowl. I think I was only at one or two events at the Orange Bowl: a UM game (I know, almost sacrilegious for a Gator but I was a kid at the time) and the U2 concert in 1987 closing out the US leg of the Joshua Tree tour. The stadium was sold piece by piece and then torn down (-sniff, sniff-) and this new $650M park was built to replace it. Actually, it is a fabulous park for baseball. A tad expensive ($12 for a cuban sandwich, $3 for cuban coffee, and a whopping $9 for a soggy Corona Light), but has great seats and a beautiful view of downtown Miami through the glass wall that runs along the 3rd base line and left field. It features a retractable roof as well. Apparently, the roof is closed for day games (shutting out the heat) and takes like 12h or something to cool down. Now the one complaint we had was we were on the 1st base line Section 8 Row 15 and right under the air ducts so we were more or less freezing the entire game despite the hot, humid Miami weather outside. Aside from that, there are loads of things to see (even a Bobblehead Museum!) and it is ideally organized for this sport. There is a beautiful big screen over right field with all the stats (and publicity) that a true baseball fan would like during the game and occasional instant replays. All this to say that my 5-year old had a blast and stayed more or less concentrated for the entire game. Definitely a must if you are in town at the same time as the Marlins! Oh, the Dolphin Fountain for homeruns is mega-lame, but oh well. Miami is a tacky place so there you go.

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