In 2005, my family made our first trip to spring training in Sarasota, Florida. My husband, 3-year old son, and I drove down from Indiana to a cheap extended stay hotel. The room was shoddy and required our own cleaning before we could sleep there, but the hotel pool was nice. We spent off evenings in the pool with our son, in his floatie, who bonded with the kids of the migrant workers who were also staying at the hotel over their enjoyment of Dora the Explorer, albeit in different languages.
We spent most days at games. We had tickets to every game.