I decided this would finally be the year we’d see the Twins in Florida with my son and his family. I searched the Internet to find reasonable accommodations and since I had been on Sanibel Island a half century ago I investigated their vacation housing. Wow! The prices might have been right for a pre-recession stock broker, but not for me.

I looked at Fort Myers’ suburbs for rentals — still pricey for two families. Then it occurred to me. I worked at a state park with camping. How about a state park with cabins since we were flying down? Went through Florida’s state parks near Fort Myers and found one near Sarasota about an hour away from the Twins’ stadium or so it was described. Myakka River State Park had cabins built by the CCC 70 years ago, but was described as very desirable. In fact, you had to reserve them 11 months in advance on the exact day they became available. I got up early in the morning, made the call, got lucky and we had two cabins. The park was all it was cracked up to be, featuring a semi-tropical jungle, palm trees, birds and lots of alligators. The park had a canopy walk, which put us into the treetops where orchids and other plants could be seen. Also a tower 74 feet high and if you climbed the tower you could see over the palm trees to the horizon.

If there was one feature about the park that was not so great, it was the two-hour drive to the Twins stadium. So you didn’t just hop in the car and drive to the stadium.

The Twins’ game with the Baltimore Orioles began at 7 p.m. with us arriving at around 4. A beautiful day and the Twins’ players were out in force, practicing. The stadium although seating only 8,000 was a very nice example of a minor league facility. Clean, white and well kept.

I wandered around and as mentioned before, Tom Kelly said hello to my grandsons. My son could get excellent reception on his cell phone in the upper stands and they sold both of us a beer and hot dog. The boys went hunting for souvenirs and one came back with a $22 Twins cap. Great hat, probably worth the 22 dollars. Since the Alaska family were coming in too late for Tuesday game I traded the lawn tickets for reserved seat tickets, which proved to be a wise move.

As you can imagine, Minnesotans were well represented. I sat next to a lady and her daughter. The mother from Wabasha and the daughter from a small southeastern Minnesota town. The daughter actually took a paper that carried my column. She hadn’t been reading it, but promised she would in the future. So if you’re reading this: Hi.

I think my grandsons were impressed with the lights, the field and major league ball. My son told me that baseball wasn’t played under the lights in Alaska. It had never occurred to me that they wouldn’t need lights in the summer. Then I remembered they hold a midnight baseball game in Fairbanks.

Around the sixth inning I noticed a certain amount of wailing coming up from the stands in front of us. Someone pointed toward the lights. Then I saw sheets of tropical rain were coming down. Our seats were at the top of the stadium, but covered by a roof. As it turned out the best seats in the house, certainly better than lawn seats. It rained off and on and the game was eventually called in the ninth inning. OK with us, we had that two-hour drive back to the park.

Next week, my impressions of Twins’ spring baseball, some of the players and their new double play combination.