I am happy to say it is that time of year again: when the days are longer, warmer and soon-to-be full of baseball! I traveled again to the lovely town of Scottsdale, Arizona, and stayed with my wonderful pal Bonnie to enjoy two Spring Training games, our dogs and beer.
First game: Saturday, March 8th at HoHoKam Park in Mesa. The Cubs beat the Diamondbacks 4-1 and I got to see all of the Cubs' starting position players throughout most of the game. This was my first time viewing their new right fielder from Japan: Kosuke Fukudome. I scribbled my attempts to spell his name phonetically in my program: "Foo Kah D'oh May" & Fook Uh Dome A". I really hope he has a productive year, otherwise...
One fun distraction from the game was Bonnie's CCI dog, Payton, who she will raise from age 8 weeks to approximately 18 months. Payton could attend the games with us because she is an in-training assistance dog. She was super sweet and slept through the one half inning that had any offensive excitement.
Concessions consumed: Super Dog, Nachos & bottled water (do not be alarmed! I had to save up my beer drinking for the charity brewfest later that afternoon near ASU's campus - adorable picture attached)
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Game #2 - Seattle Mariners v. Milwaukee Brewers in Maryvale. Nice park, sunny skies, Brewers won. Now on to the rest of the details! We first consumed delicious fried chicken & waffles & red velvet cake from Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles, then enjoyed our kick-ass seats eight rows behind home plate, and then 7th inning stretch Sausage Race (the mascots even hung out and I got my picture taken with them!) Later that day we checked out the 50,000 square foot Whole Foods store - oh, the temptation.
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To help burn off some of the calories consumed during my fabulous weekend road trip, I took a solo hike at Pinnacle Peak Park and that was a challenging Monday morning! Toby traveled with me on this journey and was a well-behaved, yet non-functioning navigator. I highly recommend the audio books I listened to on the drive: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis & Oh, The Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness by Al Franken. I purchased several Spring Training commemorative items including t-shirts, colorful magnets and the winner of the Sausage Race: The Chorizo!!!
2 comments:
Though I can't relate to your exuberance over baseball , I certainly can relate to your feelings towards the dogs and, my favorite, chicken and waffles! Yum, yum. Welcome back! Tess missed your more than she'll ever admit.
How fun! When I saw the announcement that the Mariners were in Peoria(?) I thought of you immediately! Glad you had a fun trip! Does that mean you are coming up here this year for a game? One way or another we should see each other this year it has been too long!
Em
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