Spring Training

Our daughter and son-in-law have lived in San Antonio Texas for almost 3 years. We live in Sacramento. We try to get together 3 or 4 times a year and the goal is to find somewhere to visit that is 1 plane flight away for each of us.

James Emily, Todd under the straw hat, me with my eyes on the ball and my dad at the end.

This spring's destination was Spring Training in Scottsdale,AZ. James is an avid Giants fan, I am a fan of the old Giants and we are all fans of seeing each other.
The best park of the trip, my dad was able to join us.
The last weekend of March is not the best nor most economical time to visit Arizona. It is the end of spring training, Harley week and the middle of spring vacation. It can be hot, 94 degrees hot the weekend we were there. 94 was about 30 degrees warmer than we had experienced for 6 months.
Giants stadium is a little gem in downtown Scottsdale. If you stay near the stadium, you can hail a Pedicab. The point of the game, a least for the fans around us, was to drink as much beer as possible. If we had been to a game or two more, we too may have been best friends with the guy the next row over who was buying for everyone around him.
We lasted abut 6 innings before the heat drove us back to the hotel. By then, the Giants had 1 hit, were down by at least 6 runs, we were out of water.
James rented a hot red Challenger. For us the challenge how 5 of us were going to fit in and get into the car. I crawled into the back, squished into the seat behind James the driver, put on my seat belt before  6'2" Todd poured into the middle seat, adjusted his seat belt before Emily plopped in. Emily had to adjust the front seat just so, so grandpa could slink down low enough to get his head and body in the car at the same time. Needless to say, we did not get in and out too much.

Three generations toasting birthdays, health, love, life and family with our Dom Perignon champagne



Scoring a dinner reservation in Scottsdale on Saturday night seemed as remote as the Giants getting a run. Since the hotel had grills and there was a great gourmet grocer half a block away, we barbecued steaks and asparagus, had a big green salad and See's Easter candy for dessert. A great meal, under the stars, protecting our streaks from the great horned owls on the property, discussing whether we were seeing lightening bugs on a warm Scottsdale night with family. How much better does it get?