Leaving cold and rainy weather, Ray and Traci eagerly boarded an Alaska Air flight from Seattle to Phoenix where they picked up their rental car and checked into their hotel. Ray decided to stay at the Hilton Resort at Squaw Peak in Phoenix – the hotel ran a “Triple Play” promotion giving discounted rooms, complementary breakfast at the Rico Restaurant, and free internet. The rooms at the Hilton were actually pretty spacious – a bedroom and living room separated by the bathroom in the middle, 42” flat screen TVs, and an empty fridge. While not up to the modern styling of say the Times Square or Paris Hilton, the low rise condo-like resort was a nice place to stay. It also was centrally located with most (if not all) the cactus league ballparks 30 minutes or less away. The resort had a spa and a decent gym. Dinner was the first item on the agenda, and Traci selected a nearby Japanese Restaurant called Hana located in a strip mall. One thing you learn quickly about Phoenix is that it is either strip mall heaven or hell depending on how much you enjoy shopping. Hana was a quite busy place, the travelers started with an order of California Rolls. Ray enjoyed a tasty Teriyaki Salmon while Traci liked her bowl of ramen noodles. From Hana, the travelers decided to catch a movie (The Lincoln Lawyer), then stopped at Target for provisions to fill their fridge and finished the evening with a stop at McDonald’s – Traci for her trademark vacation vanilla cone and Ray had an M&Ms McFlurry.
The next morning, Ray and Traci started with their free breakfast at Rico’s – the restaurant served a limited but enjoyable buffet with the usual meats, eggs, pancakes and fruits along with an omelet chef. Ray enjoyed many bacon and egg sandwiches prepared by the chef during the week. After the morning buffet, the travelers went to the Hilton waterpark in the resort – with two large pools, a gentle waterslide, and a long floating river ride (which takes 15 minutes to get around) the park was quite busy. Resort guests tended to race to the park when it opened and place “dibs” on deck chairs without any discouragement by the staff. Although Ray and Traci didn’t have chairs located together or in sunny places the first day, Ray starting playing the game earlier and earlier each day and by the end of the week they had prime loungers. From the waterpark, the baseball fans traveled to the Arizona Casino at Salt River for dinner. Ray wanted to have dinner at the Willows Restaurant at this Casino near the ballpark, but the line was a bit long so they enjoyed the best $14.50 buffet dinner either had ever seen. Traci especially enjoyed the carved Turkey, and Ray was pleasantly surprised with his sirloin steak. From the casino, they traveled a short distance to the crown jewel of the Cactus league – the brand new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
The $100 million complex was built for the Rockies and Diamondbacks to share and it sets a new standard for spring training parks. The architecture, scoreboard, seating areas and concessions were all amazing. The Mariners played the Rockies although Ichiro, Figgins, Smoak, Guti and most of their pitchers were given the night off. The park is absolutely gorgeous and a must see Cactus League destination.
On Thursday, Ray started the day by running in the desert area near the hotel. Although the temperatures were cool (low 60s in the morning), the dry air and sunshine made the run more challenging even though he stuck to the paved path. Afterwards, Ray and Traci had their breakfast and spent much of the day at the waterpark. Traci, who was nursing a bad cold, mostly lounged poolside while Ray kept floating around the lazy river. For reasons unclear to Ray, the resort let floaters use green inner tubes for free but charged $20 per day to use the slightly larger blue tubes. Naturally, Ray didn’t see a single person use a blue tube all week. Floating around the long river was quite relaxing. Thursday’s baseball outing was another night game, this time at Scottsdale Stadium, the home of the World Series Champions Giants. Ray and Traci, aided by their trusty iPhone Tom Tom GPS application, travelled the 30 minutes to old town Scottsdale. The stadium is actually right next to old Scottsdale, so Ray and Traci found street parking and had dinner at a bar and grill called the Daily Dose. The Daily Dose had a “Happy Hour” lasting from 4-8 pm, Traci had a discounted Hummus platter and Pork Sliders while Ray had a non-discounted French Dip. Both thought the food and service was good although there weren’t many patrons even on a game night. After dinner, Ray and Traci walked to Scottsdale Stadium. When you first walk into the park, you feel like you are entering ATT Park in San Francisco with the brick construction. But when you are sitting in even “good seats” which are simple benches, or waiting in a 10 minute restroom line in the outfield, you think you are at some high school football game. Clearly, budgetary compromises were made although the park remains a very popular destination in the Cactus League. The Giants lost a one sided game to the Indians, and Ray and Traci left after the seventh inning stretch. After the game, they stopped at a quaint ice cream parlor called the Sugar Bowl. Traci had a chocolate mocha sundae while Ray had a delicious banana split.
On Friday, Ray decided to take a departure from running and hiked some of the trails in the Dreamy Draw Nature Preserve – the trails were easily identified but not explicitly marked, so the map given by the Hilton concierge was not really helpful. However, knowing you have cell phone service and can always see the interstate from the mountains made you feel that you would never be lost. No warnings about rattlesnakes were posted, although you would think they would make a home in the large desert area. Ray ended up just following trails that headed upward until he reached the top of one of the “mountain” peaks where he declared victory and took a picture.
Many different trails were listed in the park map and Ray’s hike took about 90 minutes or so. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the water park, this time in choice loungers secured by Ray at 8:05 in the morning. Friday night was the third night game for Ray and Traci, this time in the Seattle Mariners’ Spring home (shared with San Diego) in Peoria. Peoria is a nice ballpark (built for $36 million) with nice seating areas and a rich selection of concessions. Ray and Traci only had a pretzel – they planned on buying peanuts from Safeco’s famous Rick “the peanut man” but he didn’t visit their home plate seats until the 7th inning. Eric Bedard pitched a fantastic game, and a lineup with most of the Mariner regulars playing beat up on the Dodgers in a one sided affair.
Across the street from Peoria Stadium, Ray and Traci had a late dinner at the ubiquitous Cheesecake Factory – Ray enjoyed their Shrimp Scampi while Traci had a Turkey Burger. Both were very satisfied with their meal.
Ray made one more visit to the desert preserve on Saturday, with a morning run. He encountered many more people on the weekend including many mountain bikers who challenged the off road trails. After a final breakfast at Rico’s, Ray and Traci checked their flight and found out Alaska Airlines had a system wide computer crash making all of the flights hours late. With a new departure time of 5:30, Ray and Traci took advantage of this delay and made an unplanned visit to a 4th ballpark – Maryvale Stadium, the home of the Brewers which was 20 minutes away from the airport. Coincidently, the Mariners played an afternoon game against the Brewers. This game turned out to be quite a treat as young Mariner phenom Michael Pineda threw a gem against the Brewers.
A Mariner team devoid of many of its regular starters couldn’t support him with much offense, but Pineda’s wonderful game focused much optimism about his potential. Maryvale is located in a “rougher” neighborhood than the other stadiums, is much smaller (7,000 seats vs 11,000 at Salt River) but has its own charm. Ray and Traci bought $8 lawn tickets, and just wandered around the stadium often standing in choice locations behind home plate. Maryvale also has many shaded areas which are not found in the other ballparks. After the 7th inning stretch, Ray and Traci headed to the airport for their return flight, happy to visit the Cactus League and encouraged for the future of their beloved team.
