Phoenix, Arizona
March 3-6, 2010- We flew from Memphis to Phoenix on Wednesday, March 3. We arrived around 9, picked up the rental car and headed to the Hampton Inn in Tempe, just east of the city.
- On Thursday, we went for a pretty intense hike at Phoenix Mountain Park.
- After meeting up with Brad's colleague for lunch at a Southwestern restaurant called Z'Tejas, we went back to the hotel, changed and then went to the first of the weekend's Cubs Spring Training games at Hohokam Park. This game was against the A's, which the Cubs won, 9-3.
- After the game we went to Scottsdale, a suburb just north of Tempe, and walked around downtown. We walked around for a bit, checked out some stores, then had a few drinks at a few places.
- The next morning we drove to Queen Creek, Arizona to check out the Queen Creek Olive Mill. The mill is Arizona's only olive mill, and produces all kinds of olive oil, and other olive products.
We got a bit lost on the way, so we missed the tour that we wanted to take at 10:30 AM. Instead we decided to have lunch there and then do the 11:30 tour. The tour itself was pretty uneventful but educational (and not too boring). After that we went back to Phoenix and got ready for Game 2, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cubs took this game, 8-7. - On Saturday, we went for a pretty short hike at Papago Park then headed to Game 3, against the Chicago White Sox.
Lots of die hard Cubs fans as well as some annoying (obviously) Sox fans. Great game, but the Cubs lost 3-15. All the great defense we had witnessed in games one and two was nowhere to be seen. Quite a sad game, really, but made somewhat bearable by the number of beers that were consumed.
- After the game, we had a few hours to kill, so we continued on to a Mexican restaurant in Tempe and had a couple pitchers of margaritas and a bit of food, then went to the airport. At the airport, we may or may not have had a couple beers then maybe a couple on the plane. Once back in Memphis, we weren't quite sure where time went, because neither of us recalled too much of the flight...except for Nick bleeding profusely from the nose after being hit (intentionally?) by Brad. Bloody napkins everywhere. Also recalled was the flight attendant approaching Nick and informing him that his bag and personal items needed to be under the seat during the descent into Memphis. Halfway through her sentence, she looked at the situation (picture a drunk with a bloody nose, shoes off, crushed pretzels everywhere on the floor, and magazines and a bookbag strewn about the floor) and simply shook her head and walked away. Probably best for all of us involved.
