Wild, Wild West - Part 2-Phoenix

The Wild, Wild, West............. continued

Part Two ~ Phoenix

Back to where it all began. Yes, I won't bore with a repeat of my last post - but it was kind of ironic to go back twenty years later.

First, let me tell you about Southwest Airlines, or maybe I shouldn't let the secret out. Please people; do not start using this while traveling on SWA. I beg you not to. Okay... moving on. I am severely allergic to peanuts. I carry an EPI pen for peanuts and shellfish. My allergy MD has instructed me to announce upon check in (to all airlines) that I have a severe peanut allergy.

Southwest is one of the airlines that serve peanuts on all their flights.... so I announced it upon check in. SHOCK OF ALL SHOCKS... I was given a free pass to pre-board. Not just with the Moms with kids and the elderly -- nope -- as in immediate pre-board. All this for a peanut allergy? Yup. Not only me, but DH gets to tag along. We figured out (ok, FIL did) that we could get on first and grab the second row, and dh would hog the window seat (what else is new?) and I'd sit in the aisle. We would then "save" the middle seat for when FIL’s turn came to board. Then I'd move to the middle and FIL could be guaranteed his aisle seat. Since we were diligent about checking in online 24 hours in advance, he typically was able to secure the "A" grouping. FIL found this new little tidbit to be extremely useful. I've never felt sooooo used. LOL

So again, I beg you not to use this trick for pre-boarding :) Why the need for me to get on early? To alert the flight attendants to remove all peanuts from the snack array, and for me to be able to wipe down my area (cross contamination). Um... well.... I don't really need to do that but what the hell, I'll take it :)

Phoenix is friggin' hotter than hell. Duh. It's August; it's monsoon season which equates to some humidity too. All I know is it was beyond oven stage -- and to think I used to live there? It never seemed to bother me when I was 23, 24, or 25 years old. ha ha.

Upon arrival and grabbing our rental car - we decided to take a drive around our old stomping grounds. We attempted to drive to Scottsdale. To be perfectly exact -- Mike TRIED to get us there. We would have been fine except for a little thing called a dead end/street closed. We disagreed about which way Tempe was in relation to Scottsdale, but we got there. Finally. He found his/our old apartment and we enjoyed seeing our special places. The Swenson’s ice cream restaurant is now something else. Our Tuesday night bar -- Bobby McGee’s is also something else... but hey... at least the drycleaners was still there. Whoopee. Still it was fun.

We made it back to our very nice, price-is-right resort - Arizona Grand Resort in time to change and shower. Did I mention how hot it was? 110 - high; 100 - the lowest while we were there. Eeks.

We had a kick ass mexican dinner at Aunt Chiladas (cute name huh?) which bordered our resort. OMG it was the best enchiladas’, salsa, and strawberry margarita ever consumed by these lips. Ok... enough... I am drooling on the keyboard.

Game day.......

I woke up and the sole clock in the suite said "8:15". Mike walks in around this time (he crashed on the sofa, as it was cooler?) and grabs the Phoenix area map. He announced that he has never been to Sedona before and it's only 118 miles. Since the game wasn't until 5:00 pm this could work. Why not head for the mountains and get out of the beastly hot weather? We call FIL and probably woke him up. Told him we'd like to leave by 9-9:30. We all shower and get dressed, including putting on our watches. Um. WTF? Mike asked me what time my watch said, and it was showing an ungodly early time of 7 am. His did too. Seriously -- WTF is going on here? The stupid alarm clock in the room as waaaaayyyyy off. It made the day easier to manage and it was a spectacular drive.

We encountered cactus, mountains, and green; even a tree-less National Forest. Yes folks... the trees that could be seen were deemed "tundra on steroids". Not a true tree to be found. We laughed pretty hard at that one. But... .Sedona.... it is simply beyond words. The beauty of the red-rock mountains made me speechless (hard to do), and almost brought a tear to my eyes. Okay, gag me. But it's true. Ahhhhh..... the pictures were beautiful. Oh yeah, forgot about that -- those were deleted too. Crap.

We had a fun hour or two walking around Old-Town. Had a nice lunch at Orchards and the boys enjoyed sitting around while I did some shopping of my own. Found a great tee shirt (gee just what I need), and found a store by the name of "Clay Pigeon"; I found this to be quite amusing, and had a great chuckle. Very cute town and pretty artsy fartsy too.

Once we were done we decided to take the scenic way back. My palms are still sweating profusely. Anyone ever been to Jerome, Arizona? If so, could you please send my shorts back to me? I think I dropped "trough" some where around there. Ya see... I HATE windy mountain roads. Make that STEEP mountain roads. I basically either hug the floor, or close my eyes and pant. Mike loves to tease me about this little phobia of mine. The revenge would have been sweet though. I almost blew chow all over him. That would have been funny right? lol

Chase Field - Phoenix, AZ - The Miller Park copycat

The outside looked very similar to Miller Park (Brewers for non baseball fans), and even had a "Miller Brewing" sign directly next to "Chase Field". Inside -- pretty much the same thing. We found our patch and pin, and even a shot glass for me. THIS shot glass will be used regularly as a shout-out to all my "peeps" in Phoenix! If I cannot share a beer with ya in person, I'll think of ya every time I pour one myself.

Yet... for as disappointing as Chase Field was -- it did win top honors for the hot dog contest. Best of all parks ever. Why? Yet again, the irony is amazing. It was an Oscar Mayer 5 to the lb foodservice doggie. Just like what Mike used to sell/market. It was the best tasting and the meatiest too.

The game? Boring as all hell until around the 8th inning. Right up until the pitcher for the Dodgers got hit in the head by a screaming infield hit by the batter. Poor guy only had a micro split second to react, and well... he was too late. Beaned right in the head/temple area. Yes, he dropped and out for the count. They brought the backboard out and full nine yards. He tried to give the "thumbs up" sign and his poor arms just flopped around. That changed the tone of the game. The Diamondbacks took advantage though and made a spectacular back-2-back homerun show in the 9th to tie the game up. Then in the 10th inning, our favorite little-man former Cub Augie Ojeda hit the walk-off winning homerun. Yay -- Dbacks win! So.... two-for-two on the home team victories. Not bad. Okay... it made the boring ass game worth while. The other observation made? Chase Field TOTALLY rips off all of Milwaukee Brewer/Miller Park festivities.

It is down-right CRIMINAL to copy the "Sausage Races".... but they did. Yes, they tried to "mask" it by having hot dogs race... but still -- do you think we're fooled? There were other little copies as well, I just cannot think of them at this point.

The game ran late, and we made a decent exit from downtown. We decided to end the Phoenix experience by grabbing appetizers in the Lobby Grill/bar. Any time I can re-fill myself up on Aunt Chiladas salsa I'm all over it. A couple of margaritas later... it was time for bed.

Overall... Phoenix felt strange. At first glance, it just didn't do it for me any more. But then it's because I wasn't able to see any of my friends, and I was with Mike and Pop. Mike never liked Phoenix, and still doesn't, and this just made it not as much fun. It was no longer a visit for "me". So... that's what I mean about a strange experience.

Next up.... San Diego, and all hell breaks loose