We have been to quite a few ballgames with visits to Cubs Park (Chicago Cubs), Salt River Fields (Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks), Phoenix Municipal Stadium (Oakland A's - their last season there - next year they will be at HoHoKum which the Cubs just vacated for their shiny new park), Scottsdale Stadium (San Francisco Giants), and Camelback Ranch at Glendale (Chicago White Sox - also home of the LA Dodgers but we didn't see them). We went to several games at Salt River Fields with friends and family. Here are some photos of a lovely evening with Gary's brother Steve and my sister-in-law Jan, my brother John and sister-in-law Nancy, friends Cammy and Rich, and my sister-in-law's husband, John (Gary's sister Mary had a cold and was unable to attend).
Two of my wonderful sisters-in-law, Nancy and Jan
Steve and Gary
When John and Nancy were here, we did a hike at McDowell Preserve. Here are two photos of that great hike.
Gary, John, Nancy and I also had a great walk at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve at Water Park - a water reclamation project for the city of Gilbert. This wonderful place is just loaded with migratory birds of many species over-wintering here. I run there as often as I can. Mary, Cammy and I also walked there one day. Here is John feeding the Percherons which are at a neighboring farm near the preserve. Somebody gave us some carrots to feed the horses, so John did it.
And a visit just finished - a wonderful one with son Rob and daughter-in-law, Maria and our two grandchildren, Henry and Annie. Here is probably the best photo I have ever taken of Henry and Annie. The three of us were laughing at our inability to find a place to hang out in the very nice resort, The Sanctuary, while we waited for Rob to finish a phone call and for everybody else to get ready for a SF Giants night game.
Yesterday was just about non stop fun and one miracle.
We went to our second Giants game during the day at Camelback Ranch - great game in this beautiful newer stadium. BTW, the Giants did win both games we saw.
Then we decided to drive over to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden where there is currently an exhibit of blown glass called Chihuly in the Garden. This has been one of the hottest tickets in town this season. We wanted to see it after dark because the blown glass sculptures are lit, making the tour through the gardens a magical time. The Web site said that Saturday evening was sold out. This did not deter Maria one little bit, (who shared with us a story of how she had just talked their way onto a refurbished Thunder Mountain ride at Disneyland last weekend after the ride was maxed out that day).
By some miracle we found one parking place in the Botanical Garden parking lot that we squeezed our two cars into.
Then we watched as Maria performed her miracle. Her secret is that you can almost always get in to a museum, garden, almost any attraction where memberships are sold. She walked up to the Membership booth with waiting staff eager to sell memberships, bought a year-long membership which admitted their family and which included two adult one-time-only passes. She paid probably less than ticket admission would have been (if we even could have bought tickets!) for all six of us. Then she found out that, while the restaurant was full, the grab-n-go food was readily available, so voila! Dinner. We could enter the grounds at 8:00pm which was exactly what we wanted. It was amazing. Gary and I were giving us all no chance of getting in. It shows what determination and persistence can do.
It is an amazing display at night, viewed with the cacti and other desert plants as part of the displays. Here are some photo highlights:
Final photos: at the White Sox/Giants game:
