summer baseball trip- arizona (sedona, grand canyon, phoenix & diamondbacks)

On the morning of 8/11 we took the long, long drive from Anaheim to Sedona,  Arizona. 8+ hours of cacti, desert and much more greenery than I had ever expected. (this is going to be a long post, so get comfy)

Dust devil- had no idea what this was and had to google it from the road. Auntie Em, Auntie Em! Saw a bunch of them between CA and AZ. I didn’t get a picture of the Agua Fria sign that was by the “river” on the right side, but only the national monument sign. But kind of ironic, no? There was certainly NO agua, and there was definitely NO fria- it was 113 degrees. Made it to Sedona. Gorgeous!!Its a truly beautiful place but so not for us. With John’s back we can’t do any hiking (not that we’re much for the hiking anyway) and can’t do the Jeep tours. And it’s all artsy and stuff. Definitely not Beyrer territory. But it does make for good pictures.

We were booked into the Best Western and John upgraded us to a townhouse which was great. There was a babbling brook running thru the backyard below the mountains. (that was probably actually agua fria, but we didn’t go down. I have no idea what’s poison ivy or poison oak and if snakes live around there. So not a nature girl!) The best part for me was the washer/dryer in the townhouse and I caught up on all our laundry. We were going on 2 weeks with only one laundry stop before this!
View from the hotel. 
Patrick.Jack.Me!Sunset. Perfect timing!John.Thanks for the pictures, Patrick!No one will ever say my kids aren’t classy. And you can just barely see the outline of the mountains in the dark. Best skies, too.We grabbed some dinner at the Cowboy Club in Sedona. And ice cream for dessert. It wasn’t carvel, but still good!Hey there Tex. Or for you fellow Walking Dead fans…”Stay in the house, Carl!!!”The next morning we left Sedona and drove the 2.5+hrs to the Grand Canyon (south rim) to go check that out. It was so much greener and prettier than I thought it would be. Reminded me of the mountain in Close Encounters a little.As we were arriving I asked if there was a drive thru Grand Canyon. Apparently, there is not. But we did get out of the car to go check it out for literally 20 minutes. It was really pretty, but I’m kinda convinced that the whole thing is painted and is an optical illusion. It just doesn’t look real!Top of the world, ma! The elevation on the trip was 7,000+ plus as opposed to like 15 feet in rvc. Definitely took some getting used to. 
Sky like Andy’s room wallpaper. And then after our abbreviated Clark Griswald-esque visit to the Grand Canyon for 20 minutes, it was back on the road for the almost 4hr drive to go to Phoenix. They had a game to catch!The thing I noticed most on the trip was the light being so different than home. It was a lighter light. Or something. Cleaner maybe? I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was but it was beautiful. And the skies are way bluer. 

As we arrived in Phoenix from the lovely 77 degrees at the Grand Canyon, it was 113. And then at 8pm, it was 101. Wtf?  My first thing I said to my friend Debbie (who I haven’t spoken on the phone with in at least 12 years and now lives in Phoenix) before even saying hello, was “how the hell do you even live here??” It was like hell with that heat. You could feel the heat baking out of the pavement at night after the sun was down. The water in the pool was like pee. You can’t touch the car doors without leaving a layer of skin on the handle. I was not digging that at all.

The boys enjoyed the Diamondback’s game which is air conditioned. I put the air on in the room at 60. Oh, and John said I should have gone cause they had sushi.  Yeah, NOooooooo. 

We spent our last day with my high school friend Debbie and her husband Fritz who welcomed us into their home for the day (refugees that we were) with a/c. Lots of laughs and catching up and even an early dinner out. We got to the airport (the Phoenix INTERNATIONAL airport, mind you) at 9:15pm. There was no one there. There was no one anywhere. Its like a ghost town. They told us that all the restaurants are closed “at this late hour”. Wtf- late hour? Its 9pm!! (Can you even imagine that happening at JFK?)  We walked thru security with absolutely no line. So bizarre. Took the redeye home (not a fan) and small world sat next to someone from RVC who now lives in Arizona. What are the odds there? She is the cousin of a few of my clients and we have a few mutual friends- of course we are now Facebook friends (*waving*- Hi Cathy!!) None of us really slept on the flight so we were all really wrecked for the next two days.

It was an awesome trip (except for the baseball for me) and I’m so glad we made it. It was a little iffy with Patrick still puking the night before our early morning flight out. I really loved it out west, but can’t be happier living in NY (ok, ask me again in January when I’m miserably freezing).