Arziona Spring Break

My Dad bought my plane ticket as a Christmas gift, so I let him pick the exact dates that we were to travel. I suggested the 2nd weekend of March, because it would give us a chance to see 3 games and also be able to see a good mix of players. In the beginning of the Spring Training season, the regular veteran players on play for like 5 innings, the the "kids" (prospects) take over for the remainder. Since I've never been to Nashville (home of the AAA Sounds) or Huntsville (home of the AA Stars), this would be one of my only chances to see some of the up and coming Brewers players in person. The flights were cheapest flying in and out of Chicago from Saturday March 14th to Tuesday March 17th, so that is what we did. Our flight left Chicago at like 8 in the morning, so Dad came and picked me up around 4 am. It was rough to get up early, but it was necessary if we were going to make it down to Phoenix in time for the 1:00 Brewers game this afternoon. So I woke up early, dressed in my finest Brewers hear, packed my bags and said goodbye to Coach Gordon Bombay. And as is customary before I head out on a vacation away from home, I took my good luck picture of the little guy. And so far my BFF hasn't failed me yet.

Although it was early in the day on our flight from Chicago to Phoenix, I was still on vacation, so I ordered a cocktail. In my best Ben Stiller voice (from Starsky & Hutch as Maury Finkle, founder of Finkle Fixtures, the biggest lighting fixture chain in the South Land) I said "Bacardi and Cola, Do It...Do It." And I loved it.

When we landed in Phoenix, we had a little over an hour to get our rental car, grab some beer and head out to Maryvale Ballpark for the game. We searched for liquor stores on the GPS, and it found us the Mexican ghetto Food City. I bought a 12 pack of Coors Light and a sixer of Corona Light, and danced with the mariachi band.

There are some things that I always do, no matter how played out you might think that they are. One of those things is taking a picture of myself while I'm on the moving walkway at an airport. You know that you've seen it before, but you also know that you love it. I've done it a million times before, but I'm still compelled to do it again.

I was just getting over being sick, so I was pumping myself full of Dayquil and multi-vitamins. I didn't have any water or juice to take my vitamins with, so I swallowed them down with my beer. I don't know if anyone has ever tried that before, but it's not a good idea. But I was tailgaiting in an auto repair shop parking lot, so it was ok.

While I drank my airplane cocktail, my Dad Mike worked on his laptop. I was just about to chastise him for working while he was on vacation, but when I leaned over the cute brunette sitting between us, I saw that he was not working, he was playing solitaire. He showed me that computers are really just for goofing around.

I was a little scared of the ghetto Mexican Food City store, but I was a man on a mission to get some beer, and I would go to any lengths to get it. But now that beer, we followed the directions from the GPS to get to the West side of Phoenix and Maryvale Ballpark, Spring Training home of your Milwaukee Brewers.

If you are a frequent visitor to this site, then you that for the last 6 years, I have spent my Spring Break with my Dad wherever he happens to be living at the time. Since 2003 I have been to California, Green Bay, New York City, Chicago, Orlando and Melbourne, Florida. He recently moved back to Milwaukee, and I told him that I had no desire to visit him on the South Side. I see him at least 2 or 3 times a month now, so a sleepover at his house in Milwaukee wouldn't be as special as it was in years past when he lived in foreign cities. So I suggested that we take a trip somewhere, When I asked for his suggestion, the only requirement that he had was that it be somewhere warm. After all, he had been living down in Florida for the past 2 years and was quite sick of the Wisconsin winter. I told him that we were going to go down to Phoenix, Arizona to see Brewers Spring Training. It the perfect Spring Break vacation - I get to see Brewers baseball and he gets to be someplace warm. This trip really couldn't be more perfect. Little did I know that it would be so much more than that. And now I invite you to sit back, cheer Go Brewers Go, and enjoy the 2008 edition of my Spring Break from Phoenix, Arizona.