It was a last minute decision for a quick pre-baby vacation and another check off on the bucket-list. We decided to take the Prius for another little expedition to Phoenix Arizona, this time the weather was beautiful and perfect. We left at 5:20 am with tickets in hand to drive the 5 and half hours from Mission Viejo, CA to Camelback Ranch. The drive could not have gone any smoother as there was no traffic at all. We arrived at 11 am and got food then headed to the Ranch. We got some General Admission tickets that allowed us to layout our blankets either on the edges of outfield or in the home run areas. We opted for the side fields. We also brought along some stragglers, Skylar’s Mom (Janice) and Sister (Hannah).
Since we arrived about 1 1/2 hours early to the game we got great parking and great seats as well as a good time exploring the stadium. The stadium seemed to be the same size as a collage size stadium and could hold about 15,000 people. There are a total of 10,000 seats and about 13,000 people were in attendance. Many traveled from California like we did, wake up early and drive, to watch the Dodgers beat the Giants. Sadly the results of game were not as desired but it was still fun to see all the Dodgers in Uniform. Skylar got a new Dodgers hat that looks a lot better than his old hat. One thing that was quite funny was Janice sewing away her quilts as the game was going on. She did cheer on the Dodgers with us and was alert for any foul balls coming our way. We did only see one foul ball come our way and was pretty close to us. Sadly we didn’t get it fast enough and it rolled into the hands of another fan.
After the horrific loss to the Giants we decided to take another route back to the car. We got to see some of the practice fields for the Dodgers and White Sox that were located behind the stadium. They have 6 fields per team to practice on, talk about baseball heaven! As the game ended we got to watch the players leave the stadium and head out to the practice fields. If we had more time we would have stayed to watch them practice and try to get some autographs but we were in a hurry to get to the next scheduled event, Isaac’s basketball game against Grand Canyon University.
Grand Canyon University is one really loud school. Arriving a little early to the game we found many people dressed up in Disney costumes. It was their Disney dress up game and the crowd definitely showed up for it. Most of the people were respectful to UVU but there were a couple guys that were heckling so much they were finally escorted out of the arena. They made Skylar so angry he almost was going to throw some cups of water at them. We were just happy they got rid of them before we were going to take matters into our own hands. The game was great up until the final 15 seconds when UVU wasn’t able to make the last shot to end the game. We were really bummed that Isaac didn’t get to play very much of the game since the main player he was matched up with fouled out of the game early. I am pretty sure we would have won if he played the last couple of minutes of the game. Coach Pope was not happy about that game, we definitely should have won it but you can’t go back in time and fix it.
On the way back to the hotel we had to stop for some dessert since we didn’t have any after dinner. We rushed to Jack in the Bax only to find out they didn’t have any shake mix so we went to Dairy Queen and found out they were closed. So we opted for McDonald’s McFlurries instead and met Isaac at the hotel. We sat and enjoyed talking and eating our little desserts til 11:30pm and then headed for bed. The funny thing was Isaac’s room and our room were right across the hall.
We woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to go back home. We ate at Denny’s for breakfast then drove the 5 1/2 hours with hardly any traffic. It took us 3 movies to get home which is the main reason we enjoy driving the Prius. Overall the trip was great even though the games’ results were not.