Arizona, Day Four

Thursday:  Today was a day of up and down.  Today I woke up to the sound of rain, not wanting to get up and glad I didn't have to.  Breakfast was the same as usual, but yet more of a treat, as I actually was hungry for breakfast.  I'm not normally a breakfast kind of person, but for some reason this morning I was.  I ate all my toast and bacon (Hunk didn't get to have my second slice of bacon today).  By the time breakfast was over the sun was starting to pop out and rain showers were dissipating.  As Michael's first game wasn't until much later in the day, we decided to go shopping in Old Town Scottsdale.  We soon discovered the stores didn't open until 10 a.m. so decided to check out Diablo Stadium instead, as that is the headquarters for this tournament and also the place to pick up souvenirs.  Picked up a t-shirt for myself and Hunk got a baseball cap; what a surprise, I know.  By this time we were able to go back to Old Town.  What a fun place that was.  It was like going to downtown Wisconsin Dells.  It is quite the tourist trap, with my name all over it!!  Most of the stores contained jewelry; never saw so many jewelry stores in one place.  Most items were made of sterling silver with pendants of either turquoise or just about any other kind or stone you can think of.  Most were quite reasonably priced, so did pick up a necklace for myself, although it is just a silver necklace with no pendant.  Lots of items like cactus jelly, salsa, spices, t-shirts, etc., etc; the usual tourist stuff, but I thoroughly enjoy that type of thing.  For lunch we stopped by a local restaurant called Sugar Bowl.  It was like walking into a restaurant from the 1950's.  It is still owned and run by the original owners.  We ate at a lunch counter that looked the original counter.  Hunk had his usual burger but I had a "light lunch" which consisted of jello with pears, chips, pickle and three "tea" sandwiches.  It brought me back to when my mother and I used to go shopping in downtown Piqua, Ohio and we would stop and have lunch at the local Woolworth's.  I can still taste the cherry or chocolate Cokes we would have.  By the time lunch was over, it was time to go to Michael's game, which was about 45 minutes away.  This time the game was held at the Seattle Mariners and Padres spring training facility.  This, however, is where the day begins to get a bit sad.  I sure love those Cardinal boys (especially that one special lad), but today was not a good day for Minnesota.  It seemed the harder the guys tried, the worse the game got.  The consensus is that the umpire sucked, but the guys didn't help themselves any.  They just couldn't get their bats going.  To make matters worse, Michael jammed his right thumb on a play at third base and had to leave the game.  A bright spot in this saga - Lori (sp?), a friend of Katy Lorenz, stopped by to watch Michael's game.  She lives near Phoenix but still had quite a drive to get to the game.  It was really a wonderful thing for her to have stopped by.  I think we had a very nice visit.  Didn't realize she was such a fan of baseball and that she has visited so many different ballparks.  She has visited several parks on the East Coast and plans to visit parks on the West Coast next year.  She grew up loving baseball because of her dad and is a big fan of the Diamond Backs.  She also gave me the name of a good Mexican restaurant coincidentally in Old Scottsdale and also we should stop at the Sugar Bowl too.  I told her we had lunch there that very day and had a good chuckle about that.  By this time she had to leave, as she had an out of town friend coming in for a couple of days, and had to meet up with her.  It was shortly after this that Michael's game ended in a 1 to over 10 run game; I stopped counting when the run count got to 10.  Said good-bye to Michael and Hunk and I decided to find a local restaurant to have dinner.  There were quite a few restaurants around the stadium but most were more upscale places or places we could go to back home.  There was one place that looked interesting called something like Firestone. We drove in but the parking was full of Lexuses and BMWs, and people going in and out were wearing dressy clothes...time to move on.  Next door was a building that looked like a Texas ranch house and dog gone it, it was called Texas Ranch House.  There were pickup trucks and old cars in their parking lot and a gal came out of the restaurant in a sweatshirt, so we knew this was the place for us.  It was quite a lively place; country music (yeah Hunk!) but really wonderful food.  Service was about the best we ever had, food was great, and Hunk's order was correct (naked ribs) and the Diet Coke kept flowing.  Prices were very reasonable, too.  After dinner we went in search of a hand brace for Michael's hand as I knew he wouldn't do it and his hand was swollen all ready at the park and didn't want to think about what it would like tomorrow morning.  In Minnesota there's a drug store it seems every couple of miles, but around here it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.  Maybe if we were more familiar with our surroundings, and can you say "traffic," it's so crazy out here.  I may have mentioned this before but these people are crazy drivers.  And the road, they don't even go in straight lines - they curve back and forth.  And the police, they're everywhere, not that we have anything to worry about, as Hunk is obeying the speed limit.I make sure of that. Stopped by Michael's place with the brace, but the guys were going out tonight, so no one was home.  Hunk thought someone might steal the hand brace if he left it by the front door or garage door (REALLY!?), so he tried throwing it over the locked gate onto the veranda, but as luck would have it, the brace stopped on top of the gate, too high to reach or knock down; I hope Michael finds it...and the saga continues...