Sunday, March 17, 2013

Spring Training Vacation 2013 Recap: Day 4

Day 4 was off to a better start than Day 3 was, thankfully.   No bacon, unfortunately at the Thunderbird Suites Breakfast Hall.  I would think bacon is cheaper to produce than sausage patties, but for whatever reason they elected to either not serve it or serve a really small supply that ran out before we got there.  To make up for it, Thunderbird Suites had bacon and biscuit gravy.  VERY good!

This time I purchased the tickets to the game, in fact, that was done the night before, and I got two very nice shaded seats at the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, home of the Diamondbacks and Rockies.   The stadium was opened two years ago, although we didn't visit it back then.    Many have raved and said high praises of Salt River Fields.  Once we got there, we could see why.   The facility is so fancy, so well designed, and stocked with dozens of high quality concessions.  They had Crust Pizzeria represented.  Some other place was there too.  A smallish Mexican Cantina called Rosie's Salty Eyes or something.   A chicken and burgers place was on board.  I recall some other knick knacks in effect.  Giant bratwurst sausages.  Craft beers from Colorado and Arizona.   A spacious, comfy lawn behind the outfield fence.  A modern, state of the art, enormous scoreboard screen.   Very large roof panels that covered a good 50-60% of the seats.  What a stadium!

The Mariners and Rockies were both dismal teams but we had a wonderful time sitting just behind home plate, only a couple dozen rows up.  The game was all right, but again, most teams have no shot to go to the playoffs.  Jesus Montero and a kid by the name of Peguero were destroying the baseball for the M's, but I don't think that's enough for their offense.  The Rockies have an improving lineup and EY Jr. is pretty good.  Tulo looked great at the plate that day.   I just don't think they have any answers on the mound.  The only reliable arm is their setup guy Rafael Betancourt.  Heck, he might even be upgraded to closer by now.  Despite the teams on the field, it was a really good time at Salt River Fields.

Later that day and into the evening, Coach and I went to Talking Stick Casino.   It's just an Indian Reservation Casino by name, but it was a fantastic place.  Decent choice of gaming options such as Blackjack, Video Poker, and Slots, and an expansive Poker Room.   No Casino is complete without a big buffet and Talking Stick had a great buffet and I mean *great* which we had that night.  I went after the prime rib off the bat, but the lady there was slicing it into really thin pieces.  Ah well, that didn't bother me much.  At worst I could just go back.  Instead I went after a bundle of lobster claws.  Ohhh were those good!

After dinner, Coach and I sampled some of the bars at Talking Stick.  The best one seemed to be the one near the middle of the Casino.  Below this bar was another lounge which had dueling pianos.  There wasn't much "dueling" going on -- it was more like Cooperating pianos.  The pianos weren't facing each other, and all the two guys did was take turns playing.  That's not how dueling painos work!   They had a really lame playlist too, and cycled through all the same songs over again after 3 hours.  I love his work but how many Elton John songs can you take in one sitting? 

As all this went down, my buddy was watching the Oregon/UCLA game on a small TV at the center bar.  We sipped on some cocktails and all the while waves of bachelorette parties descended onto the bar.  It was enjoyable watching the different kinds of women party here and there but they quickly went off into other places.

Suddenly, I see across the way, between the chasm that housed the pianos, a lady in a silver glittery dress.   She was gorgeous, cute as a button.  I dubbed her "Silver Dollar."  Now Silver Dollar was swinging it with a lady with cut off shorts and a blouse with a flowery pattern... that only reached down to her midriff.   Like a Flower Pot.  So Silver Dollar and Flower Pot were catching many peoples' attention that night.   I was intrigued but I couldn't leave the bar and I still had 3/4 of a Harvey Wallbanger to deal with.  I was stuck.   So I carried on... and it worked out because to big dudes went over to join Silver Dollar and Flower Pot anyway.  I couldn't decide if they were just friends, random strangers, or boyfriends, but it didn't make any difference.   Just as well.  So Coach and I move on, then we come back, and both Silver Dollar and Flower Pot are at the same two seats *we* were at!  What are the odds?!  Their "friends" were also with them.  I think if there was one thing I'd like to have done, I wish I had a chance to ask Silver Dollar to take a pic with me.   Maybe the other guys wouldn't like that so much though, bwahahahahahahaahaha.  --I'm just joking, anyhow.  'Twas a fun night, although it ended without much fanfare.

Whew!  There went the final night.  One more recap is coming up, to wrap up the trip.

No comments: