Lisa and I just returned from an extended weekend in Phoenix. We had tickets to see the Sacramento Kings play the Phoenix Suns.
We flew America West Airlines from Sacramento to Phoenix. This was my first time flying that airline. It wasn’t bad. It reminded me of flying Southwest Airlines, only without the feeling I ought to arrive early to line up for a good seat. America West assigns seats when you check in and if you don’t like the seats you’re given, you can look at what seats are available and select new ones. Once onboard, the flight was unspectacular. Typical cramped seating, lackluster peanuts and carbonated beverages.
We got into Phoenix at around 11:00am on Friday. We exited the plane into the jetway and were immediately greeted by very hot, dry air. In case you didn’t know, Phoenix is the 10th ring of hell. It’s only April and the place is pushing over 90F. I don’t like hot weather, so let’s just say I won’t be moving there anytime soon.
We hopped into a cab and rode to our hotel, the Point South Mountain Resort. It’s a very nice looking place a couple miles away from the airport (was about a $20 cab ride). They have a golf course, swimming pools, conference centers and a water park (it’s not huge, but it looks nice). There’s also access to some hiking trails off the back of the golf course. We ate lunch at one of the many restaurants.
After waiting for lunch to digest a bit, we got another cab and headed downtown for some sight seeing. First, if you ever stay at our hotel, don’t let them get you a cab. They’ll end up fetching an Execu Cab, which is a fancy towncar and a driver who doesn’t display any credentials or a meter. He charged us $36 for a ride down to the Bank One Ballpark (BOB). The return trip with another company only cost us $19. So skip the Execu Car.
So, as I said, we went downtown for some sight seeing. We started at the BOB, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. We walked around the outside and checked out the team store. Afterwards, we headed north a bit and found a mall. We checked out some shops and decided to check out a movie (Fever Pitch). After the movie, Phoenix had finally cooled down enough to be tolerable to walk around in. We were getting hungry, so we stopped in at Majerle’s, a sports grill owned and operated by Dan Majerle. It was a neat place, lots of televisions showing sporting events. Good food. The major downside was in discovering that Arizona allows smoking in restaurants. While eating, Dan Majerle himself walked by our table (celebrity sighting #1). He ended up eating at the bar.
After dinner, we walked down to the America West Arena, home to the Phoenix Suns. There was a game going on, so the place was all lit up. It’s a very nice looking arena from the outside. We hopped into another cab and headed back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning we got up early to get breakfast. Again we ate at one of the hotel restaurants. Afterwards, we hit the hiking trails behind the golf course. The trails run up a set of hills, giving you a decent view of Phoenix. From there we were able to get a better idea of how far the hotel was from the arena and the airport. After getting cleaned up, we hopped into another cab and headed back downtown.
We went back to BOB, this time to go on their tour. We missed it the day before since it was sold out. The tour is more interesting than you would think. If you’ve been to a ballpark, you might think it’s as simple as walking around the concession stands and seeing the field. They actually show you much more than that. We learned that with the retractable roof and a large air conditioning unit, the temperature within BOB can actually be dropped by 30 degrees prior to gametime. Keep in mind, even with the roof closed BOB is still an open-air stadium in the middle of the desert. Even cooler than that (pun intended) is what BOB’s AC unit does when it’s not cooling ballpark. The AC is situated under the ballpark and ducts were run to nearby America West Arena and many of the local high rises so that BOB’s AC can supply cold air (at a cost) to the surrounding businesses when it’s not needed at the ballpark. Also unique to BOB is the swimming pool, located just behind the fence in right-center field. For $6,000 per game, you and your group of 35 friends can rent out the pool for a game. We got to tour the visiting locker room as well as the home dugout. Neat fact about the dugout: if you go back down the tunnel towards the clubhouse you’ll find: 1) a padded wall (the pad was added after too many players took out their unchecked agression on the wall), 2) a hanging bar installed so Randy Johnson could stretch out his back between innings and 3) a very dented overhead lamp (looks about what it would look like if I took a wood bat to it, …).
After finishing the tour, we went looking for a place to grab dinner before the basketball game. As luck would have it, the places we were hoping to eat (Alice Cooper’stown and Hard Rock Cafe) were both closed for private parties. So we ended up waiting in line early to get into the arena. Lucky us! It was Steve Nash jersey night (we ended up giving ours to some locals). The arena is amazing inside. So many lights, makes you feel like you’re in Vegas. The Suns also put on some great entertainment during timeouts. The Gorilla is one of the better NBA mascots I’ve seen. The game was a loser, Kings were blown out and didn’t look good all night. After the game we struggled to find a cab. We finally called to get one and had to wait 40+ minutes. While we were waiting, Grant Napear, Sacramento sports radio talkshow host and the television voice of the Kings walked by (celebrity sighting #2).
The next day we packed up and headed back to the airport. After a nice 30-40 minute wait in the security line (Phoenix has long lines at the security checkpoints, but they seemed to move quickly) we were at our gate. We had to wait a little while for the plane to actually leave. Seems something was wrong with the altimiter, so they had to go and get another one.
In all it was a fun trip. I’d never move to Arizona, nor would I wish living in Arizona on any of my friends or family. But it’s not a bad place to visit…in December.
How about Arizona in April.
It also gets pretty hot here in Sacrament in the summer.
Don