A Weekend in Phoenix

Remember how I told you that Chad's birthday gift to me was a weekend trip with him to Arizona for my first NFL game? Well, that trip happened last weekend and it was a great time. It was so nice to get to spend some good one-on-one time with Chad (since our time together is very limited), especially since we may not really see each other for the rest of November!

We flew into Phoenix around lunch time on Saturday (and thank heavens for 1-hr flights, because there may or may not have been a tiny yelping dog on our flight! Also, thank heavens for headphones and Chad's iPad to keep us busy and drown out the yelping sounds. We may or may not have played battleship & solitaire the entire time - we're competitive like that and can pretty much make a contest out of anything) so we went and got our rental car, checked into our hotel (where we had a little surprise - we were supposed to have two rooms booked, but they only had one reservation for us... for a while there I thought things might have to be a little interesting, but Chad is a good guy, so he made some calls [the Cardinals were the ones paying for our rooms] and asked them to fix the problem out of "professional courtesy to the girl he was traveling with". So they did and all was well), grabbed some lunch, and then set out for downtown Phoenix to do a little walking/site-seeing.

I love the attitude I'm giving Chad in the 2nd picture.

First we visited the Suns' basketball Arena, & the security guard was kind enough to let us through the gate so I could get a picture with Steve Nash... who just happens to be one of my favorite ballers because he's so dang good! Also, I do actually like the Suns, though I don't really care much about the NBA - as long as the Lakers lose, I'm happy.

Chase Field - the Diamondbacks Ballpark

Pretty much right next door to the basketball arena is the Diamondbacks' Ballpark. As you can see, we took pictures with the giant bats & we found a hallway that led to the doors of the park. They were locked, but we got a good peak inside anyway. Also going on in downtown Phoenix that night was a Rock the Block charity event featuring none other than REO Speedwagon. We almost went, but it was $20 a person to get in and I knew that by the time it started I was going to be starving and would want to leave prematurely to get some food, so we decided to just get some Pei Wei for dinner instead.

On Sunday, we woke up early because we had to be at the football stadium at 8:15am to get everything organized. The reason Chad could take me to the game, etc. is because he works a side job for a company called 50 Star Productions that handles the stadium-sized American flags & the big flag-like stars with the military branch logos on them. Because the flags are so large, the come in multiple pieces and it takes at least 150 people to hold them during the pre-game and half-time shows. Chad goes and makes sure that all the volunteers know what they're doing, that they all get to practice, and that everything is set up perfectly so that when it comes time to unfurl the giant flag during the singing of the national anthem, everything goes off without a hitch. So, the circumstances for me being able to go meant that I had to help. Which meant that I got a field pass and access to all kinds of behind-the-scenes stuff. It was a pretty awesome experience for my first NFL game - especially since I LOVE football so much. When we were walking the flag onto the field, the Rams players were just running onto the field so Sam Bradford and a bunch of other Rams players ran right next to me. P.S. They are GIGANTIC!

I also got to see some gorgeous AZ sunsets. I took this pic with my iPhone camera though the car window!

 

But all-in-all, everyone working with us at the stadium was extremely nice and polite, they fed us breakfast, and gave us great seats in the endzone - row 11. The game got really exciting in the 4th quarter, when the Cardinals came back to tie the game. Then, the Rams won the toss for OT (sudden death), but we held them and when they punted the ball, we returned it 91 yards for a TD and a win! The crowd went wild! The stadium is huge and was packed and I loved the high-energy atmosphere.

We came back Monday night and then Chad drove back out to Vernal. It was a great birthday present, a lot of fun, and a much needed weekend get-away that involved 60 degree weather and sunshine instead of the snow that happened in Utah during our absence.

Fun facts: The field at the Cardinals' stadium is real grass. The whole field is motorized to move outside of the dome so it gets sufficient watering and sunshine. Also, they opened the top of the dome for this game, which was really cool.