Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 7 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Our morning started out early with a hike up the Echo Canyon Trail to the summit of Camelback Mountain, our annual tradition. It was great weather for the hike and we were in the shade most of the time. It only took us just over an hour to reach the top. After spending about 20 minutes taking our obligatory mountain-top photos, we made our way back down which took another hour. This was perfect timing as my sister was flying in to join us and her flight landed at 10:15am. We drove directly from the trailhead to the airport, picked her up, and went back to the hotel to watch the end of the Dayton/Davidson basketball game. The Flyers were the regular season A10 champs this year, but unfortunately lost to Davidson in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. We’ll have to wait until Sunday to see if they’ll be dancing in the NCAA Tournament next week.

After we all cleaned up, we drove over to Scottsdale Stadium to see the Indians take on the San Francisco Giants. Ticket prices for this game were outrageous, probably due to it being a Friday afternoon and because our 2016 AL Champs Cleveland Indians were playing. Our average ticket price for the other games was about $30. These were over $80! And our seats were on bleacher benches, what incredible price gouging. Like our last visit to Scottsdale Stadium, the sun was brutally hot down the third base line, and the capacity crowd of 11,429 didn’t help make it any cooler. The Indians staged a rally in the 8th inning and came out with a win, 7-5.

Back at the hotel we freshened up and tried to figure out what to do for dinner. Based on another friend’s recommendation, we went to Dos Gringos in Mesa and then swung by The Grid to play some video games. Unfortunately, it turned out that the barcade had more consoles (Sega, Playstation, Nintendo, etc.) and fewer working stand-up arcade games so we didn’t stay too long (just enough to feel like we got our $5 cover charge’s worth).