Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 6 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We all slept in this morning to recover from yesterday’s travelling and time zone change (for some of us, anyway). Once we were all cleaned up and ready to go, we stopped for a late breakfast at the Wildflower Bread Company (we were going to go to the Black Bear Diner but the Saturday morning crowd was too big). Then we drove up to Surprise (insert puns here) to see our Cleveland Indians take on the Texas Rangers.

This is the first time we’ve come out to spring training on the very last weekend. It was cool to see a lot of the starters in the lineup. The weather was also a little cooler than we’re used to (but still very pleasant). The fourth inning got a little crazy as Roberto Pérez lost his bat and it flew into the screen a few rows in front of us. Then on the next pitch the bat splintered and flew into the outfield, almost hitting the Rangers’ third baseman (who still managed to catch the ball and throw Pérez out at first). A few pitches later, Erik Gonzalez hit a foul ball into the Rangers’ dugout that hit Howard Johnson in the face. Ouch! Play was stopped for about 10-15 minutes as medical staff treated Johnson and eventually wheeled him out of the stadium on a cart.

Our new favorite Indians player is Rob Refsnyder (#33), whose name we would mispronounce as Griffindor. We kept hoping he would score some runs (“2 points for Griffindor!”) 😀 With 8,900 people in attendance, the Indians blew out the Rangers 10-3. Good game!

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Dillon’s KC BBQ at the Wildlife World Zoo. We sat outside on the patio near the flamingos and snacked on some appetizers and also checked out the large shark tank inside.

After cleaning up at the hotel we still had the whole evening ahead of us. So we decided to head over to the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale where we saw “Black Panther.” This was the second time my daughter had seen it, but the first time for my sister and me. It was good, but I didn’t think it was amazing (sorry!). I didn’t even recognize Andy Serkis! After the movie, we popped into Dave & Buster’s to play some video games and air hockey. On our way back to the car, we grabbed a gelato pop at the Popbar for dessert.