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 Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I’m heading out to Arizona for my annual Spring Training trip a little later than usual … actually the last weekend of the season! My brother wasn’t able to make it so it’s just me, my sister, and my daughter (who hasn’t been out to see Cactus League baseball with me since 2012). My travel tech hasn’t changed much from last year: iPhone 7 Plus, Canon PowerShot SX710, and FitBit Charge 2. The new addition is my Surface Laptop (just in case work calls while I’m away).

Today was quite the busy day. We started early driving over to Orlando for my daughter’s saber solo at the FBA State Solo & Ensemble contest at Lake Nona High School. After she received her superior rating, we started back west towards Tampa but made a quick stop for lunch at the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot. After lunch we drove back the Tampa International Airport and my wife dropped us off for our flight to Phoenix.

The five hour flight to Sky Harbor was uneventful and our luggage arrived relatively quickly. The line for the rental car shuttle, however, was really long (not too surprising for a Friday night around spring break time though, I guess). After getting our car (free upgrade from mid-size to SUV!) we drove to Goodyear and checked into our hotel. By now it was 8:00pm Arizona time (11:00pm for us!) and we were hungry. Pulling a recommendation from a past trip, my daughter and I went to Bella Luna in Litchfield Park for dinner and then Yogurtini next door for dessert.

After dinner, I dropped my daughter back at the hotel and then drove back to Sky Harbor to pick up my sister. By the time we were all back at the hotel it was about 11:30pm (2:30am for us east coast travellers) so we crashed for the evening. Baseball starts tomorrow!