A week of baseball, then a week of hockey, now a week of both (plus a bonus trip to Disney!)
vacation
Spring Sports Trip 2026 (Part 2): Hockey in Washington and Canada
After spending 6 days in the 90+ degree temperatures of the Phoenix valley, I went to the low 50s and rain of the Pacific Northwest, visiting with my sister in Seattle. We flew in from Phoenix and arrived at SeaTac just after 9:30pm PDT Sunday evening, but by the time we got to her apartment downtown and were ready for bed it was almost midnight. Time for Week 2 of my epic 2026 spring sports trip.
Spring Sports Trip 2026 (Part 1): Baseball in Arizona
My annual March Spring Training trip has looked a little different the past few years. The last time I actually went out to Arizona for a few days in the Phoenix valley with the Cactus League was back in 2023. In 2024, I went to a local Rays game and then a single game in Goodyear with my wife as part of a Vegas trip instead. Last year, project deadlines at work forced me to cancel the trip out west altogether, but I managed to squeeze in a single Rays game again to keep my attendance streak alive. After last year’s trip was cancelled, I vowed to make the 2026 trip an epic one and finalized travel plans and accomodations in Arizona late last fall in anticipation of going. And then I changed jobs in December and started with zero PTO and an upcoming trip that required 8 vacation days. Oops! Luckily my manager was understanding of the prior plans and I was able to work things out so I’d still be able to go. So let’s do some spring baseball!
Spring Training 2024 (Grapefruit/Cactus Leagues, and Vegas hockey!)
My annual trip out west for Cleveland Guardians Spring Training wasn’t going to work out this year with my siblings. We were looking at the last weekend in March since it happened to coincide with my sister’s Seattle Kraken being in town at the same time to play the Arizona Coyotes (who will be moving to Utah next year!), but then our plans kinda fell apart due to other conflicts. I had resigned myself to just staying local and going to a few Rays games instead, but then a last-minute opportunity made it so that I attended spring games in Florida and Arizona!
Three Days at Universal Studios
We had family coming into town for the July 4th holiday weekend and they wanted to take their kids to Universal Studios (primarily for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter). Since we needed to buy tickets for ourselves, we took advantage of a current Florida resident deal and got 2 free days with our 1-day tickets. As a result, we had those two extra days to go by ourselves and since it’d been 5 years since our last visit, we decided to spend Father’s Day weekend scoping out of the parks before our visitors arrived.
Spring Training 2023: Day 4 (Opening Day)
We purposely planned our Spring Training trip late in the season for one reason: the Guardians would be playing the Seattle Mariners on Opening Day and my sister lives in Seattle! We bought our tickets back in December as soon as they went on sale and then planned our trip around today … our first Opening Day (away) game!
Spring Training 2023: Day 3
Our Arizona trips always involve hiking, and with another nighttime baseball game we had all day for outdoor activities. We got up early Monday morning and had breakfast at the house before heading over the zoo/botanical gardens area where we were on Saturday afternoon to “hike” up Hole in the Rock. It’s a short trail with only a 200ft elevation gain but it has a pretty unique view. Rather than go over to nearby Camelback Mountain or Piestewa Peak, both of which we’ve hiked before, we drove south of Phoenix to the South Mountain Preserve.
Spring Training 2023: Day 2
We got up early (okay, 8:00am) after getting ready for the day we drove over to Goodyear and had breakfast at our traditional place: Black Bear Diner. Then we drove down the road to Goodyear Ballpark, the Spring Training home for the Cleveland Guardians and Cincinnati Reds. In years past we’ve watched the warm-ups and then shagged fly balls during batting practice. This year, however, none of that happened. We waited around for a while, along with a few other fans (but nothing like the crowds we usually experience). No one ever came to open the outer gate and all that really happened was a few of the pitchers came out to warm-up on one of the back fields. We could only guess that since it was Sunday morning and the last game at the park that maybe the players had the morning off.
Spring Training 2023: Day 1
After two years of no Spring Training baseball trips (2021 was cancelled due to COVID-19, and then 2022 was cancelled due to the MLB lockout), it’s finally time to get back out to the Cactus League! Last time we went out early at the beginning of the season but this year we’re going at the very end … and going to Opening Day in Seattle! Should be a blast …
Seattle Sports Weekend
When my daughter first went off to college in Ohio I told her we’d do a daddy/daughter hockey trip at some point and go see the Lightning play the Columbus Blue Jackets. Then the pandemic happened and the NHL schedule never seemed to align with travel plans. When the 2022-2023 schedule was released last summer it looked like an Ohio away game just wasn’t in the cards so we decided to go a little farther: Seattle. My sister is still a Kraken season ticket holder so she came here to Tampa to see the Kraken play the Lightnig back in December (we won 6-2), and then my daughter and I flew out to Seattle last weekend to catch the Bolts in the Emerald City.