We took advantage of some free flight vouchers from Frontier (thanks to an unexpected overnight stay in Cleveland last year after a canceled flight) and popped down to Phoenix for a long weekend of sun and fun. We also wanted to add another MLB stadium to our list, and even though there is a roof on Chase Field, we thought we should go down there before the heat of the summer really kicked in.
After a short flight on Friday afternoon and a Lyft to the hotel, we were trying to decide what to do with our free evening. We had the TV on in the room and we were relaxing and enjoying the AC, and happened to see a commercial for a Cirque du Soleil show that was going to be in town. We are huge Cirque du Soleil fans, and have seen many different shows across the country. A quick Google search later, and we had scored discount tickets for Amaluna that night! Aly was excited to hear it was a show that we had not yet seen.
A 30 minute Uber ride that evening, and we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Brewery in the shopping center near the show. Aly was able to play around in a little splash pad area for the shopping center, where many families and children were playing on a beautiful spring evening. We walked over to the circus tents, snagged a quick souvenir headband for Aly, and settled in for the pre-show clowns. The clowns at a Cirque show have their own story within the story and are usually the most memorable part for Aly. To this day, she is still copying part of their act at home from this show! As usual, the acrobatics and theatrics were amazing. We also loved the music for the show, which was an all female rock band with electric guitars (though somehow Aly fell asleep for the last 20 minutes of the show, despite the rock!)
The next day, we spent a while playing in the pool at the hotel, and then grabbed some lunch to go and had a picnic in the grass near the hotel and a water area for Aly to splash around in. After some serious games of tag, we were ready to go to the ballgame. We took the light rail over to Chase Field and got there in time to check out the cool kid’s play area near the outfield and Aly got to meet with Baxter the Bobcat, the mascot for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After walking around Chase Field, we did actually get to sit in our seats and watch a little bit of the game (Aly is more into the walking around part). They even opened the roof once the sun went down-sweet! We love trying a food that is specific to each ballpark when we go to new stadiums, and for Chase Field, we were all ready to get a Churro Dog! This crazy monstrosity is a chocolate long john donut, with a churro in the middle and then covered with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Whaaaaa?!? When we got to the churro dog stand, we were informed that they had run out of donuts-um, excuse me??? So, we had a churro ice cream sundae instead, and though we were slightly disappointed, we still managed to eat the sundae and I’m pretty sure Aly licked the chocolate sauce up when we were done.
The next morning, we got up and had a little swimming time before leaving the hotel. We walked over to Taco Guild, a gourmet taco restaurant in an old converted church. The food was delicious, and the venue was really cool, but the service was slooooow, so we shoveled our food in and called the Uber to the airport. This was a fun, warm little getaway weekend, and it was nice to get our game in there before the summer heat came to Phoenix. Overall, we really liked Chase Field and it has probably been one of the nicer stadiums we have been to so far.
