Phoenix, Joshua Tree

Our stay in Phoenix was quick and hot. We got in just before the game in time to check into our sweet hotel that Andy had booked earlier from the pub. We walked the ½ mile to the stadium at 6:30pm in the 109 degree heat to get to the indoor, air conditioned stadium. This has been my first experience watching a baseball game in a dome, and it was a really weird feeling. I can’t describe it, but I’ve played and watched baseball every year for the past 18 years, and it was just different. According to Ben and Andy, it was set up exactly like Miller Park in Milwaukee. They said it was pretty much a replica, even down to the Friday’s in upper left field. However, one thing that was different was a pool out in the right center field section that you could buy tickets to. It seems appropriate that they have this considering the temperature outside. I could have used a swim just by the time we took the 5 minute walk to the stadium. It was a nice stadium with a retractable roof (which was closed because of the temperature), and a giant HD scoreboard in center field. I hear it doesn’t come close to rivaling the jumbotron of Kansas City’s park, but it was still nice. After the game, we went to an Irish pub a couple blocks away from the stadium and eventually made our way back to the hotel.

Thursday, we took our time waking up and checking out before beginning our trip back to LA. We drove through the Mojave Desert which was filled with flat, straight roads that extended to the horizon. We decided to camp out at Joshua Tree National Park for the night. Going into it, we had no idea what was so special about Joshua Tree. All I knew is that there were cool rock formations and they went there in Entourage (a TV show on HBO). We didn’t even know what a Joshua Tree was, and when we asked the Ranger at the visitor’s center he looked at us like we had three heads (each). We stopped a few times on our drive to the campground at skull rock and other places. “Cool rock formations” was certainly an understatement, as we quickly found out how amazing these piles of rocks were. Some were shaped like skulls, whales, an arch, while others were just in enormous mounds that made for the perfect adult jungle gym. We ended up driving through forests full of Joshua Tree’s as we made our way up to Ryan Peak - the highest point in the National Park - for the sunset. We then returned to our campsite which was tucked away amidst the huge rocks of the National Park.

The next morning (Friday), we began the trip back to Los Angeles. As we drove through Joshua Tree back to the highway, we noticed that as soon as we left a certain part of the National Park, the vegetation changed. In a 4 mile span, it went from a forest of Joshua Tree’s and rock formations, to fields full of cactus and other plants.