Surprise! Arizona

.Jodi:  We got home yesterday from a week in Peoria, Az

Who wants to go enjoy some warm weather and spring training baseball games???  This girl!

We got to visit with this little lady.  Grandma (my dad's mom) has a house out in Peoria which we all gather at as often as possible...  usually once a year in the spring.  My aunt and I both sequestered ourselves to this house for a week before our respective CFP exams, and we both passed.  Could it be our vast intelligence or the calm and relaxing Arizona breezes?  I just don't know.  But this a great place to get away, enjoy nature and chill out for a while.

                             

Randy and I are huge Phillies fans, and my family ranges from the Phillies to the Pirates to the Twins.  We become Cactus League fans temporarily every spring.  We know what side our bread is buttered on.

This year was close to the end of the season, so we only caught one game:  The Mariners and the Rockies.  It was pretty cool because we got to see Ichiro bat...

And our boy, Jamie Moyer, pitch!  We didn't even know he would be pitching until Dad saw him with his binoculars.  Still as great as ever.

A little side story:  Our first day there, Randy and I ran out to Target to pick up some food and supplies for the week, and Randy saw....  a Wienerschnitzel.  German fast food?  Randy was intrigued.  My family lived for a short time in San Diego, so while it was not out of the ordinary for me to see one, I had never been there either, and we decided to check it out.

For those of you who find Wienerschnitzel commonplace, I apologize.  It was like a tourist destination for us.  I even snapped pictures.  The locals probably thought I was nuts...  and they wouldn't be wrong.

Wienerschnitzel has chili burgers, hotdogs and fries.  Not really authentic German food like Randy thought, but still pretty good.  Totally worth ruining lunch over.  They even had my favorite hot dog ever  **dun dun dunnnnn** the Chicago dog.  For those of you who do not know the greatness of the Chicago dog, it is a beef hotdog with tomatoes, sweet relish, a dill pickle, mustard, celery salt and peppers.  Our friend, Lizzie, got me hooked on them when we visited her in Chicago a couple of years ago.  This one was no exception.  I wouldn't go eating them every day (What would Will Clower of the Mediterranean diet say?  I'm pretty sure hot dogs are faux foods) but gosh was it good.

We were there at a great time.  Although our fruit trees did not have a good year (grapefruit the size of golfballs, mini lemons and no oranges at all due to a really dry winter), the prickly pear was in full bloom.  So gorgeous, but you have to watch out.  These beauties bite!  I couldn't resist taking a ton of pictures, and I only got one cactus needle in my leg.

This is the view from the back yard.  Woodpeckers and other birds make their homes in cactuses like trees.

There is a golf course adjacent to the back yard, where golfers take pot shots at poodles.  Specifically poodles.

The lemon trees had these wonderful little flowers on them that smell divine.  I wish this was a scratch-n-sniff blog so I could share it with you all.  Light, like the prettiest perfume you've ever smelled.

Stay tuned!  What is a trip to Arizona without an Arizona lemon cake, a history-making sports event and a trip to a vortex?