"Let's Ask These Locals."

For those that don't follow MLB (Major League Baseball), Spring Training is currently upon us. The Phoenix metroplex is flooded with visitors for half of the MLB's Spring Training and hotel, timeshare and condo owners are quite happy...it's Phoenix's peak rates, occupancies and "red weeks." (for those familiar with timeshare lingo) Spring Training is divided into the Cactus League hosted here in a few cities in the Valley of the Sun (and Tucson) and the Grapefruit League hosted in 14 cities of the Sunshine State: Florida. (notice the common element...SUN...especially during March and technically still winter!)

We live less than one mile from the Surprise Stadium, home of Spring Training for the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals. (Ironically, the two MLB teams that we lived closest to before moving to AZ!) So it's tough but we are surrounded by baseball players temporarily living in Surprise for a couple months as well as all the other teams in the Cactus League rotating through and playing games at the Surprise Stadium...the sacrifices a girl makes to support her husband. :D

Saturday was a gorgeous day and Walt and I simultaneously had the idea to take a walk. We walked to a park behind our library which is across the street from the stadium. As we were walking back, we could see the rush of people parking and trekking across the parking lot for the Saturday afternoon game. We were crossing the street and heard, "I don't know where it's at. Let's ask these locals."

I was caught off guard. Me? Us? Locals? Here? Well, yeah, I guess we are! We realized that we've been living here for 19 months now which is just over half the time we were in Texas! Having made it through 1.5 summers here and heading into the next, we're no longer newbies. Feels good! (and thankfully, we were able to answer the question!)