Spring Training 2018 + A Winner

Kevin & I headed to Scottsdale, Arizona a couple weekends ago for SF Giants Spring Training.
 
This is something we have always wanted to do. We love baseball & we love the Giants :)

 We are Hyatt members & have Hyatt points, so whenever we travel we try and stay at a Hyatt property. For this trip we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Spa at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale.
We flew out early Friday evening & when we arrived there was live music playing in our hotel lobby!

 We were starving, so we put our stuff in the room and headed back to the lobby area to listen to the band & have dinner. 

 The live band was in the lobby/bar area which was all outdoor & open. It was really cool.

 We got chips & queso

 And fish tacos!

It was a nice relaxing night!

On Saturday we woke up, had coffee, walked around the grounds at the hotel to check it out during the daytime.
{This was March 10th, so some of the photos were posted on my 10 on 10 post HERE.}

 I loved seeing all the catci and desert plants.

 The hotel grounds were so pretty.

 Then we went on a 3 mile run.

 After our run we got ready & then walked to breakfast.
We went to Hash Kitchen. It was AWESOME. It was also loud, there is a DJ inside playing fun music. We sat outside because we wanted to enjoy the nice weather.
Tons of Spring Training baseball fans were at this place having brunch.
There is a bloody mary bar:

 Our food was so good.

 Then we grabbed an Uber & went to Scottsdale Stadium to see the Giants play the Angels.

Yeah! Finally at Spring Training!

 We had seats along the first base line.

 It was an overcast day, but it was still warm.

 Then around the 7th inning it started to lightly drizzle. I thought that would be the perfect time to go check out the Giants Dugout store & get some presents for our kids.

 Luke already has the Night Before Baseball book, but I bought the other 2 books for the girls.

I bought Luke a Lou Seal Plush & some baseball cards :)

Then we finished watching the rest of the game. Giants won!

After the game, we headed to the front by the parking lot & it's right by where the players come out of the locker rooms and get into the team vans.

 They had the closest section roped off for just kids to stand. Note to self: Bring our kids next time so that they can get player autographs & pictures with the players.

Hi Brandon Crawford!!!!

 After the game we took an Uber back to the hotel (we didn't rent a car this weekend, we just took Uber everywhere)

We got ready  & headed back to Old Town Scottsdale for dinner. It was so fun seeing all the bars with team flags. There were so many SF Giants bars. There were also some Chicago Cubs bars. It reminded me of Wrigleyville. It also made me feel old....there were tons of college kids on their Spring Break and we saw several bachelor/bachelorette parties in this area of Old Town Scottsdale.

We walked around for a long time trying to figure out where to eat.

 The place we planned on going was closed for a private party.

Most restaurants had long waits because of the Spring Training crowd.

Old Town Scottsdale is pretty...each street has twinkle lights, I loved it.

 We ended up going to Rehab Burger.

 It was delicious!

 We got back to our hotel & there was a Food Truck parked in front...a Scookie Food Truck.

 A scookie is a cookie baked in a skillet & then you get to choose your ice cream flavor & toppings. It's pretty much like a pizookie.

The next morning we woke up and the sun was shining!

We found a breakfast spot about 1.5 miles form our hotel so we decided to go on a run there.

The breakfast spot is Butters Pancakes & Cafe.

There was a 45 minute wait, but we just sat by the fountain with our coffee & enjoyed the nice weather.

 The food was amazing. We both got omelets & a side of pancakes.

 The cinammon roll pancakes were to die for!

After breakfast, we walked back to the hotel. Loved all the palm trees lining the streets.
We had a few hours to kill before the baseball game, so we headed to the pool!

This was the adult pool, so we mostly hung out here since our kids weren't with us.

 I read THIS book...SO good! 

Ahh...love the peace & quiet of the adult pool :)

 The hotel had 6 other pools, so we took a break from reading & walked around to check out the other pools.

 Our kids would have loved all these pools

 The pools weren't that crowded because I think most people were at Spring Training games.

Our kids would have really loved this fun waterslide:

 You better believe Kevin and I went down this slide!

It was so fun! View from the top of the slide looking at the pool:

 View from the top of the slide looking the other direction at the lake:

Another pool:

 I also loved checking out more cacti & desert plants around the pool areas:

 I really loved the landscaping.

 This cactus was my favorite:

 View from adult pool looking back at hotel courtyard:

 Catcus overload:

 After lounging by the pool for a couple hours we headed back to Scottsdale Stadium for another Giants game vs the San Diego Padres:
 

It was a nice sunny day at the ballpark:

 Our new right fielder McCutchen who we got from the Pirates in the off season

Pablo Sandaval...aka Panda. Glad the Giants are giving him yet another chance.

 Go Giants!

 The Giants ended up winning this game also!

 We had a great time at Spring Training.
The only bummer part was that our flight got delayed until 10pm!
We got a text notification while we were at the game, so we were able to go back to the hotel listen to the live band and have a glass of wine while we waited. Much better than sitting at the airport being delayed :)

 We would definitely go to Spring Training again. Next time we go, I will bring the kids. I think they would love it.
I would also go for longer than a weekend...maybe a long weekend so we could have more pool time :)
And, next time I would like to go check out other teams stadiums and see a game there. I think it would be fun to go to the Cubs Spring Training Stadium, Colorado Rockies or the Oakland A's.
We love the Giants, but we also love the game of baseball, so I think it would be fun to check out other teams in Spring Training as well.

So excited that baseball season is upon us....Opening Day is just a few days away.
Go Giants!

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The Winner of the $100 Trader Joe's Gift Card is:
Suzanne M.
Congrats! Send me an email or leave a comment to claim your prize!