A few weeks ago, my son Eric treated me to a weekend in Phoenix. We stayed at a luxury downtown hotel and after checking in we walked to Chase Field and had dinner before the Dodgers/Diamondback game. There is a TGI Fridays located in the upper deck of the left field corner. The food is reasonably good and well priced considering it is inside a ball park where prices tend to be a bit high.
Anyway, it was a lovely evening, not very warm, so they rolled the stadium roof back just before the game started. We had good seats and rooted hard for the hometown team to win…not because we like the D’Backs, but because we are both SF Giants fans..and our second favorite team is anyone playing the Dodgers. Alas, it was not to be as the Dodger’s rolled over the local boys. They really are not very good this year.
Of course, the real point of this weekend was not baseball or luxury hotels…it was to be with my son and bond once again while we did some of our favorite things together. Eric and I are very close as I raised him by myself from age 9 on. Probably it is more accurate to say that we raised each other.
From the game, we walked back to our hotel. On the way I took this photo of the Phoenix Convention Center all lit up at night. I can easily recommend downtown Phoenix as a beautiful and enjoyable destination, especially at night.
After getting back to our hotel, we got out of the elevator on the wrong floor…and discovered a beautiful outdoor pool and patio area with great views of Phoenix. We then went up to our room and made a batch of Manhattans…our beverage of choice for the evening (two parts high quality Rye Whisky to one part high quality Sweet Vermouth with a dash of bitters and topped off with a maraschino cherry). I brought all the fixin’s from home.
With drinks in hand we went back to the pool/patio area and sat and talked the rest of the evening away. I did have to go back upstairs once to make another batch as we were having a great time…all the while looking at Phoenix all lit up at night. What was really great was we had the entire place to ourselves and the weather was perfect. Magical moments like this don’t come around very often.
Around midnight we headed downstairs to the bar to sample a different beverage or two and some midnight snack food. From there, it was back upstairs to our room to crash.
In the morning we decided against the $18 pancakes the hotel was offering and found a great little bakery across the street that made simple breakfasts for a reasonable price. Sadly, from there, we had to part ways as Eric had to get back to Yuma to prepare his very best dress uniform for an important visitor from Washington DC the next day. I don’t know if I ever mentioned here that Eric is in the Border Patrol Intelligence Division.
I don’t know if I can ever put into words how great this weekend was. Bonding with my son while enjoying some of the best scenery that Phoenix has to offer. It was magical and the memories will stay with me as long as I live. A special time with a special guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment