Hail! Hail!

Previously, the boys' spring break has always been tied to Easter. So, for the past couple of years, their week off has fallen in April. This year our school district changed the calendar, but coming out to see spring training wasn't even on our radar until I heard my friend at work talking about her plans to come see her San Francisco Giants, which started the trip-planning wheels turning.  

Besides coming to watch the Cubs, we were also interested in seeing the Angels/Dodgers game at Camelback Ranch, partly because the Angels are R's adopted west coast team and partly because our friends who came along with us are a family with split loyalties. Something for everyone, win-win!

Today's weather forecast was for rain. When I called the stadium to check on the status, the woman answered the phone with, "Camelback Ranch. The game is on." Question answered - guess we're going, no matter what.

We arrived around 11:30 and were met with a short burst of rain mixed with hail. But it quickly cleared up...

The kids made a beeline to the baseline wall to try for autographs

While I was taking pictures of the stadium, I heard someone calling out my name. I turned to look and was surprised to see my neighbor from down the street. Too funny that we traveled 400+ miles to see each other! They are also a house divided - the other half of the family was waiting on the Dodger side for autographs.

Unfortunately, since the Angels were the visiting team, they didn't take time to sign autographs, so the 3 Angel fans were disappointed. However, the lone Dodger fan in the pic waited with crowd on the 3rd base side and was rewarded with Fernando Valenzuela's and Matt Kemp's autographs. Jealous!

By time the game was underway, the sun was out and shining. Albert Pujols hit 3rd in the Angel's lineup and got a stand-up double in his first at-bat. The boys (and our wallets) were even happier about the $1 hot dogs. Standing in line for them, however, was another story...

Three hours and 5 innings later, the skies darkened again, with more hail than rain this time. The temperature dropped so fast! If we had been in Illinois, I would have been listening for tornado sirens. Game over.

We waited a bit for the crowds to thin before leaving the stadium and eventually made our way to the yogurt place that was handing out coupons after the game.

For dinner, we wanted to try out Joe's Farm Grill, a restaurant that had been featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins & Dives. It started to rain hard again on our way there, but this beautiful double rainbow was worth it!

R had their fontina burger (featured on the show), the kids had cheese grilled pizza, and I had a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with a side of onion rings (also featured). Very tasty!

The boys have autograph fever, so it looks like we will be trying to get tickets to tomorrow afternoon's Cubs/Mariners game back at the Peoria Sports Complex. And we will get to see some college friends who live in the area tomorrow night! Yeah!