Hello MLB fans!!

After what felt like years in NM (only because it was literally freezing there) we once again pointed our home south and arrived back in AZ for spring training!!  We had to allow for a quick trip home to close on our house we had for 17 years and then it was a flight back to warm and sun and SPRING TRAINING BASEBALL, Cactus League style!!  :)  The Gilliams are huge baseball fans.  We have taken a trip to Cooperstown, we count "Major League", "Litte Big League", "The Sandlot" and many other baseball movies among our all time favorites.  So, it is fitting that Spring Training baseball has been on our bucket list.  The kid is a baseball fan as well (of course) so she managed to take in a few games with us in between classes.  Such a great way to spend family time!  Our goal was to hit all the stadiums in the league.  This was a fun task and it helped a little bit because a few of the clubs share a stadium.  We traveled a little bit for a few of the games.  Some of the fields were about an hour and half away and a few were only within 10-20 minutes.  I managed to get some pictures to document our time.  Gary was a Stub Hub machine, scouting the stadiums before hand to see where the shade would be (important since the temps reached 100 or so for some of the games) and unbeknownst to us until we got to the games a few times, we got some of the best seats in the house! We sat right behind the Angel's dugout at their field, right behind home plate at The Tribe's field and a couple of the games we got to sit in the VIP areas thanks to knowing the right people.  ;) We never did catch a fly ball but we did manage to pick up a Nolan Ryan jersey signed by him!  WOOHOO!!

The teams in the Cactus League are:

San Francisco Giants

Los Angeles Dodgers

Los Angeles Angels

Chicago Cubs

Chicago White Socks

Texas Rangers

Oakland A's

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

Milwaukee Brewers

Seattle Mariners

Cleveland Indians

Cincinnati Reds

Kansas City Royals

San Diego Padres

Gary's favorite team is The Mets, mine is The Yankees and Taylor's is The Phillies but we all managed to always have a team to root for despite none of our team's being in this league.  The reasoning for rooting for a certain team was pretty funny some of the games.  For instance, Tay and I rooted for the Brewers because we liked their little doggy stuffed pet mascot in their team store.  :) I rooted for The Tribe because I love the movie "Major League".  We all rooted for The Mariners because their catcher is Carlos Ruiz (aka Chooch) who started with the Phillies back in the day when we would go watch the Phillies at least once a year.  :)  We had such a great time!!  For sure a memory that will be cherished forever!!  Can't wait for next year!!  :)

Freezing Santa Fly Away

We just got back to Mesa yesterday after 10 freezing days in Santa Fe (Santa Fly Away) and I couldn't be happier!  While Santa Fe is beautiful and has some really cool things and areas, I would not recommend it in February.  Our first day there was beautiful, about 70 degrees and sunny.  We took advantage of the weather and drove out to Bandelier National Park.  It may be one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  Standing on ancient ground, staring up at the canyon walls and just imagining what it looked like it in its heyday with around 2,000 people living there really made me appreciate what I have today.
Did I mention "fly away"?  The reason I call it that is after that first day, the wind set in.....and stayed.  And with it came the frigid temperatures.  We managed to do some fun things but we stuck close to home and the car.  In addition to Bandelier, we also saw Pecos (another ancient Native American site), St. Francis of Assissi Basilica, the old Loretto Chapel (the one that is famous for its winding staircase that is still under debate as to how it was built), the little town of Madrid (that was featured in the movie "Wild Hogs), an art collective called Meow Wolf and we took another heavenly food tour with our new friend, Carlos.  Lastly, we drove up to Taos, visited the ski hill (no, we did not ski) but stayed the night in the cute little town.  Whew! No wonder I am tired!  ;)
Since I haven't really talked about our food tour, I will highlight that.  We first met Carlos while staying in ABQ where we took a food tour there.  Carlos was our guide.  Carlos is a trained chef who practiced his skill in Tucson and then Santa Fe.  He is a very personable and beautiful human who loves to share all his knowledge of food and the area with his clients.  Our tour in ABQ was amazing and the restaurants were SO good and we became fast friends with Carlos, which made us look forward to the next time we could meet up in Santa Fe.
Can I just say, OMG??!!! We have been on food tours in many places in the US and Italy and this was my favorite by far!! Everyone says Santa Fe is a place for Foodies and they are absolutely right!  The most fun thing about this tour was meeting the chefs at all the restaurants we went to.  Because Carlos was discovered in Santa Fe where he was a chef, he knows pretty much all the chefs in town.  That is how we got to meet them.  They each gave us a tour of their restaurant and one of them invited us for a quick look at the kitchen.  SO MUCH FUN!! The night ended at a restaurant where they have a piano man.  He is a Julliard trained pianist who has been with the restaurant for 30+ years.  The whole experience was just breathtaking.  I can't recommend Carlos and Food Tour New Mexico enough!