A tourist at home

Last Wednesday Elliott and I were tourists in our own city with our out-of-town company, Cathy and Mike.  We made sure to leave extra early for stop #1: a tour of the University of Phoenix stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals.

An hour was still not enough time though, because we got delayed by this awful mess of an accident on the freeway.

A truck carrying thousands of oranges flipped over and spread the oranges all over the freeway. 

I had called Michael at work when traffic came to a halt and asked him to look at the traffic cameras.  He said he could see the backup and it must have been a bad accident because they had sprayed orange stuff all over the freeway- probably orange foam to soak up something that spilled, like gasoline.  It was hilarious to call him back and report that it was not orange foam but was, in fact, oranges. 

We got to the tour about five minutes late and I apologized to the guide and explained that we were delayed by thousands of oranges on the freeway.  Everybody looked at me like I was a big liar until two guys arrived twenty minutes late and explained they were late because of thousands of oranges on the freeway.  Only then was I not a crazy lady telling fake stories about oranges. 

The tour was wonderful.  I don't care one bit about football, but I can appreciate learning about the team and the stadium.  

Here are 8 thousand pictures from the tour.  Enjoy. 

When the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority was first authorized for the sole purpose of creating the stadium they made a major mistake and picked a location in the flight path of the airport.  Oops.  They were ridiculed by everyone.  And then they picked the current location in Glendale and the joke was on everyone else because it's dang far away. 

There was an RV show going on that day. 

In case you don't know, the grass for football games is kept outside.  They bring it inside on game day. 

I thought this warning was funny.  Totally not official looking at all for such a serious injury waiting to happen. 

The cardinals locker room is completely off limits to everybody.  We only saw the outside door. 

We got to go in the visitors locker room though. 

There were 6.2 million showers.  Rooms and rooms of showers.  

Press box

The tour started and ended by the giant number 2.

The E is for "east" but I forced Elliott, against his will, to take a picture with it so it could be for "Elliott".

After the stadium tour we ate lunch at Which Which and then went to Michael's office.  Then we went to downtown Phoenix to see the capitol.  We started with the veteran's memorial across the street 

There is a new Veterans Hall of Fame display in the capitol museum.  My dad's name is on here. 

We walked through the whole museum with Elliott leading the way. 

Cathy and Mike's 2017 Christmas card?

I was an intern for the Senate when they passed a bill making the two tailed swallowtail butterfly the official butterfly for the state of Arizona.  I wrote the fact sheet for the bill. 

After the capitol we went to get some ice cream.  I wanted to take them somewhere local and this was the best we could do.  The location was sketchy.  The ice cream was good. 

It was served in Chinese takeout containers, which was somewhat weird.  Elliott got lime, which was also somewhat weird, but he insisted. 

I got coffee. 

At home that evening Cathy helped me make dinner by peeling potatoes.  I seem to always put her on potato peeling duty when she visits. 

Action shot that wasn't posed at all.

After dinner we left all the boys at home and Cathy and I went to Ross.  She had never been to a Ross because the closest one to NH is in NJ.  That is almost a crime.  

We both found some gems to purchase.  I tried it on, but I did not purchase this dress because, while it was cute, the stripes didn't line up and there was a somewhat noticeable flaw in the fabric on the back. 

I considered buying these converse because the pattern was awesome, but the toe part was intentionally made to look dirty and I just couldn't handle it. 

And that is day one of being a tourist at home. 

Day 2: we leave the county and head north.