Sun, Fun and Baseball

We just got back from our annual Spring Training trip to Arizona.  We were there for 8 marvelous days and saw 8 games.  Pretty impressive considering I'm counting the day we flew home as a day and on Thursday we headed south to Tombstone.

We flew in on Saturday afternoon and headed off to Chase Field to see a WBC game after checking into our hotel.  It was pretty cool to watch Italy v US.  Thankfully the US won.  It was a little chilly on Saturday so we were happy that the game was inside.  Thankfully by Sunday the weather started getting warmer.  By Tuesday it was pretty damn hot to say the least.  While at Hohokam (winter home of the Chicago Cubs) we met the guy that runs the ballpark.  He told us that when the Cubs are playing away they are at Hohokam practicing and open the field up at 9:30 to fans so they can watch.  We went there on Monday and there were only a handful of fans.  It was awesome!  Mark also took us on the field and let us take a bunch of pictures in the dugouts, on 2nd base, on the pitchers mound.  What a great guy.

Thursday we decided to watch the Cubs practice and then head south to Tombstone.  It was a good 3 hour drive but it was worth it.  We got there a little late so we didn't get to go see all the shops but we did get to see the OK Corral and the Birdcage Theater.  J was super excited about the Birdcage Theater.  It's been known as one of the most haunted places in the US.  He was like a kid at Christmas when we found out they do a ghost tour at night.  We quickly signed up for the 8pm tour and then tried to figure out what to do to occupy our time for 3 hours.

The tour was pretty good.  The theater isn't that big so you did a lot of standing around while the tour guide told us stories of the Wild Wild West.  The tour is 1.5 hours long and for the last 30 minutes you're sitting in the dark on the stage.  We actually got about 45 minutes or so in the dark and it was probably the best part ever.  While sitting there I did have a few experiences.  They had a k2 meter on the table and I was watching the green light. All of a sudden I see a shadow in front of me that completely blocks out the light.  The shadow moves from the left to the right.  I got unbelievably cold and had goosebumps all over my arms and legs.  There was someone sitting on the other side of the table and they said they saw a shadow behind J, myself and the girl sitting next to me.  After about a minute the cold spot was gone and I was back to a normal temperature.

A little while later I heard an odd sound.  I thought it might be someone moving their feet on the floor but after I did that I realized that's not the sound I heard.  I couldn't quite figure out what the sound was.  When we got home on Saturday we pulled out the Ghost Hunters episode where they are at the Birdcage Theater. Imagine my surprise when I heard the same noise on the show.  They said it sounded like a deck of cards being shuffled and I immediately looked at J and said, "That's it!"  The sound I heard definitely sounded like a deck of cards.

All in all it was a great trip.  Can't wait for next year.