The Days Inn breakfast approaches realness and is slightly
nicer than most free continentals, offering actual protein
in the form of pork sausage, somewhat spongy but okay
tasting, and eggs that were among the creamiest I'd ever
had. Perhaps they blenderized the powder before cooking,
not that that's a bad thing. A good variety of breakfast
breads; fresh whole fruit; waffles via self-service maker;
Froot Loops and some flake cereal.

Mariners @ Cubs 3-0

This is the inaugural season of the new Cubs Park on Rio
Salado, and I was eager to check it out. Traditionally the
staffing for Cubs home games has been done by a local
fraternal/charitable group called the HoHoKams, and up
until last year the Cubs played at HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa,
but in the offseason they had a new park built also in
Mesa to replace the aging HoHoKam. Next year renovations
to HoHoKam will be complete, and the Athletics will move
there, leaving the rather nice Phoenix Municipal (the main
improvement to which, I would have thought, would have been
a better beer selection) to the local university.

We picked up our friend Carl at his house a couple miles
down the road and luckily got great parking not far from
the entrance to the new stadium. Tip: if you approach the
park from the east, via Rio Salado, you get better parking
than if you approach it from Dobson.

We found the friendly HoHoKams working here as though
nothing had happened. I didn't get a chance to ask what was
going to happen next year, whether they are going to stay
here or return to HoHoKam Stadium, or both. I made a quick
inquiry to see if my friend George was working this game but
after a round of people who didn't know who he was much less
if he was working, I tried no more, turning my attention to
beer first and what I could see of the game next.

There is an array of Goose Island products, inconveniently
sold at different places, so here (as many places) one has
to do a bit of scouting to find out what is to eat and drink
where. I started off with a fairly decent Honker's Ale, hard
to find, because the dominant Goose Island product in such
warm climates is 312, a nastyish wheat beer. I had to trek
out to behind the left field lawn to find it. When that was
gone, halfway through the game, I had an IPA, buyable closer
to home.

Otherwise this is a Busch house, and it is astonishing how
many of the palate-dead there are who persist in trying to
seek out Miller and Coors things. Folks, there's not much
difference, and your choices are being informed by the
Super Bowl ads.

Down the right field line is an area with food trucks - an
attempt to capitalize on the latest new thing. The two
places getting any kind of business were the Iowa Hawkeye
guy and his pork tenderloin sandwich (formerly seen at
Scottsdale Stadium I think), where the line was about 20
long, and the Green Chile Cafe, whose line was half that.

So I got tacos de carne asada for lunch, ordering mine as
hot as they could do, and Carl said make it two. I assess
the heat level as medium minus, and that combined with the
precooked nature of the meat downrated the food quite a
bit. I'd give it a gentleman's C, okay, C+. It came topped
with lots of cilantro and a bit of decent guacamole.

Speaking of home, I'd been in charge of hotels, with Swisher
taking care of the tickets, so in deference to my eyesight,
he got seats as close to the plate as available; this meant
that even though he chose seats on the third base side, we
were in the sun longer than he was comfortable with (I tan,
he burns), so every couple innings he would find a shady
spot to park for an inning and cool off. This time we were
well in front of any shelter, so our seats were in the sun
most of the game, and we wondered why such a new stadium
should have been built with such scanty overhang.

Oh yes, the game. Some stellar plays in the field, and on
the whole pretty good pitching. The visiting Mariners
blanked the home team by 3, new acquisition Robinson Cano
going 2 for 3 with a walk (I don't like him, but my friend
who works for the Mariners is high on him) and my old fave
Dustin Ackley went 3 for 4.

We picked up Carl's wife Ellen and all visited the Royal
Thai Grill, one of the great unsung restaurants in the
valley. Chuckie the proprietor greeted us with the news
that the door was busted again, so Carl the handy person
took a look at it and seems to have got it fixed.

We started with larb neua, fairly spicy, which came with
raw cabbage on the side to cut the strong flavors. It was
pretty good. This and the next dish came and went well with
sticky rice.

The pork jerky (cured with coriander, dried a bit, and then
deep fried) was very spicy and not a favorite at the table.
The others took a token strip of it and left the rest for
me, which I was fine with, and I polished it off after
dousing it with hot fishy sauce.

Catfish with basil as usual was delicious and came with
regular rice.

Chuckie suggested we get tofu with vegetables, as he thought
we were eating too much meat and fat. The rest of them ate
all the vegetables. I, the meatarian, got the tofu, which I
normally enjoy modestly but today was extra welcome as it
helped me rest my taste buds.

With a Singha a person, we spent maybe $12 or 13 each.

Back at the hotel, Swisher decided we needed more beer, so
off he went for six-packs. Presently he came back with a
twelve of Dos Equis for him and a twelve of ... Stella ...
for me. Luckily Stella, bad Belgian that it is, tastes more
like bad beer than Belgian beer.