Spring Break 2026 - Scottsdale

Let’s start with how this trip almost didn’t happen. It was 2 weeks before my own spring break, and I always thought people who leave early were turds when we are given 10 days - take your vacation then! But this opportunity came up to go to Arizona, and I know Kyle will be leaving before too long - so hypocritically, I went, and it was the very best decision. Props go out to my tremendous wife - she did the planning and bought the tickets, etc.

We left on Friday, March 20th - flight leaving at 830pm. With all of the TSA madness, we knew we had to get there early, but surprisingly, it went pretty quickly, unless you take into account my full tube of toothpaste I lost before they would let me onto the concourse. Details.

Our flight was delayed, so we knew it was going to be really close when we tried to make our connecting flight out of Las Vegas. The flight attendants told us they were going to try to make up some time in-flight, so I guess they had us zooming up there because we made our connection to Phoenix with no problems. Well, maybe some problems.

When we landed, we were subjected to airport tram hell. Long waits, having to get off the tram before we wanted to, just to experience more long-wait fun. All this with the knowledge that it was 2 am or so Indianapolis time - I know I wanted to claw the eyes out of someone’s face. But we eventually went to the hotel and bedded down.

It was a rough wakeup - Kyle decided to get up early, turn on all the lights, and blast Joe Rogan while showering. It was totally delightful. Keep this in mind, because it will come back later in our story. (Not the Joe Rogan, the lack of sleep stuff)

Ate breakfast at this cool little place next to the hotel, but our ‘issue’ today was that we were not going to be able to get into our VRBO till 7 pm. So, there was a lot of time to burn. We headed towards Scottsdale to see what adventures we might get into.

First of all, I had to get used to a totally different color palette. Brown, just brown. And there were some really cool vistas.

Blue skies, lots and lots of blue skies. In fact, it was noteworthy when I saw a cloud. We were told at one point that it had not rained in over a month. Seems like we don’t go for more than 5 minutes between rain in Indy.

We strolled around Phoenix for a while. Went to a Japanese garden with koi ponds (Kyle really liked the fish) and pretty flowers. After that we went to this really cool little bakery where Kyle and Jason stuffed themselves with great bread and pastries.

We drove to Scottsdale. Not far - in fact, there was hardly a time when we got in the car where the ride was more than 20-30 minutes. When we got to Scottsdale, we just started driving around trying to get a feel for the place. The feel, understatedly, was crowded. Lots and lots of people. We tried to go to one of the malls and drove forever looking for a parking spot. Annoying.

While experiencing this little endeavor, the boys were showing how tired they were. They did this by acting like asses. Look, I get it - I am tired too, but have to suck it up. Managed to go get dinner and some small groceries, and then headed to the VRBO.

The house was amazing. There were so many things for the boys to do there that we really didn’t have to worry about taking them anywhere. It was just such a nice place and big enough that we all had our space if you needed to get away for a few. The kitchen in particular was really nice. It made it easy to make food for everyone.

We went to bed early so we could get a good start on going to the baseball games. It was my first time seeing a spring training game in Arizona, and boy, did it not disappoint.

It was so great watching games in March. The one mistake I made was that I chose to watch the Cubs. It has come to my attention that there are Cubs fans literally everywhere. So there were tons of people at this game. Not the most relaxed situation for sure.

The A’s/White Sox game was far more relaxed. Fewer people, less chaos. This was great, though - at one point I looked up, and Kyle was sitting right behind the plate - something that would not have been possible at the Cubs game. Even better, Jason was able to get a ball after trying for 4 innings or so. Overall such a really good time.

On the way home from the game, we stopped at this go-kart/video game place where we played in a huge virtual reality game. Oestreichs and Boyds teamed up against zombies. Was really great…expensive, but really great. That night we went home and hung out together, made dinner, swam and lazed around.

The following day, Libby and Jason went horseback riding while Kyle and I played golf. Golf in AZ can be tremendously expensive, but I found a course that was not that bad. He and I rented clubs and went hacking. Surprisingly, Kyle played really well and was beating me through the first couple of holes. I was patient, and when he slowed down a little, it allowed me to pass him up and eventually win. But it was far too close for comfort.

Of course, I won.

Overall, it was an amazing trip. I would go back in a second.