Sibling visit part 1 (a Lions/ Cardinals football game weekend with a Detroit W!)

So, the Detroit Lions are finally good.

I don’t want to say I’ve waited my entire life for this… but I was born in the 80s. I’ve waited my entire life for this.

I was super excited when I found out the Lions would be playing the Cardinals here in Arizona.

Whenever any of my Detroit teams play here in the greater Phoenix area (aka “the Valley”), I try to make it out. I’ve been lucky enough to see the Red Wings play the Coyotes (RIP) and to see the Tigers play the Diamondbacks, so I was really excited when the Lions announced a visit to Arizona on their 2024-2025 season schedule.

Clearly, I’m not really a basketball fan.

I had a small moment of panic when I realized I would be gone for most of this fall and might miss that appearance… but the timing ended up working out and the game was scheduled for a weekend I would be home in Arizona.

I offhandedly mentioned to my siblings that I was planning on going and they both decided to fly out for the game and make a weekend out of it, which was awesome!

My brother David has visited a few times — his work brings him to the Valley quite a bit, but my sister Kelly hadn’t been able to make it out for a visit yet.

David bought us (and Ryan) tickets and both of my siblings booked their flights, and then finally, the weekend arrived.

David’s flight got in first. He arrived in Flagstaff late Thursday night.

Our Friday was pretty chill. We spent the day doing some work from my apartment, then went to Wildflower for lunch. We took Ochi for a walk around Buffalo Park, then when Ryan got home from work, we went to Lumberyard for dinner and Pay N Take for drinks.

We woke up Saturday, and grabbed brunch at Martanne’s while Ryan worked. After brunch, we dropped Ochi off with Ryan’s parents and drove down to the Valley.

We picked my sister up at Sky Harbor, and then went to Culinary Dropout for drinks and dinner.

Afterward, we went to our hotel to check in.

We picked the Aloft near Westgate because we knew we wanted to be able to walk to the stadium from our hotel.

We had a mildly hilarious mishap at check-in. We’d booked two rooms: A two-bed room for myself, Ryan and Kelly, and a single room for David.

Because David and I both have the same last name, the receptionist first gave his room keys to me, Ryan and Kelly. We walked into the room and almost died laughing because we were greeted with a single king bed and a bathroom without any doors or curtains.

Luckily, we went back to the lobby and got everything straightened out.

A quick note if you ever book an Aloft hotel — the rooms are modern and minimalist with an open concept, so our bathroom had a curtain instead of a traditional door. The toilet is behind a heavy sliding door, but a curtain separates the main room from the vanity and shower, so if you’re hoping for traditional hotel accommodations, don’t book an Aloft!

We panicked initially when we went to David’s room and were greeted with no curtain separating the bathroom from the sleeping area, but the two-bed design was fine for us.

We woke up on Sunday (game day!) and got ready. Kelly, Ryan and myself went to grab coffee while David slept in.

After David woke up, we walked over to First Watch for brunch. I had the breakfast sandwich (I subbed smoked salmon for the bacon) which was excellent.

Then, game time! We walked across several parking lots to get to State Farm Stadium before going through security, grabbing our drinks and finding out seats.

There was a LOT of Honolulu Blue in the stadium. I was actually pretty surprised!

I remarked to Ryan that I was shocked that fans seemed to be a 50/50 split between Cardinals and Lions, and Ryan was a little surprised as well.

He said that, while Arizona games are usually pretty heavily-attended by the opposing team’s fans, Cardinals games are usually the exception.

That didn’t seem to be the case this past weekend, because our section was FILLED with Lions fans, and there were a lot of “JA-RED GOFF” and “LET’S GO LIONS” chants.

There was very audible booing when the Cardinals entered the field, and a huge uproar when the Lions scored. It was strange, but very cool!

The Lions took home a win, too, which is also strange but very cool.

After the game, we walked back to our car. We stopped at Jet’s Pizza for a snack (of course) and then made our way back up to Flagstaff.

Once we got to Flagstaff, we went to Dark Sky for drinks and snacks, and then called it a night.

You can read part two of my brother and sister’s visit here, but I just wanted to force you all to savor this Lions win with me while it’s still fresh.