In February, the phrase “pitchers and catchers report” signals the start of Spring Training. That’s great news for baseball fans and for hotels in those areas.

According to Jill Skeen, director of sales and marketing at the Hilton Suites Phoenix, “The month of March is historically the busiest month for our hotel, in large part from Spring Training and Spring Fever. Everyone from the cold destinations is looking for an opportunity to warm up after a long winter season.”

Five years ago, I did just that. A few friends and I left the frozen tundra of Chicago and headed for the sunny environs of Mesa to see our beloved Cubs get ready for the season. Of course, five years ago, times were a bit different.

With baseball tickets becoming hot commodities and the economy changing, the demographics of the crowds changed a bit, too. Spring Training isn’t just for the “spring break” crowd.

Top-quality hotels, such as the Hilton, have addressed the situation. Skeen said, “We believe in general that the Spring Training crowd is looking for overall value in a convenient location when they are making their hotel selections. We specifically built our package with this philosophy in mind.” The Hilton package includes an upgrade to a two-room suite, the exclusive Hilton Sunrise breakfast buffet for two each morning and a special “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”-themed welcome basket and complimentary self parking.

I applaud that type of added value, especially considering the shift to a more affluent crowd. I know a couple of people who are headed for Spring Training next week as part of work conferences, and they have both chosen higher quality for their stay, as have their co-workers, because of added-value packages.

As I discussed in last week’s blog, quality is needed in these tough times. There are enough hotels everywhere that I do not have to give a second chance to a bad one. It is important for each hotel to grab the customer and keep the customer.

Considering everything, I wondered how things were this year in the Arizona Spring Training area. Skeen answered that by stating, “We are feeling a significant push in our leisure transient occupancy March 2010 versus March 2009.” Hopefully, the Cubs will also experience that feeling.

– John Wroblewski, distribution specialist

Last Sunday, after spending the weekend in Portland, we headed back home, driving south down I-5 to our home less than 50 miles from the California border. Interstates aren’t generally my primary choice for scenic drives, but exceptions are certainly out there (for instance, I-84 through the Columbia Gorge — which I described in a couple of blogs late last fall), and weather and the time of year can certainly add to the visual interest and drama of what might otherwise be a — forgive the pun — rather pedestrian excursion.  That afternoon journey was such a case in point as we traveled through the Willamette Valley in all its lush spring loveliness.

Between the capital city of Salem and the college town of Eugene, Interstate 5 stretches in a nearly straight line across the tabletop-flat flood plain of the Willamette River. Geologists say that the great Ice Age floods (a series of cataclysmic events resulting from repeated ice dams giving way before the waters of prehistoric Lake Missoula in what is now Montana), swept all this way, depositing thick sediment beds which are the basis for this fertile farmland. To the east rise the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, with snowy peaks like Hood and Jefferson floating in the distance, and even lesser crests still dusted with white. The lower rise of the Coast Range brackets the valley to the west, the dark evergreen forests in each direction hemming in the predominately deciduous growth down below.

The foliage at this time of year offers up the most amazing range of greens, everything from a nearly neon chartreuse to the deepest green-black of firs. It seems that each different variety of tree and shrub presents its own unique sliver on the color wheel, and yet all of it blends together in the most beautiful display of rebirth. Here and there the white blooms of wild plum and native dogwood add a bit of contrast, and far across the valley the bright yellow of a fallow field overrun with wild mustard gleams like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

All of this vivid life contrasts sharply with my recollection of this same area just a month or so ago. Then, muddy pastures pocked with huge puddles hibernated under dark, dreary, low-lying clouds. Now, flocks of white-fleeced sheep graze belly-deep in thick grass, mirrored overhead by small, light clouds in a soft blue sky. Up there large red-tailed hawks wheel, floating on the currents, searching for some small creature to bring back to sustain their nestlings.

I hope you will take the time this season to get out and drink in some of the beauty and promise of spring. These days when there is so much that can distress and dismay, there is comfort to be found in the continuation of life unfurling just down the road.

Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

After a few sizzling days of 90-degree weather, we are back down to a temperate 60 degrees in New York City. Although it may have felt like summer recently, the other day I woke up to a harsh reminder from Mother Nature that it is indeed still spring.

With the past weekend feeling more like the middle of July than the end of April, my roommate and I relished the Brooklyn summer breeze and left our apartment windows wide open. The next day, we woke up to a nice coat of pollen over EVERYTHING. The floors, dishes, stove and TV were all dusted with pollen. I spent most of the morning washing the floors and wiping everything down.

Normally, this would have bothered my allergies, but I think moving from Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, where the pollen travels from New York and settles right in the valley, has strengthened my immunity.

Lesson learned, the windows cannot be left open for 24 hours until the leaves have fully blossomed.

-Courtney Centeno, account executive

I must agree with Patty — one of the best things about the arrival of spring is the local farmers’ market. I frequent the Union Square Farmers’ Market during the fall, spring and summer.

While I love fresh fruits, vegetables and baked goods, I have one addiction I cannot seem to satisfy every year. I buy too many plants! I don’t have a green thumb, so my plants seem to just come and go. I’ve tried indoor plants, plants that require little water, plants that need very little shade — the list goes on and on. They always start out healthy, but then the plant dies on me.

Although I may be singlehandedly wiping out entire populations of houseplants, I am not yet ready to give up. I read about three plants that reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen in your home. The plants are called Areca Palm, Mother-in-Law’s Tongue and Money Plant. These plants are my next victims!

If anyone has useful advice on how to take care of plants, I would love to know!

-Courtney Centeno, account executive