We had such a good time on our trip to Arizona. The start of it found us sitting in the Charlotte Airport for almost 4 hours because they had to find us a new plane. Ours was broken and we had to have a different crew. The flight was long- About 4.5 hours and we were so glad to get there. We stayed the first night at a Hampton Inn which had been refurbished. After we checked in, we went to the Botanical Gardens that I had seen on our last trip to Phoenix about 4-5 years ago. Many improvements had been made since I had seen it. We were so tired that we did not walk all the paths, but what we saw was beautiful. Josh, you didn't by chance crate these Chahuley pieces, did you? the yellow green plants that you see are really glass sculptures by Dale Chahuley. We have seen some of his work in Seattle and the Columbia Museum of Art has his work. The next day, we went to the HoHokum ruins at Casa Grande. Those were really interesting.
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| Steve at the Botanical Garden |
We saw the movie that told about the Native Americans and walked around taking pictures. I spoke with one of the rangers who was from southeast Alaska. Arizona was quite a change for her. It was quite a change for us too. Flat land, sandy soil, and plant life totally different were just some of the things that we experienced. When we left Casa Grande, we at a KFC. Some things are very much the same. After lunch we drove up this senic road to the mountains. That was beautiful and very different from our Appalachians. These mountains are very rocky and so dry. The cacti were everywhere. The mountain roads were quite steep as you can see by the grade in the picture. We encountered one grade that was 7.5%. It was so beautiful though that we didn't think about the road. At least I didn't because I was busy taking pictures. After we drove into Tempe to the Mission Palms Hotel. It was like going into another world. the hotel is in downtown Tempe behind an adobe wall with beautiful flowers all around. It was quite elegant to say the least. All the staff was so nice and we could walk to the restaurants to eat at night. I loved it. The weather was incredible and the people were so interesting. Very much a mixture of cultures,because Arizona State University is there so the town is teaming with young college students. The first night there, we ate a Greek restaurant that was yummy. We thanked the concierge who sent us there.
She told us that it was one of her favorites and she was right. The second night we ate at this brewerythat was recommended by some girls on the street as we were walking downtown. They were right! It was really good too.
Lets see some More posts Nana! That is a good picture of Dad above by the way.
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