A Week in Phoenix

Our week in Phoenix is over and we have made our way back to New England and now is the time to fill you in on the trip. Cheri and I were up early on March 6th to catch a 7 a.m. flight out of Providence to Phoenix (by way of Cleveland). We arrived in the early afternoon, commandeered a rental car, and headed out to Jess’ place in Anthem, AZ.

Jess and Maggie met us at the door and we settled in for the first of several relaxing afternoons. Of course we were still on East Coast time (I mentioned this in the previous London close out note) so we quickly tucked into a couple of sandwiches and beverages. We sat around and visited most of the afternoon. Jess spent some time preparing a nice lasagna dinner for us and prior to dinner Cheri and I took Maggie for a walk (while Jess went to PT).

The next morning we got up fairly early (okay I got up early and had my regular fill of coffee, but Cheri wasn’t too far behind). Knowing the we would be subject to various meals and beverages over the week, we decided to head out for a short run / jog (our first in quite a long time). After we got back we sat outside near the pool and visited and did a little computer work.

Jess soon joined us and we planned the day ahead.

Our First stop was for lunch at Chino Bandido, Mexican-Asian Fusion. Jess first heard of this place on Food TV’s “Diners, Dives and Drive-in’s” and had been there at least once before. As unusual as it sounds, we had a great meal. I had two different types of

quesadillas, one with jerk chicken and the other with spicy Mexican beef(manchuro?). I had jerk chicken fried rice (the Asian part of this meal) along side and would it have been complete without some refried beans on the side as well. The meal included free snicker-doodles or volcano cookies (similar to a lava cake only in a cookie form). We ended up taking back a half dozen of each for snacking on the rest of the week—remember the earlier comment about needing to run while we are in Phoenix.

Then it was off to Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains. This is a popular spot for a hike up one of the peaks surrounding Phoenix and it being a Saturday the trail was a little crowded. On our other trips out here we have commented that it would be fun to go up some of these peaks and they didn’t look that hard. We found out that the view from a distance is quite different from the experience of this type of hiking. The lower portion are steps made out of the surrounding stones and switch back-and-forth up the edge of the mountain face.

After a short distance you start to go from steps to a more rugged path and the footing becomes a little tougher on the stone cut trail. The trail width you see in this picture is about three feet wide and the stone is somewhat chiseled into a pathway.

Here a Cheri and Jess at one of the outlooks on the way up and you can see Phoenix and the Southern Mountains in the background.

We did make it to the top and managed to get pictures of each of us up there.

It was a great to see Phoenix from this point of view and it certainly gave us a different perspective on what it takes to climb these little “hills” around Phoenix.

After getting back down off the Peak it was time to head back to Jess’ place in Anthem and get ready for supper. Andrew, who had been a part of the original three musketeers heading out to Phoenix, joined us for dinner and it was fun to share the stories of their time in the Southwest.

The next day we were up and out for a walk again and then we headed for downtown and our hotel. I was in Phoenix for the Planning, Design & Construction Conference for the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and we would be spending Sunday through Wednesday near the Convention Center. It was a good event and I did several speaker introductions and headed up a Strategic Planning Luncheon and work-group on Wednesday.

After leaving the hotel on Wednesday and before heading back to Jess’ place we had made reservations to go to the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. This site is normally ranked high as a place to see in Phoenix, but they currently have an exhibit of Chihuly Glass sculptures mixed in with the gardens. The artwork was very interesting and it was very well placed throughout the garden area. You can see all of the many pictures we took of the artwork by following the link to the photo album at the end of this posting.

The next day we were up for another long walk and then after dropping Maggie back off at the house we headed out to climb up Daisy Mountain behind Anthem. It was a good and winding hike over a much less developed trail than Squaw Peak. We worked our way up to the top and had a nice panoramic view of Anthem and the surrounding area.

This is actually a 360 degree view, but you’d have to either have a 360 degree viewer or cut this out, make a circle out of it and put your head in the middle to have the effect.

On our way back down we stopped to look a little more closely at some of the “jumping” cactus. These little fellows seem to fall off of the cactus and ‘jump’ from one spot to another. They look almost soft and ‘cuddly’, but when Cheri went to move one with the side of her running shoe it went right through the material and into her foot. I tried to get it off using a couple of long stones to hold the spines away (not a lot of sticks around other than other cactus), but quickly managed to get a spike in one finger on one hand and another finger on the other hand—almost like a Chinese finger trap. Of course, the more you move the deeper the quills go into you and they seem to be barbed. It took several tries using other stones to pry the quills out, and we can both attest that they are anything but soft and cuddly—actually quite painful.

Later that evening, we headed into Phoenix to meet Jess after work and the four of us headed out to Lon’s at the Hermosa for dinner. This was a wonderful time with us eating outside near a large chiminea. It was great food under a very clear sky with little light pollution from Phoenix.

Friday morning we ran once again and lounged around the house for much of the morning. We did head out a little before noon to drive down to Goodyear, AZ and the new Goodyear Stadium. We had gotten tickets to the Cleveland Indians Oakland Athletics Spring Training game. The seats were great, only about ten rows from first base, and it was a beautiful afternoon. Everyone enjoyed the outing and it was a low-price way to see some baseball…and Cleveland won 4 to 3.

We were up early the next morning for a 7 a.m. flight back East. Once again the Swenson Adventures continue to be good times. Click on the Picture below to see all of the photos from this trip.

Phoenix Mar 2009

Day Eight: They Don’t Have the Same Accent in Phoenix…

Air travel, back to work, out of a UK mindset, laziness…all have contributed to your not getting a final day in London entry. Now on Phoenix time (and it stays the same time here on Sunday…hmmm, that is true at the Royal Observatory as well, maybe we are still in the UK in a time / space sort of way…) I will fill in the missing day. Then over the next few days I will take a real step back and fill in the 2009 Valentine’s Weekend.

Day Eight: By now you may have wondered about the hotel we stayed in while in Harrow. It is a part of the Comfort Inn chain and in an easily accessible area near Sarah’s flat, close to a Tube Station, University of Westminster (Harrow Campus), and Andrew’s flat. It is much more hotel than B & B and it was just what we needed to share Sarah’s experience in the London area.

Our final full day began much the same as our other days with not meeting Sarah until late morning. But we did add a small change by my getting out early—for some, not for me—and walking up to the Town Centre early in the morning. I did this for two reasons, one to determine the location and walking distance (and time…another one of those time /space things, but on a different intellectual level) to the bus stop Cheri and I would use early the next morning, and two to get an early morning cafe latte (which for us coffee drinkers is always a great experience) with the other early morning Saturday risers.

When I got back to the hotel Cheri was up and reminding me that we had other errands to do that morning besides my getting my coffee. We headed right back out to find our way to a Sainsbury Grocery store in Harrow. We had a list of cheeses, chocolates, cookies, and, surprisingly, prawn crisps—something we had tried at the Thai restaurant in Hampstead, see the Day Five and Six entry—that we needed to pick up and pack for the next day’s travels. Not to eat on the way, but to bring back to the colonies. I did wander through the Scotch section, but was reminded of my limitations—I’ll let you figure out which.

Back at the hotel, Sarah showed up and we headed out to meet Andrew at the Tube station. Weekend train service was accommodating more rail repairs so we had to use a different station. Regardless of that we found our way onto a train to London.

It was a beautiful day with the sun out and temperatures getting up into the 50’s (10’s for those of you thinking in centigrade). So Sarah was once again sleeveless, although I found this true even when it was in the 30’s and 40’s (0 to 5), but this day it made sense.

We headed first to Harrods, which is a huge, high end, luxury department store in London. This seems to be a ‘thing to do’ in London and I think Cheri and Sarah would have spent much more time there if Andrew and I

weren’t being dragged along. This picture of the ceiling is only one quarter of one area that is called the Food Market. In this case it covers foods from around the world and some people use this as a primary market place or as a place to pick up the unique. Did I mention that the Food Market is on the third floor and next to an equally sized area devoted just to chocolate and chocolate products, and combined they occupy less than half of the third floor? In other words this place is huge and it seems that if you can’t find it in Harrod’s it must not be made.

As stated, we didn’t spend as much time in Harrods as Cheri and Sarah would have liked, but we had things planned for the day and it was already approaching noon. So off we headed into Hyde Park and up to Speaker’s Corner—this is a bastion of free speech in the UK and a site for people to set up a soap box and spout off their thoughts. Unfortunately for us, there was no one orating at the couple of times we walked through.

Since it was noon, we decided to find a place for some lunch. After a couple of false starts we came upon the Three Tun pub. We knew it was the right spot when we went in and there was an empty table right next to the fireplace. Cheri ensconced herself right next to the fire and we were ready to go. The food was very good and I tried the Splendid Tackle ale which was right up there with the Doombar ale I had earlier in the trip. Following on the advice of my good friend James—if you try anything and you like it, try it again to make sure the first time wasn’t a mistake—I even had a second…and it was not a mistake.

After the excellent lunch, we headed back across Hyde Park (still no speakers) and caught the Tube to the Science Museum. We were in search of a Robot Exhibit that Andrew had heard about and besides the museum being no cost it seemed like a good way to spend the afternoon. It was only too bad that the exhibit had closed earlier in the week, but we had a great time wandering around the museum.

As the afternoon wound its way down we found our way back over to Trafalgar Square. This time we went into the National Portrait Gallery and looked around a bit before deciding to strike out for someplace to have a nice dinner together before heading back to the States.

I had seen a couple of nice restaurants near St. Paul’s Cathedral earlier in

the week so we decided to move in that direction. Sarah pointed out buildings and sites to us along the way and I tried to get a picture of the St George’s dragon that marks the entry to London from Westminster, but the light was getting too dim—so it’s out of focus, but you get the idea. This area is also the area where Dickens described Scrooge’s house and the Sarah pointed out the clock that Dickens used to foretell the coming of the spirits…she’s such a smart girl.

Along the way we had another opportunity to take a picture of St Paul’s only this time by the evening light. I was able to brace myself against a building enough to get this picture in the low light. We found the restaurants only to find one closed for the evening (Saturday night…go figure) and the other not really what we were looking for to have a final meal in London for this trip. So we headed back up the Strand to find a restaurant that Scott had recommended to Sarah on one of his many trips to London.

The place is Simpsons on the Strand and it was wonderful. Definitely worth the recommendation and a place we will eat when again in London. We were fortunate to arrive before the theater crowd and get a table by walking in. I think if we had been 30 minutes later we would have had to go someplace else.

One of the waiters heard our accent and introduced himself as an American as well and from DC. When I asked where in DC we got into a discussion about the area and my time at the Academy. It turns out he was a Marine 2nd Lt. (I think in the active reserves), and he made sure we

had great service—although I think the service at this restaurant is excellent for anyone. Following his recommendation I had the beef which was carved at the tableside by Guiseppe (shown with me and the plate full of meat, the roast is under the dome). It had the fixings of Yorkshire Pudding and au jus and was wonderful. The picture also shows the plate of Beef Wellington that Sarah had for dinner. It was a wonderful meal and topped off by the Maitre de wishing me a “Good Evening Commander”—it’s still nice to have the title and it is recognized and used much more in the UK, the Marine must have told him.

We took the Tube out of London, said goodbye to Sarah and headed back to the hotel. The bus picked us up at 7:20 the next morning and we had an uneventful trip to Heathrow, Newark and back to pick up our car at Deb and Scott’s. After visiting there for awhile we got on the road and headed back home arriving in Connecticut later that evening.

All and all another great adventure. You can click on the picture below to go to the web album of all the pictures taken (good and bad). Watch for the Valentine’s posting and more notes from Phoenix in the future.

London Feb 2009