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