It rained today. It rained all day, and it rained hard. Maybe a record rainfall. The dry gully across the street is now a lake. My putting green is a quarter under water. We turned on the Golf Channel just to see if the Phoenix Open was even on today — yep, those guys are playing in the rain. Well, as it turned out, not ALL the guys were playing — Tiger had his worst score EVER today, shooting an 82! That had the commentators talking all day.
Sue went grocery shopping in the morning — to Bashas and the Fruit Market. I tried sorting out our photos from our Danube cycling trip — Sue is on my case to put them online for posterity. I got a bit distracted when I started looking for downloadable movies that are still on our Oscar list.
Sue came home and put away a van full of groceries. Then, after lunch, we watched the first of 3 movies today, all with subtitles. First we saw Ida, a Polish movie nominated for Best Foreign Film and Cinematography. It’s a black and white movie, quiet, no shooting, about a Jewish nun. Pretty good. After the movie we switched back to the Golf Channel to see all the news about Tiger’s debacle, and even Mickelson missed the cut.
Sue made a fantastic curry dish for supper while we watched the news. Then we watched “Two Days, One Night”, a Belgian-Italian-French film starring Marion Cotillard, who is nominated for Best Actress. It’s a good performance, but I can see why it wouldn’t be a big hit in theatres — it’s another slow drama with subtitles. We followed that up with the movie “Tangerines” from Estonia, also nominated for Best Foreign Film. It’s in Russian, so once again we were reading along with the dialogue. But it was a good story and we had no trouble staying awake for it (especially once Sue made popcorn and later coffee and ice cream for us to enjoy during the movie).
At ten o’clock we watched the news. The rain had stopped, at least for now. Sue’s iPad says a 60% chance of rain tomorrow.
We got up at 7. Sue made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then we were out the door and at the Driedger house by shortly after 8 to pick up Dave and Marylou and Hans. Off to the Waste Management Phoenix Open at the TPC Scottsdale.
The drive up to Scottsdale was no problem, but things slowed down a bit once we turned off the freeway and made our way to the parking lots. S – L – O – W. We parked the van and decided to leave our jackets in behind — although it was cloudy and not hot, the day was supposed to be warm and no rain. Not so for tomorrow and Saturday — the forecast is for rain. So today was THE day to go watch the golfers. And we were not the only ones who were thinking along those lines. No, the LINES of people waiting to get onto one of the many free shuttle buses that would take us to the gates at the golf course were very long, and getting longer. We were given clear plastic bags to put our stuff into as we went through the security check stop. In fact, no cameras, no backpacks, no firearms were allowed in so we had to leave that behind in the van.
The bus driver needed a little navigational help from the passengers to get us to the gates, which were about a mile straight west of the parking lot. (I guess the organizers had to scramble a bit to find drivers and other services for the expected record-breaking crowd at this event.) Once we got there we quickly bought our entry tickets ($30 each), walked through the big tent of souvenir shops and golf merchandise, and there we were at the 18th hole. We agreed to meet back there at 3:30 and then we were off.
Green at the 12th Hole
On the hill overlooking the 8th green
Tiger chipping onto the 6th green
Big crowds at the 11th tee
Tiger putting on the 10th green
Sue and I ended up going past the big noisy ‘arena’ that is the famous 16th hole (no chance of getting into there — the balconies were already full (and boisterous), and the long line-ups to get in seemed to be not moving at all. We ended up on a grassy knoll from where we could see holes 6, 7, 8, and 12. We were too late to see Mickelson who had teed off at 8, but we DID see lots of big-name golfers, including Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson. Tiger was already at +3 by the time he putted out on hole #6, but there was an enormous crowd following him around the course. By the time he got to the 10th hole, which finished just below the giant stadium around the 16th, crowds were so thick that it was actually hot! People were fanning themselves with their programs. The poor old guys whose job it was to hold up the ‘QUIET’ signs when the golfers were putting or teeing off looked hopelessly ridiculous. There was no ‘quiet’ on this golf course! The only places where it wasn’t crowded on the course were downwind from those big fat cigar smokers with their big fat cigars. This was more of an ‘event’ than a ‘golf’ tournament. It was more about the ‘audience’ than about the golfers. And WE were part of the story — WE were part of the record-breaking 118,461 attendees.
We met back at the 18th hole at 3:30 and decided to avoid the long lineups for shuttle buses and WALK back to the parking lot. We got into the van and wound our way back onto the freeway, joining the parade of cars crawling south on the 202. There had been a few very light sprinkles of rain in the afternoon, but not enough to dampen our spirits or our programs. Now, as I did my best to finagle my way into the far left ‘HOV’ lane, the rain started to come down more seriously. Good timing. We made the right call.
We got back to Gold Canyon at around 5:30 — not too bad. We dropped off Hans and the Driedgers and went home. Sue made supper. I switched on the Golf Channel and watched highlights of the day. Alex and Max skyped with us for a bit. After supper Sue and I watched a few more episodes of ‘Suits’ before going to bed.
Sue did a few loads of laundry today after breakfast. I spent an hour or two replacing all the FAKE text and google images with the REAL info and photos on that website I worked on all yesterday. Sheesh. Why don’t they send me the info in the first place — it takes as long to do fake pages as it does to do real pages.
I spent a few minutes at the driving range again, before coming home for a quick lunch. Then at 1:00 we picked up Dave and drove out to Power Road to the Superstition Springs Golf Course for our 2 o’clock tee time.
Don Hoeppner met us at the course. We teed off at 2 and played a bit of a slow round — waiting for the players ahead of us on every hole. None of us played particularly good, probably because it was hard to stay focussed when we had such long waits between shots. Sue had good drives and some good putts too. I actually parred a couple of holes on the back nine, but my putting continues to be my downfall.
We finished a little after 6 o’clock, almost too dark to golf, really. Then we drove back to Gold Canyon, dropped Dave off at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant while Sue and I went home to shower and change. We picked Dave up and went to the Driedgers’, where we joined Hans, Chris, and Marylou for supper. Lots of food, but most of it got eaten! We decided that all of us except Chris would take off bright and early tomorrow morning and go to the Waste Management Open Golf Championship in Scottsdale.
Sue and I got home at around 9:30. I wrote my journal and Sue read for a while. Then a bit of news on TV and off to bed.
It’s the last day here for Ron and Noreen. By midnight they’ll be back in Winnipeg, sleeping in their own beds again. The weather report says that the temperature in Winnipeg is not that far off from what we’ve got here. In fact, this morning it was RAINING here. Again. But by breakfast it had stopped.
After breakfast we all sat down to watch the second half of the movie ‘Selma’ — we were too tired to watch it to the end last night. Not bad — a good story even if the telling of it was a bit “Oprah-ish”. Then the girls went for a walk to the Mountain Brook clubhouse and back. Ron went looking for a barber. I sat at my computer and worked away at another website. We all met for lunch again — leftover pizza from last night. Then I went back on the computer while the rest of the gang went to the pool. The sun peeked out and warmed things up a bit for a while. Ron sat in the hot tub. By coffee break they were back at the house. Packing. Sue got a platter of cheese and crackers out and we sat around the table and had our last ‘happy hour’ together. At 5 o’clock we put the luggage in the van and headed out to the Sky Harbour Airport. I was expecting a bit of rush-hour traffic but we actually arrived at the airport at around 5:40. Plenty of time to spare. The Janzens’ flight is supposed to leave at 8pm.
After saying goodbye Sue and I drove down to the Arizona Mills Mall, just a couple of miles south of the airport. We’d never been there before but Dave D said he’d found good deals on shoes and golf clothing there. It took us nearly as long to drive down there as it had to get to the airport — now we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Once there we wandered through the big mall looking for the golf clothing stores. We found them, but not the things we were looking for. The only pants that were long enough were much to wide for me. We didn’t hang around there very long and soon were back on the 60 heading for home.
Sue made a quick supper and then we sat down to watch TV. We tried to watch another of my movie downloads but the sound was so bad we gave up and switched to Season 3 of ‘Suits’. After 2 episodes and a little bit of the CBC News Sue went to bed. I went back to the computer and coded away until nearly 1:00am before joining her.
When we got up this morning the big news was that it was NOT going to rain today. Not here. Cloudy, a bit cooler, but not raining. So it was decided that we would go for a hike. Where to? Silly Mountain? No, we’ve all done that. How about Camelback, in Phoenix? Okay. But when Sue phoned Dave Driedger to find out more about it, she learned that the Driedgers have never hiked Camelback! But Dave recommended Pinnacle Peak, in the northeastern corner of Scottsdale. So we punched that into the van’s GPS and off we were.
When we got there we found a parking spot in the parking lot — but it was clear we were not the only ones who were hiking this mountain today. We put on our hiking boots and started up. I thought we’d be going up to that ‘pinnacle peak’ — and that looked like quite a serious climb. But no, that peak is for ‘climbers’, not ‘hikers’. The wide well-maintained and marked trail led us AROUND the peak, and then down and around, and then back up again, and then down again! There were signs marking our progress every 100 feet. There were signs pointing out the names and characteristics of the desert plants along the trail.
Sue, Noreen, and Ron, coming down the path
There were quite a few hikers coming BACK on the trail, and their red complexions and sweaty jerseys said the way ahead would likely be a bit tougher than what we started on. But the scenery was excellent — long highways heading out for as far as we could see across the flat desert, rooftops in the residential sprawl going out in all directions too. And wrapping around the two mountains of our hike was a spectacular golf course. With no golfers. Well, 3 women and their caddies were golfing — and I speculated that they were professional golfers prepping for the tournament later in the week. I bet the course was closed to the public this week. As we hiked our way around we got to look down into the back and front yards of the many luxury homes (estates!) that lined the fairways and greens of the golf course.
The reward at the end of the trail
When we got to marker 92, which represented the 9200-foot point on the hike, we knew we’d reached the end of the Pinnacle Peak hike and it was time to turn around. All that climbing and huffing and puffing for this? What would my mom think of this! And I knew that all the ‘easy’ downhill sections would now be UPHILL climbs — so the return trip would take exactly as much effort as the trek so far. Oh well, the weather was just right and I was getting hungry.
We got back to the van around 1:00pm and decided that we might look for a hamburger place and then go to the Kierland Commons Shopping Plaza in Scottsdale. As we headed into Scottsdale we spotted a roadside sign that directed us to “Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers” with an arrow pointing left. Whoa! Why look further? We turned into the parking lot, parked the van, and sat down at an outdoor table on the patio of the Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers sports bar. Noticing the size of the burgers that were being served to other guests, Sue announced that she could make FOUR burgers out those half-pound burgers — and that she and I would be SHARING a burger. And so it we did. And I ordered a pretty good beer off the 6-million-brand list the waitress put in front of me to go with it.
After lunch we headed down to the shopping centre. The girls announced that they would meet us back at the van at 4:30 and promptly disappeared into the first clothing store. Ron and I stood and stared at the ‘directory map’ for a while and then tried to find that big Barnes & Noble bookstore. Closed. Now what? Coffee at the Starbucks. Sat in comfy chairs and read the news for the next couple of hours.
We whizzed by most of the rush-hour traffic by staying in the far-left HOV lane, and got home in just over an hour. We watched the U.S. news and sat around for a while. No one was hungry because of the late (big) lunch. Finally at around 7pm Sue started to regret that she hadn’t gone 50/50 on that burger and fries because she was now getting hungry. So we put on our jackets and found the flashlight and headed out to the Hitching Post. Hey, what’s this? Raindrops! Again!
Even at 7pm on a Monday night, that place is ROCKING! We were lucky to get a table! And, as usual, the diners were enthusiastically enjoying the live entertainment. And today it really was ‘live’ entertainment — the young lady with the acoustic guitar was singing ‘Ring of Fire’ WITHOUT a karaoke soundtrack. We ordered two pizzas to go with the drinks. The poor waitress was doing her best to keep everyone happy, and for the most part she was just barely keeping up. We got our pizzas — over-orderd! we took home two half-pizzas for our lunch tomorrow — and at 8pm the singer announced that she’d sung her last song for the night and packed up her guitar. And with that, the diners packed up too. And so did we.
A few more raindrops fell on our way back home. The pizza was put away and I got the TV set up to watch another of my movies, “Selma”. We did our best to stay awake, but finally surrendered at the halfway point and went to bed. After all, it’s ON THE COMPUTER! and we can continue this tomorrow when we’re all able to stay awake.
Sunday morning. We turned on the TV. Sue made French toast for breakfast. I called Mountain Brook and booked a tee time for four for around 3 o’clock. It was supposed to be a great day, weather-wise.
After breakfast we all got our shorts on and went for a bike ride. Ron, who had ridden more than a hundred kilometres up and down hills yesterday, was a good sport about putting his butt on the bike seat again. We looped around the back acres of Gold Canyon, then around the loop, through Mountain Brook Village, and home again. I was interrupted by my phone ringing while I was peddling — Max was calling to show me how he could ride HIS bike in his basement. He was having a great morning of his own!
Back at the ranch Sue made lunch. Everyone sat around for a while. Sue started making our supper so it would be ready after golf. I divided up the golf clubs so we’d have 3 sets. Then I went to the driving range and hit a few balls. Sue, Ron, and Noreen came by with the van to pick me up at around 2:30.
We got on to the first tee at Mountain Brook as soon as we arrived. A two-some ahead, no one behind. Noreen ‘caddied’ for us — kept score and oohed and aahed at our shots. Well, actually, it was Ron who surprised us all. He doesn’t golf a lot. Now, using someone else’s clubs, and without even a warm-up swing or a putt, he was swinging the club and hitting the ball far and straight, EVERY hole! We had a very fun round, walking the front nine holes. On the final par 5, Ron blasted his tee shot farther than I’ve ever seen anyone hit it, and finish it up with a fine putt.
When we got home Sue made us G&Ts for our happy hour. At around 5:30 we took a quick little walk up the hill behind our place, Vista Point, to watch the sunset. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy in the west, so we didn’t get to see the pink and golden rays lighting up Superstition Mountain. But the view from up there is great, and we sat around and listened to Noreen’s stories while the sun sank into the horizon.
We had Sue’s pasta casserole and salad for supper. The Janzens were interested in seeing a movie while they were here, and their first choice, “Birdman” was playing at the Harkins at Superstition Springs at 8 o’clock. So we had to hurry. Sue decided to stay home and watch TV instead of coming along. We had seen the movie a few days ago on our TV — I thought I’d like to see it on a ‘real’ screen.
When we got back from the movie I had a little peanut butter ice cream snack. We watched the news — and went to bed.
Bacon and eggs for breakfast. So, what’s on tap for today? Well, I’ve got a golf game with Dave Driedger, tee time at 1:30 at Poston Butte. Sue and Noreen want to go sit at the pool for a while, and then go to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum Park in the afternoon. Ron will see how far he can ride one of our ‘town’ bikes. And that’s what we do.
After breakfast I get a Facetime call from Alex and Max. It’s great! I’m outside in the backyard and showing Max the familiar landmarks. He notices the singing birds. He reminds me of the ‘pokey cactus’ that Oma sat on. He says he misses me.
Ron says he wants to go on a 3 hour bike ride. He’ll do more than that, heading out almost all the way to Tortilla Flats and back. And it’s a windy day for a bike ride.
Sue makes me a quick sandwich for lunch. Dave is by shortly after noon to pick me up. The ride out to the golf course takes just over half an hour — it’s near Florence. When we get there we hit a few balls on the driving range first. We’re paired up with a couple from Wisconsin who are renting a home in the area. Charlie and Lindy are pretty good golfers. So are we. I manage to play mostly bogey golf — and although my putting is atrocious my drives and fairway shots are better than they’ve been for a while. It’s a good time. It’s a very fun course, challenging, but fair. The pace of play is a bit slow, but according to our partners that is not the norm here. We finish just before 6pm.
Back at the house, Sue’s got supper going. Marylou has bicycled here. We have a drink and then I barbecue the burgers. After supper Ron shows us some photos from his recent trip to the Middle East and tells a few stories of the people he met there. Sue serves up her freshly-baked apple pie and ice cream.
The Driedgers say goodnight at around 10:30. Ron soon does the same. Sue and Noreen watch a bit of TV after cleaning up the dishes. I sit down to write my entry before going to bed too.
After breakfast we all piled into the van and off we went to downtown Phoenix. Noreen had made a list of places to visit here in Arizona and a strip known as ‘Roosevelt Row’ was on the list. It was not quite an hour drive from GC.
When we got there it appeared that we’d arrived a bit too early — by about 12 hours! Most of the shops and galleries were still closed. We walked around the block a few times and finally sat down at a coffee shop to decide what to do next. A couple whose bikes were parked near our outdoor table came by and explained that most people in this neighbourhood kept “vampire hours”, so although things seemed quiet now, wait until tonight and the streets would come alive. So, while Ron took the guy’s ‘fat tire’ bike for a spin, the woman told us about a great Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. And that’s where we went for lunch.
We drove back to the house. The Janzens went for a bike ride and I went to the driving range. After happy hour the Janzens took the van and went out for supper. Sue and I walked across the road to the Hitching Post. Man, that place was packed! And loud! We were lucky to get a table and yelled our pizza order to our waitress.
The so-called live entertainment tonight featured a singer with a guitar and a girl who clapped along to the recorded karaoke track. Wow! Another amazing band! Brass section and backup choirs and drums and percussion– but only one guy with an acoustic guitar and a girl clapping along! No matter. The crowd of boisterous old-timers, most of whom were most of the way through their bucket of beers, encouraged ‘the band’ enthusiastically. It did not take us an hour to finish our ‘cowboy’ pizza.
Back at home we watched The Fifth Estate and the news. The Janzens came home and showed off their purchases from the shoe store. Ice cream for night snack. In bed by eleven.
I guess the coffee grinder woke up the visitors. Oh well, it was 7:30 and time to get out of bed. At breakfast it was decided that we’d be hiking the Hieroglyphic Trail today. But first! new hiking shorts for Noreen. No problem. Sue and Noreen baisled off to Ross for some morning shopping. Ron and I decided to go for a walk — first up our little ‘Vista Point’ to get a bird’s eye view of the neighbourhood, and then down to the Walgreens corner for a coffee at the ‘Common Ground Cafe’. We had a leisurely coffee and a leisurely walk back home, and got home just in time to see the girls all decked out in new outfits! And then it was time for lunch.
After lunch I went to the driving range for almost an hour, just to annoy myself. When I got home the gang was sitting in the warmth of the sunshine — in the garage. I changed into my hiking boots and we were off!
It was sunny but a bit of a cool wind — just right for hiking. We actually passed a number of slower hikers on our way up. A few photos. More water than we’ve ever seen before in the pools — thanks to the recent rainy days, I guess.
When we got home we had snacks and drinks. We watched the news while Sue cooked the salmon dinner. After dinner we went back to the living room to watch a movie. “Whiplash” is an intense movie about an intense band teacher. I thought it was very good. Sue was a bit too ‘mad’ at the characters to give the movie any credit. Well, at least the music (and the drum solo) was impressive. Five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
We finished off the evening with a dish of ice cream and fruit and the CBC News, including the At Issue panel — lots of talk about our 80-cent dollar. Oh well, how about that $1.72/gallon price of gas?
This morning when I got up and made my coffees I tried to get on my blog. And, as has happened several times before, I couldn’t get onto my website. I don’t know what it is but it seems like my site gets blocked by our Internet provider Mediacom. So I had to use my phone as a hotspot and write my blog that way.
After breakfast Sue and I went for a walk to Mountainbrook and back. The weather was nice– not cold and not too hot. When we got home it was 11:30 and time for lunch. After lunch Sue went to the pool to read and I took a few clubs across to the driving range and hit balls for an hour.
Around 5 o’clock we left for Santan Village where I picked up my bike. They’ve tightened up the bottom bracket so I hope the clunk is gone. Then Sue and I went across the road to In-N-Out Burger for supper. We had some clouds and even a few drops of rain on our way to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We got to the airport just about the time that Ron and Noreen’s WestJet flight landed. I had to circle the terminal a couple of times while they waited for their luggage. It was almost 9 by the time we got home. Sue put out cold cuts and cheese and dessert and fruit and we sat around the table and visited for a while. By 10:30 we were all tired enough to say good night and go to bed.
