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.
Sue did laundry in the morning, then went to Bashas to get groceries. I hooked up our old printer and printed out the Oscar Ballot sheet and checked off all the films we’ve seen and circled the ones we still need to see. Then I went to the driving range and worked on my hybrid club. After lunch Sue went to pool and read the book she borrowed from Marylou, “All the Light We Cannot See”. I worked on re-doing my iTunes playlist — not a small job, with over 33,000 tunes!
Looking just fine after the fall!
We’d booked a tee time for 3:30 at Mountain Brook. We got on the course just about right on time, but then had to wait at EVERY tee for the v – e – r – y s – l – o – w couple ahead of us. The stood in the middle of the fairway, posing for selfies. They circled the greens a couple of times, presumably looking for their lost ball. They parked their cart and then BOTH walked halfway down the fairway to take a shot with the clubs they shared, then sauntered back to the cart. YIKES! On the second tee we could see that it would be at least 15 minutes before we could take our shot, so we sat down on the old fence beside the tee blocks. KABOOM! The fence broke and there was Sue, lying flat on her back, her bare legs all scraped up and even a bit of bleeding! And both of us had mighty sore shoulders and necks from the jolt. Well, you’d think that would be enough to dissuade us from continuing this round. Oh no, not us. We adjusted attitudes and decided to just enjoy the lovely afternoon. And we did. Sue’s putts weren’t anywhere near as good as her drives, but we both had okay games. And that’s an improvement for me! And although we were both sore, no serious damage was done.
We got home just before six. Sue made another delicious supper (chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, tomato and avocado salad) — what else is new? Then we settled down to watch more ‘Suits’. I guess all my finagling with my iTunes screwed up the system — we had several ‘stalls’ in the video and I had to restart a few times. Oh well, what else do we have to do with our time? Eventually we finished the last 3 episodes of Season 2. No movies tonight. Daily Show and CBC News, and finally (after 10:30!! — hey, maybe having a nice strong coffee after supper is the secret to staying up after 8pm!) off to bed.
Since I went to bed so early, I got up early too. I make a couple of good coffees and sit down to read the news online. SteinbachOnline says “Today is Blue Monday. Some people say the third Monday of January is the saddest day of the year.” Shoot! and I was feeling so good! Sun is shining streams of light in through the blinds, birds are singing loudly outside, coffee tastes as good as it smells. We must be doing something wrong.
Since I can’t stay awake to watch my movies in the evening, I’ll try watching them in the morning. So this morning, after breakfast, we watched “Birdman”. Very cool. I’ll look for it in the theatre and go see it again just for the cinematography. We’d just finished the movie when there was a knock at the door. The Bishops are here to spray for bugs. Okay, we’ll go for our walk and they can spray and we’ll come back when they’re done. Which is what we do. We got home at 1:00 and Sue made lunch. We both showered and then took the van to go shopping. First to the fruit market, then to Santan for wine and beer. I dropped my bike off at the Santan bike shop — it still has that ‘clunk’ in the bottom bracket — they’ll call me in a day or two. Sue found ‘her wine’ at TotalWine and I found 2 boxes of Pilsner Urquell. We’re done. Sue drops me off at the driving range on the way home. I work on my driver and my hybrid club for about 40 minutes and then walk home. Happy hour. It’s nice and warm today and we sit outside on the patio. Then Sue makes supper and we watch one episode of ‘Suits’. We follow that up with another of my movies, “CAKE”, starring Jennifer Aniston. Meh, what’s all the hype? News is next. I go back to work at my computer, working my way through the 350 recipes I need to somehow import into Sue’s iPad recipe program. If I was Werner I’d have written a quick little ‘regex’ script and had this done in 5 minutes. I’m not Werner. I do it the ‘manual’ way, and it takes me a few hours. But I finish it, hook up the iPad, and voila! it works. Happy times in Sue’s kitchen ahead!
It’s midnight! We’re both still awake! And we’ve had a fun day! So much for ‘Blue Monday’!
Crepes and bacon for breakfast. Max would have ‘wuuved’ it. I know I did. Morning shows, and today we once again got to watch Fareed on CNN — no world crisis to interrupt regular programming today.
Sue’s been hounding me to find a replacement recipe app for the iPad ever since her ‘Bento’ program quit working. So I downloaded one today (Paprika) and we played with that a bit. It’s easy to add recipes from most of the major recipe sites online but it will be a challenge to export Sue’s existing database and import into the new app. I spent much of the morning working on ‘massaging’ the data so it would import without error.
Two big NFL games on today to decide who goes to the Superbowl in two weeks. Of course none of ‘my’ teams are involved, so I’m down to cheering AGAINST teams just like all those Montreal Canadien haters do. It’s not all that satisfying. I shouldn’t really even watch football the way my luck is going — but just like the Tour de France kept suckering me into watching it year after doping-scandal year, I can’t stay away from football weekends even after my teams are out of it. So once again, here I sit in front of the TV, snacking away, cheering like an idiot. First game: Packers at Seattle. I hate both those teams. Okay, I’ll cheer for the underdog Packers. I figure they’ll be in touch with Rodgers gimpy and the crazy ’12th man’ fans in Seattle. But the game is a big surprise! The Packers jump ahead early and in spite of a couple of consolation field goals when they can’t get in from the one-yard line, Green Bay is ahead 16-0 at the half. Clearly the better team. Go Packers!
But much to the chagrin of my good friends in Randolph, I have jinxed this game. Once again, the team I cheer for makes a couple of critical errors and lets the opponent back into the game. With a little more than 2 minutes remaining, the Seahawks come back to overtake the Packers. The Packers are in shock, but kick a field goal with 14 seconds left to tie up the game. And then they lose it in overtime!
Sue tried a new recipe (why not?) and made fish tacos for supper while we watched the second game: Colts at New England. I KNEW what I was supposed to do. If I could only have brought myself to cheer for the ‘Brady Bunch’ I’d have assured that Andrew Luck and the Colts would be coming here to Phoenix to play in the Superbowl in two weeks. But I — just — couldn’t — do — it. And neither could the Colts. It was a Patriot blow-out win and even I was looking forward to 8 o’clock when we could switch the channel and watch the third episode of Downton Abbey. Which we did. It’s getting better.
