Today J and I went on a day trip. It took us through Apache Junction, through Canyon Lake and we made our final stop at Tortilla Flats. We were told if you go further past Tortilla Flats it is the 2nd largest canyon, next of kin to the Grand Canyon. We'll save that trip for another day.
We stopped at an old cole mining ghost town called Goldfield. You can pan for your own gold, watch a gun fight, have an old western picture taken, shop for gifts, eat at one of the two restaurants, get old fashioned candy, tour the reptile exhibit, take a train ride or a carriage ride. Afterwards we stopped at Needle Vista National Forest on our way to Canyon Lake.
We took the winding road up to the Canyon Lake lookout on the way to Tortilla Flats. It was beautiful! So far the best trip we've seen. We passed many different picnic parks, lakes, and RV parks on the way. We defiantly found some great places to come to this Spring to hang out or bring guests to. There is a steamboat ride you can do for lunch of dinner that we'd love to do (Steamboat Dolly). We continued onto Tortilla Flats and made our final stop at their restaurant/gift shop. the bar has saddles for barstools. Naturally, I wanted to sit up on the saddle at the bar. I've never been on a saddle before, which means I've never been on a horse either. We ordered a beer and split a BBQ pork sandwich which came w/ fries and cole slaw. It was delicious! We chilled there for a while and talked w/ our waitress a bit. The inside of the place is lined w/ $1 bills. It's a tradition that caught on over the years. People sign the $1 bills and they get hung up all over the restaurant. The menu comes in a newspaper along w/ some of the towns history. Tortilla Flats consists of 6 residents!
On our way home, we saw the beautiful sunset and couldn't wait to come back and see more!
New Years Eve we are going to the Fiesta Bowl game and the block party afterwards. We were invited by J's cousin who obtained 4 free tickets to the game and party. It is supposed to be huge! Lots of bands playing, several firework displays and lots of drinking and partying is going to be witnessed.
For you Omaha folks, I found this for your viewing pleasure: Design Sponge They talk about good places to eat and some things to do. I found it interesting.
Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Randomness
This morning I met w/ the personal trainer to get my meal plan. This is supposed to help me get to my goal weight quicker. It's one day's worth of food, but to be eaten everyday until the weight is met. If anyone is interested in the meal plan, let me know and I'll send it to you. I know I'll be tweaking some of it as time goes on.
DSW has been going well. It's the easiest job I've ever had and recommend it to anyone looking for some extra cash. Sometimes I'll end up talking to people for 15-20 minutes, so that helps eat up time. I've seen some interesting people come in, including a man from Canada who wore a turban. Weird. This one women told me her entire life story and another guy is a recovering alcoholic who used to be a in a rock band, but now does Christian rock and stopped drinking. I've yet to purchase any shoes, which is shocking for people who know I like to shop. I'm pretty good on shoes, in fact I'd love to buy new shoes and throw away my old ones.
The temperature has actually heated up today. It was about 70, which is a warm up from the 50's we've been having. The nights are still cold though, lows of 30's and 40's. It's been frosted over the last 3 days. I never would have thought it would frost in the desert. Gasoline has been holding steady at $1.47.
DSW has been going well. It's the easiest job I've ever had and recommend it to anyone looking for some extra cash. Sometimes I'll end up talking to people for 15-20 minutes, so that helps eat up time. I've seen some interesting people come in, including a man from Canada who wore a turban. Weird. This one women told me her entire life story and another guy is a recovering alcoholic who used to be a in a rock band, but now does Christian rock and stopped drinking. I've yet to purchase any shoes, which is shocking for people who know I like to shop. I'm pretty good on shoes, in fact I'd love to buy new shoes and throw away my old ones.
The temperature has actually heated up today. It was about 70, which is a warm up from the 50's we've been having. The nights are still cold though, lows of 30's and 40's. It's been frosted over the last 3 days. I never would have thought it would frost in the desert. Gasoline has been holding steady at $1.47.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Jack Frost
Last night we had our first frost. Our little patch of grass was pretty white. Tonight is supposed to do the same, except this time I've noticed people all over town covering their desert plants w/ towels. I don't know if it's worth me pulling in my plants or not, guess I'll find out if they die.
Today was another busy day. I slept in later than normal, took Tory for a walk then got ready to meet up w/ Mary and Barry at Abuelo's Mexican restaurant. It was a great meal, except it was hard to hear each other talk since the music was fairly loud. After lunch, me, J and Uncle B took the Charger over to Scottsdale for a car show. We were there pretty much the whole afternoon. Today's high was only in the 50's which meant we were all wearing our coats.
I'm not much of a writer when it comes to these blogs. I use this more as a journal for myself; it's fun to go back to re-read some entries and remember what we've done and gone through. Not sure if anyone from the Arizona vicinity will ever stumble upon my blog, but if they do, I be sure to include web sites and input about the places we've been to as a guide for others. Happy reading.
Today was another busy day. I slept in later than normal, took Tory for a walk then got ready to meet up w/ Mary and Barry at Abuelo's Mexican restaurant. It was a great meal, except it was hard to hear each other talk since the music was fairly loud. After lunch, me, J and Uncle B took the Charger over to Scottsdale for a car show. We were there pretty much the whole afternoon. Today's high was only in the 50's which meant we were all wearing our coats.
I'm not much of a writer when it comes to these blogs. I use this more as a journal for myself; it's fun to go back to re-read some entries and remember what we've done and gone through. Not sure if anyone from the Arizona vicinity will ever stumble upon my blog, but if they do, I be sure to include web sites and input about the places we've been to as a guide for others. Happy reading.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Tis the Season for Blogging
December 24:
Christmas Eve is the day I usually go to church, eat and open presents w/ my family. This year we would have a mellow Christmas. I had to work at DSW until 6 then I came home and cooked supper then I talked J into going to church w/ me. He looked up a church that was close and we headed over about 7:30 for the 8:00 mass. The night before I had told J that it didn't feel like Christmas this year. He asked me why and I said because it wasn't cold and snowy, there wouldn't be any family around and no presents to open. Also, for some reason going to the Christmas mass made it feel Christmasy and it was tradition. J has never been to a Catholic mass and was pleasantly surprised. When we arrived home, I called to talk to my mom to see how my nephews liked my presents. After I hung up, J asked me if I was ready to open my presents. Now I feel bad because I didn't buy anything for him, including a card since we agreed we wouldn't buy anything for each other. He wanted to buy me some presents to make it feel like Christmas for me. How sweet :)
December 25:
Christmas day we picked up Uncle B and headed up to Surprise to have Christmas lunch w/ his friends. We arrived about 12:30 and started drinking wine and helping in the kitchen. We had an awesome meal of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, biscuits and jell-o salad. It was a regular Thanksgiving feast! We played a couple games of dice and enjoyed each others company. It was a relaxing, fun Christmas.
December 26:
The day after Christmas, AKA the new black Friday. We decided to wake up at 5:30 and go get us some Christmas decorations/lights/tree for next year. We started at Frys to see if they had the 9 foot tree we've eyeballed. The employees were just starting to get all the decorations together so we didn't see any trees at the time. We headed over to Home Depot to see what they had left. We found some good LED lights, garland, 100 shatter-proof bulbs and cheap Glade candles. It was then time to head to Wal Mart to see if we could strike up some more bargains. It was nice and quiet at 7 a.m. We made out very well there. I purchased gift bags, decorations, wrapping paper, bows, candles, plates, napkins and J picked out lots of LED lights. I have never seen J so happy about lights and decorations. We ended up spending $200 on decorations for the day. I had to head to DSW for a few hours where we were pretty busy. After I arrived home, we headed back to Fry's to rent a movie and decided to see if they had any trees left. There it was! The 9 foot, 1000 light tree-on sale for less than $200! Another purchase it was to complete our Christmas for 2009. The tree was originally $349 and we got a bargain for it.
Our Christmas was fantastic! The fun continues onto the weekend as well. Stay tuned for more story time.
Christmas Eve is the day I usually go to church, eat and open presents w/ my family. This year we would have a mellow Christmas. I had to work at DSW until 6 then I came home and cooked supper then I talked J into going to church w/ me. He looked up a church that was close and we headed over about 7:30 for the 8:00 mass. The night before I had told J that it didn't feel like Christmas this year. He asked me why and I said because it wasn't cold and snowy, there wouldn't be any family around and no presents to open. Also, for some reason going to the Christmas mass made it feel Christmasy and it was tradition. J has never been to a Catholic mass and was pleasantly surprised. When we arrived home, I called to talk to my mom to see how my nephews liked my presents. After I hung up, J asked me if I was ready to open my presents. Now I feel bad because I didn't buy anything for him, including a card since we agreed we wouldn't buy anything for each other. He wanted to buy me some presents to make it feel like Christmas for me. How sweet :)
December 25:
Christmas day we picked up Uncle B and headed up to Surprise to have Christmas lunch w/ his friends. We arrived about 12:30 and started drinking wine and helping in the kitchen. We had an awesome meal of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, biscuits and jell-o salad. It was a regular Thanksgiving feast! We played a couple games of dice and enjoyed each others company. It was a relaxing, fun Christmas.
December 26:
The day after Christmas, AKA the new black Friday. We decided to wake up at 5:30 and go get us some Christmas decorations/lights/tree for next year. We started at Frys to see if they had the 9 foot tree we've eyeballed. The employees were just starting to get all the decorations together so we didn't see any trees at the time. We headed over to Home Depot to see what they had left. We found some good LED lights, garland, 100 shatter-proof bulbs and cheap Glade candles. It was then time to head to Wal Mart to see if we could strike up some more bargains. It was nice and quiet at 7 a.m. We made out very well there. I purchased gift bags, decorations, wrapping paper, bows, candles, plates, napkins and J picked out lots of LED lights. I have never seen J so happy about lights and decorations. We ended up spending $200 on decorations for the day. I had to head to DSW for a few hours where we were pretty busy. After I arrived home, we headed back to Fry's to rent a movie and decided to see if they had any trees left. There it was! The 9 foot, 1000 light tree-on sale for less than $200! Another purchase it was to complete our Christmas for 2009. The tree was originally $349 and we got a bargain for it.
Our Christmas was fantastic! The fun continues onto the weekend as well. Stay tuned for more story time.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
December 23
Yesterday I met w/ the personal trainer. He's supposed to set me up with a meal plan, but he ran out of time yesterday and was supposed to call me today to go over it w/ me. I've yet to hear from him. The meal plan will help me lose my goal weight which he said I should achieve by February 2. We'll see how this goes. Today my arms are sore from doing some weights.
Today was my actual first day of work at DSW. It was a good-easy time. Basically all I have to do is pick up the trash, straighten shoes, ask people if they need a bag, ask them if they want to sign up for the rewards program and if they need help. I'm not sure when I'll be up at the register, but so far it's all been cake walk.
Why do people bring their dogs in the store? I've seen this happen twice here. I don't understand how people have the guts and no brains to bring a dog in a store. They aren't little dogs either; they are big dogs on a leash.
Today was my actual first day of work at DSW. It was a good-easy time. Basically all I have to do is pick up the trash, straighten shoes, ask people if they need a bag, ask them if they want to sign up for the rewards program and if they need help. I'm not sure when I'll be up at the register, but so far it's all been cake walk.
Why do people bring their dogs in the store? I've seen this happen twice here. I don't understand how people have the guts and no brains to bring a dog in a store. They aren't little dogs either; they are big dogs on a leash.
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