On Thursday, May 17, Tom and I were back in the Columbus airport, (see posts from 4/29/2018 and 4/30/2018), |
...eating breakfast, |
Our ultimate destination was Wickenburg, Arizona for the Quinceañera* of Claire's husband Miguel's sister-in-law's younger sister.
Miguel and Claire.
Our plan was to meet up with Maria, Justin, and our grand daughters, who were flying in from Los Angeles, in Phoenix in an Airbnb that Maria had reserved for us, spend the night, then the following day drive to Wickenburg and meet up there with Claire and Miguel.
Which is, in fact, what came to pass.
After we arrived in Phoenix and had picked up a rental car we decided that the first order of things would be to seek out some lunch, |
...pretty, thanks to the palm trees that adorned the parking lot. |
For some reason Arizona has particularly pretty palm trees and lots of them.
Uncle Bear's was a dog-themed pub, |
...and walls lined with pictures of pups. |
The garlic Parmesan fries we shared as an appetizer were hot, crispy, and awesome, |
...my fajita salad, |
...and everyone else's sandwiches. |
We drove along brown desert hills,
…down highways and streets lined with palm trees, |
However, it being 1:30 in the afternoon, 98 degrees, and the Phoenix sun beating down on us Ohio folk like a demon, we opted to seek refuge and air conditioning in a nearby Target until the owner got the door issue squared away.
Our trip to Target in fact turned out to be an auspicious one, as while wandering the toy department I discovered that LOL dolls, now so wildly popular that they are virtually unattainable in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, both cities where I’d recently sought them out (see post from 4/26/2018 ), have not yet found a following in Phoenix:
…there was at that Target not only a finity of LOL dolls, |
By the time we returned to our Airbnb the owner had apparently ironed out the kinks in the door’s keypad lock as Maria and family had already arrived, and were happy to see us, as we were them.
…with four bedrooms, |
…and a lovely yard, |
…provided one (unlike myself) has no aversion to potential visits from scorpions and other desert critters. |
…and began enjoying the house’s amenities, |
The LOL dolls I'd bought at Target were a phenomenal hit, |
…and fortunately lifeguard Auntie Theresa was patient about periodically rescuing the tiny dolls and their infinitesimal accessories from the bottom of the pool as required. |
And perhaps they would have, had it not taken over an hour for our orders to arrive, piecemeal and incomplete – the tired-looking, harried-looking waitress informed us that that our grand daughter’s egg had fallen onto the floor and advised us not to even attempt ordering another one. In exchange she wouldn’t charge us for the children’s meals, also in gratitude for the girls not having morphed into wild things during the wait for their food, such as it was by the time it arrived.
We made a mental note not to attempt to go out for breakfast around here.
Rather, the next morning, Friday morning, Tom and I made an early expedition to Fry’s, the local Kroger’s affiliate, |
In this part of Arizona at this time of year hikers should start out early - ideally no later than 6 am, though we didn't quite meet that deadline - because the heat becomes so intense so quickly that by late morning heat stroke becomes a danger.
All of which we did.
At times the steep, rocky trail reminded me of the trails Tom and I hiked along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain (see my Camino blogs: https://pattiliszkay.weebly.com/ and https://www.andlightenyourpack.com/), |
After a while some of us got a little tired, |
...working, |
...and, of course, cleaning up so as to snag a good review from our Airbnb host, which we did, |