Flying High

For quite some time now, I have had a very small yearning to go sky diving. But, as you've read in prior posts, I am not at all an adrenaline junkie. Not sure I can make it happen.

So, when my sister mentioned the air tunnel, I immediately added it to my list. I couldn't think of a better time to head down to Eloy, about an hour south of Phoenix, to try it out. My friends Cheri and Bevla joined me.

We started out with approximately 10 minutes of training.....if you could call it that. Then they suit you up. There were about 8 or 9 of us in our "class". Once we get suited up, we go into the air tunnel seating area and wait our turn. We signed up for the one-minute experience, which means we each get one minute inside the air tunnel, twice. Didn't seem like much time.

There were two guys that went before us, one did really good and the other had a heck of time. He kept hitting the wall and flipping over, not in a good way. Our very cute instructor boosted our confidence by pointing out that we could definitely do better than that guy.

And so we did!

It was really fun. Pretty easy for the most part. You just cross your arms in front of you and fall into the air tunnel. I would recommend keeping your mouth shut though, it's pretty easy to druel as soon as you get in the air. But certainly I'm not speaking from personal experience. ;)

The instructor is there the whole time to help guide you and keep you from hitting the wall. They give you hand signals to tell you if you need to relax, put your arms out, bend your legs, etc. The one minute really is a good amount of time for the first time. And on the second go-round, at the end of the one minute, the instructor connected to us and flew us higher up into the tunnel a few times.

That may be the closest I ever get to the real thing.

July 2010 travels

Just past the mid-point of the year and I am not only caught up with my blog posts, I'm not falling further behind!

July in Phoenix is always fun. I think June is technically the hottest month, but man it sure feel like it's been July this year. The hundred & teen temps are out of control. I heard someone say that it's really sad when you think 100 is cool, because you've been so used to 115+. I thought that was pretty funny. July also traditionally brings our great monsoons, but we just haven't seen much of that. Even for Fourth of July, when I generally head down to southern Arizona, the storms were non-existent when they are usually fabulous. I have never seen a better storm than in southern Arizona.

But, no such luck this year.

Quick trip down to mom & dad's in Sonoita for Fourth of July. Not a whole lot to report, except for a few words on the Fourth of July parade in Patagonia.

I love small town events. The attendees are always so serious about every aspect. For my parents, it was imperative that we leave two hours prior to the start time of the parade. "We need to get the right spot under a tree." At the time it seems slightly obsessive. What on earth will I do in Patagonia for two hours while I wait for the parade to start? Surprisingly, the time went by very quickly. And, once the parade starts, I really appreciated that two hour jump start. We have prime real estate right under a tree with front row seats. Sweet!

So what can I say about the actual parade? Not a whole lot, it was typical small town parade. If you're from a small town, you are sighing a sigh of nostalgia right now. If you're from a big city, you probably don't get it. The candy thrown into the streets, the ridiculous "floats", the water balloons and water gun fights. Great fun. Almost makes me want to move to a small town.

June 2010 -- A Trip Back In Time

I feel like I'm losing my "umph" a bit with the adventure part of my new years' resolution. I had kept Zumba and Pilates in my back pocket for those months that I was super busy and couldn't get something more exciting done. And I had already used up Zumba in May. It was fun, don't get me wrong. But it wasn't overly adventurous.

I'm not sure where June went, the month zipped by me pretty quickly. And so, I found myself using up my Pilates card. But, it was something I had never done, and it was fun. Okay, not "fun" per se, but it was good to do. I was sore for three days. Maybe four. But still, not necessarily exciting. I would have to step it up in July.

For my trip in June, I had a business trip planned to Dallas. I actually went to college about 40 miles north of Dallas, at the University of North Texas in Denton. It was North Texas State Universrity when I started, but changed its name a couple of years before I graduated. I had been back to Dallas many times since I graduated, but I never made my way up to Denton. I hadn't been there since the year after I graduated. 20 years ago. So, I engaged two of my old college friends to take a nostalgic trip back in time.

We started out by eating lunch at the Black Eyed Pea. Love love LOVE it. We used to have them here in Phoenix but they closed. And, my friends and I had partaken in a bit too many libations the night before. So it was a perfect, greasy, comforting option. The same old Black Eyed Pea that I used to eat at in college. It was still there, exactly the same.













That's about where the similarity ended. Twenty years later, Denton had changed. And the University had certainly changed. There were new buildings everywhere. Many new streets. Less trees because they had given way for the new buildings. I'd say there were more new buildings than old. When I went to school there, Denton had a population of about 65,000, and the school had about 15,000 students. Now, the city has doubled in population, and the school is now 36,000 students strong. Crazy growth! And they had torn down the then-new hotel that had educated me in my last two years of hotel/restaurant management school, to make way for a new football field and sports complex. It was wild.
















We drove around to check out where we used to live. Hollyhill, the older of our apartments, looked better than when we lived there. Our duplex on Gardenview, however, was totally ghetto, it was hardly recognizable. We drove down Fry Street -- historic, artsy, home of the famed Fry Street Fair, which ceased many years ago. I had heard rumors that our old favorite pizza place, The Flying Tomato, had burned down several years ago. What's funny you can search Fry Street Burning on You Tube and get all sorts of videos!



I'd also heard that the whole Fry Street area, where we'd spent many of our college days, was bought by a development company and was going to be replaced with new strip centers and a bright, beautiful, drive-in CVS pharmacy. So sad. It was such a historic, artistic, party street. We'd spent many, many hours at the Library......every college town has one. We'd watch The New Bohemians, before Edie Brickell made it big, along with many other bands, at this dive. So I was not too excited at the prospect of seeing what had changed on Fry Street. I feared it was all gone. But I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, the Tomato was gone. And there was no sight of The Library that I could see. But the area was still full of character and grafitti. Ah, the good ol' days.

All in all, a great trip down memory lane!

Another Piece of the Puzzle

So, I said I had two new years resolutions. But I actually have three. Time to add the third one to the blogging.

My very good friend, Jill, has been in my life for about 15 years. We both share a passion for good food, so we decided that we'd have dinner once a month, somewhere that at least one of us has never been. That made it a great way to check out restaurants new on the Phoenix scene. We committed to it being just the two of us, which hasn't happened often as our lives got busier over the years.

Since I am behind on posting, I do not remember the dishes that I had at all of these places. But I will share a high level overview.

January / Noca
Noca is a small quaint restaurant near the Biltmore in Phoenix. NoCA stands for "North of Camelback". I had been to the restaurant before, but Jill had not, so I thought it was a perfect way to start out the year. As always, the dinner was spectacular. If you've never been, you should make a point of checking it out!

February / Robbie Fox's Public House
A new Irish pub in downtown Tempe, Robbie Fox's was an exciting choice. We had been to Ireland together just a few years ago, where we had some of the best food we'd ever had. Since this restaurant promised to be the true essence of Irish food, off we went. But it was horribly disappointing. Service, bad. Food, worse. Nothing at all redeeming about Robbie Fox's.

March / LaStalla
March was supposed to be in north central Phoenix. I was in the middle of a new office build-out in the southeast valley, and due to some technical difficulties I didn't escape from the madness until later in the evening. Jill was nice enough to come to me, so we went to La Stalla in downtown Chandler. This quaint little Italian eatery was good, but not great. Very crusty bread. I'd go back but I won't be craving it.

April / ZinBurger
For Jill's April pick, she chooses ZinBurger Wine & Burger Bar. There is currently a location in Tucson that I'd been to, but she had never been. And, they had just opened one up in the Biltmore area. I must say, the Tucson location is much better. The Phoenix location is very loud, cafeteria-feeling.....kind of cold. Food was good, they have fantastic burgers and truffle fries. Can't go wrong with that! But I'm not sure I'd go back.

May / The Parlor Pizzeria
The Parlor was my pick in March, but we never made it. So it got bumped to the top of the list in May. The Parlor is a cute little pizzaria in central Phoenix, near the Biltmore area. I'm not sure what this building used to be, but I'm guessing an office building of some sort. It's very unassuming and hard to find, but they did a fantastic job with the ambiance. As you walk up from the parking lot, there are huge windows sweeping out onto the patio, which has colorful flowers and plants lining the walkway. There is a great bar area, and fantastic patio with a fireplace (which I will try later in the year!). We were both really excited about the menu, particularly the appetizer menu. But, it was disappointing. We simply ordered a cheese and meat tray, but there was nothing unique or remotely exciting about any item on the plate. Simply put, we could have bought all of this in the grocery store and made something better. We opted out for pizza for our main course, because most of it had the same ingredients that had just disappointed us. But, our meal was fabulous. We shared a crisp spinach salad with aged cheddar and bacon (you can never go wrong with bacon!!), and the sweet pea risotto. Both were yummy. I have been back several times since, and everything else I have had was wonderful. Just stay away from the Meat & Cheese selection!

June / Pasta Bar
We all have our "foodie-mentor", that person who you trust explicitly with restaurant recommendations. That person who has impecable taste. The person who never lets you down. Or, shall I say rarely. I had seen Pasta Bar on many occasions. It is connected to another new restaurant that I had recently been to, Sens Asian Tapas (which, for the record, is fantastic!). And, my foodie-mentor had told me how delish Pasta Bar was. So I was excited when Jill recommended it. My excitement ended there. First, their website menu was out of date. Which, I kind of get, but not in today's world of easy websites. Update the menu, because we get excited about items we read about. Second, our poor little waitress was a mess. She was clearly new, but she didn't know what she was talking about. Which makes it hard when you have a lot of questions about the menu. The drinks were lacking. The service was lacking. And, when we finally got our meal ordered, the food was lacking. I felt I could have done better with a Pasta-roni packaged dinner. So, cross this one off the list!

It's amazing how many fabulous restaurants there are here in Phoenix, that I have tried recently, but so far Jill and I weren't doing as well as I'd like. Let's hope July brings something better!

New York, New York

Anyone who knows me knows that New York is my favorite city. I just love everything about it. My first trip to New York was a mere 12 years ago. And I've been going ever since.

One of my very dear friends was about to get married. He's a great friend, like a brother. There was no way I was going to miss this. The wedding was in Piermont, on the bank of the Hudson River, and about 25 miles north of the city. Also, very conveniently, not too far from Pleasantville in Westchester County, where my good friend Tricia lives.

Despite the quick trip, I would be able to do it all. See the city, visit Tricia and her family, and attend the wedding. I head to the city on a Thursday night, with plans to spend Friday figuring out a great adventure to fulfill my May experience quota. But first things first. I had to make a visit to my favorite sandwich shop, in Soho near Sullivan & Spring. And it's a great day for a walk. I arrive at Mellampo, now actually Alidoro, and take my place in the line.

I pull out my phone and see that my sister had called. And then my heart stops. I see an email from her, with two simple but frightening words: "It's Cancer". I immediately dial her number but she doesn't answer. Everything is silent around me. I knew she had just had a biopsy on a lump they found in one of her breasts. But you just never think anything will come from it. As I stand there, I can feel the tears rushing down my cheek. I get a return call, and she gives me the bit of good news nestled amongst this horrible event. It's in the early stages, she will ultimately be okay. But still, she's about to embark on a very unwelcome journey.

I spend the next couple of hours walking around the city. Nothing else seemed quite as important. I found it strangely comforting to be amidst this massive city during a time like this.

The next morning, I pack my things and head for the train station. I'll head to Pleasantville, where my friend Tricia will pick me up. I love the train ride.....ipod on, gazing out the window, pondering the meaning of life. After just under an hour, I get off the train with my two-ton suitcase. I make my way off the platform and notice the huge stairwell ahead of me. This is the moment that I wish I had re-thought the packing. HOW on earth am I going to make it up those three flights of stairs with this thing? I make it up about 4 steps and I suddenly feel my load lighten. Some extremely nice gentleman grabbed the bottom of my suitcase and helped me to the top. But somehow I am still out of breath. I cried. Emotions. Bleh.

The rest of the trip was as good as it could be, sister on the back of my mind. But I managed to enjoy the beautiful wedding, spend a wonderful day in several other small towns around Pleasantville, and simply enjoy time with my friend and her family.

And to Joey and Patty, I wish you both a wonderful life filled with joy and happiness! I am glad I could be part of your day!

At the end of the month, I was also lucky enough to take a quick trip to Sacramento, to watch the new Sex and the City movie with my old college roommate. So, I guess I have two trips in May. That kind of makes up for my lame trip in March. :)

I'm getting caught up......May is here!

One month to go.......I'm excited to finally be catching up!

Let's start with my May experience, something I've never done before. It's slightly lame, so I will make it quick and painless. Zumba. If you aren't familiar, it's a latin rhythm fitness program. I decided to do this in the comfort of my own home as to not embarrass myself as I did with belly dancing. My intent, of course, is to eventually join a real class. But let's see how this goes first.

Despite the fact that I have lost my rhythm as I've gotten older, and I'm still very out of shape, it was a lot of fun. I love latin music, it's very inspiring to me, so that worked perfectly. I didn't keep up with the whole class, but I have managed to do Zumba a few more times since the first. I think it's here to stay.

March & April trips

I guess I should back track to share my trips for March and April. Neither of them are overly exciting so one post is certinaly sufficient.

March was one of just a couple of months that I didn't have a full-on trip planned. So, I decided to take a short day trip somewhere close to home, somewhere I've never seen before. Sadly, I'm an Arizona native and there's a lot of Arizona that I've never seen. I decided to venture to the White Tank Mountains for a little picnic and a nice hike. My golden retriever, Tessa, is always up for a ride in the car. Duke, a little less adventurous, had to stay behind. The White Tanks are only about 30 miles west of Phoenix. After about a 45 minute drive, we drove the circle within the park to check out all different areas. We finally settled on the Waterfall Trail, a short 2 mile hike. It was crowded with a lot of very unfriendly people, clearly mostly tourists. But Tessa got a lot of attention which of course she was thrilled with. We got back to the dried up waterfall, with some stale ponds of leftover rain water. Ah, the excitement of a dry climate. That's about it for March.

April was our annual trip to Rocky Point. For those of you unfamiliar, Rocky Point, also known as Puerto Penasco, is a small fishing village about 60 miles south of the Mexican Border. The closet beach to Phoenix, it's only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our city. I have been going to Rocky Point for many years.....this was my 16th year in a row. Our group of eight rents a beautiful house on the beach in Las Conchas, for four nights of fun and sun. I won't elaborate on the "fun", as that's way too much to share. Let's just say there are a few games of poker and asshole, a lot of beer, and some pretty late mornings. Why on earth do we only go once a year???