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icepixieSo I left 90-degree Arizona for 50-degree Nashville. Somehow I feel like this is a bad thing... *sigh*
But yes--I had a fabulous time in Phoenix with the Pezzers. There was lots of hiking, movie-watching, touristy stuff, gorgeous rocks...and it was so warm! In March! There were palm trees and orange trees and lemon trees and...ahhhh! It was warm! In the city, you can't really tell it's a desert except by the lack of natural waterways (i.e. canals instead of rivers) and the cacti people have in their yards. Other than that, it looks pretty green. And then you get up in the mountains surrounding the city, and you realize, oh, wait: that green stuff you thought was grass? Shrubby stuff and cacti growing in sandy soil. And lots and lots of rocks. Wow.
I took a whole bunch of pictures, which you can see here. I'm surprised at how well they turned out. The ones of Camelback and Sedona are quite nice, if I do say so myself.
We got in around eight on Friday night and didn't do much beyond eat dinner, braid each other's hair (yes, we are so middle school sometimes ;)), and go to sleep. On Saturday, we decided to climb Camelback, the mountain you can see from Chandra's back yard, the next day. It's 2,600 feet tall, and because of that, I now know how an asthmatic feels. I definitely got short of breath twice, and it was quite frightening. After the second time, I gave up on getting to the top. According to Ellen and Whitney, the last hundred feet or so that I didn't do were pretty much vertical, so I'm rather glad I quit while I was ahead. Then ten-foot wall of rock I did climb was quite enough for me.
But there were lots of lovely views from all points on the mountain, so I got to shutterbug my way up it, which was nice. Coming down was not so nice, as I did a good portion of it on my butt when I wasn't clinging Spiderman-like to the rocky sides. It was quite possibly one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. Have I ever mentioned my deathly fear of heights?
Oh, and apparently SPF 45 sunscreen doesn't cut it for me. Or perhaps I just didn't get it all over my body. I think I need to swim in the stuff before I go outside. *grumbles* But that's not to make it sound all bad, 'cause again, I got lots of great shots, and there was definitely a bird's eye view of Phoenix.
We did Baja Fresh for lunch and Baskin Robbins after, then sat out by the pool and laid around in the grass with the dog, Sam. Mmmm, relaxation. And then we ended up playing some video game where you beat people up...Smash Brothers, or something like that. It had Mario and Pikachu in it, as well as various other characters. I never got really good at it, but I figured out how not to make a complete fool out of myself eventually.
Sunday we did the tourist thing in Scottsdale, the touristy section of Phoenix. It's very...Southwestern. But nice, too. It doesn't feel as gaudy as the equivalent section of downtown Nashville, although that's possibly because I was actually a tourist here. I got a Kokopelli magnet and one of those spiral things that twirls in the wind. (And since I'm talking about material stuff here, in Sedona I got this beautiful blown glass quail ornament. The body is purple glass, with a gold feather at the head, and a real quail feather glued on the back. And Chandra got me a little pewter roadrunner that is absolutely adorable. *is happy* Oh, and we saw a real quail on Chandra's street, too! So cool.)
Monday was our trip to Sedona, which is ~2 hours from Phoenix. It's mostly a national park/forest, and it has the most beautiful rock formations ever. My pictures don't even do them justice--there are a million colors in the rock, from red to yellow to purple to green to God knows what else. Apparently it also is some kind of spiritual energy center. We got a map that showed "vortices," and we went to where we thought one was. It coincidentally was the same place as the "scenic lookout." The only weird thing that happened was a big wind sprung up while we were standing where the vortex was supposed to be. That was weird enough for us, I suppose.
We took a ~3 mile trail around and on top of that particular mountain. More Spiderman crawling for me, but it wasn't nearly as strenuous as Camelback, I didn't think, even though it was listed as such on the map. We went around the airport (er...a tiny building and a couple runways--think the Cicely airport on Northern Exposure), and saw lots of biplanes flying around giving tours. Unfortunately, we were too late to get on one. It would've been cool, though.
We left as the sun was setting, and when it had gotten good and dark and we were maybe a third or half of the way back to Phoenix, we stopped at a campground and did some stargazing. There were so many...we could not only see Orion's dagger (which you only see on really clear nights in Nashville), but also his bow, which is practically invisible everywhere but, y'know, campgrounds in the desert. Whitney, our astronomy buff, pointed out a lot of constellations and interesting things in the sky. You could even see the Milky Way stretching across the middle of the sky. You can see that at school, too, but that was certainly the biggest collection of stars I've ever seen. It was amazing.
Tuesday, we ended up going to Borders, where I got three books 'cause hey, AZ's sales tax is only 8%, whereas in Nashville it's 11.25%. I ended up with A Clash of Kings so I have a feeling George R. R. Martin is going to steal any time I have remaining on spring break. Also got Men at Arms, and the second book in David Drake's Daniel Leary series. So now I have reading for the eight-hour drive back from school in May.
That night was the Sarah Brightman concert we went to. It definitely lived up to its name of the "Harem Tour," although it could have been much worse. Some of those costumes... *shakes head* The seven dancer types alternated between mock belly dancing and Michael Jackson-backup dancing, which was...interesting. Whitney went wild over the pit orchestra. ;) There were pyrotechnics at the end, too--meep. Shocked everyone. I loved the lighting, though; there were lots of projections on the makeshift stage (the concert was held in one of those big sports arenas). And, y'know, the singing was good, too... ;) She's quite the powerful soprano. 'Twas nice.
We did other random things, too...bounced on Chandra's trampoline, dabbled in the pool (in March! I love Arizona!), watched Galaxy Quest, Mulan, Hercules, and Farscape (both parts of Self-Inflicted Wounds), played more video games, generally lounged about... Chandra's family was wonderful and let us take over their house, basically. Large portions of it, anyway.
And I came home today. That's about it, really. In short: my first trip past the Mississippi was a doozy, and much fun. When can we do it again? ;)
But yes--I had a fabulous time in Phoenix with the Pezzers. There was lots of hiking, movie-watching, touristy stuff, gorgeous rocks...and it was so warm! In March! There were palm trees and orange trees and lemon trees and...ahhhh! It was warm! In the city, you can't really tell it's a desert except by the lack of natural waterways (i.e. canals instead of rivers) and the cacti people have in their yards. Other than that, it looks pretty green. And then you get up in the mountains surrounding the city, and you realize, oh, wait: that green stuff you thought was grass? Shrubby stuff and cacti growing in sandy soil. And lots and lots of rocks. Wow.
I took a whole bunch of pictures, which you can see here. I'm surprised at how well they turned out. The ones of Camelback and Sedona are quite nice, if I do say so myself.
We got in around eight on Friday night and didn't do much beyond eat dinner, braid each other's hair (yes, we are so middle school sometimes ;)), and go to sleep. On Saturday, we decided to climb Camelback, the mountain you can see from Chandra's back yard, the next day. It's 2,600 feet tall, and because of that, I now know how an asthmatic feels. I definitely got short of breath twice, and it was quite frightening. After the second time, I gave up on getting to the top. According to Ellen and Whitney, the last hundred feet or so that I didn't do were pretty much vertical, so I'm rather glad I quit while I was ahead. Then ten-foot wall of rock I did climb was quite enough for me.
But there were lots of lovely views from all points on the mountain, so I got to shutterbug my way up it, which was nice. Coming down was not so nice, as I did a good portion of it on my butt when I wasn't clinging Spiderman-like to the rocky sides. It was quite possibly one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. Have I ever mentioned my deathly fear of heights?
Oh, and apparently SPF 45 sunscreen doesn't cut it for me. Or perhaps I just didn't get it all over my body. I think I need to swim in the stuff before I go outside. *grumbles* But that's not to make it sound all bad, 'cause again, I got lots of great shots, and there was definitely a bird's eye view of Phoenix.
We did Baja Fresh for lunch and Baskin Robbins after, then sat out by the pool and laid around in the grass with the dog, Sam. Mmmm, relaxation. And then we ended up playing some video game where you beat people up...Smash Brothers, or something like that. It had Mario and Pikachu in it, as well as various other characters. I never got really good at it, but I figured out how not to make a complete fool out of myself eventually.
Sunday we did the tourist thing in Scottsdale, the touristy section of Phoenix. It's very...Southwestern. But nice, too. It doesn't feel as gaudy as the equivalent section of downtown Nashville, although that's possibly because I was actually a tourist here. I got a Kokopelli magnet and one of those spiral things that twirls in the wind. (And since I'm talking about material stuff here, in Sedona I got this beautiful blown glass quail ornament. The body is purple glass, with a gold feather at the head, and a real quail feather glued on the back. And Chandra got me a little pewter roadrunner that is absolutely adorable. *is happy* Oh, and we saw a real quail on Chandra's street, too! So cool.)
Monday was our trip to Sedona, which is ~2 hours from Phoenix. It's mostly a national park/forest, and it has the most beautiful rock formations ever. My pictures don't even do them justice--there are a million colors in the rock, from red to yellow to purple to green to God knows what else. Apparently it also is some kind of spiritual energy center. We got a map that showed "vortices," and we went to where we thought one was. It coincidentally was the same place as the "scenic lookout." The only weird thing that happened was a big wind sprung up while we were standing where the vortex was supposed to be. That was weird enough for us, I suppose.
We took a ~3 mile trail around and on top of that particular mountain. More Spiderman crawling for me, but it wasn't nearly as strenuous as Camelback, I didn't think, even though it was listed as such on the map. We went around the airport (er...a tiny building and a couple runways--think the Cicely airport on Northern Exposure), and saw lots of biplanes flying around giving tours. Unfortunately, we were too late to get on one. It would've been cool, though.
We left as the sun was setting, and when it had gotten good and dark and we were maybe a third or half of the way back to Phoenix, we stopped at a campground and did some stargazing. There were so many...we could not only see Orion's dagger (which you only see on really clear nights in Nashville), but also his bow, which is practically invisible everywhere but, y'know, campgrounds in the desert. Whitney, our astronomy buff, pointed out a lot of constellations and interesting things in the sky. You could even see the Milky Way stretching across the middle of the sky. You can see that at school, too, but that was certainly the biggest collection of stars I've ever seen. It was amazing.
Tuesday, we ended up going to Borders, where I got three books 'cause hey, AZ's sales tax is only 8%, whereas in Nashville it's 11.25%. I ended up with A Clash of Kings so I have a feeling George R. R. Martin is going to steal any time I have remaining on spring break. Also got Men at Arms, and the second book in David Drake's Daniel Leary series. So now I have reading for the eight-hour drive back from school in May.
That night was the Sarah Brightman concert we went to. It definitely lived up to its name of the "Harem Tour," although it could have been much worse. Some of those costumes... *shakes head* The seven dancer types alternated between mock belly dancing and Michael Jackson-backup dancing, which was...interesting. Whitney went wild over the pit orchestra. ;) There were pyrotechnics at the end, too--meep. Shocked everyone. I loved the lighting, though; there were lots of projections on the makeshift stage (the concert was held in one of those big sports arenas). And, y'know, the singing was good, too... ;) She's quite the powerful soprano. 'Twas nice.
We did other random things, too...bounced on Chandra's trampoline, dabbled in the pool (in March! I love Arizona!), watched Galaxy Quest, Mulan, Hercules, and Farscape (both parts of Self-Inflicted Wounds), played more video games, generally lounged about... Chandra's family was wonderful and let us take over their house, basically. Large portions of it, anyway.
And I came home today. That's about it, really. In short: my first trip past the Mississippi was a doozy, and much fun. When can we do it again? ;)
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You say you went to Sedona
Date: 2004-03-11 05:59 am (UTC)Did you stop to see any of the cliff dwellings in Walnut Canyon or Montezuma's Castle National Monuments?
And what did you think of our fair city?
Re: You say you went to Sedona
From:no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 11:55 pm (UTC)Yes, in March it's lovely...
Try being here in July and August *g*
(no subject)
From: