Phoenix Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

Over the last week, I was amazed when my friend Brenda (who is from Australia but just moved to England) announced that she's purchased a ticket to come to New York to celebrate my birthday with me!!!  Also, my great friend Lorenzo, who I met in Florence and then again saw in London earlier this year, wants to come as well; he hasn't purchased a ticket yet, but it's looking really good! I've become VERY  interested in teaching English in China; preferably in Shanghai or the surroun...

  I debated whether or not to include this... but if we are discussing how bizarre life can be in Phoenix, I don't see how I can leave it out.  It's time to discuss our very special version of the criminal justice system. We have a very well known (infamous, if you will) Sherriff in Phoenix; Sherriff Joe Arpaio.  He is in charge of the jail system here, amongst other things. Sheriff Arpaio, years ago, decided we were (as a city) spending too much money on the prison system; ...

Up early enough to go down and get some of the continental breakfast that the hotel served. Not much choice. Three kids cold cereals, a few very small muffins, pre-cooked omelets, actually I think they had come frozen and the hotel nuked them. Yuck. And a couple of waffles that looked just as bad. We each had orange juice and two muffins and even though it was early they turned off the juice machines so we couldn’t refill them. We had driven further the day before than I had planned so we h...

Finally, we arrived home in Phoenix, around midnight. Regardless, the trip was a raging success, and I loved every single minute of it.

Each summer in Arizona we go through a short storm season.  Just as the temperatures become unbearably hot, a little moisture starts to come in and we get our summer "Monsoon!"  From the right vantage point, you can watch a wall of dust, some over 2,000 feet tall (A 200-Story building!) engulf the Valley at speeds up to 35 miles per hour.  If we are lucky, a thunderstorm will roll in right behind it, dropping the temperature (sometimes 20 degrees) and bringing us our muc...

First I just have to tell you about little Andrew. He was simply adorable. 5 minutes after I met him, he was in my heals and followed me anywhere. He wanted to show me stuff, and talk all the time. Poor me could barely understand what he said.. lolHe was just 2 years old, but had alreday learned his ABC, knew that if anything happened, he should call 911 and he also knew their phone nr. in case he got separated from his parents. Wow.. kids sure learn at an early age in the states. B...

I could write more here... about my NIGHTMARE stop in Mexico City, and how I honestly had a few hours of believing I may never be allowed back to my native soil... but really I'm just going to honor the fact that I don't want to.  Alluding to it there is enough - it happened, but in no way changed the trip, and I don't want to write a major entry about it at the end. INSTEAD: I'd just like to say how very much my thoughts on the plane tended to gear towards everyone I had been spending...

So here I am again, its friday and I am at work just about finishing up my shift. Just another boring day with nothing to do. Due to it being summer here, and about an average of 110 degrees, no one wants to visit Az nonetheless stay at my hotel = ( . The good news though is that Harriet is coming tonight and I don't have to cook!! I've been in good contact with Robyn and Harriet. I emailed Keith, but forgot to give him my phone number - my only reason was that I was excited to meet...

Friday we took off for our fantastic Christmas weekend in New York.  This was especially a big deal, because some of the people in the group that were going had never been to New York before; and others had never been there at Christmas! The trip went smoothly (save an unexpected extended layover in Chicago) until we got to New York, and got in the cab.  We told the cab driver where we were staying, and off we went; driving from Kennedy Airport into the big city, headed for the She...

It was Christmas afternoon; the gifts had been opened, and we had just finished the Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding.  I carried my bags to my sister in law's car, and true to form, my entire cheesy family poured out of my parents' house where we had gathered for a final meal to make a big scene out of waving manically as we drove away towards the airport. This was my first time flying British Airways non stop from Phoenix to London, and I was looking forward to it; I'd always had a fo...

Back at the airport on company wide wifi again =) Finally a moment to think. I was so frustrated during this trip, but it ended up being wonderful. Eko and I had a bit of an all night talk to straighten things out and you know that always makes for a better friendship. I realized that my stress vibes can cripple people into not making any decisions for fear of making me angry. I can’t wait to travel with Eko again whenever that may be and if she lets me. We even have these gorgeous match...

That morning we got up at 4:00 am, gathered our things, jumped in a taxi, and headed back to the Singapore Airport one last time; by that point, we had been there 3 times already on the trip; once upon our arrival, the second upon our departure to Bangkok, and then just the night before when we arrived back from Bangkok.  We were becoming experts at the Singapore airport. As we pulled up, I knew we were all dying to go home, but it was still hard to accept; even finishing writing this ...

I'd meant to go see Mickey’s Hangover or Scottsdale or some of the other wonderful places that Amanda has been telling us about in her Athewinn blog about Phoenix.  They sounded fascinating.  But I couldn’t resist going back to my favorite Phoenix place ever -  the Desert Botanical Garden.  And of course, we went in the early morning for the early morning light on the cacti and to see the birds and animals too.   The Desert Botanical Garden (1201 N ...

Oh the wonders of the internet! I had not spoken with my best friend from High School in more than 14 years and we had even lost touch with each other.  I had searched for him but was not successful.   It turns out he had searched me out as well.   On May 15, I received an e-mail asking if I were the Jeremy that went to North Tahoe High School and I replied yes.  It was my friend!!!!   He found me through an internet search on airplanes.   I ...

I leave tomorrow.... my house is not clean yet, the clothes are still in the dryer, the trash needs to be lugged down... ugh. This all needs to be done tonight, seeing as how I don't come back here tomorrow - I leave directly from work (leaving early) to the airport - so this is my last chance! I was already un-motivated, and then by the time I got off work, my brother had been rushed to the hospital to have emergency surgery - he's fine, or will be, just his appendix; but my mother ha...