AZ Recap: Part I

Here's all things Arizona about my trip.  

For starters, I walked thru O'hare airport from the front doors to my gate in 15 minutes.  Tell me you're not impressed.  

Day 1 (which is really just 10pm at night):  Greg, Sara & Jake picked me up from the airport and took me onto Mill Ave in Tempe (which is where Sara & Greg live) and checked out an outdoor bar followed by some late night outdoor Mexican.  The streets were very lively and there were street performers everywhere.  I really felt like I was back in Barca.  Very cool.

Day 2: You already saw pictures from my amazing hike.  After the hike, we watched some NCAA games and had drinks & lunch (outdoors!!)  It wasn't until 3:00pm that they finally took me to pool.  Greg played some water polo and I passed out in the heavenly bliss of the sun.  Later that night we went to Four Peaks Brewery which is the largest brewery in AZ.  Of course, I tried one of every kind of beer they offered ;)  After lots of chips n salsa, I was pretty satisfied and tired, but couldn't resist ordering when we went to G & Sara's fav restaurant, The Pita Jungle. It's a VEGAN restaurant so naturally I could eat most anything.. so sad I wasn't hungrier.

Greg & I at the top of Camelback Mountain.

Day 3: Finally a pool day! See, it took me 3 days to get to the pool.. I'm not a sun worshiper. Being on the ASU campus at the pool made me wonder why I didn't go away to a warm state school.  Probably because every day would be spring break and I'd have failed out of college.  We went to a late dinner (of course, with an in between course of chips n salsa at Boulders on Broadway.  Let me tell you what Tempe does.. Reverse Happy Hour.  That's right.. from 10pm to close bars have deals on all drinks and food items.  If this happened in Chicago, all establishments would be out of business.  While we waited for Sara for dinner, we played bags where G & I ran the boards winning somewhere between 9 and 12 games straight.  (These randoms thought I was God's gift to the game because I had a couple good rounds, but G was really equally dominate if not better.)

As you can see.. thus far in the trip I had been slacking on my picture taking.  I start to show a little improvement here! 

Day 4:  Pool. Happy Girl.  Champagne.  Happier Girl.  Took the Light Rail (electric train) to the Suns Game. in Phoenix. 

Tickets for the Light Rail

Here I had my first ticket scalping experience. (And by me, of course I mean Greg & Jake negotiated and I watched) These scalpers are cut throat.  We ended up getting 3 tickets for $50 and sitting in whatever seats and section we wanted.  That would definitely not happen at the United Center.  I also walked in unsearched and my purse unchecked.  I don't know if I felt safer or not.  It wasn't until inside the stadium that they actually served Stoli vodka.  Win!  The Suns lost, but we got to see Shannon Brown light it up with 32 points & who could forget the World's Limbo Queen.  I thought I could limbo. She went under a pole on top of two beer bottles with two trays of drinks in her hands.  Impressed is an understatement. 

Scene of the Scalp: Outside the stadium

We met up with Sara and a couple of their friends at District in the Sheraton in downtown Phoenix for some more reverse happy hour.  

Sneak Peak of tomorrow's post:

My very first look at the Grand Canyon. (The picture isn't nearly as good as the real thing.)