First day in Arizona

[fenchurch]

It's been wonderful to finally meet and get to know rackham's aunt... since until now, we'd only ever managed a few phone conversations, which is really not the same thing. We spent the morning visiting with her -- not only had we never met in person before, but Rackham hadn't seen her since he was in his late teens, so we had a LOT to talk about. :-)

Around lunchtime we headed down to the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall, grabbed a quick bite at the Paradise Bakery cafe (we'd scoped out the food court and it was the only local place there... and it was also the busiest, with a fairly long line but surprisingly speedy service and really good food), wandered around the mall for a bit and finally hit the P.B. Loco Cafe! MMmmmmmmm... fantastic!!! We sampled a bunch of the different types of peanut butter and finally got two Sampler Platters (our choice of three different types of peanut butter served with celery, carrots, pretzels and sliced apples). I ended up with Banana, Asian Curry and Cinnamon & Raisin (which is one I hadn't expected to like, but loved when I tasted it). The banana was probably my favorite... Of course, when I was a kid my favorite flavor of Koogle Peanut Butter was the banana (I think Koogle may have been a regional brand -- they made several different flavored peanut butters, including banana, vanilla and chocolate). We need to swing back by there and buy a few jars to take home (I don't know why we didn't just pick them up today, but for some reason at the time it seemed like a good idea to wait).

At that point, we decided it was too late in the day to appreciate a trip to the Science Museum or the Mystery Castle, so we looked up the closest Bookman's (which was recommended by a friend) and headed over to Mesa. Wow! What a fun store!!! Sort of like a really large Half-Price Books, with all sorts of other used stuff thrown in (like boardgames, comics, magazines, action figures and knick-knacks). We're thinking we may look at swinging by some of their other locations while we're here.

We managed to escape without going too deeply in debt (although Rackham nearly had to pry me out of the Physics section (I have this same problem at Powell's City of Books in Portland)) and in the end just bought a boxed set of Good Eats DVDs that look like they'd never been viewed. Squee!! Then I remembered that napalm_isis actually lives in Mesa, so I gave her a call and we decided to meet up at the Superstition Springs Shopping Center.

That was a blast! We ended up just wandering around the mall and chatting... and then we gave her a lift home and stood around there chatting for awhile, too. And, unlike most of the other times when I've met up with LJ friends, I actually remembered to get a photo of the two of us together! Yay! (I'm still kicking myself for not thinking of it when we visited with curiouswombat and speakr2customrs or with gillo or with nutmeg3 or when we met up with queenofthorns or... well, you get the idea.) At some point, when I have a better method for resizing the photo at my disposal, I'll have to see about posting it!

Tomorrow we're planning on hitting the aforementioned Science Museum for the Narnia exhibit and the Mystery Castle... and just plain wandering around Phoenix, since we really haven't made it into the city yet, having mostly just bopped around Scottsdale and Mesa.

Comments

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. I visit these places vicariously through you! ;)

[napalm_isis]

That was so much fun! Next time you guys come out this way I'd love to hang out again. :D

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the trip is going pretty well, apart from cancelled and rescheduled flights! Bookman's sounds fun.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

I STILL haven't seen that Narnia exhibit! (Not that we haven't been busy or something...)

Bookman's is a very dangerous place, really. I think the one in Mesa is the largest, but the one on 19th Ave and Northern is very nice, too (and next door to a big Sprout's). There's some good little restaurants in that area, too.

The Mystery Castle is just nifty.

[slm76.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! I'm so glad you got to meet Jen. She is such a riot :)

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

I meant to tell you this earlier - there is a place called Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix which is run by this sort of maniac pizza maker. It's housed in this great old building, they take no reservations, and apparently the pizza is as close to the sort you get in Naples without actually being in Italy. I tried to grill wildrider and rahirah about this place when I saw them last week, but I couldn't remember the name (my sister went there last year and she couldn't remember the name either). It's supposed to be a must-visit place in Phoenix, although the lines can be long and daunting.

Also, have you seen anything about the Firefly installation at the Phoenix Museum of Art? It may no longer be there, but my other sister visited it a few months ago, and she said it was amazing - kind of like standing on the edge of the universe. I wish I could see it.

Continue to have fun, and my best to those newlyweds. :)

[pmgoose.livejournal.com]

So very cool! Yummm . . . exotic flavors of peanut butter. :)

[jedihealer.livejournal.com]

You do *so* much traveling. How come you aren't totally exhausted all the time?

[malabud.livejournal.com]

Oh, drat. I've been way behind on my flist these last few weeks for various reasons, so you've come and gone and I didn't even know it! I live five minutes from that Bookman's! (My brother used to even work there.) Well, next time you're in the vicinity, we'll have to hook up. Sorry I missed you! :(