January 27th
– February 2nd 2014
Time is flying. We are at the end of 9th week
in Arizona and it feels like we just got here (more less). It is
strange to watch crazy weather running all over the country (and have
very pleasant and steady climate). I guess we are missing one of the
coldest winters in Michigan in decade or two (so bad). J.'s job is
still so nice (even she had one rough day this week). It looks like
she may have hard time to have “normal” job after this one.
Phoenix in winter is extremely pleasant. We had few days off but they
were not all together so we stayed “local”. I still have school
and do not enjoy those three classes at all. I also had to have some
maintenance work done on the car (still some left to do). Planning
our trip to Alaska (pretty much done, we leave 3/3 from Phoenix and
arrive 3/18 in Anchorage). On Tuesday we went to MIM (Musical
Instruments Museum). http://mim.org/ It
is hard to describe it all but it was definitely worth doing. Very
extensive collection divided by regions and countries. Probably third
of the exhibits had also “television screen” playing samples of
the music connected to that country. We received headphones and when
we were close enough the music was transmitted (interesting). Towards
the end we were really tired and could not believe how big the museum
was. By accident we got to the showing of “mechanical music box”.
There was quite big collection of those machines and they were really
remarkable creations. At the (real) end we had some fun in the “play
room” with some drums, guitars and other instruments. We even
played the theremin. Some errands and monkey business afterward.
Piestawa Peak. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piestewa_Peak
North Mountain. http://www.northmountainvisitorcenter.org/
South Mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Mountains_%28Arizona%29
Other free days, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
we were somewhat active and did bunch of walking. Piestawa Peak and
North Mountain are part of pretty large North Mountain Park. Piestawa
seems be very popular and busy one, it is the one that I drove to few
times to find no parking. This time it was relatively “empty” and
we parked by the peak trailhead. There is nice network of trails but
it looks like people are mainly interesting in going to the peak and
back. About 1.6 miles round trip and about 1200 feet elevation gain.
Great views. Many people going up and down. Rocky. Steep. Several
fake summits. Very nice. North Mountain is about one mile from our
apartment, we were going just for the walk but did not communicate
that properly and ended up walking to the summit. Windy. Empty.
Steep. Difficult. Rocky. Same great views of the valley in all
directions. Cloudy – made it kind of charming. We invited J.'s
friend and together drove to South Mountain Park in southern part of
Phoenix. There was interesting event happening in the park: Great
Canadian Picnic. http://www.canadianpicnic.com/Home.html
Flags, music, some food carts, and stands with bunch of monkey
business. Very odd. We drove into the park and walked along the
trail. At the end we probably walked more than we wanted but it was
really pleasant. We ended up on the National trail that was going
along the ridge of the mountains. That gave us incredible views (all
directions again). Total walk was a bit over 5 miles. This time there
was nothing extremely steep. Phoenix in winter is really nice. We
drove to Texas BBQ house for early dinner (or late lunch). Pretty
good food. And home. We have to get ready for cold spell coming to
the area, the temperature will be in low to mid 60's. Really chilly.
