February 24th
– March 1st 2014
LAST WEEK IN PHOENIX.
Some work days for J. (Monday, Tuesday, Friday). We left
Phoenix on Sunday, March 2nd. Packing. Cleaning. School
Stuff. Car. Getting ready for the road trip – Going North. It was
somewhat unbelievable (and surreal) that we were getting ready to
leave, again. Wednesday, we went to Glendale chocolate factory.
Earlier in the day J. had to get done her drug test. Bunch of fun.
The factory was relatively small and according to J. really 1950s and
the show “I love Lucy”. They even had some reference to this
television show. It was somewhat interesting. They do not produce
their own chocolate so they use those huge blocks of chocolate as the
main ingredient to make different candy. We drove through old town
Glendale (looked like small city until we were back on the main road
and saw all the sprawl). We stopped at Sahuaro Historic Park where we
picked some grapefruits. They were pretty much gone be we found some
inside the trees or high up. On the way home we stopped for late
lunch at Valle Luna http://www.valleluna.com/.
The restaurant was in mall-isch setting but it was pretty nice
inside. The food was excellent and the size was enormous. We were
pretty much done for the rest of the day.
On Friday I refreshed my memory and re-learned that it takes much
longer to get packed and clean the place than I thought. I always
forget about that. But we were in good shape on Friday (J. worked)
and the car was partly packed. It started to rain during the night
and it was pretty heavy. In a way it is a big deal in Arizona. In a
way it is strange. Well, J. brought home this picture:
On Thursday, we drove to Cave Creek – we intended to buy cacti as
presents and some metal sculpture (cactus) as a souvenir to take
home. J. did not like any cactus (not big selection of small ones) in
several nurseries that we visited. We did not like metal sculptures
in Cave Creek either. It felt like that were different last time we
were there. Or we saw them differently. We did not buy any any. From
there we drove to Scottsdale for J.'s haircut. Same city. Same
streets. Nice weather. We will miss winter in Arizona. Haircut. On
the way home we stopped at Cosanti (original house of Paolo Soleri).
Apparently it was build several miles out of the city but over town
it got consumed by the city. Now the Cosanti complex is surrounded by
multi-million dollar homes. It is very interesting contrast. In 1940
city of Phoenix had about 65 000 inhabitants (now it is about 1 500
000). Friday morning was crisp, breezy, and really beautiful after
the rain. We had to finish packing and so on, but we drove to Desert
botanical garden in the morning. It was relatively empty and
extremely pleasant. Water made everything cleaner, fresh, and bright.
Many cacti and plants are apparently blooming ahead of the schedule
so we saw quite a few blooming plants. It was really pretty. We even
saw a turtle. After coming home we had to finish packing and
cleaning. We went for earlier dinner with J.'s friend R. from work.
It was very good. I was hoping for no rain but later in the evening I
had to load the car (for the most part) in the rain. I guess we are
not destined to have nice moving day. Life goes on … LAST NIGHT IN
PHOENIX.
