Elvis & Kira

This week's adventures were about learning. The first stop was the Elvis Chapel and Superstition Mountain Museum. It was early morning and places weren't open. My objective was to see where they were located and determine if it would be worth a trip back with Papa to explore more? I think it would be worth a tour and learning about the area. It certainly is a photo op. This would be a beautiful picture with the Superstition Mountains in the background, especially when they're covered in spring blooms or winter snow.

After a quick stop, I proceeded to the day's destination, Saquaro Lake and another

Sunflowers

 
   Click on photo for a larger image

In March, the roadways were colorful with the spring super bloom. Now the sunflowers are mature. There is a large field of sunflowers just outside Maricopa, Arizona. We drove to the field this week and were not alone. There were several cars parked along the roadway admiring the vast expanse of tall flowers.

   Click on photo for a larger image

It is interesting how all the flowers face east toward the rising sun. There is a reason for that.

Murals

Exploring murals in the area has been on my list for years. We have viewed murals on Route 66 and in cities like Los Angeles. Why not check out our local area? 

Roosevelt Row

We started our two-hour mural tour at Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix, around 695 E Roosevelt Street. We parked along the street and walked

Trying New Things

 

Besides The Nutcracker at Christmas or kids' performances, Papa and I haven't attended a professional ballet performance...until this week. It was a unique outdoor performance under the stars and a close-but-not-quite full moon. It was a little warm and breezy, but the breeze helped counter the warmth so it turned out to be a lovely evening.

The temporary stage was so unique with the mountain-like backdrop contrasting the dark sky. The backdrop changed with the various illuminations

Japanese Friendship Garden

Tucked away off I-10 in downtown Phoenix is a beautifully zen oasis, the Japense Friendship Garden. It is small but packed with beautiful plantings and peaceful serenity. The sound of water flowing drowns out traffic and transports to a calm, relaxing place. The start of the colorful blooms promise springtime and life reborn. It was wonderful to see daffodils and lilacs in bloom. 

The plus is a delightful park across the street. We walked through

“A” Mountain

It is amazing the number of things you don’t do when you live close by. So many places we see and think “someday” but time slips away. Finally I took the hike up “A” Mountain in Tempe. What a easy hike and great views. Downtown Tempe is visible, of course, as well as Tempe Town Lake. Beyond the lake, the buildings of downtown Phoenix are also visible. What a quick, inspiring hike. 

Three Billy Goats

Not so far away is a free, magical place for children of all ages. Carl’s Damaged Pet Warehouse is located in the backyard of a residential home. Obviously there is a large backyard zoned for animals. The property owners take in “damaged” animals and shower them with love. The community spoils them with fresh fruits and vegetables, hand fed to many of the critters. Young and old alike are delighted with the antics of Odi, Patrick and friends. 

Combine the visit with a walk around the Riparian Reserve. The number of birds and water fowl are amazing to watch. Exercise, fresh air and nature abounds. 

The Wall That Heals

 

This post is early this week. Normally I would post on Sunday. However, this exhibit is only here for the weekend. If you're in the area, you might want to check it out. We have visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. on a couple different occasions. When we saw the advertisement for "The Wall That Heals," a traveling replica of the Washington memorial, we wanted to see it for ourselves.

The mobile wall is very nice. If you haven't seen it in Washington D.C. this is an excellent opportunity. The wall is made of metal, probably steal. The names are engraved in the wall, just like the stone wall in D.C. The nice thing about the engraved names is that you can do a rubbing by putting a sheet of paper over a name and rubbing back-and-forth with a lead pencil.

We noticed that there are lights above the wall. And the information posted says that taps are played each night at 7 PM. The exhibit runs this weekend only, through Sunday at 2 PM. It is displayed on the football field at Rumsey Park in Payson. When you approach the park, look for the flags displayed along the street. They will lead you to the Wall.

As I mentioned, the Wall is displayed on the football field and it takes up over half the length of the field. It is a significant exhibit. There is also a informative trailer in the parking lot with information about the Vietnam Memorial. Volunteers are scattered throughout the area and will help with finding names on the memorial wall and answering questions.

BONUS: The drive from the Valley to Payson is beautiful. The landscape changes over every mountain ridge. The gentle curvy mountain roads make the drive fun. The sun was starting to set on our way home. We saw the Salt River horses, probably three-to-four dozen of them, in an open field surrounded by happy observers. 

Fireworks!

Last week was the closest I've come to the "100 miles" goal for biking in a week. In eight days I made it 103 miles.
   Sat - 41.5;  Mon - 22.5;  Fri - 19.5;  Sat =  19.5

This week I was really hoping to get that 100 miles in seven days, but the bike went into the shop. Unless they get the maintenance done quickly for me, it'll be hard to get that 100 miles. Currently I have 36 miles in for the week with four days left.  We'll see.

At the same time, we are biking a lot but we are not walking/running much. That is a problem. We need to get into training for the half marathon. Reality is we're doing the marathon to say we did it...once. Our favorite activity is biking. When the weather is as perfect as it is now, it's hard not to get on the bike and explore.

Explore is what we did last weekend. Last Saturday evening, a neighboring town hosted an outdoor concert ending with fireworks. We biked over to the park, enjoyed a picnic supper and the entertainment. Then we biked home. We have fantastic bikes that are equipped for night riding and have the ability to pack our supplies. It really made for a great outing.

The added plus is that we saw fireworks. Living in the Valley of the Sun, we don't typically enjoy fireworks over the Fourth of July. It's just too hot to get out and enjoy them. When we have the opportunity to see fireworks at other times of the year, we take advantage of it.

May!

After years of longing and months of planning, it's here.  May 2010. The month that we will descend into the Grand Canyon and see for ourselves the beauty, experience the adventure, achieve a goal.

How are we doing in preparation? Guess the answer comes after we complete the hike. Hindsight will be much clearer. For now, we're trying to prepare the best we can.

This week Papa biked 38 miles and Nana, 63 miles. It was one of our last beautiful weeks with perfect biking temps so we had to bike! The strong wind at his back on Thursday gave Papa his record time commuting home from work, 8.5 miles in 29 minutes.

Saturday we opted for a bike day rather than hike. It was beautiful.  We headed about nine miles to a Cinco de Mayo festival hoping to catch Chihuahua races. When we got there it seemed the festival was geared more toward children with crafts and games (the more grown-up stuff happened later in the day but we didn't want to spend the entire day) so we pedaled on to one of our favorites spots, Kokopelli Bistro.

The downtown area, where the Kokopelli Bistro is located, is charming and historic. It was relaxing to sit on the front patio and enjoy a scrumptious lunch while people watching. It could not have been a more picturesque day, with a light breeze that seemed to enhance the peaceful feeling.

After lunch we strolled with our bikes through the downtown and then headed a health foods store a friend had recommended. Yes, after the doctor's visit, Nana felt the need (more later).

Nature's Health is the name of the store. As I mentioned, it was recommended and we would recommend too! They were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Now it'll be interesting to see if these natural, much more cost effective, remedies work vs. the expensive prescription medication.

We headed back home, completing about 20.5 miles in our loop. Most of the trip I couldn't get the song, "Take a Vacation a Day" by Brad Paisley out of my mind.  Papa and I talked about it and we really need to have a vacation a week. Taking a little time one day a week to explore, experience, renew is so good for overall health.


Back at home Papa started on yard work, so I got back on my bike and headed to the grocery store. It occurred to me as I was riding that over half the miles I rode on the bike this week were on beautiful trails like those pictured. My commute home from work is 10 of the 16.5 miles on trails. It could be up to 14 miles if I opted to continue on the trail closer to home rather than taking to the street. The four miles to the grocery store/farmer's market is all trail but the last half mile. Wow! That sure helps make biking enjoyable.

Good week, wonderful weekend and we're down to a few short weeks before the Canyon.

Now, the doctor. New doctor, new ideas. He seems to think that I have asthma due to the occasional struggle with the ascents while hiking and the low levels on the peak flow breathing test at his office. Not sure about that but we're testing a medication this week and I'll go back later this week to see. That's when I'll get the results on all the other tests, too.

Hate to admit it but I might be getting a little older and maybe need to watch things more. The good news is this awakening that I may not have the continued perfect health I've always enjoyed has made me focus more. Result: more attention to exercise and diet has me back to shedding a few pounds. This week reached the halfway mark on the weight loss with 20 lbs. off. With the help of the great health food store and attention on my part, things will be just fine.

Beautiful Sunday

Another picture perfect weekend; another chance for Papa and I to enjoy being outside and active.  This weekend's bike ride was about 21 miles. (Total activity for the week: biked about 55 miles and walked about 10 miles.)

This weekend we opted to visit the Greenbelt Trail along Hayden Road in Scottsdale. Our fondest memory of this trail was riding a section of it several years ago with our daughter and her family when our grandson was probably three-years-old. It was fun reminiscing about that ride as we pedaled along.

The start to this week's adventure was Tempe Town Lake (a popular area for activity) where we parked the car, unloaded the bikes and rode to the Tempe Transportation Center.  At the Center, we loaded our bikes on the bus (Scottsdale/Rural - 72 North) to what we thought was the northern most point of the Greenbelt Trail.  More on that later.  We got off the bus about 12 miles later at the Shea stop and biked east along Shea Blvd. about three miles, passed the 101, to the trail.

Immediately after coasting down a wide sidewalk to the trail with the dashed dividing line, a mini-roadway, we noticed activity.  Walk, roller blade, bike, run...all modes of activity populated the trail. At times we had some distance between us and others on the trail as  pictured to the right. Other times we slowed to almost a stop on our bikes as the "traffic" on the two-lane activity highway was congested enough we didn't have room to pass.

It didn't take long to understand why the highway markings on the trail where useful for everyone in helping manage the traffic. Leisurely walkers to the avid cyclists enjoy this beautiful, peaceful oasis. By staying on the right side of the trail, though, those wishing to go faster can pass without frustration spoiling either your or their experience.

Along this active trail is a mixture of residential and retail, parks, playgrounds, water, golf, Frisbee golf, and gently rolling hills. In some places the trail briefly follows streets and requires crossing at stoplights. Most of the distance, however, the trail is isolated from the urban scene providing a peaceful, relaxed, undisturbed pathway oblivious to the  traffic above the tunnel or under the bridge you just crossed.

The trail winds around several lakes, yes lakes in the desert. The lakes have their own activities with people fishing, ducks/geese swimming, remote boats, and fountains as just a few of the activities we noticed. Picnics and gatherings filled tables and pavilions along the trail.

The trail continues to the south and connects with the trail along Tempe Town Lake that we enjoyed about a month ago.  We rode the reverse of that trail today, ending back at our car.

The weather is getting warmer and the time getting closer to the Grand Canyon R2R hike, so we won't have many opportunities to get back to the Greenbelt soon. We will be concentrating on hiking for the next few weeks. We have it on our calendar for this fall, though, to bike from home to the northern part of this trail and return.  As I mentioned earlier, when we got onto the trail at Shea and 91st Street, we looked to the north and saw the trail continues. Not sure how far it goes, but maybe this fall we'll learn for ourselves. We anticipate it could be a 60 mile or more bike ride and we're looking forward to it!

We have lived in the Valley over seven years now. When we moved here, I made a promise to myself never to loose the awe I felt when looking up and seeing the beauty of the palm trees against the the blue sky with wispy white clouds.  The picture to the right is just such a sight noticed when we stopped beside a lake along the trail for a water break.  I looked up and still felt the awe of such beauty. We are blessed to live here, to be active and to love life.

Next week is Pat's Run on Saturday and hopefully more adventure after the run/walk as we continue to enjoy a beautiful spring and being active together.

Beautiful Easter Weekend

Perfect. Paradise. Beautiful. That only starts to describe Easter weekend 2010. To celebrate the holiday weekend, Papa and I decided to enjoy the gorgeous weather Saturday by spending the entire day on a bike trip around the East Valley. The highlights: enjoying brunch with our son and his fiancee and soaking up the beautiful flowers at the Desert Botanical Garden.

Training? Yes, we took a break from hiking but still stayed active. This week we biked approximately 75 miles and walked 13 miles. The next couple weeks we will be focusing on the 4.2 mile Pat's Run training. Then it's back to training for the Grand Canyon for the remaining six weeks.

Back to Saturday. The Desert Botanical Garden is always a beautiful place to visit, but in the spring it's exceptional. The wildflowers are breathtaking, the birds are chirping, the butterflies fluttering, nature is exploding with beauty. Words can't adequately describe but hopefully these pictures and the video below capture some of the wonder we were blessed to experience.

Saturday summary:

• 16 miles (bike)
  
• Brunch with son/fiancee
  
• 9 miles (bus)
  
• 2.5 miles (bike)
  
• 2 miles (walk-we covered all trails @ Garden)
  
• 2.5 miles (bike)
  
• 3 miles (light rail)
  
• 16 miles (bike)

I Like To Ride My Bicycle

This week we were on our bikes.  Each of us commuted to work two days this week plus our Saturday adventure was a bike ride around Tempe Town Lake (more below).  Nana rode a total of 46 miles, walked 13 miles and 30 minutes of weight training. Papa rode about 49 miles, walked 10 miles and 30 minutes of weight training.

Weather was inspirational this week with temps in the 70's and sunny skies. People are walking, running, biking, roller blading on the trails. It's contagious to see all the activity.

Saturday we explored Tempe Town Lake on bike. All the winter rains have the lake, which is the Salt River dammed to create the lake, over capacity. This means that water is being released at the end of the lake allowing the Salt River to flow.

We started by biking the route for Pat's Run. This 4.2 mile is near Tempe Town Lake and the Arizona State University campus/football stadium. Easy bike ride. Will be a more challenging run/walk in six weeks though.

We continued our ride back to Tempe Beach Park to enjoy a picnic under the railroad bridges. One bridge for the train; the second for the light rail. Between trains, airplanes from Sky Harbor, military jets and helicopters, car traffic we got the full "planes, trains and automobiles" sensory experience.

After the lunch we rode the path around the Lake (video below-about 7 min. long). The trail was busy. The Marina was busy with a Rowing event. It was a fun day just feeling alive with all the activity outdoors in the perfect weather.

Next week: Hiking for Saturday's adventure. As green as the mountains are turning, the desert has to be exploding with color.  Can't wait!

4.2

This week Nana and Papa focused on 4.2 miles. We walked it outside with Star, we walked it on the treadmill. We walked! It's starting to be part of our lifestyle now. Each day we're getting in some type of workout and it's paying off.

The benefits are starting to show too. This week Nana shaved 8 minutes off her 16.5 mile bike ride home from work and almost 1 minute off her 4.2 mile walk from a week ago. Papa shaved even more time off his 4.2 mile walk. The 50 minute goal for Pat's Run, in seven weeks, is probably very optimistic but completing the walk in under an hour should be attainable.

Meanwhile, rain has kept us on the treadmill more than we like. The Salt River is flowing, an unusual sight. We're hoping that the winter rains end soon so we make sure to have a nice day for Pat's Run.

Today we went with friends to listen to a 108-yr-old gentleman, Dr. Bernardo LaPallo (bio-scroll down page to find), speak about health. He's put health at the top of his priorities all his life due to advice from his father. He's eaten primarily fruits, vegetables, and avoided red meat. He provided several tips for healthy living. He doesn't look older than 70, really. Amazing good health. Although I don't think I could go to the extreme he does, it did reinforce that a diet of fruits and vegetables and fresh fish is a good idea.

March arrives tomorrow. Nana and Papa are kicking up the training a little and we're committed to hiking at least once per weekend. The other priority is getting shoes and getting them broken in before the Grand Canyon R2R. Thirteen weeks. It's getting very close.

The good news is the outdoors beckons. The heavy winter rains are bringing the surrounding mountain trails to life. South Mountain will turn green looking more like Emerald Mountain. The wildflowers in the desert provide vivid, stunning color. These are picture opportunities we don't want to miss. We should have some good pictures here next week.