Sunday, April 27, 2008

Getting Started on 2008 Trip to New Zealand

Posted 4/27/08

On our way to New Zealand with a stop in Phoenix.

 

On Thursday 4/24 Joan and I dropped Inky (the cat) at Jill and David’s house in Cleveland’s University Heights and Jill then took us to the airport for our flight to Phoenix for a few days with our other daughter and husband (Tracey and Anjan).  It was a great day and smooth flight all the way with visibility of the ground.

 

Some day I have to figure out what part of the country you’re flying over to get there.  You see a lot of center pivot irrigation which must be in the area of maybe Oklahoma but then you fly over a lot of mostly uninhabited areas with just an occasional small road and large washes or canyons with vertical sides like mini-Grand Canyons.  I sit there and ponder what it would be like to be down there exploring the countryside.

 

4/25/08 – Low 90’s and blue skies

Tracey worked Friday and we picked her up for lunch and went to one of her favorite places the “Kiss The Cook”.  I didn’t kiss the cook and don’t think that I would want to but did get a kiss from the waitress.  We dropped her back at work then drove over to “Old Glendale” and checked out a number of the antique stores there.  I felt that it was safe to do this as we don’t have room for any purchases.  From there we decided to drive out to Luke Air Force base just to see what the area was like. 

 

On the way to Luke we saw the University of Phoenix domed stadium (Super Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, etc location) and decided to check and see if they had any tours.  We had seen it on Discovery Channel and knew it was an incredible structure and place that has movable roof sections and also where they move the real grass turf outside in the sun to grow and maintain.  They weren’t having any tours at the moment but they were having a radio control electric model aircraft exposition in the dome.  The floor of the stadium had been divided up to provide two flying areas and then all the manufacturers had their booths on about half of the floor.  You could buy about anything that you wanted that had to do with electric powered models.  Too bad no room.

 

 

 

 

4/26/08 – 90’s and blue skies

Today we went to the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.  We got there in time for a tour by the docents and learned a lot about Saguaro cactus and other desert plants.  Bet you didn’t know that a Saguaro can suck in over two hundred gallons of water after a rain and store it.  They need to because in the Sonora Desert they only get an average of around 7 inches of rain per year.  The guide advised not to do what John Wayne did in a movie and drink or suck on the moisture in the cactus as it will make you never to want to do that again.

 

 

 

Yea, I know the picture is sideways - do you know what the verticle pleats are for on the Saguaro?  Ans. below.

 

 

The cactus are in their spring bloom phase.  Beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

A desert lizard.

 

In the evening we went to the Phoenix Symphony.  The guest conductor (Pietari Inkinen) was Finnish but is currently serving as music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.  The first section of the program was En Saga by Jean Sibelius.  The second section was a Violin Concerto by Mendelssohn.  The violin soloist was a young female violinist Nicola Benedetti.  She was excellent.  The last section of the program was Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 of which the last movement was really memorable.  When we came out it was still in the 80’s and a very comfortable evening.

4/27/08 – 90’s and blue skies

Today we went to church with Tracey at the United Church of Christ, Church of the Beatitudes.  She has been attending there and participating in the hand bell choir and other activities.  The minister had a wonderful sermon and received a standing ovation.  That was the first time we had seen that happen at any service that we have ever been to and Tracey said that it was the first time that she had seen it happen at that church.  Another memorable occasion for us.

After reading the article about the United Church of Christ in Saturday's Beacon Journal (online) we are very glad to be members of it.

 

This afternoon we met up with Joan’s cousin Pam and her husband Randy for lunch in Scottsdale.  The Claimjumbers Restaurant served large meals and after a stop at Manju’s (Anjan’s mother) new apartment it was pretty much back home for a nap.

 

ANS. - The saguaro has verticle pleats so that the plant can expand when it takes in water so that it doesn't split open.

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