No Ordinary Family

Ok Jim got his day. We got up at the butt crack of dawn to head to Tucson to see the Pima Air Museum. We got there a lot faster than we thought due to the speed limit being 75 MPH most of the way. I did not realize this until we were on the bus tour later that this is the world’s largest private collection of aircraft and they are not kidding. It took us forever to walk around and take pictures. I did have a pretty good time Jim was able to tell me more than any guide could have about each airplane and since we were right next to Davis Monthan AFB there were F-15’s, A-10’s, C-130’s and Blackhawks flying overhead all day. I am now completely exhausted and too tired to download pictures. I will let Jim post pictures and tell you more about the whole day on his blog. But other than a camera battery snafu we had a really good day again. We are still not sure about tomorrow, maybe Sedona? Stay tuned to find out.

Hola, I don’t know why I started typing Espanol maybe because we had really good breakfast burritos this morning. Maybe it is just a weird April fool’s thing. We had a good day we started out with a good breakfast, we went to a place that Bethany recommended and when we pulled in there were about 10 Highway Patrol bikes parked outside. Jim and I agreed that cops are the indicator species of a good restaurant. And it was delicious. We then went to the Desert Botanical Gardens. We started walking it on our own but quickly realized that we did not know what we were looking at so they were offering guided tours with the docents so we went back and waited a few minutes for the next tour. It was so worth it. We had a great docent his name was Sonny and he was very knowledgeable about all the plants. We learned so much more in this than we did on the jeep trip. We got to try Saguaro fruit and mesquite flower they were both interesting. There was just one jerk in the group, there always has to...

Today, Jim tried to wear me out but we had fun. We went on a jeep tour this morning. It was fun. We got to see several cactus species and got a pretty good (bumpy) trail ride. Here are a couple pictures. Then we went to lunch at the Sonora Brewery. We had another good meal and some good beer. We are still full from lunch. So far Phoenix is treating us pretty good in the food department. Then we hiked up a rock called “hole in the rock.” It really was not much of a hike but I am so out of shape you would have thought it was Mt. Everest by the way I was huffing and puffing. We got some pretty cool pictures though. But by the time we got back to Bethany’s we were both so exhausted we both ended up taking a nap. I am now feeling better after a much after needed diet Pepsi. Tomorrow we are not sure what we are going to do, but I am sure we will find something fun.

This is going to be short because I was too tired to blog last night and I need to start getting ready for the day. We got to Phoenix after a early but good flight I think Jim enjoyed it more than me, but it was his Birthday, although he did not raise his hand when they asked on the plane if it was anyone’s birthday :0) We found Bethany’s place with relative ease only one missed exit. We went out to lunch and then took off exploring the area, which was much easier to navigate than Portland. We found a cool monument park which had a couple memorials to the Arizona (the ship that is at the bottom of Pearl Harbor) Here is a picture of Jim next to the Anchor. Then we get to the good part of the night, dinner with Kim, John, Nick, Colton and KyLee. We had a great time. I was so nervous, I was really excited to meet them but I have never gone out to dinner with someone I met on the internet before, completely new experience for us. We had a great time. The food was good. Jim was really worri...

Well, we made it to Portland, just a little snow but none on the roads. We are now finally back in our hotel room and hoping to get to bed soon since we have an early morning but what usually happens when I know I should be sleeping is I lay wide awake for hours, so we will see. We got to Portland about 3 and checked into the hotel and then headed out into Portland to look for a book store and eventually dinner. We drove in circles around Portland, Jim insists we weren’t lost, we were exploring, but we saw the same building 2 or 3 times. Finally, I suggested we go to the shopping center that I found when I was here for a class last year. My directions took us back into Washington and then back into Oregon in order to find the shopping center. But we did find it. I was looking for China Ghosts , I thought it might be a good read on the plane, but they did not have it. Instead I got Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah , it looks good. We then thought we would get some dinner a...

Ok I think we are about ready to go. I am exhausted. I am so glad that we do not have to leave early tomorrow. I am the declaring myself the queen of over packing. I can’t even imagine how we are going to pack for China. We are only going to be gone for a week and I have enough stuff for a year (well maybe not but close) I think we have a near complete pharmacy packed with Jim’s cold meds and mine. I am sure that I won’t wear half the clothes I packed and I will feel I need something that I decided I could live without. I walked outside today to go to work and Jim mentioned how cold it looked and I said it smelled like snow but I never thought it would really snow, maybe rain at the most. It snowed here most of the day it was a bit surreal. I don’t think I have seen it snow here this late in the season since I was a kid. It did not stick here but I wish I had a picture of it coming down. We took the snow tires off weeks ago, so I hope that the pass is ok but we have all day so we shoul...

Can you believe that it has been this long? This time last year all we were waiting on was our 171H and my birthday. I thought the tough part was over, was I ever wrong. The paperchase was easy compared to waiting forever . If the predictions that were made when we started this journey we would be about half way though but, as it stands, we are very far away, but we are still closer than we were eleven months ago, so I guess that is something. Jim and I went out for Chinese food tonight, we are on a quest to find a good Chinese restaurant our area. Well, we did not find it tonight. We knew we were in for it when we saw the menu and hardly recognised the dishes. So we ordered what we thought would be safe BBQ pork for a appetizer, Jim got the sesame chicken and I got the cashew chicken vegetable . Well it started out OK with the pork although a little dry, but then they brought the main meals Jim's should have been called fried chicken and gravy with a dusting of sesame...