Phoenix Day Two

After breakfast this morning we struck out on our walking trek to the State Capital. It was 2.2 miles from the hotel. Another beautiful day, started out in the low 60s and ended in the low 70s. We live in Arizona and everyone should know the history of the state that they live in, so that was the purpose of the Capital self tour. The old Capital building which was built in 1900 is now a museum and it is well done. Worth a trip to see if ever in the area.

Here is the mosaic seal of AZ on the floor of the lobby of the building. It is not the accurate seal as it was designed by a artist back in Ohio and did not see the real seal. The "Ditat Deus" means God Enriches.

 The capital mall which is about 2 blocks long is filled with many memorials for past wars, current service people, etc. It was interesting to walk around them all.

After walking back to the hotel, I was a little pooped, so we just watched football in our room for a few hours. Then we walked to Cibo, an italian/pizza restaurant about 10 blocks away. Sat outside in their wonderful patio area and had a great pizza dinner.

So how many miles did we put on our feet today?  Only 6.5 miles, becoming light weights here. We have had a nice, relaxing, informative time here in Phoenix the past 2 days, but will be heading back to Tucson tomorrow morning to enjoy the rest of the holidays at home.

Happy Holidays

We hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. It's been awhile since I posted because of health issues. I had been having a difficult time with my heart since March and tried everything to prevent surgery, but it came down to a heart valve replacement and a bypass surgery on October 31st. After 6 days in the hospital, Jim brought me home to recoup and recover (I don't know how anyone can get well in a hospital). Needless to say open heart surgery knocked me on my butt for 3 weeks, but am getting much better, almost back to normal. In fact I walked a total of 9 miles through out the day yesterday (I'll let you know why later). Never plan to go through that experience again.

So since I was recouping, we stayed home for Thanksgiving which we normally take the RV over to Indio. Then we were planning to go over the week between Christmas and New Years, but the weather was not conducive to having a good time, so stayed home again.

But to reward all our home project completions this week (wash windows inside and out, trimming palm trees, etc.) we came up to Phoenix to hang out for a couple of days. Got into town yesterday morning and started out at the Phoenix Zoo. It was a perfect day in the mid 70s for a walk around the zoo to visit all the animals. It's a fairly large zoo, much bigger than Tucson, but smaller than San Diego. But a very pleasant experience.

 Hung out with the Giraffes for a bit.

Then onto the Cheetas.

And some days you just to let it all hang out! (Jaguar)

After spending 3 hours of walking at the zoo, we checked into our hotel (Sheraton Grand Downtown). We went for another walk around downtown. I had always wanted to go to an NBA game, so had purchased pretty good tickets for a reasonable price for the Suns vs Toronto game last night. The hotel is about 7 blocks from Talking Stick Arena, so walked there and back.

 We sat in section 103 (center) row 14 seat 1,2. So had a pretty good view. Didn't want to spend a fortune on tickets, so this was a real deal. Totally enjoyed the game and since the Suns won (which was a total surprise) it was doubly nice. I'm glad we went but don't need to go again, the terrible music was too loud and the people kept going up and down the isle so could not see the game. Watching from my recliner at home is still the best seat, but glad we went for the experience.

Started out with a big breakfast this morning at the hotel so that should keep us going all day today. Another day of walking. Stay tuned for the next report.