Phoenix

We arrived in Phoenix late in the afternoon. Our flight from Washington D.C. had a short stopover in Dallas which allowed us to grab some lunch. American Airlines only gives you a complimentary drink and no food. We wanted to buy food but all they had on offer was a cheese platter which really was one piece of cheese, a packet of crackers, some mixed nuts and dried fruit. Hence the need for some thing more substantial.

Our friend Jayme came and picked us up from the airport which was great. We had landed during peak hour so the trip to her and Ian's place took a little bit of time. When we got there we got to meet their pets. They have four dogs - Skip, Frankie, Bitty and Chloe - as well as two cats, Puddles and Misty.

We settled into our room and then headed out for some dinner. Ian was at work, so it was just the three of us. We both had been wanting some Mexican food so Jayme took us to a place not far away where we had a great meal. Ryan couldn't finish his, so he took the left overs home with him.

On Wednesday Ryan and Ian finally got to meet. Sharlene had already met Ian when he and Jayme came to Australia in 2007 to get married. Fortunately the two of them got along well! They took us to a Mexican market for lunch (Arizona and Mexico share a border, hence the Mexican influence in the state) where we had soft tacos. The market sold pretty much every thing you could want to buy, from groceries, to electronics goods, shoes and jewellery. It pretty much was a one stop shop! The thing Ryan most liked about the market was that they sold Mexican coca cola (coke). In America, coke is made with high fructose corn syrup which gives it a distinctly different taste to coke in Australia. And Ryan did not like the taste of American coke. Mexican coke on the other hand is made with sugar and therefore tasted great.

The next place we visited was See's "Famous Old Time" Candies which make assorted truffles, candies and just great tasting chocolates over all. We tasted a few and then filled up a pound box with various candies.

After this we headed "down town", effectively to the CBD of Phoenix. Due to building regulations there aren't many tall buildings in Phoenix, it has an even smaller skyline than Perth.

We stopped at an athletic store to see if Sharlene could find some runners, without any luck. Ryan almost burnt his hand opening the door because it had been in full sun and was extremely hot. We drove a bit more and stopped at Heritage Square. We went to an English pub for a couple of drinks. Ryan tried a local ale and Sharlene had some of the 250th anniversary Guiness which she preferred over the regular Guiness she had in Dublin. Before dinner we walked around the square looking at the various old buildings.

Dinner was at a well known Phoenix pizza restaurant. The restaurant had won many awards for their pizza. We had to wait a while for our table. You can not book in advance, you have to rock up, put your name on a list and then wait your turn. It was worth the wait. The pizzas we tried were great, made with local fresh ingredients and just yum. While we were there, one of the Phoenix Sun's basketball team members came in. None of us can tell you who he was, just that he was a player. We took our left over pizza and headed home.

We had a pretty easy start to Thursday. Just sleeping in and then watching some DVDs. Jayme took us to a local mall to see if we could get Sharlene some runners. Once again we didn't have much luck. Though we were able to buy the new Scooby Doo DVD which Sharlene was excited about. We also stopped in a game shop and picked up a couple of board games to bring back home with us. We went back to the house to pick Ian up for lunch and went to a place called Einstein's Bagels. Ryan tried a bagel dog and a brewed vanilla/hazelnut coffee. He liked them both. Sharlene had a bagel sandwich that she liked. She'd gotten accustomed to eating bagels and quite liked them, sweet or savoury.

A relaxing afternoon was called for because we were heading out to "The Melting Pot" for dinner. The restaurant is a fondue place and was fantastic. We started with a four cheese fondue with vegetables, bread and apple to dip in (and yes, Ryan even tried the apple in the cheese). Our waiter came and made the fondue in front of us. This was followed by our main, which was a selection of meats and vegetables and a coq au vin broth in which to cook them. Each piece of food took about 2 minutes to cook in the broth and you had two forks each, so it did take us a while to finish. The final course was dessert which was a caramel turtle fondue. This was a mixture of milk chocolate, pecans and caramel all melted together with bits of brownies, marshmallows, pound cake, cheese cake and strawberries to dip into it. We enjoyed all of it so much that we actually bought their cook book so that we could try it out again at home.

Friday the four of us went to play mini golf at Castles and Coasters. We played a total of 18 holes ... Sharlene won the first nine holes and Ryan the second nine holes and Ryan won overall. Ian was at a huge disadvantage because he always started the hole and some weren't as obvious as they seemed. He hit a ball up the ramp which in theory should have placed it in a good position on the other side, only to find out that the door at the top of the ramp was a piece of wood and the ball came straight back at him!

To cool down afterwards we went on the bumper boats and had a great time. Ryan got stuck under one of the fountains and got very wet! We got a bonus ride on the Indy 500 cars which Ian and Jayme decisively won. And to finish, we played a couple of old style arcade games one of which was Galaga (Sharlene's favourite!).

It was then time for some lunch and we went to a frozen custard place and had burgers and frozen custard.

Ian and Jayme dropped us off back at the house while they went and did some grocery shopping and picked up some items for the BBQ we were going to have that night. We went to their friend Dave's place for the BBQ because he also had a pool and didn't mind us coming around. His housemate Joe was there too. Other friends also stopped in during the night including Rob (who brought his dog Teddy) and Mike and Julie. We made use of the pool but took extra care when getting in since Dave had a dog called Wiley who thought you needed rescuing and would dive in after you trying to grab you with her teeth and drag you out. His other dog Max just wanted you to continually splash him (he couldn't go in the pool unlike Wiley who could swim, Max tended to just sink). After a great meal we went inside and played "The Beatles" Rock Band on the PlayStation. We had a lot of fun and didn't get home until quite early the next morning.

Once again we took the opportunity to sleep in on Saturday. We went to the mall for lunch with Jayme (Ian was still sleeping because he started work that night, he works from 6pm until 6am) who then left us to wander around the mall. We didn't buy much. Ryan finally found some slippers that he liked which were also machine washable, and an Arizona souvenir which was a shot glass with a skeleton in it with the slogan "...but it's a DRY heat!". Jayme picked us up later that afternoon and took us to an ice hockey game. The game is very similar to soccer in many ways with the exception that you are allowed, well really, expected, to get physical with the opposition. There were a couple of fights at various times during the games. We went a long time without either side scoring and then finally the Phoenix Coyotes scored. They ended up winning 2 - 0, which was good. On the way home we stopped in at another American icon, Taco Bell, for a quick and small dinner.

On Sunday we borrowed Jayme's car and went to Mass nearby. It was the first time Ryan got to drive in the U.S.A., though he had had practice driving on the wrong side of the road (well, compared to the side we would normally drive at home) in Canada. We came back from Mass and had some breakfast before going to the mall - this time Jayme took us to the one in Scottsdale. We had more success (if you call spending more money a success!) there. Sharlene bought herself a handbag and some shorts and Ryan picked himself up another pair of shoes. We had lunch at an asian place in the food hall called Panda Express where we each got a fortune cookie. Each of the fortune cookies implied that we should be wise with our money and spending!

On that note, we left the mall and headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens. There was a Monarch butterfly exhibition on there, which we went to. We sat in the tent and watched the butterflies, and it was also quite cool in there compared to outside. These are the butterflies that we had first learnt about when we stayed with Geoff and Nikki in Canada and then read some more about them in an article in one of the airline magazines. By the time we left the butterfly exhibition it had cooled down a bit and we walked around the rest of the gardens. We saw various geckos, rabbits, jack rabbits and quails, plus lots of cacti.

On the way home we stopped at a famous Pheonix hot dog stand. It sold Mexican hot dogs - the sausage was wrapped in bacon, and was served with a variety of condiments including beans, guacamole, sour cream and much more. They were delicious. We also had the bonus of being able to have some more Mexican coke too.

When we got home it was time to pack our cases again because tomorrow we were going to start our road trip to Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon!