Roadtrip #4 - Tombstone, AZ

"Tombstone: The Town Too Tough To Die"  Say the word "Tombstone" and everyone usually thinks of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the shootout at the OK Corral.  The town of Tombstone started as a mining camp and grew into one of the most infamous towns in the West and it's still alive today.  You can walk down Allen street and see Wyatt and his brothers keeping an eye on the "bad elements," enjoy the history that has been left and preserved through the years, witness the legendary shootout at the OK Corral between the Earps, Doc Holliday and the McLeary's, visit Boothill, spend a day in the Old West and eat some delicious fudge.

Wyatt and Morgan Earp:

Boothill:

Enjoying some good, old fashioned sasparilla:

The evil chicken that was giving us the stink-eye:

The crosses that are always following up, letting us know we're on the right path:

Found the pineapple!

I love going to Tombstone and being able to step back in time.  Not only is it a fun place to visit but it's also a great place for inspiration!  While we were there we came up with an idea for a book.  We've got the characters and the storyline fleshed out.  Now we just have to find the time to write it all out and have some fun "Falling Into History."

What do ostriches, lizard nuts, and men in skirts have in common?

The Chandler Ostrich Festival! Duh!

Also, there was a sea lion show but we missed that part. Needless to say, I think this is the most random event in the valley. You pay ten bucks, you wander through the vendor and food stands, sample some lizard nuts (peanut brittle), and maybe ogle the hot bicycle cops a little. No go ahead and ogle them a lot, they are real pretty and deserve the adoration. Eventually you make it to the "Live Ostrich Viewing."

Ostriches are weird, I would not like to get on their bad side. Here I am trying to make nice:

Or maybe I'm cowering in fear. There's really no way to tell.

From there you move on to the Ostrich Races. The Ostrich Races were a bit ridiculous. They weren't so much races as "let the ostriches out and flee for you lives." The camel races went a little better though.

The highlight of the evening was the "MudEEvil" Knights. Sir Michael, Sir Thomas, and Sir Anthony put on quite a show. The sun was going down and the lighting wasn't great so the pictures didn't turn out very good but it was fun!

This is Sir Michael, the master of arms, he did have nice arms... And a mohawk, and a skirt, kind of a leather kilt thing. He was delightful:

Siiiiigh....

Aaaand this is Sir Anthony. He was the good knight and his horse was HUGE! Cheryl thought he was pretty, I was too busy drooling over Sir Michael to notice but I'll take her word for it. The people in the stands were supposed to cheer for Sir Michael and the people standing on the other side were cheering for the Black Knight Sir Thomas. Cheryl and I were cheering for the bad guy, of course.

And the Black Knight won!! WooHoo!!! The fight was pretty great. There were swords, and maces, and axes, and Sir Thomas fought dirty (he kicked Sir Anthony in the lizard nuts). Sir Anthony did his best but apparently age defeats beauty.

There you have it. The Ostrich Festival. Wacky fun times had by all.

Oh and on your way out, don't forget to stop by and check out the Right to Life booth for a lesson on the female anatomy *yipes!*

Restaurant #1 - Papaya Thai

This is about a month late, but we finally decided to try out the Thai place by our house  This was my first expereince with Thai and I wasn't disappointed.  I ordered safe: chicken pad thai, but it was quite delightful.  Our waitress was new and was the only one on staff that night and kept apologizing to us for being the only one there.  There were some big, scary fish in a couple of aquariums in the restaurant (note to self: don't order any fish dishes), and Katy found her happy place (at least one of them) drinking some Thai Iced Tea. 

Roadtrip #3 - Glendale Chocolate Affaire

Every year in Glendale there is a magical thing that happens: The Glendale Chocolate Affaire.  Since this is Katy's first year here in Ariziona, I felt the obligation to introduce her to this fantasitcal day full of all things chocolatey and delicious.  Downtown Glendale has lots of great little gift shops.  Some of which contained some very lovely crosses which lead both of us to be assured that it was a good choice we made to go (for explanation about the crosses please see Roadtrip #2 post).

Here is a throne that Katy found and which I think she should purchase and sit in at home:   

  

 Here is the delicious toffe covered caramel apple that we both got:

As part of the Chocolate Affair there is a table set up with some romance (or as the guy walking by us pronounced: ro-MAN-ce) writers signing books and talking to people.  (Confession Wednesday: I like romance novels, but I didn't know who any of these authors were so we didn't go talk to them) One of the ladies behind the table was wearing this awesome fur bolero jacket thing.  Katy said it was the skin of a Tonton (you know, that weird, furry, horned, creature that Han Solo and Luke Skywalker rider around on when there on Hoth and which Han eventually stuffs Luke into in order to keep him warm).  I said it was very wooley and named it a wool-ero.  Ha!  Get it?  Wool-ero: wool + bolero.  It's hard to see her in the pictures, but trust me she's there.  Along with the long haired, slightly creepy kid with the awesome feather earing in his left ear that was VERY excited and happy to be hanging around the roMANce writer's booth.  Pretty sure he was a groupie.  Do roMANce writers have groupies?

 Found the pineapple!!  (For explanation about the significance of the pineapple please watch the TV show "Psych."  You can thank me later...)

Roadtrip #2 - Prescott, AZ

On the way to Prescott we saw a blimp!!

See!!

Prescott is pronounced like Triscuit. Triscuit's are delicious. You know what else is delicious?

Everything at the Prescott Brewing Company. We had soup in a Beer Bread Boulle and soft

pretzels with some delicious dipping stuff that was full of all good things!

PBC is located in a nifty little 3 level shopping center filled with some cool clothing shops, a delightful stationary store, and my new favorite place in the whole world. Olive U Naturally. Flavor infused balsamic vinegars and olive oils. I bought Cinnamon Pear Balsamic that I literally want to drink straight out of the bottle. So very good.

We wandered around lovely downtown Prescott and looked at some crazy art and had some TCBY. Cheryl and I have a tendency to make up stories about people we see out in the world. The owner of the TCBY for instance has just about had enough with "Brian" and his little harem coming in and paying with nickels and dimes and not knowing what they want. And he just wants his order of hot fudge to get to his shop on time and if one more person uses his private bathroom without buying some sort of frozen yogurt treat he is going to lose his cool in a serious way.

Anywho!

I had been reading a book with a crazy man that saw crosses everywhere and claimed that he was making good choices because the crosses led him in the right direction.

I was a little concerned when we were driving through a strange little podunk town with one heckuva of a dentists office. But then... I started seeing these:

They were EVERYWHERE. So I knew we were on a good path. Or that's what I would have thought if I was a crazy serial killer. Which I'm not. Obviously.

Then we posed with a buffalo.

Also here's a creepy llama:

And a creepy stalker picture of Justin Timberlake that looks more like Ryan Phillippe but Really it's Justin Timberlake. Promise.

And that was Prescott! It was lovely and wonderful and filled with just enough crazy.

Roadtrip #1 - San Diego

Our first roadtrip as roommates!  We left Mesa, AZ Friday night and drove to Lemon Grove, CA and checked in to our skeezy hotel.  As we were bringing our bags into our room, Katy saw this sign on the wall:

Uhm...maybe we shouldn't have stayed there....

Below is a record of some of the things we saw on and thought of our trip:

"That's a big baby!"  (In reference to a HUGE poster of a baby in the middle of a field.)

"Let's pause for a moment and just take in the magic." (Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to take a picture of the half naked overweight Mexiacn guy with glistening man-boobs sitting on the tailgate of his truck at the gas station...)

"Things we learned: In the event of a crash, Katy will bodily protect the Pringles.  Not the chips!!"

"I think that was Carrot Top." (It wasn't.)

"Fireworks? They knew we were coming!" (Fireworks in Yuma at a high school football game just as we drove in to town.)

"I've never actually seen a car on fire." (There was a truck engulfed in flames on the side of the highway.)

"PT Cruiser!  Doooooom!  Dishoom?  DISHOOM!"

"There's a couch in that boat." (Stopped at one of the boarder patrol crossings was a truck pulling a boat with a couch in it.)

"You're like a paralegic." - Cheryl  "Be patient with me!  I'm a paralegic!" - Katy

"I'm excited to not have to smell this place anymore."