All In the Family

“Family is the most important thing in the world.” - Princess Diana

No visit to Arizona would be complete without seeing my family, of course.  On Wednesday night Troy's mother Ruth hosted a family dinner at her house.  Troy's whole family was there, so I got to see all of them, which was nice.  Briana and I stayed the night by ourselves (being the super cool big sister I am I kept her out of school for a few hours the next morning) and it was great.  She is growing up so fast.  Those of you who know her would not even believe it.  It was so nice being able to spend that time together.  Definitely a highlight of my trip!  

I told you!  Look how old (and beautiful) she is! 

My poor mom had to have a tooth pulled that afternoon - so her smile is not full on.  Never fear, she was ecstatic to hang out with me - who wouldn't be?!

A trio of very good looking siblings, in my humble opinion. =) I love my brother and sister!

Well, that's that for Arizona!  California here we come!

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.” - Anonymous

The whole reason I started even looking at taking a trip in the first place was because I needed to be in Arizona the weekend of October 1st for a very special reason...my college room mate, the lovely Miss Amanda Palumbo is getting married!! next summer and I was lucky enough to get asked to be in the bridal party.  Since we are all scattered about, Amanda asked us to all come to Arizona for the weekend to do bridesmaid type things - like pick out our dresses for the wedding!  I was able to meet Ashley - another bridesmaid who has been friends with Amanda since I left for Purdue and I have never had the pleasure of meeting.  She was great and I am so happy I finally got to meet her!  Of course my fellow penguin lover Janelle was there (along with Dustin) from Wisconsin, too.  The wedding next summer is going to be fabulous!  

I also got to meet the future Mr. Palumbo - Bret.  I had not had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but he was nice enough to let me stay with he and Amanda for the entire week I was there...and put up with all of us women being around for several days in a row.  I found him to be delightful, funny, intelligent and kind.  Welcome to our crazy family, Bret!  

The future Mr. and Mrs. Bret Laster-Loftus!  Precious!

My first full day in Arizona was spent pool side with Amanda, Ashley and some other friends.  It was over 100 degrees outside - so we thoroughly enjoyed the water (especially since Ashley and I both came from the midwest chilliness)!  It was a fun day!

We were quick friends!  (Look at that water!)

Lovely weather, lovely pool and lovely ladies!

The first night Ashley was there she and I got dolled up and headed out to Mill Ave.  I did not take my camera with, so I will have to wait on Ashley to upload hers.  But I met Alex's little brother Josh out, as well as my friend Bryce.  We had a great time!

Saturday Janelle and Dustin arrived and we went dress shopping (also did not have my camera for that).  That night we all went to dinner and were joined by our good friend Ana!  I only have one picture of that night and it did not turn out...but when other pictures go up on Facebook I will add them in!

Sunday we went to a BBQ at Jared's (Bret's best man) condo.  He and his fiance Kelly were sweet enough to invite all of Amanda's out of town guests to come along - so we did!  It was a lovely time and we all enjoyed ourselves.  That night Ana invited Janelle, Dustin and I to go salsa dancing.  It didn't last too long...but at least we looked smashing!

From left to right: Myself, Ana and Janelle.  This was just outside of the dance studio we went to for the salsa dancing.

Ana and I playing around in the car while Dustin was kind enough to cart us all around.

I love my Nello! 

So when I went home to change clothes so we could go out clubbing - Amanda decided to join us!  Woo!  

All four ladies out at Zuma on Mill Ave.

Drinkin' up at Martini Ranch in Old Town Scottsdale.  We had a lot of fun dancing here - I had never been! 

 

On my last night in Arizona - long after Janelle, Dustin and Ashley were all gone...Amanda, Bret, Bryce and I all went out to Pattie's in Old Town.  We had a fabulous time - especially since my tab was 1/2 what it should have been (cheers to being a girl)! 

Well this one is a little blurry (or maybe it was Amanda's vision...), but it is the only one I have with Bryce - so here it is anyway!

I love you Palumbo - I miss you so much already!  Thanks for everything!

The Grand Canyon State!

Disclaimer:  If you don't want to see a lot of mountains - you can skip this one.  I LOVE the mountains, and I took plenty of pictures because a good number of you have never been west.  This is just a random smattering of them. 

Yay!!

For those of you who don't believe Arizona has much green - here is a national forest in northern Arizona.  It is completely covered with coniferous trees. You can see the winding road I drove along...stunning.

My first saguaro sighting!

Completely majestic - how did I end up back in the land of the corn again?

One of the mountain roads I take on the way into The Valley.  The view is obviously lame...

I warned you there were lots of mountains - but they are so amazing!

Another mountain view from the drive into The Valley.  I always forget just how beautiful it truly is.  I never tire of it.

That's it for the drive in to Arizona.  I don't want to overload you with pictures of mountains!  Seriously though, I love it here...so much.

National Hispanic Cultural Center

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” - John F. Kennedy 

So Alejandro is a volunteer docent for the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.  He was kind enough to take me down there to see what it was all about.  It is the largest center of it's kind in the United States, largely funded by Roy Disney (Walt's brother).  If you want to know more, just click on the link in the name!  Photography is not allowed in the museum, but since he knew the security schedule he was able to tell me when I could sneak pictures here and there (hooray for connections).  The main exhibit featured pieces of furniture hand crafted.  They were beautiful!   Here are some pics!

Happy almost Dia de Los Muertos! (This one is for you Bfrank) Also...note my sun burnt left arm from the ten hour drive the day before.  I now drive with a shirt covering that arm. 

This one is of a high ceiling in one of the entryways to a play house at the center.

Amazing hand carved crib with beautiful detail work.  So pretty!

I really wish this was not side ways (again, check the Picasa)...but those are guns painted onto the seats.  Also, the inscription says: Borracho Perdido.  This translates to: Lost Drunk.  I thought it was funny =)

With this being sideways it loses some of its charm...but it is a woodworking shop in the museum.  A painting of one.  Doesn't it look real?  It even has the little fire extinguisher in the corner.

I just thought these were awesome. 

Grrr!! Of course one of my two favorite pieces shows up sideways here ...but it is based on the book Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.  "Venus" is on top and the bull represents the man (that's pretty damn accurate!) below.  I liked the contemporary feel of it and how the artists (two brothers) incorporated the Shell logo.

Alright - so check this out.  It is very pretty right?  I thought so...then I walked two feet to the left and saw what is pictured below.

It is a functional centerpiece!  You set it on your table and then when company comes over: Voila!  Each piece is a different dish, bowl or cup!  I was very impressed.  I just kept walking back and forth looking at the big piece and finding the little dishes within it.  So cool!

Okay, so this one is supposed to be the other way (of course), but it was my favorite piece.  It is a deity piece.  If you will look you can see a bird, wolf and horse head - all sharing one all knowing eye.  I thought it was fantastic - and trippy.

All in all I was very impressed with the exhibits at the center.  It was a nice break from the heat to walk around indoors for a while, too!  Plus, I learned a lot!

New Mexico...New Friends!

 “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

 So my host for Albuquerque was phenomenal.  We had a great time when he showed me around during the day.  Unfortunately for him, he was in the process of moving while I was there.  So I figured since he helped me out by letting me crash - I would help him out moving some things and cleaning his old apartment up a bit while the boys did the heavy lifting.  After the moving was all done, we had pizza and drinks over at the new place.  It was here that I was able to meet a lot of his friends from the area.  I got pictures with all of them but since it was late and we had been on the go all day - some of them are rather nasty.  Here are the decent ones!

This is Farit, he is from Bolivia.  He was not there too long - but he was funny and had a fantastically bright smile!

This is Kyle - he is so fun!  He and Juan(ito) [whose picture is absent due to it being disgusting] and I had some great conversation about the educational system in this country - particularly in New Mexico.  They were both super intelligent men and I really enjoyed meeting both of them and talking late into the night.  Oh, and Kyle is from Michigan - so he was a polite Midwesterner like me! 

Alejandro!! Or Alex, as he is also known...  Fantastical host!  I learned a lot from him - including that tongue tacos are amazing, furniture IS art in New Mexico, Leonardo DiCaprio is not as good of an actor as I think...and much more.  He is going to be famous one day - look for his movie Bless Me, Ultima to come out sometime in 2011.  Thanks for everything, man!

Of course - the couch! (Complete with Packer and Pong - who of course are alone for the journey!)  It was sooo comfortable and spacious!  Great rest was gotten on this couch!

Old Town New Mexico

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

My second day in Albuquerque, my host took the day off of work to show me around some places in the city.  The first place we went was "Old Town."  It is what used to be down town Albuquerque.  There were several beautiful older buildings, including some chapels.  I did some touristy type shopping for gifts and post cards and then we walked around for a bit.  One of the coolest parts was a row of Native American people selling their own hand tooled jewelry.  I could not get a picture of them because my host said they do not like people taking their pictures...however, I did buy some turquoise earrings!  Here are some pictures from Old Town: 

This is the statue/fountain that heads up Old Town in Albuquerque. 

Each different plaza in Old Town has a sign over it.  It is a very nice place to walk around and act like a tourist (re: buy things)!

This made me laugh..yes, sorry - I guess sometimes I still have a fifteen year old's sense of humor. =)

This next set of photos were taken of the church and the smaller chapel.  However, some of them are sideways (which I guess is a common problem between Canon cameras and the Blogger site...there is no easy way to fix it - so sorry...), you can always log on to my Picasa and see ALL of the pictures, too.

Plaque outside of the church of San Felipe de Neri.  There was actually a mass being held inside of this church when  we walked in - so I did not take any pictures of the inside...but it was stunning!

Lovely statue in the garden of the San Felipe de Neri church.

Luckily Alejandro knew where this hidden tree carving was.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Here is just the face of the carving inside of the tree.

This was taken from inside of the little chapel.  Clearly it is a popular place for people to come and pray.  Many candles were lit and there were beautiful flowers everywhere.

From inside the same tiny chapel.

Here are some more from just walking around:

I took this one for you Brittany - I know how funny you think skeletons are - and this one was no exception!  Wait until you see the next blog - I have an even better one for you!

This is the Candy Lady's sign.  Alejandro tells me she is pretty well known for making delicious candies - I would not know because we went inside and the candy was SO expensive.  For example, there were little caramels - like the kind you can buy in a bag at Wal Mart, for about $14.99/lb.  Whoa!  There were also a lot of sexual shaped candies.  Like a one pound piece of chocolate in the mold of a penis...bahaha.  I didn't bother asking how much THAT was. ;)

Speaking of delicious things to eat...my host and I had gone to a Korean BBQ the night before where we had a discussion about food.  While we were talking about some of our favorite things to eat, the subject of weird food came up.  He told me one of his favorite authentic Mexican dishes was a taco de lengua.  You know...a  TONGUE TACO.  Gross, I thought.  I like trying to new things but NOT that.  Well...the next morning I woke up and thought - if I am not going to try new things, then what am I doing on this trip?  So I told him I wanted him to find me a tongue taco for lunch.  After we worked up an appetite looking around Old Town we went in search of one.  And we did indeed find one:

If you will look above the red TACOS part of the sign, you will see Lengua.  So that was what I ordered (well, Alejandro ordered it for me)...

Here it is: tongue, onion, cilantro, lime juice and some salsa.  Verdict: most amazing thing I have eaten in a very long time (and I just had Kokoro sushi before leaving Indiana)!  I have tried to find another one ever since, but nowhere serves tongue!  One of the best things about it: it was ONE DOLLAR.  Cannot beat that! Yum!