Day 7 & 8 (4/7 & 8)
Not enough time . . .
Everyone told us we had to have breakfast at Randy’s so after we picked up the girls we did just that. Or tried to. Lila was not at her best that morning and we ended up having to get hers and Megan’s breakfasts to go. Randy’s lived up to its reputation with good food, fast service and waitresses that call you “hon”. While they were out walking around the shopping center for some calming time, Megan and Lila picked up some swim noodles. Back at Stan and Marian’s, the girls hit the pool with their new toys. Lila was still on the wrong side of happy so Connie and I took her and Maya to Target to pick up some of the things need for camping. She fell asleep in the shopping cart and when she woke up back at the ranch, she discovered that she and Maya had new ponies, albeit plastic toys. Her outlook improved.
That night we dined out in Scottsdale’s Old Town where we finally got to see Kim, John and Feryal, John’s daughter.
On Friday, Connie and I woke up early and decided to walk to Starbucks in the Safeway in the same shopping center as Randy’s. Scottsdale has a wonderful greenspace that flows all through the town and into Tempe. It incorporates paved bike and walking trails, ponds, a Frisbee golf course and so on. It is also a flood control channel. We walked through the greenspace on our way to breakfast but were barred from walking through one of the major road subways because the previous night’s rain had flooded it.
While Connie was cleaning up the inside of the van, I finally spent some time in the pool with the girls. It was great fun. After lunch, we drove for miles to the AAA office for maps of the four corners states and to Trader Joe’s for supplies for the dinner we were cooking for that night. While running our errands, we got word that Kim would be home early enough for us to visit before we started cooking.
She and John live in Tempe, home of ASU. We dropped off the groceries, picked up the girls and drove to their house. Their neighborhood is older, funkier and definitely more college town looking. The first thing we noticed was the massive barking dog that could easily have burst through the flimsy gate at the open front door. This was Porter who was a puppy when Peter and I passed through in June. He and his new sidekick, Avery, turned out to be big love muffins and after a quick but thorough tour by Kim, we left to fight the traffic back to Scottsdale.
With Stan’s help, we got dinner on the table, though Julie and Daniel weren’t able to join us. Daniel was at a Diamondbacks game and Julie had fallen victim to having treated 5 kids with stomach flu that day.