Seeing with My Eyes Wide Open...: Family Time in Phoenix & Los Angeles

Our first clue that my brother Dave and his wife Paula live a bit “out of the way” was when he told us to call as we got close because the GPS usually can’t accurately locate his address. So that is what we did. As dusk approached, we followed his instructions and he gave us specific directions to where he would meet us and we would follow him the rest of the way. The GPS informed us with the following: “warning, this route will take you on an unpaved road!” As we approached our meeting point, we could see him on his 4-wheel ATV and we followed him into the darkness along a dusty road pathway, passing occasional homes and open desert farmland. At our arrival, we parked our cross-country rig, plugged in and got the twilight tour of their beautiful dessert oasis home/compound. I have to add that Dave, Paula & Justin gave us, on our first day, a desert orientation complete with common desert animal identification such as rattlesnakes, turkey vultures, pack rats, road runners, coyotes, scorpions, tarantulas, black widow spiders, huge frogs, & a few other somewhat harmless cohabitant friends. Dave even included samples they have collected thus far during their time in AZ and Paula calmly suggested we not go barefoot! So as desert newbies, we carefully headed to our camper, with flashlight in hand, to sleep our first night!

Only the next day did we get the full view of their almost 360 degrees of beautiful mountain views and open land, that surrounds their place.

Once we settled in, we decided that this was a great time to stay put for a few days of getting caught up with family, sleep and enjoy their beautiful home and pool. This was also our meeting point to have Sam fly in from Buffalo to join us for a week of vacation with him, to see Dave, Paula, and Justin, as well as head with us to LA to spend time with Amy and catch a few ball parks to check off the lifetime list of father/son stadium visits. We picked him at the Phoenix airport and he took a rental car overnight to visit friends in Sedona, AZ. As we drove in to the airport we were surprised at how big the Phoenix area is and realized that we were not really going to have time to explore all that it has to offer. One thing we decided is that this will be one of several trips to be had. For one reason, we need to return to several states and national parks that went unexplored. One place for sure is the state of Utah! It has the most national parks to see, and we have not seen any, so we plan to come back post-retirement to explore them along with many others.

Here are some pictures of our AZ time:

Dinner out at a great Mexican Restaurant!

Dave making pizza on his gas fired pizza oven!

Enjoying the pool & patio with Justin's dog Holly!

No caption needed!

After 3 nights of relaxation, great food, and time to catch up with family in Phoenix, we said our good-byes and headed west toward LA to see Amy. It is a pretty straight shot along route 10. Our three, not so small bodies, arranged in the truck cab for almost 7 hours was not as painful as I had anticipated. Sam took advantage of the opportunity to try out his Dad’s Harley, along with a “GoPro” attached to his helmet and drove for about 25 miles before a sudden and rare rain shower ended his ride. Honestly, I didn’t really enjoy riding behind and watching him on the bike at all but he was able to check that experience off of his trip “wish list.”

Sam riding the Harley toward LA.

Changing weather patterns...dust bowls,
rain clouds and/or lightening fires?

AZ to LA landscape.

Beauty in the desert!

Sun shower among the rain clouds!

As I have experienced over and over again, throughout this trip, I really enjoyed the changing landscape and various points of interest along the trip, which made it go fairly quickly. Our GPS successfully directed us to our 5-night stay at a KOA campground in Pomona, CA, which included 2 nights of free concerts & fireworks (from a distance), which were taking place at the LA County fairgrounds, across the street. We actually spent little time at the campground. We made our way to and from the city of LA by way of the Metrolink, Uber, or Amy! Los Angeles, although hot was never crazy hot! Evenings cool down nicely and the dry heat was very bearable but signs of draught are visible all around the area.

Welcome to California....Dept. of Agriculture border check.

KOA in LA... catching up on the free WiFi!

To summarize our time in LA, I will bullet all the different activities we participated in. Amy did a fantastic job of planning our activities/agenda to maximize our time together and our varied experiences while visiting. I have to give a shout out to Amy for her great driving and navigation skills in and around the city. She says that driving in LA is like “dial-up internet service” it is slow at times due to clogged bandwidth and at other times it’s smooth sailing! I never once saw her get impatient or frustrated, just rolling with it all. LA (stands for Laidback Attitude) must be rubbing off on her.

Our very calm & capable chauffeur!

Ready for some FUN!

So here is our high-speed list of activities:

· Walk through the garment district and “Sample Sales” in the famous LA fashion district followed by pizza lunch

The textile district that borders on the garment district!

Fabric as far as the eye can see!

Sample sale at designer showrooms!

Happy socks: upcoming 2016 product line!

Fashion Designer warehouse for showrooms!

· Griffin Park Observatory, including planetarium show, observatory & view of LA/Hollywood area.

Griffith Observatory

Nice view of Hollywood Hills!

· Walk around Echo Park area then some thrift store shopping for 80s gear to wear as audience participants at our upcoming Price Is Right show.

· LA Dodgers vs. Anaheim Angels baseball game (freeway series) at Dodgers Stadium

· Sam’s birthday included visit to Thousand Oaks Maserati dealership (#1 volume dealership in country), followed by a beautiful winding drive through Santa Monica Mountains to the beach in Malibu

Beautiful water temperatures!

Our climb down to the beach!

Oh, the view!

Looking for "Malibu Barbie"...anyone know where she lives?

· 24^th Birthday dinner (at Sam’s request) at an Italian Restaurant

Happy 24th Birthday Sam.

· Price is Right studio audience 6-hour, hurry up and wait experience! Watch for us on September 22^nd. It’s decade week and the 80s live on. When panning the audience, look to the left middle section for a guy with a name tag Mark on the Cosby sweater!