The adventures of Aunt Nut Bread and Pickle Juice

Hey, We're in Arizona!

Details seem to be slowing me down so I'm going to try to be a little briefer, but that's not my strong suit.

From Carlsbad we headed to the Phoenix, AZ (Chandler, AZ) to see Dan's sister Kaitlin and her beau Brian. While there Lea and she came up with the names Aunt Nut Bread and Lea is Pickle Juice. I look forward to the further adventures of Nut Bread and Pickle Juice. Perhaps a hand drawn comic will come out of the visit.

We took half highway and half state road to get to Chandler. The view was amazing. I imagined the span of land between Texas and California coast to be big sand dunes with a mountain here and there. I have been amazed at all the plants in what is considered desert — cacti (I was corrected more than once that it was not cactus if there was more than one) — cacti of amazing shapes sizes and COLORS! purple prickly pear! And so many mountains, so many types of rocks. Some really beautiful sights.

When we got to Aunt Nut Bread's we saw more of Scottsdale and no Phoenix — I had been really ignorant of the geography of the west! Scottsdale has a really cute old town or shopping district with a great 1950's soda shop called the Sugar Bowl. Huge ice cream and a game arcade for Lea (with pinball for Dan & Brian). The next day we hit the Hula bar & grill for fancy cocktails and south pacific food. Not as much Tiki as we would have liked, but it was a fun stop.

The first day we all 5 adventured to do Lea's first Girl Scout letter boxing adventure which is like geo caching with ink and stamp. The one the girls chose had three spots in one park (we worked on one the next day and couldn't find it, I think a landmark had been removed from the park), but it was a nice time to walk around the park with parasols. Letter boxing was very fun and I can't wait to share it with Lea's troop.

Then to the Butterfly Wonderland with a 3-D movie, a butterfly hatching area where we could see all kinds of chrysalis and a greenhouse with thousands of butterflies. There was also the "Ant exhibit" so we had to take a picture of an aunt! Also a touch tank of stingrays,  and tanks of sharks and other fish.

The second day was spent at the Musical Instrument Museum, which was amazing. They had an audio system where you stood next to the instrument display and a video played of a sample of that style/culture and you could only hear what you were standing next to. Highlights included the hands on room where you could really play almost every kind of instrument, the calliope room where the lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival was being filmed and finding "bag pipes" in almost every European culture.

But I think what Lea liked best about Chandler was playing with Butters the dog and the fun voice Kaitlin and Brian use to speak for him. They let Lea exercise him by shining a laser up and down the stairs to get him to run. They also had a PS3 where Lea LOVED to play extreme ping pong and Dan enjoyed extreme bocce ball. That was fun for all.

A wonderful visit with wonderful family! We will be back for another visit soon.
Oh — I must mention that the first day we were there I hadn't been able to get hold of my mom and I was rather tense and worried that she was not answering any phone. Turns out she took a trip to Georgia to collect my grandfather as Margaret had taken a fall and had to be hospitalized and go to rehab so Grampy will be coming to Texas. Much worry for the best possible ending.

We're near Kaitlin's house! Next exit.

Lea on the road ready as we pass the "watch for falling rock" sign.

The giant silver french fry of Chandler, AZ and the start of Snowy's Letterboxing adventure

Lea found her first letterboxing treasure

Lea and one of three letterboxing treasures in the park in Chanlder

The Sugar Bowl before ordering. The Sugar Bowl has been featured in Family Circle cartoons and has been open since the 1950s

"Can I order dessert first?" Two pages of ice cream on the menu and one page of dinner/lunch.

Aunt Nutbread & Pickle Juice playing a frog game for tickets

Tickets! Earned enough for two Chinese finger traps and a parachute toy

Dusty Road sundae with a "dusting layer of malt powder"

Dan and Brian sharing, how sweet.

Aunt Nutbread had something to do with this!

"I have you in my clutches now, Uncle Brian"

That is an Atlas Moth the largest moth. Butterfly Wonderland

Butterfly

So much to look at

"Hold still Uncle Brian, there is a butterfly on your hat, Oh I missed it!"

Butterfly Wonderland

Sting ray touch tank. Lea one of the only children following the rules! They fed the rays anchovies, I joked that Daddy might jump in the tank for anchovies!

Sharks! We got to see feeding. They put vitamins on a stick and made sure each one got their own vitamin.

Aunt Nutbread bought us butterflies to decorate our travel van! Making everything fancy and more fun!

Even herself!

Letterboxing number two, but no treasure. Just a hot walk in the park.

Searching for the elusive stump with the letterbox, never to be found.

Parasols!

Musical Instrument Museum activity room. Aunt Nutbread and Pickle Juice join the orchestra!

Maybe we overstayed our welcome? Sister and brother at it again!

Wacky faces at the Indonesian straw man display. Each display had a video and a sound that the earphones picked up as you were near the display, but you couldn't hear the other displays until you moved. Ingenious!

We checked out our friend's heritage, Serbia. Almost every European culture had a type of bagpipe from animal parts.

Lea and I looked at all her heritage spots: Sweden, Ireland and Portugal (though Lea kept getting confused and saying "I'm part Polish" "No, no, those are very different!"

Back to the action room after seeing how these Chinese bells were made.

Off to Hula for Pacific Island food and tasty cocktails!

Hula lunch in Scottsdale