The Best Parts » Arizona

Phoenix South Mountain Park

Ferd — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:20:51 +0000

I have had the joy and pleasure of visiting my daughter, Kelly, in Tempe these past few days. It makes me very happy to see how well she is getting on in the world. She graduated from Arizona State University in 2007 and since then has been working for a company that executes clinical drug trials. She’s good at it, but is already restless for more. This past year, at great personal cost of time and money, she decided to continue working full time while going back to school full time. Her goal was to make herself an attractive candidate for a much sought after Master’s degree from ASU in the area of Sustainability (the “green” movement.) It was a good gamble, as she has been accepted into the program! Her bigger goal is an eventual PhD in the area. I give her a lot of credit for setting such a lofty goal, and am awed by her smarts and her tenacity.

I also got to meet Kelly’s boyfriend, Jason. He strikes me as a very gentlemanly young man, who served four years in the Navy, and will complete his degree in computer hardware engineering next month. They seem to be very happy together, and that makes me happy!

Yesterday, they took us on a great hike in South Mountain Park. For those of you who don’t know Phoenix, it is a city in a large valley (the Valley of the Sun) surrounded on all sides by mountains. Tempe, the suburb where you’ll find ASU and where Kelly and Jason live, is in the southeast corner of Phoenix. So the South Mountains are close to where they live.

It was a hot and dry 96 degrees in the Sonoran desert for our hike, though that is way better than the 115 degrees that it easily sees in the summer. We had a great hike up the mountains to a beautiful vantage point that allowed us to see both northward towards Phoenix and southward. Here are a few pics of my beautiful daughter and of our great hike!

Colorful Kelly

Ferd — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:47:45 +0000

From the day she was born, Kelly has added color to my life. Her playful creativity as a child is stuff of family legend. The ups and downs of her adolescence were painted with the joys and pains of life. She discovered some of her gifts, which include her intellect, athleticism and musicality. She has a view of the world that is special and unique. Her stories are Kellyesque. Her writing is spectacular. I wish she had a blog.

It was wonderful catching up with Kelly in AZ these past few days. I enjoyed meeting her manfriend, Jamen. As a father, it gives me great joy seeing her make the decisions that shape her life. A colorful life. Like the unfolding of a beautiful flower.

Cowboy Ciao

Ferd — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:46:41 +0000

I skipped out of a “lunch with the professor” thing to have a “lunch with Gail” thing instead. Wouldn’t you?!

I used my iPhone Urbanspoon app to find Cowboy Ciao, and to make a lunch reservation online. And it lived up to it’s excellent reviews. Gail and I split pretty much everything. So we shared their signature specialties, the Stetson Chopped Salad, Mushroom Pan Fry, and a remarkably tasty Bread Pudding served with a 5-spice vanilla ice cream and cranberry compote. The bread pudding was my personal flavorite.

I promised more pics.

Sunday Scenery

Ferd — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:40:04 +0000

This is my contribution for today’s Sunday Scenery, a regular deal at my friend, Lee’s blog. I am visiting my daughter, Kelly, in AZ later this week. This is a picture of the Grand Canyon that I took during one of my previous trips.

Click here for my full size gallery/slideshow of 10 Grand Canyon pictures.