Six Days in Mesa

Last Monday night, Pharmie and I took off for 6 days to visit my grandparents in Mesa AZ. (Grandpa and Grandma live in MN, but they head to AZ for 4-5 months each year and stay in an “old folks trailer park.”) We had highs of 69-72 degrees F (20-22 C) while we were there. That sure beats the 2 days of 34 below F (36 below C) that my folks had while we were gone! I think we picked a good week to be gone!

Here’s a quick rundown of our fun:

Monday, Jan 4:

Flew into Phoenix in the evening:

Tuesday, Jan 5:

Pharmie and I picked the highest-heights of the orange trees where all the old folks couldn’t reach:

Grandpa with our big bag of success!

Pharmie and I headed out on a run. It was GREAT to sweat in some mid-day heat! She started before me, and I met her as she was heading back:

And then she crashed by the pool for an hour:

That night, we all played bingo in the trailer park rec center:

Bingo MADNESS!


Pharmie and I chipper and eager at the start of Bingo

One lady (and I’m NOT making this up) got Bingo in 4 balls!! That’s perfection!

Well, after 2 hours of bingo, 3 cans of pop, and 3 tubs of popcorn....

....Pharmie and I hadn’t won sh*t:

4 unsuccessful “blackouts”

Wednesday, Jan 6:

Pharmie and I got up and headed out to the Lost Dutchman State Park. The goal was to hike to the top of the Superstition Mountains and get to the top of the Flatiron. That was an epic 5 hours! More on this in the next day or 2! I took a lot of fun photos on our run / hike / climb up to the top! Here’s 1 quick photo of Pharmie running around the base of the mountain just before we left the park:

After getting back from our 5 hours on the mountain, we went to Organ Stop Pizza, where there’s a huge organ that comes out of the floor, and it controls all kinds of stuff that’s hanging from the walls. It’s hard to explain. It’s quite bizarre.

Thursday, Jan 7th:

Grandpa and Grandma took us to an Olive Grove. They make all kinds of Olive Oil. Check out this sweet shirt that I should have bought:

Grandpa and Grandma eating lunch at the Olive Grove

Then we went shopping for shoes for Grandma:

Grandpa’s thrilled

Then we played shuffleboard back at the old folks trailer park:

Friday, Jan 8th:

Grandpa (the best horseshoe-thrower at his park for 7 of the last 8 years) taught Pharmie how to pitch horseshoes:

That afternoon, we headed to South Mountain. On the way, I spotted a giant Chipotle Burrito in the sky, sent from heaven by Jesus himself:

Pharmie at the top of South Mountain




Grandpa and Grandma at the top of South Mountain

That night, we went to "The Rustler’s Rooste.” A little kid almost barfed on my shoes. Other than that, we had a great time. They had free cotton candy!

Saturday, Jan 9th:


I went for a run, we played some more 4-handed cribbage (17 total games over our stay, and Pharmie and I won 12 of those!), got all packed up, and Grandpa and Grandma dropped us off at the airport. We headed home and Matt picked us up at MSP, which was flippin' freezing.

Thanks for letting us crash on your pull-out couch for a few days Grandpa and Grandma!! We had a great time!!

I’ll be back shortly with photos and our story from climbing the Superstition Mountains!