Hometown Monday

Mesa, Arizona is on the rack today. I began traveling back and forth between Quartz Hill and Mesa when I was about five years old. I'm pretty sure I was in love with Mesa and everything Arizona had to offer from a very young age. I was an Arizona everything fan first before anything else. Arizona Diamnondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Coyotes were my sports teams. I've wanted to attend Arizona State University since I was about eight. Some thing in life you stumble upon and you find that it's just a part of your blood. Arizona was that way for me. My family dad grew up there, I ended up growing up there and now my little brothers who are 12 years younger than me get to do the same. There has been many changes throughout all this time. My dad tells me stories about where we live now used to be desert and orange groves. He and a childhood friend used to go bird hunting and romp through the desert together. Now all of that land is developed and commercialized into residential areas for the exploding population of Maricopa County. Surprising to the knowledge of most people Mesa is one the largest cities in the United States just barely edging out Miami, FL. In fact I even remember when I was younger that we could drive down the road and be in alfalfa fields as far as the eye can see. Orange groves covered the land giving off the aroma of citrus in the evenings when the weather was mixed just right. Now all that remains are patches here and there and to really get out of the city we need to drive for about 30-45 minutes.

Mesa resides in what is known as the east valley and continues looking eastward to the Superstition Mountains. These mountains have been the backdrop of my life. I have hiked them, camped in the them and watched them become covered in snow when the valley decides to have a freakish winter storm, which all though incredibly rare, it happens and is one the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. During what we dub our monsoon season, the monstrous storms gather weight behind these mountains with clouds billowing up to an unimaginable height and then roll across the valley making Arizona home to some of the most incredible lightning and thunderstorms in the country. The Mesa Arizona Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is only a few miles down the road from me. This is a wonderful destination for many across the entire country during Christmas time when the Temple is covered in thousands of Christmas lights making it truly a sight to behold. Also, during the easter season we have the Mesa Easter Pageant. Please visit this page for more information regarding the pageant, http://www.easterpageant.org/2011_Easter_Pageant_FAQs.pdf

No matter where I go or what I do in life or even where I end up, Mesa will always be home. My life has basically come full circle in this place. I have been from one extreme to the next in this town and thankfully it still loves me for who I am.

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to." ~John Ed Pearce

European Wednesday

England is a place steeped with a culture and a history that dates back thousands of years. I feel incredibly privileged that I had the opportunity to visit this wonderful place. I don't have my notes with me from that trip right now so I might have to update this particular day at a later time when I have those with me. I went there with the Arizona Ambassadors of Music in 2005. It was an Arizona all-state band where we traveled to and performed music in several different countries. England happened to be our first stop. We had the opportunity to experience pieces of England such as Westminster Abbey, the London Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and many other churches and palaces in the surrounding area. I remember being fascinated with so many things. They actually had telephone booths, like the old red ones that you see in the movies, and absolutely amazing architecture on every street you could walk down. You should be warned at how expensive England can be though. One US Dollar when I was there got you just about 0.5 Pounds. Right now it's about one USD to 0.61 GBP. Needless to say other than food, I really didn't much money there. Pictures are the best souvenirs anyone can have anyway right? Well, maybe not but it's the best alternative to spending cash. If I could recommend any one particular thing to visit and see it would have to be the London Eye. It's basically the world's largest enclosed ferris wheel. On a clear day you can see nearly all of London and you can pick out spots you want to travel to. The tube is London's underground public transit system which is incredibly efficient once you get the hang of it. Just remember to 'mind the gap!'My group did have something not very nice happen to them one day when we were walking down the street. Some kids on the other side of the street behind a high chain-linked fence threw a water bottle at us. It just goes to show you that not everyone is a fan of America. Which I honestly don't blame them, they were no more than 10 or 12 years old. I'll admit it is a little unnerving to get stuff thrown at you but at the same time eye opening to the fact that the world is a really big place with many different views and ways to go about living a life and yours isn't always considered to be the best way.

"England and America are two countries separated by the same language."
-George Bernard Shaw

Travel Tip Tuesday

Don't leave home without it. Traveling by automobile, aka, road tripping can often be one of the most rewarding ways to travel. But it can also be one of the biggest headaches of your life if you're not adequately prepared for multiple scenarios. I don't mean to sound drastic and I'm not trying to say you have to bring a trailer attached to your vehicle so that you can weather out a three day storm while traveling across the Saharan desert. It's simply important to have the basic supplies you need in case of untimely incidents that may occur during your journey. Spare tire, a working jack that actually fits underneath your vehicle, emergency road kit with flares and reflective mini towers, small first aid kit, and a physical roadmap just in case your GPS stops working or your smartphone decides to die when you need it the most. And if you really want to get creative and be travel savvy you can have some extra emergency food tucked away, a bottle of water, an extra pair of clothes, if not used for you specifically you never know what or who might need your help along the way to your destination. Following and keeping these few extra things in your motor vehicle of choice can save you a lot of time by allowing you to take care of yourself and maybe others you come into contact with. I personally wish I would have known to check and see if my jack actually fit underneath my car a few years ago when I ran into a little issue in the desert. I had recently just bought a used car that was slightly lower to the ground than normal and didn't think twice about checking to see if the jack would actually work. That tire problem stuff only happens to other people right? Wrong... Anyway, short ending to an odd story, a police car just so happened to be passing through this area and gave me his jack to use which happened to fit just right. If not for that extremely odd coincidence, I would have had a very long walk into town to try and fix my problem. You may be wondering what I was doing in the desert and how my problem came about, luckily for me and for you this is neither the time nor the place to be reciting that tale. Needless to say it helps to know what you're getting into and to be ready for the unexpected situations that can come out of thin air.

"Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Hometown Monday...

Today is more like House Monday. As a kid, the house you live in can be one of the most magical places on the planet or one of those places you would rather forget about. Gratefully mine leaned toward the more magical end of things. In light of that fact I decided to write about a house I lived in when I was about five years old in Quartz Hill. I can't tell you how or why I remember this house the way I do. Maybe because it's one of the first houses I really ever remember or something special happened there that I can't quite put a finger on. At any rate this house was a two-story house off of 60th St. West and Avenue M-something or other. It was the corner house at the bottom of a culdesac. We had mostly dirt for a backyard yet somehow we managed to have plum trees that occasionally gave us eatable fruit. My dad at that time was really into rock climbing, so being the crafty man that he was and still is, constructed a 20 foot rock wall on the side of the house. It was really quite impressive the way it fit snugly between the space between our house and our neighbors fence. I remember we used to hang out in the backyard seeing how high me or my sister could climb, which usually wasn't more than a few hand holds high. For some reason I was always intrigued by two story houses and staircases. Maybe Home Alone was on my mind and I always envisioned myself sledding down and out the door. Even though if I ever would have tried that I would have ended up as a hole in the wall. I remember blue wall paper covered the majority of the walls inside. My sister and I have a funny picture of us against the wall near the kitchen, her holding the cat and me holding the dog. My family loves animals. As long as I remember we have always had some kind of critter running around the house, be it mammal, reptile or bird. I think at this particular time we just had a cat and a dog, I think the rat came into the picture a little while later. The living had a high vaulted ceiling and we had one of those old school big screen TV's. Dancing to some music video was a regular occurrence in that space when my sister and I were both still very young. There was always hide and seek, my favorite spot being the closet underneath the stairs that seemed to run like a dungeon corridor into the recesses of the house. We kept most of our blankets and sleeping bags in this particular place. If you were good enough hider and could get in touch with your chameleon side you could hide yourself so good in there the other person would eventually have to give up. Lots of giggles and fun for the one hiding and lots of frustration and annoyance for the seeker.

I think I spent the shortest time at this house than I did many of my other ones but this one has always just stuck with me and I always find myself being drawn back to thinking about it at the most random of times. I'm sure every one of you have a special house that wonderful things happened in or around that will always be your safe and happy place for those special quiet moments when no one else is around.

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to." ~John Ed Pearce

European Wednesday

I have been looking forward to writing about this day for quite some time now. The problem with that is, is now I have all sorts of things I want to write about and it has been difficult to pick a spot to start from. So as it is with all great things there is a beginning, and my European experiences just so happen to begin with Germany.

A quick introduction as to why I was in Germany the first time was because of my stepfather, who happens to be German. Without revealing too many details of a personal nature, we simply had to go for urgent family business and I was fortunate enough to be involved. We were to meet someone in northern Germany in a little town known as Hennstedt that would help us with vital information we had been searching for.

My trip to Hennstedt, Germany, has been one of the most life altering experiences I have ever had. As a kid I read books and watched movies and learned about history and always wondered what it would be like to travel to a little town in Europe. I must admit that my expectations were fully met and then some. We stayed with a family that lived just a bit outside of town, down a dirt road lined with tall tress and nestled around what I seem to remember as hundreds of christmas trees. The family knew very little English, so there was a definite language barrier, but we managed to get a long with our broken bits and pieces of one another's native tongue. What I remember most is how they ate. I was a teenager at the time so naturally food was constantly on my mind. We ate on circular wooden plates, no plastic dish ware was to be found here. Every meal the food would be laid out across the table, ripe for the picking and choosing. Breakfast being the most expansive and diverse of them all. Wonderful kinds of breads, amazing cheeses and savory meats. When eating in Germany remember to keep both of your hands on the table, clean your plate and when finished have your knife and fork placed on your plate and titled toward your right hand. Meal times are something to be enjoyed and taken at a slow conversational pace. It's called etiquette, something I am highly impressed by and believe to be something we do not have nearly enough of here in America anymore. This is solely my opinion and may be quite subjective, but it's my blog and I may say what I wish.

Hennstedt has an amazing aesthetic appeal to it that is hard to explain. Maybe it's because I am drawn in by my own imagination and make it out to be something more than it is. Germany has many modern buildings and technology but there are also the special places that feel like stepping back in time and gives a glimpse into what the world once was. It's getting close to eight years since that trip and we still keep in touch with the family we stayed only a few short days with.

"Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was." ~Will Rogers

Travel Tip Tuesday

Once you have decided on a place to go it's time to pack your bags and actually get there. You have a few different options in this case, walking, driving your car, taking a bus or a train or flying. In my opinion there can not be a more stressful or more enjoyable way of traveling than going to the airport. Security checks, bag checks, x-ray machines, being surrounded by people you don't know and their crazy out of control children, which of course your children would never be one of them... Oh the insanity! Going to the airport is all about mental preparation. We know security has increased and all sorts of limitations have been put on what we can have in our carry on luggage. So the key here is to just be ready. In all reality this process won't take that long. Breathe, make sure you have everything you need in your carry on. If you have any doubts that one of your items might not make it through security, take it out and put it in your checked luggage. So much time and stress can be removed if you have all your belongings together and you don't have to be pulled aside and being asked how many ounces is that nasal spray container in your pocket. By the way, standard regulations state that no liquid container over 3 ounces is allowed. I can't count the amount of people I see who seem to be so frustrated and paranoid standing in lines at the check in counter and waiting to go through the security check-point. Just take it easy, it will all be over soon.

People are interesting. In fact I believe them to be the most interesting things on the planet. That being said, where better a place to learn about and see people interacting than at the airport. I've met some of the most fascinating people of my life in airport terminals. Next time you travel through an airport, make a game out of it and pay attention to things happening around you. It truly is a world all its own.

"Just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport."
-Henny Youngman

Hometown Monday...

This posting is occurring much later than I had previously planned but such is life. This first hometown is my first hometown that I actually remember. Coming to you from the desert of southern California is a little town called Quartz Hill. Growing up I had a big desert field across the street from my house. It was not unusual to see coyotes, snakes and other little rodents in this field and even in the street or my front yard. My first house was a big blue two-story house tucked up in the foothills. Walking to the corner of the neighborhood and looking out, you could see the entire valley stretch before you from one mountain range to the next and on a clear day you could even spot Edwards Air Force Base, which was made famous for the landing of the space shuttle back in the 1980's. Living in the desert is a really interesting experience. Some people can't stand it and they need big pine trees and mountains surrounding them. I like to visit those places and they sure are pretty, but the desert is where I was raised, and it will most likely always feel like home. There is something to be said for being able to see as far as the eye can see. Clear blue skies the majority of the year. Joshua Trees and tumble weeds covered the ground. The intense blowing wind could occasionally knock a kid over and make walking home from school much more difficult than it should be. Amecci's the local pizza place had the biggest and best pizza's I think I have ever had in my life. At least based off of little kid standards.

Quartz Hill holds a special place in my heart. I don't think I could ever move back there, but I certainly appreciate it more now than I ever did back then. It taught me a lot about life, showed me what family is and can be and was the starting point for many life adventures.

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
~Robert Frost