Mystery Castle and some other stuff

I could think of no other title that encompassed our weekend visit with dad and Cookie. Sunday morning we were deciding what to do before heading to the DBacks game, so we check the NYT online and see what it would do if it were in Phoenix. The only time-appropriate option was the Mystery Castle, a supposed gem in South Phoenix. We head on down, pay our $5 and are treated to a very interesting stone house built in the 40s and 50s that is covered in wall-to-wall junk. Cat calendars from years gone by, broken hide-away beds, discarded replica suits of armor, and yes, filthy teddy bears as far as the eye could see. The builder of the house lived in Seattle, got TB in 1939, moved to Arizona in a covered wagon (still laying around of course), built this monstrosity, went crazy, collected a bunch of crap, didn't tell his family he was still alive (from what we could gather) then willed the "castle" to his daughter. His daughter, now in her 80s, resides upstairs and apparently followed in her daddy's muffin-basket crazy footsteps.

It was a very enjoyable visit all around. Played some golf, badly, but decided I wouldn't let my game ruin a perfectly great day in Anthem. We hit the aforementioned DBacks game, which they won in 12 innings. We did not, however, stick it out for 4+ hours. Living 10 minutes from the ballpark means you only miss at most an inning and can catch the end on the TeeVee.

Yes, I have trimmed the playoff (finals) beard since that picture was taken.

Grand Canyon Trip

We had our 2nd group of visitors last week: Mom & Dad. They decided to come out in spring instead of winter this year and we picked Easter weekend because I had a 4-day weekend. We actually planned this trip back in December (when Keeper and I were on the east coast for Christmas). Dad had never been to the Grand Canyon (neither had Keeper) and Mom hadn't been since she was a teenager. So we booked our rooms at the Yavapai Lodge in December and were hoping to get some awesome hiking and great photo ops in.... we were not expecting a SNOWSTORM!!!!

Keeper left school early on Friday ( I had track practice in the morning anyway) and we headed north. We stopped at Mather Point (at my pestering) right when we got inside the park and we were glad to get some great late afternoon pictures in. Keeper was a little sketched out by heights and the sheer drops but he was a good sport about the pictures and ventured out farther and farther at each new lookout point. We got to our "lodge" and realized it was....a motel...and the rooms were like dorm rooms from the 1970's. Definitely NOT worth the Xanterra Resorts price tag. Luckily our rooms had a adjoining doors so we could hang out in either room whenever we wanted. We ate dinner in the Canyon Cafe (pretty mediocre) and went to bed.

We woke up to a winter wonderland! Honestly the snow was so pretty and Keeper and I hadn't seen weather like that since before we moved! We took a bunch of pictures on the way to the general store where we picked up some coffee and headed up the Rim Trail. Our mood was dampened when we realized the forecast wasn't just an overnight "dusting" but an all day affair consisting of wet, pelting, snow/ice/rain mix that left us (after hiking the Rim Trail for a few hours) completely soaked and freezing. We did catch some awesome snowy canyon views but ended up catching the bus to Hermit's Rest where we warmed up by the blazing fire and ate our picnic lunch. We really hoped to hike some of the Bright Angel Trail but when we reached the trailhead, noticed it was a mud/slush-fest and thought better of sliding our way down the canyon... We finally gave up on the hiking after lunch and headed back to our dorm rooms (I mean hotel) and played some cards and lounged around. We headed out to the Bright Angel Lodge for dinner (mmmm...steak!) and the weather had cleared up a bit for some pictures. On the way back to our rooms we saw elk feeding in the woods! I had never seen a live elk before (only Elky's head, mounted in Uncle Dale's basement) so I was pretty psyched. Keeper pulled over and Mom and I jumped out to take some pictures. We took a few and chatted with some other people doing the same thing and then a park ranger chased us out of the woods saying "this is WILDLIFE...you can't just walk up to them!". But we could, in fact, just walk up to them as they were eating and they could care less we were so close.

We went to bed and woke up Easter morning with great weather and clear views. We opted out of a sunrise Easter service outside (we probably would've froze to death!), had a nice hot breakfast in the lodge, checked out of the "hotel" and headed back up the Rim Trail to Yavapai Point. We took some great pictures, then drove out to Desert View Tower, ate our lunch and headed back down to Phoenix. We were definitely disappointed in our hiking but we had a fun trip nevertheless.

Keeper and Dad were happy to be back to civilization (baseball on TV) Sunday night. Monday morning was track practice (which ended up taking all morning) and Keeper was back to school. Mom, Dad, and I tried a new lunch spot in central Phoenix and then Mom and I bargained shopped the afternoon away (Keeper and Dad were happy to not be included). Mom made us dinner Monday night and we were sorry to see them leave Tuesday morning.