Christmas in New England

T and I spent Christmas in Massachusetts and Mother Nature made sure that we wouldn't forget what winters are "supposed" to be like...we were hit with two separate snow storms totaling around 30 inches and we made sure to do a little bit of shoveling too!

Our New Car

T and I bought a new car!  Check out the pic of our 2008 Ford Explorer.  We love it and are so happy to have more than one car again!

Christmas Tree Chopping 2008

Last Sunday, T and I went out with my family (Mom, Dad, Bro, Bro's gf) to get our Christmas tree.  In AZ, you can buy a beautiful tree from Oregon or Washington on pretty much any corner.  You can also buy a $15 permit to go out into the Northern AZ forest to cut down your own (clearly, we opted for the latter or this post would be a little less interesting).

We started out at my parents' place in Payson (less than 2 hours from the Valley and about 5000 feet in elevation) and headed further North to the Mogollon Rim (pronounced "mug-ee-on").  Along with our tags, the Forest Service (USFS) provided maps to the cutting areas that we registered and descriptions of the species in the area.

  

Our first stop was about 2 miles into the cutting area where the forest was filled with Ponderosa Pine.  We hiked off from the road with our handsaws, chainsaw, and lopper.  After about 20 minutes of walking, we found a perfect Christmas tree ponderosa.  

We carried the tree back to the car (very heavy since it's still filled with water) and kept on driving north.

We pulled over a second time to the side of the road where we saw more spruce and firs (we estimated that we were around 7,500 feet in elevation).  The Fam hiked down a raveen where there was a lot more snow still on the ground and where we found our other two trees!  Bro's is a Blue Spruce and ours is a Douglas Fir.

Back to Boston

Tomorrow, T and I are heading back to Boston for a week (mainly for work).  I checked the weather in Boston and it's supposed to be in the upper-40's / low-50's and rain.  Bleh.  Have I been back in Phoenix long enough to be totally spoiled by the weather??  I found out today that it hasn't rained in Phoenix since August 31st!  That's nice (even though my lawn could probably use a healthy dose of rain water right about now!).  Will post more when we're back from our trip!

Overseeding 101

On Sunday, T and I overseeded our lawn (no need to do anything with the backyard since we don't have any grass back there...yet!).  Again, I think it's necessary for another brief tutorial/info session for the non-Phoenicians (as well as those Phoenicians without yards!).  Many people with yards in AZ put in two different lawns for the drastically different seasons.  This is also what all the golf courses in the Valley do and how they keep the greens/fairways so green and beautiful year-round.  Hearty bermuda grass is always on the lawn (it just goes dormant during the winter) and can be left as is throughout the winter (usually turns slightly brown though).  But if you so choose (as we did), rye grass can be put in over the bermuda to last through early Spring.  Rye grass has soft, long blades with a deep green color.  Rye can be put down after the risk of 100+ degree days are mostly past, but before it gets too cold (risk of early frost).  The ideal timing for this weather is during the first 2 weeks of October -- clearly, we're running a little bit behind, but we're still ok.

The first step in the process is to mow the bermuda down to almost nothing.  T is the mower in the family, so I followed him with the second step (and arguably the worst step in the whole thing): thatching.  

This is the act of raking up the loose grass with a heavy metal rake while aerating the dirt a bit.  We especially had trouble thatching the areas of our lawn that have hardened stucco/concrete on it -- it appears that when work was done on the house, before we owned it, the stucco and concrete was disposed of in the front yard!  I may not have looked like the most serious landscaper because as T will tell you, "C is the only person I know who does lawn work in flip-flops."  What can I say?  It was hot and I left my nasty sneaks in MA.  But I have to note that I was wearing my "Just Married" flips, so I think it was very apra poe.

After thatching, rye seed is laid using a spreader (borrowed from my dad).  Then mulch/fertilizer is spread over the most bare spots (at a minimum).  The final step is to water.  This is more difficult for us since we don't have our flood irrigation activated yet, nor do we have sprinklers, so we have to water the lawn with the hose.  Stay tuned to see if we actually get any new blades...

Our Citrus Grove

T and I planted a 5-year old naval orange tree in our front yard earlier this week (a wonderful housewarming gift from my parents)!  It now joins our 80+ year old grapefruit tree in the yard.  To reflect what an additionally significant event this is for us, I think this post also deserves a quick, historical background to the city of Phoenix and our neighborhood...

The economy in early Phoenix was mostly agriculturally-based -- dependent on citrus and cotton farming.  As the city developed, the economy changed to rely less on these agricultural industries.  More than 60 years ago, our neighborhood was the site of a huge citrus orchard.  When it was sold to developers, they removed most, but not all of the trees in order to build the houses.  These remaining trees are still found throughout our neighborhood including the beautiful grapefruit tree in our front yard.  Since citrus trees do have a limited life span, we thought we'd do our part to continue planting citrus (as most of our neighbors have also done) -- not to mention the shade and aesthetics it will provide to the front of our house.

Now, we won't get any oranges this season (the transplant is too much of a shock for the tree), but we should get fruit by next season!  Here (above and below) are a couple of pics of our new, little friend!

Dunks in AZ

So, as many of you know, T and I are totally and completely addicted to coffee, specifically, Dunkin' Donuts coffee.  In New England, a Dunks can pretty much be found on any corner, literally.  The people who worked in the Dunks by our former home in Medford knew us by name (and of course knew our orders by heart) -- they would even get concerned when they hadn't seen us in a few days (often during a feeble attempt to save money and make coffee at home or work).  We were spoiled rotten by having a Dunks on every corner in New England.

T and I were ecstatic to learn a year ago that the Dunkin Donuts corporation was planning a massive expansion in the Phoenix market.  The Phoenix area would go from having about 12 stores in the Valley to 1,200 (ok, ok, I'm exaggerating, but a girl can dream, right?!)!  There is a Dunks that is currently under construction/renovation less than 2 miles from our Phoenix home.  We plan on being some of the first in line on the day it opens.  No joke.  

This brings me to one of our latest adventures...on an afternoon drive to go shopping in

 Scottsdale, T came up with the brilliant idea to search our GPS to find the nearest Dunks to our location.  We drove 10, yes 10, miles out of our way to find that Dunks and enjoy a tasty doughnut and two glorious iced coffees!!  It was totally worth the detour!

I found my camera cord!

In the second-to-last box unpacked, T found the cord that connects the camera to the computer!  Woohoo!  Check out my old posts --  I have added pics to give some visuals of our adventures.  Stay tuned for future posts about our new adventures in Phoenix, our new house, and other mayhem!

Valley of the Sun...at last!

So sorry for delay in posting!  T and I have been very, very busy unpacking...  

Last Thursday, we headed out of Denver in the morning and stopped at the US Air Force Academy -- the setting is absolutely beautiful!  The Academy is situated against the Rocky Mountains and has amazing views throughout the campus.  The chapel seemed to be the focal point, and you can see why:

We then cruised down through the the rest of Southern Colorado.  T and I stopped for lunch in a wonderful, little town in Colorado on the border of New Mexico called Trinidad.  It has a quaint downtown with brick streets, cafes, and antique shops -- a definite must see if you're ever in the area!  We went through Santa Fe and Albuquerque on Thursday and made it to Gallup, NM to stay the night (I won't comment on Gallup because I want to keep this blog on a positive note).  I will only say one thing about Gallup:  I asked T when we left, "was it all I described and more?"  His response was simply, "yes" as he peeled out of town.  ;)

Being less than an hour from the Arizona border, it wasn't long before we had crossed into our new home state!  Our plan was to surprise my family by arriving more than a day early into Phoenix, but Sally (my '97 Mustang) had other plans...

T was eager to drive straight on through to Phoenix, but I suggested that we should stop in Flagstaff so that he could see the Northern Arizona University campus.  As we exited the highway, we heard the most horrendous noise coming from our back, passenger-side wheel (a grinding metal-on-metal sound).  We quickly found the nearest Ford dealership on our GPS and drove the car there.  As it turned out, we threw our rear passenger break pad while we were on the highway!!  Luckily, Flag is an awesome city and we were within walking distance of their historic downtown.  After brunch and hanging out for several hours with one of the Ford salesmen, we were finally back on the road.  Let me add to that.  Given that cars aren't exactly flying off of the lots these days, the salesmen weren't very busy.  This one guy started talking to us and, come to find out, he was an old car nut.  We talked about the 1960's Mustangs that he, my dad and uncle have (several).  The best part was when he showed us the brand new Shelby GT 500 Mustang they had on the lot, and let us start it up.  Dream car.  

Anyway, we got back on the road and arrived at our new home just before 6pm on Friday night and immediately started unpacking our 100+ (literally) boxes.  Luckily, we found the sheets for the bed and passed out by 9pm, since we were still on East coast time.  More to come as we settle into our new home and city!!

On to Mt. Rushmore

After a stop at the world-famous Wall Drug in western South Dakota, T and I visited Mt. Rushmore on Wednesday morning. It was even cooler than I remembered! The drive through the Black Hills was amazing! We stopped in a little town called Custer, SD where T had his first buffalo burger! We loved the area so much we were looking at plots of land for sale as we were driving! LOL! The drive through Wyoming was beautiful too. We saw grazing bison and wild antelope! We ended the night at a sports bar in Denver with Alls - we even caught some of the Red Sox game! Headed to New Mexico next!

West of the Mississippi

T and I have finally crossed over the Mississippi River!  We started out from Madison this morning and took beautiful route 12 through miles of dairy farms.  T saw his first truck full of pigs with their snouts sticking out of the holes on the sides of the trailer (cute and funny, but we try not to think about where they may be heading).  Of course, we stopped to buy cheese and a Wisconsin micro brew that we had at UW last night.  

We crossed into Minnesota (and over the Mississippi) around lunch time.  There are so many fields of corn, it's no wonder the gas here is 10% ethanol!  The scenery is absolutely beautiful. We also drove past a few wind farms with massive wind turbines as far as the eye can see.  

Shortly after getting into South Dakota, T and I could not resist following the billboards boasting the world's only Corn Palace!  It is, literally, a huge building made of corn (at least the facade)!  I say again...we're not in Boston any more!  Unfortunately, it was closed (since it was after 5), but we were still glad to get off the highway to see it!  LOL.  After dinner, we drove a couple of hours further into Murdo, SD, where we're staying tonight.  We clocked about 650 miles today, thanks largely to the 70-75 mph speed limits!  The last 50-or-so miles were done at night, and the stars were brighter than we've ever seen them.

Update: the weather dips into the low 40's this time of year, so we have avoided camping (we didn't bring any items to get through cold nights).  I'm hoping that it's a bit warmer as we head south so that we can camp at some point.  T has pretty much thrown in the camping towel, but I am still pushing to camp before we get to Phoenix!

Tomorrow we will go to Mt. Rushmore in the morning and then head into Wyoming.  Our aggressive goal is to make it to Denver tomorrow night.  At the least, we hope to make it to Cheyenne.

On the road again

After spending the weekend in the Detroit area with friends (the wedding was wonderful!) and family (catching up, boating on the lake, talking about Mustangs), we are back on the road.  T and I decided to continue on our original northern route and, so far, we're still on track after day one.  We drove from Eastern Michigan to Madison, Wisconsin today (through northern Indiana and Chicago).  Luckily we found a hotel - apparently there is some sort of dairy conference in Madison this week.  T overheard one guy talking about a cow recently that sold for $1M.  We're not in Boston anymore.  

Tonight we had dinner near UW Madison at State Street Brats -- tried the Wisconsin favorite, cheese curds (similar to mozz cheese sticks, but in nuggets), had some local beers (SO good), and red brats with sauerkraut -- such a great college town -- we love it!  

Tomorrow we will cross Minnesota and head into South Dakota.  We have our work cut out for us!  

Lunch in Buffalo, coffee in Canada, dinner in Detroit

Yesterday morning, we went to a Ford dealership in Rochester to have the squeaking investigated.  While we waited, we walked through the lot to look at the new cars.  It took some added convincing to talk T out of trading in our car right then and there for an electric blue, Roush Mustang they had on the lot.  After the mechanics told us there wasn't anything wrong with our car, we headed back out on the road.

We were thrilled to make it to Buffalo around lunchtime so that we could have roast beef on weck (A kummelweck, or sometimes kimmelweck or even kümmelweck, is a salty roll that is popular in Western New York. It is similar to a Kaiser roll, but topped with pretzel salt and caraway seeds. Kummelweck is commonly shortened to “weck" (pronounced "wick"), and often served in the Buffalo metropolitan area with roast beef and horseradish to form a sandwich known colloquially as "beef on weck." Along with wings, beef on weck is one of the two most distinct dishes of the region.) at McPartlan's!  Yummy!!  Then it was off to the Canada border crossing...

After the border agent checked our passports (so weird that you have to use a passport to get into Canada now!), he asked us all the typical border questions including where we were from -- this was a difficult question to answer for T and me, since we're kind of in between right now.  So we explained to the agent that we were in the process of moving from Boston to Phoenix -- fyi: don't give the agent tons of extra information like this -- they don't really care.  After disclosing our Yuengling and Nashoba Valley wine, he sent us on our way (but with a definite look of crazy/stupid Americans).

The (long) drive through Ontario was mostly uneventful except for my detour off the highway in search of coffee at Tim Horton's (fyi: Tim Horton's is to Ontario what Dunks is to Massachusetts -- one at every corner).  I don't think our GPS unit was too familiar with Canada and started taking us in weird circles to get us back on the highway, luckily, I had my road atlas (when in doubt, paper trumps technology!) to get us back on track.

We made it to Detroit around 6 pm.  The officials at US Customs are very thorough -- the agent even wanted to see the invitation to my friends' wedding on Saturday to corroborate our story!  They don't mess around!  He was very nice, but definitely doing his job!

After checking into our hotel (on the 60th floor, overlooking the Detroit River), we went to dinner (and sat outside, since the weather's beautiful!) at a fantastic, Italian restaurant right along the river.  After dinner we took a walk along the river with music from Caesars Palace (across the river in Canada) in the background.  

We are still debating our route from Detroit to Phoenix -- we would like to take the Northern route through South Dakota and into Wyoming, but we're not sure we have enough time...

In search of Yuengling

We are officially on the road!  We wound up leaving around 1 pm today (much later than we had planned, but oh well).  It was our tentative plan to stop by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, but by the time we were near Cooperstown, it was 4:45 pm and the HOF closes at 5 pm this time of year.  Bummer, but it did allow us to make up some time.  We stopped in Canajoharie, NY for dinner and also swung by Price Chopper to pick up some Yuengling beer!  Yuengling Lager, to be specific - and it's not available in MA, which makes it even more tasty!  Thanks to Bob F. for turning us on to that!!

We planned to do some camping along the way, weather permitting.  Tonight, though, we ended up in a Residence Inn in Rochester - the polar opposite of camping with its kitchen, living room, and ESPN!

Tomorrow we're off to Detriot.  Hopefully that squeaking noise we heard from the engine today (a belt, I think) won't be a problem...

Oh, yikes...

So...we're supposed to be driving out of MA tomorrow morning (on the early side) and we have yet to pack one item into our car. We've barely even set anything aside that needs to go into the car. I'm predicting that we don't pull out of the driveway any time before noon tomorrow. LOL.

Beginning a new chapter

On Septemeber 24th, my husband, T, and I are embarking on a new adventure...we are moving from Boston to Phoenix! I grew up in the Phoenix area and my husband was brought up just north of Boston. Twelve years ago, I moved to Boston to attend college and had every intention of moving back home as soon as I received my degree. In my final year of college I met T and he convinced me to stick around the area for a bit longer (haha! 8 more years?!). Well, after numerous winters, we are finally ready for some serious sunshine! All of our stuff was moved to our new home in Phoenix almost 4 weeks ago, T sold his car, and we've both figured out a way to work remotely at our Boston jobs...now all that's left is to say our goodbyes (I will miss you too, BC! -- see pic) and drive my Mustang out West!