Phoenix trip--day 1

Monday, March 18, 2019

                5:00 a.m. leaving  for PIA airport.

                5:49 a.m. My vegan porridge is confiscated at security, fresh berries, Tupperware, and all.  She let me keep the spoon, not that I need it anymore.  Waiting to board is 2-year-old Grayson and his family.  He is cute and curious, and they are all excited.

                6:30 a.m.  Grayson is 2 rows ahead of us on the plane.  His grandma is in the row ahead of us. Someone is spraying the plane with de-icer.  Grandma  tells Grayson that they are cleaning the plane.  Why doesn’t she just tell him the truth?  Logically enough, the kid asks why they’re cleaning the plane, and Grandma says, “Because it’s dirty.” 

                7:00 a.m. Taking off into a beautiful sunrise.  Once we get above the clouds, the river looks like a snake slithering into a cotton field.  The sun lights up the bald guy’s head in the row behind me, and I make shadow puppets on it.  Grayson’s dad looks a little like our neighbor Chris, and sounds exactly like him.  The lady across the aisle looks like Mike’s mom. My bag of pretzels has a cactus on it.  Looking forward to seeing real cacti.

                8:00 a.m. walking through O’Hare, stopped to pet some dogs.  They were very excited. 

                Arrived in PHX sometime around noon, Ubered to the hotel (Hyatt Regency), and the room wasn’t ready yet, so we walked across the street to the visitor’s bureau, talked to a helpful old lady, and picked up some maps and brochures.  Walked around town, went in St. Mary’s Basilica (they have a big dispenser of holy water...?)

 Pope John Paul II blessed Mike:

The pope was the only fully clothed statue we saw.  There's a ridiculous amount of naked ones.

Mike just tries to keep his eyes averted.

This guy found a good use for this one.

 Came back to the hotel to our room (1405).  Great view from our bed.

Went to happy hour at Networks (restaurant in the lobby). Went to bed ridiculously early.