Phoenix update

We're here visiting friends Steve and DeeAnn, who moved from Brooklyn the year before we did. Their daughter Emerald is oldest and probably best friend. They met when they were 10 months old and in the Puffin class at the Montessori Day School. They lived around the corner from us -- we could spit into their backyard from ours -- and we saw them every day and the kids slept over at least once a week. They broke my heart when they moved and I think that's part of why I was so eager to leave, after they did.

So! Other than United losing my baggage, it's been an uneventful trip. And we got it back late the next day. We've been to the Heard Museum, a museum of Indian art, we've hiked in the Phoenix Mountains, gone to the Phoenix Desert Botanic Garden, and had good Mexican and seafood. We were hiking near Piestewa Peak, and the landscape is just extraordinary. I can't believe how otherwordly it is, like an alien landscape. The saguaro catci -- those are the big tall guys with the arms sticking out -- dot the red-brown hillsides. It's hot and the air is dry, dry, dry. Tons of other kinds of cacti are all around. I put my hand on one as I was climbing up a steep part, a red barrel thing, but I didn't lean too hard and it didn't get me too badly. Apparently there's a cactus that shoots spines at you if you get too close. I tried to test it with Lily's waterbottle but was warned not to.

We saw lizards, and chipmunks that look like giant gerbils, and a slew of quail running along the ground, and some of us saw a bobcat. We climbed about a mile, maybe more, to the top of a ridge, with a view of the surrounding area, and ate lunch at the top in the breeze. Not bad for two 10 year olds, a seven year old, and a two year old (he did great, although he did get carried most of the way down).

We've also seen some really interesting art, at the Heard, and then at the botanic garden, which had an installation of glass art mixed in among the plants. I'm too tired to write about them, but check out those links if you're interested. We're off to the Grand Canyon for the night tomorrow and I am going to meet a long-lost first cousin. Two extraordinary events in one day!