Florence

Not everyone gets to spend an anniversary in Italy. And I feel really lucky to be celebrating 11 years with Phillip.

We arrived in Florence mid-afternoon. We didn’t have time to visit the monastery, so our first stop was a winery just outside of the city. The entrance gate was open, and we were taking photos of some adorable donkeys munching when a woman rushed out and said they weren’t open that day.

So we headed back and decided to stop at the visitor center, which shares a building with a museum of the history of Florence. The building itself has been many things over the years, including a hospital. The museum held artifacts from World War II, old medicinal bottles, and stories about Florence’s important families of the past from a time when it was the economic center of the region.

There is a nice little park across the street. We sat on a bench to rest before walking through the old part of town, past a church surrounded by olive trees to the courthouse, just as the sun was starting to turn the landscape golden.

The visitor center had recommended a restaurant that makes fresh bread daily. The weather was practically perfect, so we sat in the courtyard, dipping that delicious, house-made bread in olive oil while we waited for our meal.

At some point in the day, Phillip said something like “hey, we are in Florence!” And we laughed about it.

Because we were in Florence. But we weren’t in Italy. The trip we had hoped to take across the Atlantic this year didn’t work out. I’m not gonna lie, that’s a bummer. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t enjoy the afternoon on Phillip’s day off. He suggested we take a drive and wanted to check out Florence, Arizona (about an hour southeast of us). While it’s not the birthplace of the Rennaissance, we still laughed, ate good food, and explored together.

Not everyone gets to spend an anniversary in Italy. And I feel really lucky to be celebrating 11 years with Phillip.

Photos:
1. Statue next to The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church.
2. Donkeys at The Windmill Winery. The tasting room is open Wednesday through Saturday.
3-4. Items from Italian and German WWII prisoners’ camp in Florence – on exhibit at the Florence Visitor Center/McFarland State Historic Park.
5. Brick building on Main Street.
6-8. A&M Pizza. Not fancy, but they did have some seriously good bread, great service, and a nice big outdoor seating area.
9. Main Street.
10-11. A&M.
12. Pinal County Courthouse

Also:
Saint Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery: Visiting hours are 10:30a-2:30pm daily. Dress code and other rules must be observed.
31st Annual Historic Florence Home Tour: February 13, 2016

October 12, 2015October 12, 2015

Colombia Day and Other #ColumbusDayAlternatives

While I like having a 3-day weekend in October, I don’t think Columbus deserves his own holiday. So I was brainstorming Columbus Day alternatives (Columbus, Ohio Day; Bus Day; Cumulonimbus Day…) and decided my favorite was Colombia Day.

There are lots of ways you could celebrate here in Phoenix or elsewhere:

Order a Colombian coffee at your favorite local coffee shop.
Try a Colombian restaurant – a friend recommended La Tiendita Colombiana in Mesa.
Visit Colombian animals, like the Andean bears at the Phoenix Zoo.
Listen to Colombian music. We dig Juanes and old school Shakira (it should be in Spanish and she should have dark hair on the cover).
Dance cumbia or salsa.
Visit a Colombian or Latino cultural center. Although Phoenix’s Arizona Latin@ Arts and Cultural Center is closed Monday, you can check it out Tuesday through Saturday 11a-6p. Celebrando Nuestra Cultura is their current exhibition of 15 Arizona artists exploring Mexican history, which is not Colombian but sounds pretty interesting.

Some cities have nixed Columbus Day in favor of an Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In that spirit, you could visit the Heard Museum or another place in your area to learn about Native American cultures.

However, if you want to celebrate by watching the clouds, taking public transit, or even visiting Ohio, that works too. Those are all things worth celebrating more than Christopher Columbus.

—

October 8, 2015May 23, 2023

The (Fountain) Hills

The Fountain Hillstory

Fountain Hills is a planned community northeast of Phoenix that was created in the late 1960s by the guy who designed Disneyland and the guy who developed the city of Lake Havasu.

When you decide to plop a town into the middle of the desert, what do you make its centerpiece? The World’s Tallest Fountain! Of course.

Although, if you think that’s absurd, remember that the developer’s other project at the time was a much more remote planned Arizona community with the actual historic London Bridge – transported across the Atlantic by boat and reassembled brick by brick – as its centerpiece. After that, a desert fountain kinda seems like child’s play.

The Modern Landscape

The Fountain Hills fountain is no longer the world’s tallest, but it still shoots a stream of water into the air hourly that can go from 300 to 560 feet high, which is actually slightly taller than the Washington Monument. At its base is a concrete expressionist water lily sculpture.

The whole thing is situated in the middle of an artificial lake (called, unsurprisingly, Fountain Lake) with a sprawling park wrapping around it. (Guess what the park is called. Yep, Fountain Park. You win.) There are shaded picnic tables, public art, and a playground. Even though there always seem to be people around during the day, it’s big enough to feel a bit empty most of the time.

Saguaro Lake on a Saturday Is No Picnic

The last time we were in Fountain Hills, we hadn’t planned on going there.

It was the weekend before Phillip started back to school. We decided it was a good day to throw a picnic lunch together and head east to Saguaro Lake. However, we didn’t make it past the ranger checking for passes at the entrance.

Not sure how both Phillip and I missed the memo that you need a Tonto Pass even if you’re not going boating or camping (details below, so you can be more prepared than we were). Since you can’t buy the pass on site, we started thinking about other options.

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Fountain Park-ing

Fountain Hills was only about 20 minutes away, and I knew that, unlike at the super crowded Saguaro Lake, there would be plenty of space and plenty of free parking. So instead of turning back the way we came, we took a right and rolled into Fountain Hills just before 2pm.

We made a quick stop at a coffee shop overlooking Fountain Park. (Guess what the coffee shop was called. Fountain View? Nope. Mountain View.)

From the back patio of Mountain View Coffee Co., we could see the fountain start up. There was a path directly into the park and an open picnic table near the colorful mural wall. We started in on our lunch and watched a stream of water surge towards the sky then collapse down into the lake with just a hint of a rainbow forming in its mist.

– More info –

Tonto Pass

You need a permit to park in high-use recreation sites in the Tonto National Forest, such as Saguaro Lake.
For daily use, you can get a $6 Tonto Pass online or in certain stores outside the National Forest. (Full list PDF.) Watch for stores with the “Tonto Pass Sold Here” signs, while you’re on the way.
It’s not available at the actual recreation sites. You have to buy it ahead of time.
Even if there’s not a ranger at the entrance, you can still be fined for not having a Tonto Pass hanging from your rearview mirror.

Fountain Hills

The fountain is on for the first 10-15 minutes of every hour 9am-10pm, unless there’s too much wind.
Docents lead free walking tours of area public art October through April. (Donations accepted.)
Follow the Fountain Hills Art Walk Map (PDF) to take a self-guided tour.

In the Area

Saguaro Lake Guest Ranch horseback riding
McDowell Mountain Regional Park hiking
Taliesin West, former home of Frank Lloyd Wright, is on the way if you’re coming from the Phoenix area via Shea Blvd. It would be a great place to spend the morning before lunch in Fountain Hills.
It just occurred to me that the Macayo’s with the fancy new menu I wrote about recently (with the jicama tacos and crazy good churros) is also on Shea. So, alternate itinerary: 1. Fountain Hills 2. Taliesin West tour 3. happy hour at Macayo’s Scottsdale. That sounds like a good day to me.

Thank you to Alison King, who schooled me on Midcentury Modernism in Phoenix and Concrete Expressionism. Her site is Modern Phoenix, and you should totally check it out.

October 1, 2015October 1, 2015

Sleeping In in an Anderson, IN. Inn

There are lots of reasons you might be visiting Madison County, Indiana. For me, the biggest reason is family. However, if you don’t have family there (or maybe because you have family there), you can stay at the Best Western Plus in Anderson.

No one will wake you up in the morning by pounding on your door before your travel-weary, west-coast-time-zone bones are ready to stir and shouting “You’re not here for very long, you don’t want to sleep all day!” (You know, the Staying with Family Standard Room Rate.)

But there will be a hot breakfast waiting for you.

I’d get my eggs or yogurt or waffle from the buffet, refill my coffee (after making the first cup with the Keurig in our room), and have breakfast with the birds. They would be outside flapping around one of the feeders, looking for their favorite seeds while I sat inside at a table by a window.

My aunt, uncle, and cousin Allison were in town for the same reunion we were and had chosen the same hotel. Most mornings they’d join us at breakfast, with Allison and her mom teasing my uncle about his snoring. I offered her the foldout couch in the front room of our suite. Even though she didn’t take us up on it (instead opting to kick her dad out of the room entirely and send him to stay with a relative that lives in the area), the point is that an extra couch/bed in your room can come in handy.

So can a microwave and mini fridge. I tend to travel well-supplied with snacks, but you might also want to keep farmers’ market finds cool or heat up an Amish donut.

The hotel is conveniently located right off the freeway and Scatterfield Road, my reference route for getting around Anderson. It was an easy drive to Mounds State Park or downtown.

If you have relatives in the area, chances are, they’re close too. But not as close as Best Western’s indoor pool, twice weekly happy hour, and totally optional wake up calls.

—

P.S. Did you spot Mr. Cheeseface?

Thank you to Anderson Madison County Visitor and Convention Bureau! We were their guests at the Best Western Plus Anderson.

September 28, 2015October 9, 2015

Wear Pajamas for Charity

Here’s a travel story for you [from my dad, Marty, during a day trip last fall. –S]:

We were cruising through Prescott, looking for a dinner place and found a family diner called SueAnn’s Apple Pan.

It usually closes at 2pm, but we just happened to hit PJs and Eggs night, which is a charity event supported by Hickman’s Family Farms. All the staff and most of the customers were dressed in jammies, and they were serving breakfast only.

We felt like we crashed a happy, boisterous family meal. Very cool. Might need to put this on calendar for next year!

– More Info –

Arizona’s PJs & Eggs pajama drives, formerly sponsored by Hickman’s Family Farms, coincide with World Egg Day.
This year, The Wickenburg Lions Club is hosting PJs & Eggs at Lydia’s La Canasta Restaurant in Wickenburg (2023 W. Wickenburg Way) 10/9 5-8pm. Drop off new children’s pajamas to be donated to Arizona Children’s Foundation Foster Care Program anytime between now and then. That night, you can wear your pajamas and order breakfast or dinner (full menu available).
There are also PJs and Eggs events in Ohio and other World Egg Day happenings worldwide.

—
Photo credits: 1. Marty 2. The American Egg Board