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| Tequila
Sunrise
I’m sitting here in the hotel room provided by my mother and father in law who live out here for the good part of the year ... fall through early spring ... my earlier assumptions are correct. This is a family reunion ... not a vacation. Not that I’m having a bad time mind you. It’s just terribly different. Traveling with my wife, Yvonne ... well ... that’s just one person to struggle to communicate with. But multiply that by 8 ... all relatives in some way or another ... and it’s a horse of a different color. One sister and two brothers in laws with a nephew thrown in for good measure. And since we dropped the pooch off at my brother and sister in law's in the Cleveland area on Tuesday night ... that’s a LOT of family in a 48 hour time frame. And it ain’t over yet. We’ve got a big ass van the in laws rented. So it’s like a family get together on wheels. Or on the trail ... in the restaurant ... wherever. But as Moe of Three Stooges fame would say, “Don’t look a gift horse in the puss.” It’s very generous of them despite the usual demands of family reunions.
Friday,
March 17, 2006 Sorry ... but I was interrupted yesterday by brother in law Steven’s insistence I join him and nephew Aaron at the hotel ... I really cannot call it a “resort” in good conscience ... ”happy hour”. And considering my margarita came directly out of a hose it did hit the spot. After a morning tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin (Native American for “shining brow”) West and an afternoon hiking the Saguaro Lake Nature Trail in Tonto National Forest (Me ready for margarita Kimosabi!) the imbibing ... involving vivid conversation bordering on bitching ... was nothing short of inspiring. The Frank Lloyd Wright compound was particularly intriguing. It was a camp he established in the late 30’s that morphed into a school of architecture ... still is a school. And it’s so exclusive that the list of pending students easily exceeds the enrollment ... which is somewhere around 12. Read all about it after clicking on the above URL.
In the short time Yvonne and I have been here at the meeting of her clan, we’ve hiked to the top of “Hole in the Rock” ... not to be confused with famed gospel group Honey in the Rock (this rock ironically named because what I found near it’s precipice a condom I assumed had been ordained), much devouring of food (and subsequent margaritas), aforementioned activities, this morning’s brunch and an afternoon spring training baseball game between the Oakland A’s and the Los Angeles angels of Anaheim. Pleasant as the game was, I am not used to 4 hours in the sun. I’m not complaining mind you ... it was 76 degrees after all ... just a little sun weary. For those of you curious about the fortunes of former Ohio State University baseball player ... now with the A’s ... Nick Swisher ... well ... he struck out 16 times. At least it appeared that he did. And it was a hoot watching the team in green ... the A’s ... on St. Patrick’s Day.
And so it’s on to Friday’s dinner at an establishment called The Claim Jumper ... uh oh. There we will meet yet another relative of young nephew Aaron’s ... Uncle Dave
Saturday,
March 18, 2006 Everyone had dinner with more relatives ... Uncle Dave and Aunt Claire ... last night at the Claim Jumper restaurant. Gabby Hayes was our waiter ... well he could have been. Heavy-handed décor ... decapitated big game animals adorning the walls ... good food ... lots of chat ... big tab. Just ask brother in law Steven. I’m not a huge fan of Phoenix really. With all the traffic and spring (break) training fans it’s not unlike Ft. Lauderdale with mountains instead of an ocean. And less culture ... if you can imagine that. I didn’t see all the big blond hair and boob jobs ... until the Hooter’s Girls began handing out coupons at the A’s game. (Were those basketballs under her crop top?) Is this a great country or what?
Sunday,
March 19, 2006 More family! A luncheon visit yesterday with 92 year old Uncle Oral and 80 something Aunt Phyllis, their offspring, et al. Nice guy that Oral. We passed some time listening to him talk about his 1950 Ford convertible, complete with details on how he found it ... how much he paid for it ... where he located a working transmission for it ... decent ragtop. What a character. My family had Fords when I was a boy ... a ’52 with cruise-o-matic (or was it Ford-o-matic?) ... 53 with the same ... a 56 convertible that had a carburetor prone to bursting into flames. Yvonne and I met our California friends Margaret and Craig around 2pm. at our hotel room. Soon the room was filled with sister in law Brenda, her son Aaron, brothers in law Steven and Rod, mother and father in law ... as well. It was metaphorically a can of condensed family and friends soup.
With the exit of relatives late in the afternoon Craig, Margaret, and us made our way down to Old Town Scottsdale where we wandered into an eatery called simply Tapas restaurant. We ordered our dinner and were delightfully surprised by a flamenco show. Seated was a man playing guitar while two sensual dancers ... a man and a woman ... stomped and strutted through a sensual, riveting, and sexy performance the likes I’ve never seen. Both dancers exuded a sexuality and visceral presence without the hint of vulgarity. These two were the anti-Hooters girls. Maybe Phoenix does have a little culture after all ... leetle beet.
Columbus,
Ohio After a small breakfast with Craig and Margaret at a non-descript coffee shop (we failed to beat the church crowd to the restaurants) the four of us headed to Scottsdale Stadium to watch the S.F. Giants play the Milwaukee Brewers. We stood under trees in center field until the drizzle ceased. It hasn’t rained here in like 150 days! As beautiful as it was for the A’s game on Thursday this day was Ohio-like. 40 some degrees ... cloudy ... a little windy ... oh yeah ... and drunken asshole Giant fans a few rows in front of us. At least we got to see Omar Vizquel play brilliant shortstop again. I was too cool to wear long pants. So every other inning or so I went to the men’s room to warm up my legs with the hand dryers. Our final evening Margaret, Craig, Yvonne and I had a wonderful Mexican meal at a place called Los Sombreros. First however, we decided to drive up and down the street for about half an hour ... just to work up an appetite. And we almost gave in to our hunger and stop at someplace called the Throbbing Fork ... er ... the Flying Fork ... uh ... the Raging Fork ... I forget. But we were rewarded at Los Sombreros with what might be the best Mexican dinner I have ever had the privilege of consuming ... great margaritas as well. We toasted our friendship and had a wonderful final night in the desert. So thanks
to Yvonne’s parents we had a nice getaway ... part family
reunion ... part friend reunion. We flew back to Cleveland to
pick up our doggie, Henri the French Boy and drove back to Columbus
... in the snow ... sigh. |
