The Prickly Pear Cactus State

Arizona is a hot state! In may 2000, marty traveled the state in search of a cold drink.

After leaving las vegas on saturday morning, we headed for the hoover dam in the northwest corner of the state. It was very hot and you wouldn't want to be out of the car for very long. Then it was off to kingman and williams, where I checked out cruisers cafe 66 for lunch on old route 66. The historic downtown here is a nostalgic tribute to the mother road. There was a street festival underway while we were in town. From there we drove north to grand canyon national park ( see my grand canyon pics), and had a little time to go on the trail and also stop for a prickly pear margarita in the el tovar lodge.

That night we drove down to the red rock country of sedona. The next morning, after mass at st. john vianney, we considered the pink jeep tours of sedona, but settled for a self guided look around (see my sedona pics). We headed farther south to phoenix in the valley of the sun for a two night stay (at the wyndham in tempe). The weather was hot, so the hotel pool was a nice break. Lunch was fast food nearby at whataburger. We also checked out old town scottsdale and had tapas for dinner at pepin, a spanish restaurant in scottsdale (see my phoenix pics).

On memorial day monday, we stopped in for a baseball game at the very cool (air conditioned) bank one ballpark of the arizona diamondbacks, where the d-backs were playing the st. louis cardinals and big mac. Before the game, we stopped in the leinenkugel's ballyard brewery (see my pic), which is just outside the entrance (it's now called mcfaddens). Our seats in the park were nosebleed, but just above home plate. I did walk around the park, including the outfield where I saw big mac drive one deep and checked out the swimming pool area, which is reserved seats only (see my diamondbacks pics)!

After the game we headed east to apache junction and had dinner with our relatives at the mining camp restaurant, which was a taste of the old west. Yee haw! After a good night's sleep, we headed back to vegas in the morning.