You CAN Take Care of Yourself and Travel

We arrived home on Thursday night after a long day that went about as well as it could have.  We left Phoenix at 1:30 on Thursday after an easy trip from Fountain Hills to the airport.  We turned in our wee rental car and got a cart for all the bags – two big golf bags and two largish suitcases.  We came out of the rental car spot to catch a bus and wonder of wonders but didn’t we find a place right there where we could check our bags without having to take them on the bus with us to the terminal.  Phoenix Airport claims to be the Friendliest Airport and I think they are.  We got on the bus with just our carry on bags and went off in search of what was going to be our only meal of the day.  No flight delays, a few bumps and a very eager pilot and we made it to Charleston via Chicago Midway.  We landed at 10:15pm and we were home and in the house by 12:30am Friday.  We got the bags right away, the van to take us to our car was there two minutes after we got outside, the car started!!! and we were off.

I am not a big fan of flying in today’s world of travel and find it particularly difficult to find food that is acceptable in airports around the country.  However, things are changing.  I actually saw a few  restaurants that specialized in fresh salads and fruit rather than the old standby of burger and fries.  There are more options than ever before and I am delighted to see this becoming a trend in the US airports.  Most of the time I do bring snacks with me, usually nuts of some kind and always lots of water.  It seems I carry all kinds of things around with me so no shortage of bags but I draw the line at coming up with a cooler.  I did read a great article by someone who does a lot of flying and she said that she makes smoothies to take with her and freezes them good and solid.  It appears from her recent experience that you can take frozen liquid through the security system.  She had a 17 hour flight so the smoothies had plenty of time to go from their frozen state to a liquid one but by then she was on the plane and it didn’t matter.  Her comment was how nice it was to have something healthy to eat after so many hours of traveling.  I agree but haven’t tried this yet but perhaps I will the next time I travel.

California or Bust

We left here for California a week ago and after a quick stop to meet a second cousin of John’s in Pomona and to have lunch, we drove on to Palm Desert.  We had a wonderful time visiting with my crazy cousins.  They cheered us both up immensely and made us feel so welcome.  Wonderful dinner out with all of us the first night.  The restaurant couldn’t have been more welcoming and inviting.  The food was delicious – once again I stuck with my standby of mussels and salad, and lots of really good wine provided by my cousins.  The manager, the chef and the waitress even joined us for a glass of wine.  Something I have never seen before.  Lucky for us this crowd were happy to end the evening early as it was way past our Dataw midnight (9PM) and we were ready for sleep.

 

 

 

The following day, after 10 1/2 hours of sleep, we did a hike called the “Bump and Grind”.  I wasn’t too sure about it because while I walk every day and I walk a lot, there aren’t any hills in Dataw so our walks are pretty flat.  This was NOT flat.  It went up and up again and just when you thought it might be the top you would round the corner and it went up again.  The views were spectacular.  It is described as a moderate trail and after the initial start  I could agree.  It’s the getting started part that was tough for me.  The rest was fine.  We all walked it, some with more zeal than the others.  I think my brother would enjoy this hike as he likes to climb hills.  When I am in Canada I get a lot of hills but nothing that is quite like this.  After a day in an airplane it was really good to get out and stretch our legs and to breathe the fresh air.  It is very dry of course, because it is the desert, but they had some rain in January so we actually saw a little greet around us.  As we were told, the desert comes alive when it gets a little rain.

 

 

 

We played golf one day and then on Sunday we took a drive to Joshua Tree National Park.  To say it was spectacular is an understatement.  We drove from the East side of the park up and over to the West side.  This way we were able to experience both deserts, The Mojave which is at the higher elevation and features the Joshua Tree, and the Colorado which is the lower elevation and where we found the jumping cholla cactus garden.  They don’t actually jump out at you but don’t try and kick one with your sneaker, it will attach itself to you and if you get one in your skin it will probably require a doctor visit to remove the little guy.  This was really one of the highlights of our trip.  The weather was gorgeous, the views so varied your head would swivel trying to keep up with it all.  We were surprised at how cold it was at the top which is about a mile up.  I had a light fleece but the others didn’t so we only took short hikes to look at the various sites rather than trying to do a longer hike.

 

Arizona Next

After Palm Desert, we traveled to Scottsdale Arizona for a couple of days.  We stayed there with cousins and enjoyed a different, desert hike and another wonderful meal or two.  Next to friends in Fountain Hills where we once again enjoyed a terrific, fun, round of golf with our friends Allen and Sheila Henry.  The views there are spectacular.  The golf course at SunRidge Canyon Golf Club was perhaps one of the most fun courses we have ever played.  The views breathtaking and the tee boxes made each hole a challenge and a half.  Gorgeous weather for all the days we traveled.

The point of all this is to put things in perspective.  No one is denying that we had a sad week last week and also a couple of weeks ago.  In fact, a sad year with our fur family, but this trip really helped to bring things into focus again.  Our health isn’t only what we eat, or how we play, exercise, or how we spend quiet time, or who we are with, it is all of those things rolled into one and also how we deal with things that are thrown our way when least expected.  We spent a week in a completely different part of the country, we laughed a lot, we exercised, we ate and we drank with good friends and family, we slept and we recovered some of our equilibrium.  I certainly came back with a renewed sense of looking forward and not back.  I was lucky to put a really great week of memories between me and a very sad time.  I have my friends, my cousins, my husband and family to thank for that.  My heart is healing in more ways than one.

 

When we got home we had dinner with John’s cousins and family.  My how lucky we are to have so many family members around us here and there.  The picture is of the Moses cousins on Dataw.  John’s first cousin, his two children and one grandchild.  John’s cousin’s daughter and her husband use a smoker for a lot of their cooking and we were treated to a smoked filet of beef which was without a doubt the best beef either of us has ever tasted.  I am not familiar with this type of cooking but it certainly has peaked my interest.  The meal was served with roasted cauliflower and a salad.  I am going to share the recipe for the roasted cauliflower as I have done absolutely no cooking this week while we traveled.  I hope you will try it.  I can vouch for the taste and it appears to be pretty easy to prepare.

 

 

 

[mpprecipe-recipe:72]