Family Mellmann

Last night, Patrick and I had dinner out at a local restaurant and then walked around town a little enjoying the architecture.  This building struck us both as an architectural representation of Arizona; the orange and tan parts of the building are reminiscent of the rock and stone colors common to the area, and the blue of the glass mimics the sky quite accurately. This morning, Patrick had an early morning flight with an owner of a flight academy where he is being considered for a job.  When he was done with that (by the way, it went very well and resulted in a job that Patrick is very excited about) we took a drive to check out some local scenery. We went to Papago Park where we could see the Papago Ponds, the Desert Botanical Garden, and Hole in the Rock.  As we drove through the botanical garden we saw this eye-popping green tree with green branches and trunk (the Palo Verde).  It was beautiful against the cloudless blue sky.  We also snagged a photo op with the iconic Arizona sag

The drive from Oklahoma to Arizona was long, but interesting.  I encountered dramatic storms, construction traffic, and an ever-changing climate and terrain. On Thursday, I crossed the border from New Mexico into Arizona.  Once I crossed the state line, I spotted my first saguaro cactus which dots the roadside like pine trees in the northeast. I checked into my hotel and parked the car/trailer so I could settle in for a couple of days in Tempe.  Patrick and Amelia picked me up so we could go get some dinner. On Friday morning, we met as early as we could muster to unload the trailer before the stifling Arizona heat could make such work intolerable.  I unloaded the trailer and moved boxes to the bottom of the stairs and Patrick lugged everything to his third floor apartment.  Amelia pitched in where she could, but those boxes were packed pretty heavy, and some of them were large and/or awkward. With the back of the car empty and the trailer emptied of everything except the motorcycle, w