the Andrews Family: Tempe or Bust!

As you probably know, Joseph and I headed cross country, 1900 miles, to see the Bulldawgs take on the Sun Devils in Tempe. And as you can probably guess, we had a blast!

I also learned something about American culture - its really cute for a mom and little boy to travel alone, but they are only allowed to go see their grandparents. So many people came up to Joseph and asked him if he was going to see his Grandma. When I told them that no, we were actually going to the UGA football game in Tempe, they looked at me as if I was an alien and just walked away.

First thing when we got to Arizona, we got our vacation car and headed to Scottsboro where we visited the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. Visiting other cities reminds you what a raw deal we get here in Georgia with our public parks.

This place had a replica 1:4 train that you could actually ride for $2! It was so much fun - Joseph was so excited that we rode it twice!

And it also had a carousel and a huge playground with misting water and huge sunshades, and a cute old timey stage coach.

Here's Joseph whizzing down the slide!

After playing for awhile, we headed over to Taliesin West to learn about Frank Lloyd Wright. We went on their walking tour, and made it through an hour of the 1-1/2 hour tour. Then I used Joseph as an excuse to duck out.

I'm not really a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, but I thought since I was there I ought to try to learn a little about him. I learned he's a freak, as was the poor lady giving our tour.

But it was fun, and it was a really cool place, and part of American history. . . sort of. And it was in the book of the places to see before you die, so I can cross that one off.

The next day it was time for the football game! Since it's so hot in Arizona that your eyeballs boil just walking down the sidewalk, people don't really tailgate. So instead we headed to their little restuarant/bar strip for lunch. They aren't really used to the Georgia way of doing stuff, so we all took the town by surprise. So much so that the restaurants ran out of beer. Apparently the ASU fans show up and have a drink before the game. Right before the game. Whereas Georgia fans like to arrive about 8 hours before the game for about a dozen or so drinks.

After lunch, Joel, Joseph and I headed over to their Tempe Towne Lake Beach Park (another awesome city park) to play in the splash area.

Hold on. When did Joel get here? Joel, the true jetsetter, flew in "for the game", not even spending a full 24 hours in Tempe before he had to jet set back home to Atlanta for a couple of days before heading out west again.

Finally, it was time for the game. Monique and I posed with Joseph (although Chris cut him out of the picture) while Joel tried to scalp our extra ticket.