Wide Open Spaces Adventure

Back to the Mogollon Rim for us this weekend! This time it was to the town of Heber/Overgaard, with a side quest to look at some property for sale. (No, we’re not in the market to buy land, but we can dream, right?)

We stopped at the Mogollon Rim Visitor Center. 

This time, we could see the views.

And yes, I found my husband out on a rock outcropping again!

We checked out the property (but not too much since we didn’t want to take the car too far down the gravel road). Lots of scrub brush, some free range cattle, and not too many bigger trees. There were wide open spaces, however. It was quiet, and cool (74 when it was going to be over 100 at home).

We passed through the boardwalk at Heber/Overgaard, but it wasn’t like my husband remembered, more hair salons than cool shops. It was too early for lunch, so we headed back down the hill, narrowly missing all the traffic headed back down the hill from the ASU football scrimmage at Camp T. (We didn’t know that as today, but had both worn maroon ASU shirts. Go figure!)

Maybe this wasn’t our greatest adventure, but it gave us some space. (The drive was about two and a half hours each way.) And sometimes we just need that.

*Spoiler alert: After all that driving, we found out the land we were on was actually US forest land, and not for sale. The maps just didn't take us to the right place!

The Sourdough Report:

Originally, I planned to pack breakfast and lunch for us. Then we decided to eat breakfast at home and get lunch out. In the end, we ended up back home with food I’d prepped: 

Sourdough gozleme and red peppers, cheese sticks, chocolate sourdough brownie bites and ginger soda 

And that’s it! Another Arizona adventure in the books!

Mesa Parks Adventure

We visited (almost) all the parks in mesa! It started in January 2025 as an excuse to drive our new car around. Then it became a good low cost (but fun!) date activity. And then it became an adventure to get to all 90 parks in our city. As we went along, we changed the confines of our quest, eliminating some of the aquatic and recreation centers, as well as all of the basins. Last week, we concluded our exploration with park number 80. We got to see a great bit of our city, and we learned some things along the way.

Despite being in the desert, our city has done a pretty good job of preserving land. I am not sure how the city manages to keep all the grass mowed, but I didn't see any park that was completely unkempt. (Based on what I see at the park near us, I hypothesize that the city contracts out for park care, but I cannot be sure.) Yes, some of the parks shelter some houseless people, but for the most part, they remain useable to the public. Props to the city for that.

It is easy to see which parks are older and newer, based on the park signs. Some parks still have the ancient Mesa signs. Some have the newer signs. I wonder if they will ever change all of them.

We don't think that aquatic centers and recreation centers should count as parks. Resources, yes. Parks, no. But when the summer relegates us inside, maybe these centers become the equivalent of parks? We did see people out at the parks at many hours of the day and evening.

Many parks do not have restrooms. This probably helps with upkeep. It is good to know when planning things like a picnic, though.

All in all, we enjoyed this pursuit. While the parks were our goal, we benefitted from the time spent together and learning more about our city. And as an aside a little bit of a house snob, I think I enjoyed seeing the homes around the parks almost as much as, or more than, the parks themselves.

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Readers, what quests have you taken on? Have you completed them yet? Please share in the comments!

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And if anyone cares, yes, our final park run was fueled by sourdough:

Sourdough zucchini bread (The Pantry Mama) and sourdough zucchini muffins [with cheese + chives] (The Pantry Mama) for breakfast, and a refreshing dinner of sourdough zucchini slice (The Pantry Mama) and a riff on this skinny chicken salad from The Savvy Spoon made with green pepper and onion for the veggies.

Evening Roosevelt Lake Adventure

What do you do when it's nearly 110 degrees outside? Go to the lake! And not just any lake, the largest lake that exists solely within the Arizona state borders: Roosevelt Lake. I truly had no idea how big this lake was, until we drove, and drove, and drove, and still found more water (and that even with water levels being way down).

We set out from home about 3:30 PM and arrived at the lake around 5:00 PM. First, we went to the Roosevelt Bridge overlook. From the overlook, we saw the bridge (the longest of its kind in North America), a wide view of the lake, and plenty of boats! 

From there, we worked our way around to the dam overlook. (Beware, the road is barely wide enough for two cars). The dam is truly immense, and the buildings beneath it sparked our curiosity. We saw what we are pretty sure was a bald eagle land on one of the sandbars behind the dam.

After driving a bit more, we settled on one of the many recreational sites, Cottonwood Cove Picnic Area, for dinner. We looked out over the water, watched a storm roll in, and even spotted a javelina! On the way home, we drove through Miami, Superior, and Gold Canyon, and even caught up to rain storm (or it caught us)!

Could we have done other things with our evening? Sure! But this was a great way to get away, see some new scenery, and reset and refresh before the week starts again.

Curious about the sourdough? Dinner was elevated PBJs (elevated because I made the raspberry chia seed jam, upped the nutrition with Creamy protein peanut butter and put in all on sourdough sandwich bread). 

Weeknight Salt River Adventure

Think Dobbins Lookout is the best place in the Phoenix Metropolis to catch an Arizona sunset? Think again! Try the Salt River!

There are Black Canyon of the Gunnison level rocks and cliffs.

Plenty of places to sit and just be (Of course, we would find my husband out on a ledge.) 

Calm and quiet all around

When my husband told me he wanted to go on a weeknight adventure, I was down. It had already been a long week, and I just wanted to get away. Sourdough zucchini pizza and carrots packed well for dinner in the car, and off we went. We stayed until near dark and then drove home at dusk. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better evening!

Christmas in July Adventure

One of the local breweries had signs up for "Christmas in July" complete with alcoholic Christmas drinks and Hawaiian Christmas characters. I'll raise them one better: Dessert for dinner and watching a Christmas movie in PJs-at home!

I actually planned out Christmas in July adventure long before I saw that sign downtown. I'd had the limited edition pumpkin pie cup of noodles around since Christmas and did not want them to go bad. 

And I had the idea of making an illusion of dessert for dinner. That took a little bit to figure out, but I eventually settled on making an illusion of this spaghetti with green beans from The Pasta Project. I used the pumpkin noodles for the noodles, spinach pancakes (Rooted at Heart) cut into strips for the green beans, and cinnamon disc candies for the tomatoes. As a side, I added "cheese" of easy cottage cheese cheesecake (The Protein Chef) baked in silicone muffin liners and then removed.

For our movie, I chose The Christmas Mixer. 

This was in part because dessert was soft sourdough discard Christmas cookies (Muscle Momma Sourdough) made with sprinkles left over from our Christmas gingerbread house.

The movie was pretty cheesy, with some faux pas like mispronunciation of the word llama, as well as fumbles like, "leaving in the lurches." Still, we enjoyed it, as it gave us some Christmas cheer, as well as some viewing of cooler weather.

And what's Christmas without a little gift? 

My husband really likes this coco-nut trail mix from Target.

I added some mushroom chai, as he mentioned wanted to trying it after hearing about mushroom coffee from family and friends.

We didn't need to go out to celebrate. We had a Christmas adventure of our own all at home. Bonus, all we had afterward, maybe, was a little bit of a sugar crash!

Half-Day Mogollon Rim Adventure

Some time ago, my husband told me that he wanted to plan a day trip for us. It would include hiking and we would need a picnic lunch. He asked me if I wanted to know details about location, and I said I didn't. I just needed to know enough specifics to plan, and plan I did.

I have been going through some body changes and not liking how my clothes fit, so I decided to buy something new to wear. Did I need to? No. Did I buy something I did not yet have in my closet? Yes. I bought a tennis dress, convenient because it has shorts built in, inconvenient because it is one piece, and required wearing a jacket to ward off the chill. Still, in the end, it helped me get excited and feel more confident as we got ready for our adventure.

The Sourdough

I also planned our menu for the trip. My theme for trip food was sourdough, and I prepped our meals the day before. For breakfast, we had sourdough discard egg muffins and sourdough chocolate zucchini muffins. For our picnic lunch (that we ended up eating at home), we had snack boxes of carrots, cheese, sourdough meatballs, and homemade ranch dip, with protein boost sourdough chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I have to say, everything hit the spot. Adventure has a way of increasing the appetite!

The Travel

We left our house for our adventure a little after 6 AM Saturday morning. (We planned to leave at 6:00 AM sharp, but as usual, I ran late, and then packing the cooler took extra long.) The drive was foggy and rainy. The rain lifted some by the time we got to Payson, Arizona, and we decided to look for some coffee. (My parents sent us money for a coffee date for our anniversary, and we had not used it yet.) We found Smashley's Coffee at the edge of town, and stopped in. The shop was small, but the coffee was fresh. (My husband got a carrot cake latte and I got a light pour over coffee.) While we waited, we browsed the various olive oils and other food stuffs in the shop. Somehow, we managed not to buy anything.

The Adventure

Then it was off the Mogollon Rim, located just past Heber. I didn't know we were going there yet, but my husband has been there many times and knew just where to turn. We passed the main trailhead and pulled off at one of the first overlooks. From there, we walked on a gravel path and through some wet grass to join the paved Rim Lake Vista Trail. My husband hoped for views. I didn't know what we were missing and just soaked up the loveliness of the pine tree forest and peaceful, misty, air.

The Rim Lake Vista Trail stops off at several overlooks. Of course, my husband had to go to the edge. Something about heights makes me woozy, so I stayed pretty far back.

We took the Rim Lake Vista Trail to the Meadow Trail, and that to Woods Canyon Lake. I was thrilled to get to the lake, as I had not known where we were going, and I thought views plus forest, plus lake made for an awesome trip!

It started to sprinkle at the lake, and we had already walked over three miles, so we headed back. The fog cleared a little, but not too much. That gave me a taste of views that might be had, as well as time for lots of conversation. Some of the things I enjoyed most about dating my husband were the long conversations we had about life, and society, and dreams and faith. This time, we spent almost our entire walk dreaming about what could be in our future. Maybe it is possible. Maybe not. Still, it was fun to toss ideas back and forth.

We did need to clear the path for a stretcher to pass as we walked back. We had seen a police car barrel up the road on our way out to the lake, and saw the sheriff with a lady who was lying down. We tried to give everyone a wide berth and mind our own business. On the way back, though, EMTs were wheeling the lady out, and her family told us what happened. We took a minute to stop and pray with them, and then travelled back to our car.

From where we parked, my husband drove me out to the forest road where he and his friends camp. It was gravel, and a little rough for our car. He offered to park and let us walk out the rest of the way to the camp site, but given that I had just hiked 6.3 miles, farther than I have in ages, I decided I probably shouldn't. So, it was back in the car and homeward bound.

The skies cleared as we drove home, allowing for beautiful views. I love Arizona for many reasons: the mountains, the saguaro, the trails. My, how blessed we are, and how blessed we were to take this trip. Life is not about comparisons, but perspective does help. Taking our first active trip since my injury and then seeing someone get terribly injured gave me that, and made me extra, extra grateful. Thank you God and husband for this adventure!

(Not) All the California Things

I wrote all about the half marathon in my recap post, but I realized that I forgot to share about all of the other things we did in California! We saw a lot of the state, but definitely did not even dip our toes into all it had to offer.

(Well, before we got to California we stopped in a town called Quartzite. I was befuddled by all of the camel statues. My husband explained that the camel driver Hadji Ali had settled in Quartzite.)

We saw a lot of the California countryside on our drive to Oakland. I did not realize California had so many orchards: almond, avocado, cherry, citrus, olive, and more!

Oakland was an interesting city. Our hotel was downtown, and we saw a lot of poverty around the hotel, combined with some nicer spots just a few blocks further out. We walked through the First Fridays event to get dinner, and then I ran to Lake Merritt on the shakeout Saturday morning. Other than the bridge, that was about all we saw of Oakland.

We stayed at The Moxy, not the nicest hotel, but not the worst either. The rooms struck me as dorm-room like, with a small footprint, no plush furniture, and only a small fold-down desk. The room had a refrigerator, though, so win! Our window also looked out over the city, which I enjoyed.

Saturday afternoon, we traveled into San Francisco. This was a pricey trip! It cost us $20 each just to get BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cards. I got confused trying to figure out which line to ride into the city. Fortunately my directionally savvy husband got us there. We planned to ride the cable cars when we got into San Francisco, but the line was very long, so we decided to book a Waymo down to the wharf. That was an added expense, but a good decision. (Side note: We use Waymo quite a bit in Phoenix, but apparently it is a wonder to others, as we got lots of looks at stop signs, and especially when I rolled down my window to take photos.)

As noted in my recap, I did not want to walk too far, so we settled for a short walk along the wharf and then lunch at Boudin Bakery. This bakery has a sit down restaurant, as well as a to-go counter (where we ordered). There is a glass window where people can watch bakers make the sourdough from outside. Inside the building, there is a store and also a bakery selling whole loaves of bread and other goodies (like the turtle I ordered). I one-hundred percent recommend a visit if in the Bay area!

We rode an old bus back to the BART station. (Thank goodness, as it would have been a long walk.) It was interesting to see more of the city as we went.

After the race, we drove down to Big Bear. We planned to stop for burgers along the way, but found the place we intended closed. We settled on In-N-Out, but the first one was packed. We found another location and it was packed, too, at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon! I guess Californians really like their In-N-Out!

Driving to Big Bear was a bit of a shock to the system. After a beautiful sunny day at the ocean, we came to a forest with fresh snow! Thankfully our cozy little cabin had heat!

My husband booked our Sleepy Forest cabin through AirBnB. The cabin was essentially one room, but that one room housed a nice bed, couch, eating nook, jacuzzi tub, closet, bathroom, sink, and refrigerator. It was just right for the time we had.

We planned to go hiking Monday, but woke up to rain. Each hour, the forecast would predict the rain clearing the next hour, but then about 15-30 minutes in, the rain forecastwould extend. My husband suggested going to the grocery store for food to kill some time. While there, we saw lots of what appeared to be backpackers. We later learned that Big Bear is near the Pacific Crest Trail.

After walking around Von's for what felt like a long time, we returned home with our food. It was still raining. I prayed for it to lift as we drove around the lake and to the Discovery Center. The nice guide there told us about the local eagles and about places to go for a walk. The rain finally started to clear, and we headed for the Stanfield Marsh Boardwalk. This is technically over the marsh, but for an Arizona girl, it looked like a lake. It was so cool to walk out over the water. After reaching the end of that path we turned around the other way and walked out to a point on the lake. It was super cool. Thank you, Lord, that the rain let us get out!

We ate our lunch back at the cabin and I napped. We wanted to go out for Mexican food in the evening since it was Cinco de Mayo. I felt nervous about finding an open restaurant, but we had no trouble. We dined at Azteca Grill and were in and out in 30-45 minutes. Our waiter was so kind and attentive, which made the experience even more enjoyable. And the food, was overly ample and delicious! My husband got the Don Juan burrito with two meats. (He said he could barely fit it all in his stomach.) I got the mole verde and took half home. I have never had mole verde, but it was a delicious creamy sauce that went great with the chicken, and repurposed, made for great chicken tacos!

We went to bed early that night, as we needed to leave early in the morning. I got out just at daybreak to see the lake one more time and catch the sunrise. Driving out of Big Bear on the Rim of the World highway made me hold on for dear life (NOT because of my husband's driving, but because of the height and curves and fog), but we made it.

Other than the steep roads, I would definitely go back to Big Bear. It was so clean and fresh and friendly. We saw tons of things (like the mineshaft coaster) we would like to do, but did not have time to do this time. With Big Bear only about six hours from us, maybe we will make a repeat trip?

I would say we got our time's worth out of the few days we spent in California. There is certainly more to do, but maybe that is what means to have had a good vacation? That we budgeted our time and enjoyed it rather than packing things in because of the fear of missing out? Thank you, Lord, for an amazing trip!