Vacation! Jan 13th 2008
Last week (Tuesday) I returned home from an extended vacation at my parent’s house. I left on Dec 20 and Tuesday was Jan 8 so 18 days, to be exact. While gone I took the time to not do much work (only little things for OU as well as some SEO stuff) and instead focused on relaxing, spending time with family and recharging the old batteries. While 18 days is long to be gone from home, there was lots of fun to be had there. I’ll try to detail some of that (since I was purposefully scarce here whilst gone).
Eating
It’s said that some of the best times happen around the dinner table. Well, I say that at least. And that seems to be one thing my family enjoys — fine food. Be it a small whole in the wall type joint or a much fancier feast, we enjoyed lots of good food together.
- Z Tejas — This is where my sister-in-law waits (used to, now). We sat in her section my first lunch in Arizona. I think they describe themselves as “southwestern fusion” or something like that. There jalepeno cornbread is quite good (as was the bbq burrito I had).
- Niko’s — Niko’s is a small mexican stand in the k-mart parking lot (I think). It’s really good though. My dad says that half of the time he goes their the help doesn’t speak English (so you know you are getting authentic food). I especially liked their carne asada.
- My Mom’s Penne a la Vodka — My mom made this pasta dish twice because it was so well loved: Christmas Day and last Sunday. Both times we had more than just my family around the table and both times it was really go (I don’t remember there being much in the way of leftovers). It wasn’t quite as good as her symphony beef though. If you are reading mom — you should return to the symphony beef tradition next Christmas
- Oregano’s — This is one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve eaten at. Their specialty is pizza (which my dad and brother split) and was really, really good. I had penne pasta in a tomato/cream sauce with a couple of sausages on top. It was enough for two meals. Their speciality dessert was also really good — a fresh oven baked cookie with ice cream on top.
- Firebirds — Firebirds is a “rocky mountain grill”. We went their the Sunday before New Years Eve for a celebration dinner (my brother and his wife are movie to Haiti in a few weeks so that was a big part of it). I had a fantastic chile-rubbed steak (as did my brother). It was really good (as was their dessert — key lime pie).
- Pita Jungle — If their was one restaurant we ate at that I wish was in Norman, this would be it. The Pita Jungle specializes in really, really tasty (and healthy!) Mediterranean cuisine. We started the lunch off with jalepeno/cilantro hummus (with dipping pita). My sister-in-law got a spiced chicken wrap of some sorts. My mom got tabouli. My brother and I split a combo plate that had beef and chicken kababs, hummus, tabouli and garlic sauce. And then we all shared. It was really really good stuff.
- Gordon Biersch — Gordon Biersch really isn’t any different than BJ’s — a Brewery/Sports Bar. This one was on ASU’s version of campus corner (which by the way, theirs is way cooler). Just myself, brother and sister-in-law went so that we could have dinner, enjoy a nice brew and watch the Rose Bowl. Well, the Rose Bowl wasn’t much of a game but the beer and food made up for it.
- El Charro’s — This joint, located in Tucson, is hands down the best Mexican place I’ve eaten at. USA Today calls their Chimichanga plate one of the top 50 dishes in America and I’d believe them. It was amazingly good. Definitely worth checking out if you are ever in Tucson.
- Lucille’s — Lucille’s is a really good BBQ joint. The food comes in huge portions (I couldn’t come close to finishing mine) and is very good. I had the BBQ Tri-Tip with fries and slaw. This place gets major bonus points also for providing a warm, moist towel for everyone at the end of our meal.
We also ate at many well known places along the way (the Crackhouse, Mimi’s Cafe, etc) and other unknown ones (LaFawnda’s, my dad’s favorite calzone place which isn’t actually as good as he thinks it is, some random joint in Tombstone, etc). The highlighted ones above though are the meals that stick out in my mind.
Random Events
With any family trip, at least in my family, you never quite know what all is going to happen and it never quite works out like you expect it to.
- Christmas Day — We our a family that tends to downplay Christmas (and other holidays for that matter). As long as we are together, we tend to enjoy “going with the flow” better than making a big to-do. This year worked out a little differently than in years past: While my mom and sister-in-law stayed home to cook the aforementioned Vodka Pasta, my dad, brother and I volunteered at a local homeless shelter. Our job was to deliver meals to shut-ins that had nobody in their lives. My dad went with on of the other minister’s sons while me and my bro went together. It was interesting to see the reactions of people. At one home, no one ever answered (even after repeated hard knocks on the door and calls to her landline). At another the couple grabbed the meals and shut the door on us. At the third, a really, really old lady who couldn’t hear a thing answered the door the door and invited us in to her abode (occupied by many, many cats from the smell of things). What was interesting was that their was another old man there who wasn’t her husband and she wanted us to take him home because (in her words), “he got here a couple of days ago and hasn’t left since.” Us being the nice guys that we were went back after lunch and picked him up and took him to his house. We talked along the way and found out he was probably in his 80s and a little bit crazy but that’s life isn’t it? Another amusing story from this event — when we reported back in at the homeless shelter my brother told the lady in charge that we had to go back to pick up this man and she got really excited, talking about divine appointments and such. She then proceeded to tell my brother how to share the Gospel (keep in mind my brother just graduated with a masters in theology, has interned in churches for the past year and is getting ready to be a missionary in Haiti). I had to laugh as my bro did his best not to role his eyes at the incredibly individualistic presentation she gave. He’s grown up to be a lot more like me than I would have expected in high school.
- Video Editing — While Christmas Day certainly held the best stories, it was also random that I got a chance to do some video editing again (I haven’t done any since Glorieta promo days at the BSU). The associate pastor spoke the second Sunday I was there on “joy in the midst of suffering” and had a video interview with a lady dieing of cancer. While very basic (as far as editing goes), I did get to pull out some Explosions in the Sky for the soundtrack.
- Mission’s Meeting — Got to talk about my trip to Mozambique last summer with the mission’s committee at my dad’s church (and campaign for support for the coming summer’s trip to South Africa). This was good because we got to talk a lot about how we do church at Norman Community. They were all quite interested in this. Truth be told, I had this same conversation with numerous people out there (which is always interesting).
- Tombstone/Bisbee — My last saturday there, my grandparents took my brother and I to Tombstone (the Tombstone) and Bisbee. Tombstone was underwhelming — essentially just a gimmicky old timey street lined with shops that sell the same souvenirs (mostly). We ate at an alright res
taurant (my burger was pretty good) and then headed out. Bisbee was much neater. It’s essentially a town in the mountains full of hippies. It’s quite quaint and had some really interesting shops. We all stopped for a coffee at a local shop and then headed to Tucson to meet my parents at the aforementioned El Charro’s. It was a perfect topper to the day. - Movies — We saw a couple of movies. On Christmas day we went to National Treasure 2 in the early evening. On New Year’s Day we went to Juno (by we I mean my bro and sis-in-law). It was wonderful and one I’d highly recommend seeing (especially if the humor of Little Miss Sunshine appeals to you).
Alright. There you have a basic rundown of my time in Arizona. I’ll post some pictures over the next few days too.
tags: family, life, vacation
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who am i?
i'm a twenty-something starting this journey called life. i studied microbiology and chemistry in college and currently work as a systems analyst. that means i manage computers (and a lot of them at that -- linux, solaris, os x, and windows). but that's just what i do to pay the bills. less important than where i am at now is where i am going. for quite some time i've had a nagging voice whispering "mission" in my ear. thus the direction i walk. contained in these pages is a log of a bit of that journey (and everything else that i do).
sam i is said on Jan 13th 2008:
explosions = unbelievable background music
we used it at the conference i mc’d last week in branson… with planet earth playing on the big screen (muted) and then an explosions/this will destroy you playlist in the background… it was quite a hit (playing before a session began and again after a session)… many asked about the artists being played!
lets get dinner soon.
Mom said on Jan 16th 2008:
Ok - does this mean that we eat too much???It’s a little frightening to see all the places we ate (Floridino’s is the calazone place, La Fonda’s is the fajita chimi place)