Try Something New in 2010

Since 2010 looks like it may be another belt-tightening year (never a good thing for the travel industry) let’s make a vow to get to know our city and our state a little better.  In Arizona, we’re lucky.  There’s so much to see and do here, no matter the time of year.  For instance, have you been to Sedona?  While the location itself is not new to me, my travel experiences were!

In the past, I’ve spent most of my time visiting with others and shopping.   My last visit, the week of Christmas, I went alone.  And I spent almost the entire two days outdoors, despite the cooler weather.  In fact, I shopped for only about an hour.

Sedona begs for you to be outside among the red rocks — walking, hiking, biking, running, practicing yoga, taking a rough and rugged jeep tour, or simply enjoying the view from a well-placed restaurant patio.  It’s only a short drive away.  Be sure to add Sedona to your list this year!

Arizona Authors Sign Books

Tomorrow three Arizona travel writers will host a book signing at the downtown Phoenix Visitor Information Center from 1pm until 5pm. I’m one of the writers. The three of us — Teresa Bitler, Jackie Dishner and I — wrote three very different books for the same publisher – all about Arizona. Just two weeks ago we met together for the first time to brainstorm marketing ideas and share experiences. It was a HUGE success! In just two weeks, we’ve already scheduled one book signing and are working on a second up at CityNorth. We have other projects in the works, both on our own and together. We can’t wait to announce them. If you can make it Thursday, November 12th, we’d love to see you! Visit on Facebook for details: www.facebook.com/theazadventurer

The authors and their books:
Christine Bailey – Great Destinations: Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona & Central Arizona
Teresa Bitler – Great Escapes: Arizona
Jackie Dishner – Backroads & Byways of Arizona

Old Ones Close, New Ones Open

As I work on the 2nd edition of my travel guide, I’m having to delete more than a few entries.  A number of restaurants, hotels and even museums have either closed their doors or changed ownership in the last year.  The Pink Pony, a Scottsdale icon, closed in August after more than 60 years of business, and in June, the Phoenix Museum of History also closed. 

While it is sad to see so many old favorites go; it’s also exciting to see what’s taking their place. 

In Tempe alone, in my little neighborhood just north and west of the 60 and 101 respectively, I have noticed several new locations.  On the corner of Broadway and McClintock, a new coffee shop has joined the ranks.  Cherubini has a great bistro feel to it.  In addition to coffee and its many forms, they serve breakfast and lunch (sandwiches and salads), various pastries and fresh donuts.  If you’re strong enough to say no to the brightly covered pastries, you can always opt for a piece of fresh fruit.

Further south on McClintock just north of Southern, a new hamburger joint is opening in the next few weeks.  Lobbys will serve Chicago-style hamburgers, hot dogs and Italian beef.  The local owners are also hoping to open additional stores in the Valley.

There are several others that I have noticed in my recent travels around the Valley.  It’s good to see that while many places have closed their doors, others are at least filling some of the empty spots they’ve left behind. 

Here’s to welcoming the new!  May they have a long and enjoyable reign.

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Riding the Salt River

Well, you can’t actually ride the river itself, not through Phoenix anyway, there’s never enough water.  But, for the kind of riding I have in mind, you don’t need a river full of water, just your bike, an hour of free time, and a little bit of an adventurous spirit.

Inspired by a scheduled tour at the soon-to-open Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center located at Central Avenue and the Salt River just south of downtown Phoenix, I decided to take a quick bike ride along the Salt River last Friday.  Rumor has it that there are paths that follow the river for a five-mile stretch between 16th Street and 19th Avenue.  I figured the Salt River was a little like a highway, you only notice it when you are on it or passing over it.  So, upon scouring a map, I realized that the big empty river bed I’ve been driving over for the past ten years is actually the Salt River and it’s located between Interstate 17 and Broadway Road.

Since I had a meeting at the Audubon Center on south bank of the river, I parked there.  I took a paved path from the parking lot to another paved path that snakes its way high above the river bed.  The paved path offered a smooth, solitary ride; headed east towards 16th street, I passed only one other person, walking.  I saw the backs of the buildings that line the north bank and on the south bank a lot of empty fields enclosed by chain link fences and barbed wire.  I saw cars driving across the 7th Street and 16th Street bridges; the twinkle of water among the dirt and grass and trees along the river bottom, and a dirt path that ran along the river’s edge. 

On my way back, I rode the dirt path.  From this vantage point, I couldn’t see much of the barbed wire or chain link fences, instead a wall of dirt and rocks covered with wire to hold it all in place rose up on my left.  Tangled with the rocks was the occasional rotted and twisted tree trunk that must have been left behind by a rising tide somewhere very far in the past.  There were black pipes that funneled something or other from up above to down below and while the dirt path offered a different perspective it had succumbed to erosion.  At points along the way, it was washed out, full of soft sand that sucked at my tires and, in some places, covered with piles of river rock too big to ride over safely.  I had to get off my bike and walk a time or two, but I’m not complaining.

All in all, the experience was a good one.  While the view may not have been much, at least in the direction I had chosen (between Central Avenue and 16th Street), it was fairly quiet, devoid of any type of traffic, including buses hugging the bike lane and mini-vans in a hurry to make a right hand turn.  The four-mile ride, for the most part, was uninterrupted — no stopping for pedestrians or stoplights and right there, in the middle of the city, I was able to connect with at least a little bit of nature.

It’s worth a trip, especially if you’re a central or south Phoenix resident looking for a quiet bike ride away from the perpetual construction that seems to plague the city’s streets.  I was pleasantly surprised that the trailhead entrances appear to be well-marked with signage, and you can can get to the bike paths from any of the following trailheads/parking spots:

• 2439 South Central Avenue (Northeast corner)
• 3212 South 7th Avenue (Southwest corner)
• 2875 South 7th Street (Southeast corner)
• 3203 South 16th Street (Southeast corner) 

For more information, visit the City of Phoenix Web site about the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area, which is what the five mile stretch of river — its riparian habitat and paths (for bikers, hikers, horseback riders and walkers) — is called. 

http://www.phoenix.gov/RIOSALADO/

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Expand Your World – Try Something New

According to the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary, adventure can be “an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks, an enterprise involving financial risk” or “an exciting or remarkable experience.” Since I’m not asking anyone to take any financial risks here, we’ll kick that one out of the discussion and work with the other two – an undertaking involving danger or an exciting experience.

It’s funny that these two different phrases define understandings of the exact same word. In a way I look at them as cause and affect. If you take an unknown risk that may involve danger (and let’s be honest, danger is a very ambiguous term and can mean many things to different people), you can have an exciting or remarkable experience. But, the truth (because we are being honest here) is that sometimes these unknown risks don’t always equal an exciting or remarkable experience. Sometimes the experiences are painful – physically, mentally, emotionally or a combination of all three. And the sad fact is that the threat of a painful experience causes so many of us (myself included) to shy away from any type of adventure at all – we don’t take the risks and we don’t experience the excitement or remarkability available to us.

I hadn’t realized, personally, how much this fear of the unknown (or maybe it’s simply the desire to remain comfortable, no matter what we might be missing out on), hampered my own life choices until I started working on the 2nd edition of my travel guide (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona and Central Arizona: Great Destinations, a Complete Guide).

A lot has happened in the restaurant and tourism business since I published the last edition in November of 2007, pre-economic distress. Today, there are more than a couple of restaurants and hotels that have closed their doors, changed their names or moved. So, my job of writing a second edition is not a simple task of fixing errors and updating a phone number here or hours there. In many cases, I have to delete entire entries and come up with new recommendations, and that means trying new restaurants, checking out new museums, saying goodbye to those that are closing and finding other means of sharing my experiences of the Valley and its surrounding areas. I had about a year, so I figured that I would try to fit in several new experiences each week. Instead of going to my standard array of close and cozy restaurants, coffee shops and hot spots each week where people at least recognized me as a regular, I would head to other parts of the Valley. I would regularly step into new spaces, dine on different cuisine and be among people that I didn’t recognize whatsoever.

Easy, right? After all, I’m a travel writer; my job is to try the new and different and to share the best of those experiences with my readers. And I do that, regularly, I promise. I typically shun chain restaurants of any kind (unless it’s my kids weekly visit to the fast food savior of all parents – McDonald’s), and I try not to hit the same places over and over again, opting instead for a different museum or restaurant or shopping experience or hike, etc. But, that’s when I put on my travel writer hat, when I’m prepped and ready for something new, not during my regular freelance writer work-from-home kind of day. When I tried to implement my well thought-out plan, I came up against resistance, my own resistance! It was a like an invisible wall between me and my plan and I was offering excuses. It’ll take too long to go into Scottsdale to visit that museum before I go to my next meeting. It’s too hot to take a walk along that particular path right now. I don’t wanna. What?! I was stunned. I prided myself on getting outside of my own little box and here I was whining about doing it more often.

So, I understand. I understand how hard it is to try a new restaurant, visit a museum in another city in the Valley, take a ride up I-17 north to Jerome or maybe one down I-10 and I-19 south to Tubac. It can be physically, emotionally and mentally challenging to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones – to step outside into the unknown, to take risks and to face danger (even if its our own discomfort) and to maybe have a painful experience (even if it’s just a less than pleasant meal). But, the truth is – it’s worth it. It’s the stuff that makes our lives memorable. Even the bad adventures make some of the funniest and most amusing stories that we tell and re-tell for years after they’ve happened.

All I’m saying is try something different. Just when it gets hardest to push through that comfort barrier, push just a little more, expand your world, enjoy your life, and have a little adventure! It may not get any easier (I’m case in point), but your world will get a little bigger each time you do it, and trust me, in the end, you’ll walk away with an exciting or remarkable experience or at the very least, a very funny story.

Work Hard, But Play, Too – in Arizona

I work quite a few hours each week. Depending upon the week it may be as many as 60 or 70. However, since I’m writing, meeting new people and experiencing new things, it doesn’t even feel like work. Until about a year ago, I used to be the kind of person who had to get all of her work in before she could play. This year, when I started freelancing full-time and found that I never left my desk – ever (my children got their good morning and good night kiss from my chair), I knew that I would need to reinvent my definitions of work and play. I discovered the importance of taking mini-breaks.

I knew that I needed time to relax, but I was too neurotic to give myself big blocks of time. I was afraid I might never return to my laptop. Instead, I started with 20 minutes in the pool before I went to bed. At midnight, it’s quiet; everyone else is in bed except for me and the dog and the time to unwind helps me sleep better. Then, I started adding 20 minutes in the morning, relaxing by the pool and thinking about my day. Now, several months later, instead of working through 13 hours straight, I find myself playing a game with my boys or grabbing 15 minutes to float in my pool before starting in on another project. Earlier this summer, instead of cramming in a couple of phone interviews, I took a trip to the Tempe Center for the Arts (www.tempe.gov/TCA) after leaving one client and going to meet another.

Until recently, I never realized how I could actually do in one 24-hour day – pick weeds, read to the boys, talk with my husband, research a new article idea, interview an expert, write a draft, take a mini-vacation or read. I read a couple of books a week, and people always wonder how I fit it into my day. The answer: it’s important and so are all of the other things that bring little bits of joy into our lives. Working hard is fulfilling, reaping the fruits of that labor is exhilarating, and together they make play time that much better.

This weekend, between an editing project I submitted at midnight Friday and a short writing project I emailed 8am Monday morning, I took a mini-vacation. I spent 24 hours at the Firesky Resort (www.firesky.com) in Scottsdale (on Scottsdale Rd south of Chaparral Road). I had a massage and a pedicure at their on-site spa Jurlique and spent the rest of the time hanging at the pool with a group of girls celebrating 7 years of friendship. It was delightful, relaxing and incredibly necessary.

The next time you find yourself working too hard with no play, consider what’s important to you and find small ways to fit it into your day – five minutes of writing time, 10 minutes to play a game with your kids, or 15 minutes in your garden. Every little bit adds up and you’ll notice the difference it makes in your life. If a week’s vacation isn’t possible right now, try a mini-vacation right here in your own backyard. You can book a spa visit, a one night- or a weekend-stay at any one of the many resorts we have here in the Phoenix metropolitan area or in Arizona.

Life is an adventure in all sorts of unexpected and little ways!

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