Time in AZ – Summer 2025 – Part 1

The last couple weeks have been good for me and the family. We went on vacation back to AZ. Well, 2 of us did. My wife and one kid went to Lake Tahoe to meet up with some friends for 5 days. They drove to Tahoe to meet those friends that came from AZ. Once that time was over “B” drove back to Boise since she still had to work and the kid flew to AZ with all the other friends.

As for myself and the other kid we drove down to AZ. We took the regular day and half to get there. We stopped at New York West Bakery on the west side of the valley on the way to pick up a bunch of my wife and kids favorite “sweet snacks”. Then we ended at my parent’s place.

We were there for a few days and that was a pleasant time. “G” got to spend time with a couple friends, including a sleep over one night. I had to pleasure to hang out with a couple friends as well. One day I had lunch with Jamie at Mr. Pickles (a sandwich shop). We caught up on family, work, and life; it was a fun time. The next evening, I had an outstanding time talking with one of my oldest friends, Josh. We talked about family, life, and Star Trek. It was a blast. That night we ate a Joe’s Farm Grill and it was good. If you are looking for a nice place to eat I would recommend it.

Being with my parents was great as well. We had meals and hang out time with them. Once “A” got there we played a game with them (twice) called “Mind the Gap”. I had played this game with some students at SCC a few years ago and then I went out and bought it once we were in Idaho at a used game store, but this was the first time I got to play it with anyone outside of school. It was fun, and we laughed a lot. I worked on my VW bug a little bit as well. I added a fuel regulator to hopefully stop too much gas from going into the carburetors at once. I also worked on the heater. Before I moved the heaters were stuck ON in it. So, I crawled under the car and found out that the cables that run the heater had jammed up, most likely rusted in the tubes, and that was preventing the heater from turning off. So, I detected the cables to shut off the heater. My dad and I tried to get the cables unstuck, but we never were able to. The car ran great the next day and I had no issues with gas or the heat running (which was nice since it was warm in the Phoenix area).

My dad and I spent a lot of time working together on camera stuff, but I will write on that separately later.

Then “B” flew into town and we then stayed at her parent’s place for a few nights. We had good Italian food at Dolce Vita and had wonderful Barro’s Pizza. Other than that we spent time talking, catching up, and did some help around the house. We also played Mind the Gap with them and it was also a good time. The girls got to swim a couple times as well. My father in law wanted to check the steering on my 4Runner with a diagnostic tool he had while I was there. It passed with flying colors. Again, the Japanese build 4Runner is amazing.

We also got to eat at India Oven at Gilbert and Southern (I actually ate there a second time without my family for lunch one day). It is our favorite Indian restaurant and we highly recommend it. The buffet is amazing and the people are very nice.

Overall it was a good time in the valley.