Nearing Monterey -- Phoenix in August

We do not recommend August for visits to Phoenix -- unless, of course, you enjoy 106 degree days -- and "but it's a dry heat" begins to sound more and more irrelevant after a while. Of course, we wanted to stop there to visit our daughter, Julie, husband Justin and our grandson Tyler -- as well as Chuck's Mom in the Bethesda Gardens residential home there. We stayed with Julie and her family in their very nice house in Surprise, Arizona -- and visited Chuck's Mom a couple of times. Kathi took her shopping for some clothes she needed and she came over to Julie's one evening for dinner.

As with all such family visits, it was very nice -- and a bit too short. We enjoyed visiting Tyler's school (which is within sight of their house, very new and modern) and several of the teachers. He seems to be doing well -- Julie actually got an informal note from his teacher saying how much she enjoyed having Tyler in her class.

One of the things we wanted to do while in Phoenix was to shop for a car -- Justin works at a Mazda dealership. Well, after a short period of convincing on the part of Justin and after Kathi chimed in for a while to try to convince Chuck -- he "allowed" himself to be talked into buying the Mazda MX-5 sports car -- rather than the Mazda sedan they had been considering up to that point. (The sports car will complement the Nissan Altima hybrid sedan they will also be driving.)

Seen here are pictures of Tyler in the pool in their yard and, of course, the car.

A few more pictures of our time in Phoenix can be seen at:


http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3592518#204205559