Monday, March 26, 2012

Phoenix in February is Fun: Day 4

Monday was to be the last day of my trip to Arizona and as it was yet another fantastically warm and sunny day, Julie suggested we head to a nearby waterfowl refuge/walking area/there's a library there too/ place, called Riparian Park (or Riparian something or other).

Anyway, it was great to enjoy the nice warm weather, and we also got to see quite a few cool birds. My favorites were the great blue herons, who we saw several of. The first one flew right near us and landed in a nearby marsh.  I thought it would be fun to get a picture of one in flight, and Julie was a good enough host to walk around to where it was and make it fly. :)  Thankfully it didn't come to having to throw pebbles at it to get it to fly, as that might have been frowned upon at a refuge, I imagine.  We spent a while there walking around, seeing the herons, ducks, egrets, etc.

Great Blue Heron
Pre-Julie's visit to its neighborhood

Great Blue Heron in flight
Post-Julie's visit

Arizona - President's Day Weekend 2012 107
Pretty looking duck

Afterward we grabbed some lunch at Jack-in-the-Box (since we don't have those in Salt Lake), and then hit up the yogurt ranch so Julie could get some nutella fro-yo. 

After lunch and dessert we drove out to an outdoor shopping area where we just window shopped and enjoyed more time in the nice weather.

Then Julie drove me back to the airport which was a little busy with youth soccer teams heading home after what must have been a huge weekend-long tournament, but I had no problems getting through security and to my gate in time for some Wendy's dinner.

Got home on time, and took the shuttle back to my car.  It had snowed while I was gone, but only a tiny bit remained on my dashboard. Just enough to remind of how nice it was to be somewhere warm. :)

Thanks again to Julie for hosting me. :)

1 comment:

Liz said...

Sounds like a fun trip. Glad you got to go.