There’s Nothing Like a Good Backup Plan

With so many options at our disposal for things to do, places to go, and sights to see during Doug’s all-too-short visit, Paul and I wanted to make sure that they got to experience something uniquely “Phoenix” — so we decided that on Saturday we must take everyone out on an excursion to South Mountain Park. The idea was to bring along a picnic lunch and eat it at the top while enjoying the view. Normally we would have done some hiking as well, but Doug’s broken foot is still healing, Mom isn’t exactly up for off-road excitement, and besides, by the time we got going it was already lunch time.  We ended up having a picnic, but it was at the bottom, at a nearby Sonic, before we entered the park.

We had barely entered the foothills, however, when we saw the signs indicating the road to the top had been damaged by recent rains and was not passable.  I was a little put out by this development, but not Paul. Imperturbable is his middle name!  It didn’t take him long to suggest we go to Encanto Park, and with the amusement park end of things, with rides and a train, as well as canals and paddle boats for the big kids, it turned out to be a really great afternoon.

Here are some pix Geneva snapped of her cousins having fun – she was able to get into a paddle boat and got some lovely water shots as well, and captured the evening ambiance beautifully. My substitute photographers make my photo editing so much fun! 🙂