Day 7 - Tillman and Home

Another motivating factor in going to Arizona for April vacation was the opportunity to run in the 9th Annual Pat's Run in Tempe - one of my bucket list items.  This race honors the legacy of Pat Tillman - a football player for ASU that was killed in Afghanistan.  You can read more about the foundation here.  The race is 4.2 miles and ends at the 42 yard line of Sun Devil Stadium.

The race starts at 7am - so it was an early start to the day for Jake and I.  I had foolishly thought that since Jake had not run in 3 months - I might have a chance to beat him.  Not even close - although I was happy with my time.

It was a great race and really glad I was able to do that before I need to enter the wheelchair division.

After the race we headed to iHop to feast on Viva La French Toast.  Karen and I climbed A mountain one last time before heading back to the hotel to pack.

We had to check out of the hotel at 1pm and our flight out was not until 11:45pm.   So we grabbed lunch with the Brad, Maggie and Alexander and watched the end of the pitiful Celtic-Knicks game.  Of course I like to make things a bit interesting in terms of making our flight - so we went to see a 7:30 movie.  Everything worked out fine and we made it to our flight in plenty of time.

A red-eye flight is never very fun and even less so when surrounded by babies.  I think everybody got a few winks but it made for a long Sunday.

Overall a great trip and we got everything into the trip that we wanted..

Day 6 - ASU ! ASU ! ASU !

We woke to another cloudless sky in Tempe and warm temperatures.  My good buddy Brad, his wife Maggie and young son Alexander had rolled into town the night before and we met them in the lobby for a walk through the ASU campus.  I had started to take Jake on some campus tours last summer during our roadtrip and one of the motivations for this trip was to show him ASU.   ASU has changed significantly since I went there 25 years ago.  Although it would be fun to have an excuse to visit Tempe - I really not pushing any of my kids to go there.  The only rule is they can't go to the U of A !

We had lunch at the Vine - one of only things left from my time in Tempe.  We went back the hotel for a quick rest and then headed back across campus to go to an ASU baseball game.  The baseball team will be leaving Packard stadium after next season - so I was glad to be able to catch another game there.

After the game we went over to one of the new additions to Mill Ave that gets my stamp of approval.  It is a small shop call Slickables - where you pick two cookies and an ice cream flavor and they make you a ice cream sandwich for $2.  Awesome.

Day 5 - Transition to Tempe

Our first full day in the sun in 8 months led to uncomfortable kids this morning.  We were not totally irresponsible parents and had applied sunblock to their faces but somehow forgot the back of everybody's neck.  I suppose that may be the origin of the term Redneck ("people not smart enough to apply sunblock to the back of their necks").  So our crowd was not as anxious to go spend another entire day out in the sun by the pool.  Brett and I did spend some time in the pool.  I also lost my mini-golf title to Jake - so the list of things that I can beat my kids at continues to shrink.

We bid farewell to the Hilton in the early afternoon and headed down to Tempe.   We stopped at a local Mall to search for a book for Kelsey and played some games at the Dave and Busters.

Jake and I picked up our numbers for the Tillman race and then checked in at out Tempe hotel.  After a brief rest - we walked down to climb "A" Mountain - a butte that is next to Sun Devil stadium.  It is a very short 5-10 minute hike but affords some nice views of the valley and the planes landing at nearby Sky Harbor airport.

We ended the night at the Depot Cantina.  My kids are not big fans of Mexican food but they enjoyed the environment.  

Day 4 - Take a Hike

Our hotel is very near the base of Squaw Peak - so naturally we wanted to climb to the peak.  I think the kids would have forfeited their allowance for a month not to climb but that option was not on the table.  It only a 1.2 mile hike up to the peak but it is pretty rocky and you are always a step away from a  sprained ankle.  Luckily the weather was on the cooler side in the morning (around 70) so it was pretty pleasant. 

Kids at the top of Squaw Peak

We spent the afternoon in the pool or playing hoops or tennis.   The kids got a bit too much sun and we are bad parents for not being more diligent about putting more sunscreen on our kids.  

We topped the evening off by heading out to the Pinnacle Peak Patio for some steaks and over to the Sugar Bowl in Scottsdale for some ice cream.  

Day 3 - Transition to Sun

After a breakfast with Mom - we headed to the airport for our flight to Phoenix.  We were excited to be getting to some warmer/brighter weather.  We were worried that security may be tighter due to the bombing the previous day in Boston but everything was relatively normal.  I did break down on this flight and got the kids wifi for the flight down to Phoenix.  It was a wise $10 investment. 

We landed at mid-day and got our rental car and made our way up to the Squaw Peak Hilton.   The temps were in the low 80's and it felt great to be able to walk around in shorts.  The Hilton had plenty of activities (pools, lazy river, basketball, tennis, mini-golf) to keep the kids busy.

The difficult Coyote hole

Jake keeping his volleyball skills sharp during vacation

We finished the evening with some Pizza at Oreganos.  

Day 2 - The Mall

A strange feeling being in Minnesota at the Mall of America with the tragedy at the Boston Marathon unfolding at home.  Having run the race and worked a few hundred yards from the site of the explosion it hit very close to home. My sister Kathy's neighbor (18 year old high school senior) was running and just made the turn for the finish line when the explosion hit and he was re-routed away from the finish.   Brett played a soccer game on Saturday against Dorchester and the brother of the boy who was killed played on that team. Our thoughts and prayers to all those impacted by this event.

The day started with a trip to Al's Diner near the University campus.  Three generation of Olen's (My Dad, Jake and I) had some great pancakes in this iconic spot.  We then got everybody for a day at the Mall of America.  The kids were excited to spend some time shopping and doing the rides at Nickelodeon Universe.  Since it was a Monday and the MN kids are not on vacation - there were no crowds and the kids got to ride all the rides they wanted.   They also enjoyed doing the 4 story climbing structure.

The cousins. Alex, Brett, Jake, Jason, Kelsey, Caley and Molly

The Mall of America was built at the site of the old Metropolitan Stadium where the Twins played baseball before they moved to the Dome and now Target Field.  They have commemorated the spot where home plate was located.

Brett is safe at home

In the fine Olen tradition of not leaving well enough alone - the fun went on into the evening.  The adults went out to dinner.  My Dad took my boys to the Timberwolves-Jazz game and Nancy took the rest back to the Shoreview Community center.  Unfortunately somebody "pooped in the pool" so that trip was a bit of a bust.  Overall an action packed day...

Flight to MN and Day 1

I purposely chose a flight out to MN later in the day (6pm) on Saturday - as I knew that we would likely have some things we would want to get done before we took off for a week.  Little did I know that we would be squeezing in 2 soccer games, a softball game and a baseball practice before we did our final packing and headed to the airport.

The airport was not overly crowded and the process was generally smooth.  The only snafu was that they made Karen check her bag at the gate as it was about an inch longer than the device they use to assess the acceptable carry-on bag size.  That was a bit frustrating as she spent considerable effort ("maybe I can get by with 4 pairs of shoes") to get into smaller bag so we would not have to check any luggage.   The kids were excited that there was Wifi on the plane but much less so when they found out it was $10 and Dad was not handing over the credit card.  

My Dad chauffeured us back to his house and we connected with the Surros who had arrived on Friday.  

We started off Sunday by going to my Dad's church.  It was an interesting service that was led by a missionary that served primarily in the Republic of Congo.  I am sure the kids may use some different adjectives to describe the service.  After church we headed over to the Shoreview Community Center - which is a fantastic complex with a huge indoor pool/waterslide complex.   We played 3-on-3 basketball and then the kids hit the pool.  We had to drag them out of there to get home for dinner. 

Kelsey coming out of the waterslide at the community pool

We had a very nice dinner with my Mom and sister Dede.  The kids played air hockey, Sequence and Scrabble while the older folks chatted.

Gram and 5 of her 11 (soon to be 12) grand kids

It is certainly a good thing that there are plenty of very fun indoor activities here in the Twin Cities as the weather has been horrendous.  There is still quite a bit of snow around here and the day started with snow showers but then turned to sleet and a cold 33 degree rain.  At a minimum this will make the temps in AZ feel really warm.  It also probably eliminated University of Minnesota from Jake's list of potential colleges.

Spring Break 2013 Trip - Prologue

My name is Greg Olen and I am a hoarder.  Not the type you see on the A&E show Hoarders where some tortured soul has a mountain of sugar packets in their living room that is threatening to crush the emaciated cat that is wandering around the house.  I have been hoarding Delta frequent flyer miles for the past several years in hopes of putting together a big family trip to Europe or Hawaii.  Recently I have come to the realization that this does not really make sense on a couple of different levels.

First, there are very limited periods when we can actually travel (mainly the summer and school vacations) and the chances of finding free seats on planes to Europe in the summer is pretty close to zero (there is a reason that the frequent flier community has nicknamed the Delta Skymiles program Sky Pesos).  There is also rumors that the Delta was going to further reduce the value of their frequent flier miles.  Second,  my kids have limited interest in going to Hawaii and no interest in Europe.  The value of those experiences would be mostly lost on my kids.  The thought of sitting next to Brett "are we there yet?" Olen on any flight over 5 hours was the final nail in the coffin.

So very recently I decided to use my miles on a April vacation trip to Minnesota and Arizona.  Minnesota because it is an opportunity to spend time with family and it is on the way to Arizona.  It is a bit hard to believe that we have not had a family trip to Arizona in 15 years.  It was a long winter and it would be nice to have some family time in the Valley of the Sun.

The itinerary would have us fly to Minnesota on Saturday night (after all the soccer/baseball/softball activities) and stay through Tuesday and then fly to AZ on Tuesday AM.   Should be fun.