Hiking Piestewa Peak, Phoenix

Still feeling the gluttony of our Thanksgiving meal, we decided to hike off some calories at Piestewa Peak.

The mountain is the second tallest inside the Phoenix area. Only Camel Back is higher. Both are popular places for the fit and active.

Hubby and I, however, having done Camel Back before, weren't feeling quite as fit and active as that trail requires.

Piestewa Peak still gave us a workout, though. After days of lingering cloud cover, the sun finally shone clear and unblemished, heating up the hiking trail and bringing on a sweat.

Nevertheless, it felt good to be outside in shorts and short sleeves as we knew we would be heading back to Minnesota and it's cold winter winds.

This was my second time up Piestewa Peak. The last time I'd climbed this way, the trail had been called something different -- Squaw Peak.

The mountain's name, it seems, is in flux. While the city's official tourism info refers to it by the new name -- Piestewa Peak after the first soldier killed in the Iraq war -- all the park signage still uses the old name -- Squaw Peak.

Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ

Because I'm in the Phoenix area to visit family, and because there are little people in my family, we decided to take a morning trip to the Railroad Park in Scottsdale.

The park includes a playground, picnic areas, an old-time carousel and a miniature train that toots around it all.

The park was packed with families, which made sense given the holiday weekend. After all, we were there with our family, too.

It's free to get in and play on the slides or eat at the picnic pavilions.

Carousel rides cost a buck for big people, but are free for anyone under three. A ride on the miniature train costs $2 and is again free for those under three.

We were impressed that the train ride was longer than five minutes, and felt like we got a kinda of sneak behind the scene on this day: park employees were out in full force setting up a Christmas light display.

Looks like this might be a fun spot to bring young ones and get everyone in the holiday spirit ... but we'll be back home in Minnesota by then.

Fountain Hills' Fountain

I've been to Arizona many times. However, since I generally go to visit family, I never feel like I "get out" much.

One place I always get to, though, is Fountain Park, a pretty stretch of green grass and walking paths around a sizable lake with a fountain in the middle. Fountain Park is in the middle of Fountain Hills, a town northeast of Phoenix.

According to area tourism brochures, Fountain Hills is home to the tallest, year-round-operating fountain in the world.

This fountain shoots a 560-foot stream of water into the sky 12 times a day. It goes off every hour on the hour between 10 am and 9 pm.

At its peak, the spray of water is five times taller than the Washington Monument.

On St. Patrick's Day, they fill the fountain with green dye and it shoots an emerald spray into the air at noon. But I've never seen this. The one time I was here on St. Paddy's Day, it rained.

At any rate, the park is a nice place to take a dog for a walk, feed stale bread the hordes of ducks, play a game of frisbee golf or take young kids to play.

There's even a small row of shops on one end where you can find a couple of restaurants with outdoor seating, a coffee shop and wine bar with Friday and Saturday night entertainment. At all of these places, spots facing the fountain always fill up first.

Crossing Desert Sands

When I got this fortune last week, I was excited. Did it mean I would soon be going to Africa? A safari perhaps?

Or maybe to Mexico? A getaway to Cabo? I've been logging too many hours on the keyboard recently. Article assignment after article assignment. A beach vacation would be nice.

But no and no. It's Arizona instead.

How could I have forgotten all about my trip to Arizona for the Thanksgiving holiday? I was so busy spinning foreign desert locations that I totally blanked on my upcoming calendar and scheduled flight to the Sonora.

In fact, it wasn't until I started to think about packing last night that I made the connection at all to my fortune cookie.

But life is like that. We forget to see what's right in front of us because we're too busy dreaming up future adventures. What a timely reminder as I head into these days of gratitude.