The other evening I was “hanging” with my family while Donna and Claire were off at her parent’s, and my father was having his annual Christmas dinner for the girls in his office. Partners are strictly forbidden unless you are a part-owner and because of his own self-imposed rule, his own son wasn’t permitted to attend. I was with my mother in South Side near the restaurant already due to shopping but I wasn’t allowed because then the girls would bitch about their boyfriend/best friend/father of their child who couldn’t come along. I told my mother it was all ok, and that I was going to walk the streets of South Side since it was my old stomping grounds. She gave me her bus pass and sent me on my way. If you know South Side this next part’ll make sense. If not, that’s why Google made Street View.

I walked from the Hot Metal Bridge area near Cheese Cake Factory down to Primanti’s at 19th Street. Primanti’s is a staple of Pittsburgh, and I got my favorite Pastrami no tomatoe add egg extra cheese and a Yeungling. Yum! I wolfed down the food, pulled my hat over my ears and kept going. It was dark out, and I had called my sister to meet me after work near the mall by my parent’s where the trolley terminated. At 14th street I walked into The Beehive where I use to spend almost every evening when I was in grad school and some years in high school; it’s changed a bit since then, but it always has memories for me. I got a coffee to warm up, shot some photos of my DSLR shoved in my coat, and walked outside. I stopped across the street where there use to be a bank that was now a bar. After 20 minutes of waiting and tweeting from my phone to record my journey, the bus came. I flashed my mum’s pass and road down towards Station Square.

After jumping from the bus, I ran across East Carson to the trolley. I shot some photos while waiting 10 minutes for the trolley to the Village. Then I went to send another message, but no phone. Uh oh. No PHONE! I checked my pockets. Got my iTouch, point&shoot, wallet, bus pass, Canon, scraps of paper, gloves, and hat. NO PHONE! Trolley came. I didn’t get on. I let it pass by me, and I retraced my steps back across the busy road, looking for a smashed BlackBerry in the road. Nothing. I looked at everyone on a phone and wonderered. Then I walked back up the trolley ramp. The next one came. I got on. I’d given up. I sat down and waited for my stop 20 minutes later.

Across the aisle was a lady chatting away on the phone about only God knows what, and when she hanged up I asked if I could use her phone to call my ride. She agreed but then her stop came up as it rang. I handed it back, and thanked her. I sat there wondering if my sister, Meghan, would be there to pick me up in the cold winter night. I finally walked to the front of the train and asked a man if I could use his BlackBerry; he agreed.

I called Meghan, she answered, and immediately said “they found your phone!” My heart lept. I told her I was close and almost there. She said she’d been waiting. I jumped from the trolley after wondering if I had to shell out hundreds for a new phone and climbed into her car. She told me the bus driver had my phone and it’d be at the Collier Garage after midnight. I asked where the hell the Collier Garage was. Meghan said it was in Bridgeville, which wasn’t far from my parent’s new place. I texted my mum from Meghan’s phone and since she use to live in the area, said she’d drive me later.

At 11:40pm we left for Bridgeville and I walked into the Port Authority Transit dispatch at midnight with my ID card. As the man handed over my phone, he said no one usually picked up lost and found that quickly and he wished me a Merry Christmas.

Yes Virigina, There still are nice people in this world.

The weekend of September 11, 2009, Donna, Claire and I joined our friends at Upper Tonto Creek campground where we spent three really relaxing days far from technology and work. It was really nice. We hit the local hatchery, did some fishing, drove up the rim and relaxed.

I don’t mind traveling for work, and I enjoy flying around the country (for the most part), but being away from Claire is hard. When she was two months old she flew to PA while I took a trip down the east coast. This was a little hard because she was so new, but her mother was with her so that helped. In 2007 Donna and I flew to Europe without Claire. I’d been away from her for a few days before flying to Berlin that year, and by the time I hit Vienna I missed her so much. I can dig a day here or long weekend there, but once again she’ll be off to PA this summer to see her grandparents. I will literally be away from my daughter for 21 days: 3 weeks. Yes, I realize she will be around her grandparents and family and busy, and I will be super busy myself but it’s still hard. I hope to talk to her a few times, and I hope to Skype her. I will have to get my mother-in-law access to my ning to post photos of Claire so we can all enjoy them, too. Things’ll work out but it’s always a little disconcerting. In another decade she can just stay with us during this time and all will be fine.

Recently Donna and I were searching for a place to camp during Spring Break 2009, and since the winter had been so cold up north we knew we had to choose carefully if we wanted to not be too cold at night. A few friends recommended different places, and the wife and I finally agreed on Burnt Corral on Apache Lake three miles south of Roosevelt Dam. Initially a large group was going but everyone fell out except for us. The Burnt Corral Campground descriptions I found said that the temps were mild, there was swimming and fishing, and it was within two hours of our home.

There are two ways to get to Burnt Corral. One is through Apache Junction and up the Apache Trail. The other is to take the Beeline Highway north and cross back before you hit Rye, AZ. I had heard the Trail was very scenic but a harder drive. I also knew it was a shorter distance, so we figured it was the best way to go. I didn’t realize that this was 22 miles of unpaved, pot holed, dirt road. I enjoyed the drive, but the wife didn’t like it so much; she would’ve been more scared if the GPS didn’t show up exactly where we were.

After about 90 minutes we pulled off Highway (if you can call it that!) 88 and down to the campground along Apache Lake. We pulled into a mesquite grove with limited shade, and I had expected more greenery but I was ok with the site we found. We drove in around 2pm on a Friday and most sites were already filled with people. The flat area below was very crowded and was completely open where you were up against your neighbors, so we opted for a site up the hill a bit. Our site had a large mesquite tree that gave us some shelter, but this also dripped some sap on our camp. Because we were camped near the lake, gnats and mosquitoes were all over the place (but they never bit us). After setting up camp a man two sites over was playing his music loudly but because it was midday and quiet hours weren’t until 10pm, there was nothing we could say.

When researching camp grounds online, I went to http://www.camparizona.com; this site said that I could buy firewood from the host. While we were unpacking the site, the Forest Service came around to check tags. I asked about the firewood and he said the hosts do NOT sell firewood and the closest place to buy it was 16 miles away! Seriously. We also had forgotten some other things, so I made the round trip 32 miles (of which 8 miles were on the Apache Trail). This wasn’t cool, but I was only gone for about 75 minutes.

When camping in AZ we try to find something cooler that the valley, and this was not that place. It was in the 80s and really sunny; at night it dropped to 50s and 60s. One night I wore my fleece and shorts and the other night I only had on my pants and tshirt. In our attempt to go somewhere not to cold, we ended up somewhere almost too warm. That was ok with Claire who immediately was drawn to the beach. It was a sandy beach without fear of rocks. Other little children were sprinkled across it, but to my chagrin, I didn’t realize that Apache Lake doesn’t have limits on boat noise. Believe me that these speed boats was very loud!

If you’re looking for a quiet, peaceful place, this is not it. Also, this place is close to Apache Junction and some of the locals were obviously here. The man with the loud radio, also played it at 1AM. I was just glad we could fall back asleep. By the second night when he was playing the radio again at 2AM, Donna went over to yell at him. The next morning we complained to the Forest Service Ranger who asked him to leave the camp immediately.

Moreover, we did get to do some fishing, but most spots were too choppy from the boats or too shallow. Claire and I walked down the trail to the north side of the camp and found some rocks that dropped of into the lake where she proceeded to reel in a 10″ small mouth bass within minutes. I shot several photos and then tried to catch myself one, but after about an hour we gave up. I was concerned about killing and gutting the fish in front of her, but I wasn’t about to sugar coat it. I was being honest with her, and gutted the fish together, and Mama picked us up.

We spent three days camping here, and I am not about to run back there, but we sure did have a nice time, met some nice people (with a daughter Claire’s age), swam each day, got too much sun, played cards, ate smores, and took naps.

Each time I have a chance to go to San Francisco, it never disappoints. This time it was the recent Conference on College Composition and Communication. A good friend of mine has recently co-published a research writing handbook, which was being pushed at this conference so a few of us decided to go to support her. We stayed just on the edge of The Tenderloin on the side of Nob Hill and had an awesome time. During the day, it was great session after great session but night time was all about site seeing, being wined and dined by the publishers and hitting some nightlife.

I was there for five days and was able to go to dinner at The House with family friends, we also hit the Empress of China restaurant in Chinatown after a cable car ride, and last night three of us spent most of the night in The Haight and in North Beach. Beautiful time and pictures coming to a Flickr near you (search ours for “cccc09″).

Donna and I visit the Payson/Pine/Strawberry area often (me more than her), and last summer I was excited to head up there and get out to see some nature. My friend, Coop, recommended Tonto Natural Bridge north of Payson off the Beeline, so after a wonderful weekend at Angelika’s cabin, we drove over there for an afternoon. For me, it was one of the coolest things we’d seen in Arizona, and I’ve talked about the state park to friends and students ever since. Many people have eagerly said they were going based on my recommendation alone, and I even blogged the experience here.

Tonight I was surfing through my gmail and checked today’s Flickr uploads. My friend and colleague Alan who lives near Tonto Natural Bridge posted a VERY disturbing photo on Flickr with an equally disturbing caption. I will post the entirety below, but here’s the link to the original.

“Short Sighted Government Stupidity in Action” posted to Flickr by Cogdog on March 3, 2009.

Hmmm, I’ve been waiting for a local cause and here it is. The far seeing Arizona state legislature has slashed $35 million from state parks, which are closing like falling dominoes across the state.

To me, the staggering stupidity of closing a park like this is much deeper then the grand canyon. Hopefully some of the dusty heads in Phoenix will get a clue.

This is ridiculous. Everything President Obama is fighting to fix nationally is still being screwed by local government. According to the official Tonto site, the park is closed because of maintenance which may be true but many of us question the validity of the timing. The site says it may be closed only six months so we’ll see. In the meantime the official press release states that it’s because the lodge roof leaks. I’ve been there, the lodge is NOWHERE near the bridge itself. According to Assistant Parks Director, Jay Ream, after the repairs are completed “after completion the Board will re-evaluate the budget situation for re-opening,” which means they’re being vague enough to screw the people who love this place in the end. I suggest all of you call Arizona State Parks at (602) 542-4174 (outside of the Phoenix metro area call toll-free 800-285-3703), ask for Jay Ream’s and tell him to keep our beloved parks open. While I am serious about the state government not following suit when it comes to turning around our current recession, I am not getting into what I’ve not properly researched, so I will only leave you with the beautiful video I have of the first (and what may be the last time) I am able to share such a wonderful natural wonder with my daughter.

Tonto Natural Bridge from Devon Adams on Vimeo.

Recently I needed to get out of the desert, and it’s always great to have friends who have a cool cabin in the woods 90 minutes north in Payson, AZ. We don’t get there as often as we should, but recently we were invited. My wife is in grad school and needed to be online to finish and post her final paper was worried about this project. I contacted my friend Alan Levine who lived in the area, and he mentioned a coffeehouse called Fireside Espresso at the corner of Forest Road and the Beeline Highway. The wife agreed to check it out, and off we went.

Now, I’ve been to some pretty cool coffeehouses in places like Pittsburgh, San Francisco, New York City, London, etc… until last week there were no coffeehouses in Arizona that lived up to my expectations. FIreside Espresso changed all of this.

Sure this coffeehouse is in Payson and isn’t actually in Phoenix, but it’s a helluva cool drive up the Beeline and I can be sitting in Fireside Espresso in 90 minutes. The red and white building is on a corner near a gas station with a large logo of a man drinking coffee over a campfire. The cozy “partner-up” atmosphere continued inside. The sage walls jutted up from wood floors surrounded by a large space sectioned off into smaller rooms. One large section had a fireplace and welcoming leather couch where a man was sleeping when I first went in. Across the entire front of the building were windows and large sitting areas. I saw a local group of folks playing Scrabble one time I went and the other time I went there was a single’s Bible study at the long wooden, polished table. This is the perfect place to have informal meet-ups in this area.

My wife grabbed a table in an area that is used for Open Mic Night and booted her computer; she was quickly online while I ordered several things. The barista explained all food is made from scratch right there on site, and I quickly ordered various scones and quiche. It felt like most people were locals or at least treated like locals. The barrister turned out to the be the owner, Amy Anderson. Amy made several recommendations for drinks and deserts before we grabbed some seats. We had three children between ages 2-5 with us; Amy and every customer there didn’t even raise an eyebrow when they ran across the stage or shouted through the coffeehouse.

The quiche was phenomenal and the Americano was the perfect wake me up. On the menu I saw a drink called a “London Fog”, so I asked Amy what it was. I’d never heard of it and later realized it’s more popular than I knew. I told her that i wanted one the next time I came in, which just happened to be three hours later. She turned back to make one of the best drinks I had, which I later discovered was steamed milk, Torani vanilla, and earl grey tea bags (the secret is to steep for only 2 minutes!) Amy mentioned that she had been in the business for four years and ran Fireside Espresso for two of them.

I’ve been searching for a coffeehouse that felt like family — a Cheers for the caffeine set, I suppose. Fireside Espresso is this place. Drive up, go see Amy, tell her I said hello and to have my London Fog ready the next time I head north for some weather.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a few weeks now, and I wish I’d written it the day my wife told me, but life happens, eh? Andrew Wyeth is dead. You know, I’ve always been an artist at heart and what that means has mutated and evolved over time, but traditionally speaking Andrew Wyeth is my favorite artist. He lived in Chadds Ford, PA and painted that which he knew—those people and places around him like Western PA and Maine, his friend, family, and, of course, Helga. Ah you can’t forget about the German blond haired blue-eyed beauty. He painted Helga nude for years supposedly without telling his family. The only time I’ve ever been to the Brandywine River Museum near West Chester, PA I saw Helga’s dirty blond hair painted meticulously as Andrew’s granddaughter, Victoria Wyeth, talked of her grandfather’s work. I’d never been more enamored in an artist’s life story before – a story I came to serendipitously on my own. Sure, I like Dali for Dali. I like Warhol growing up in Pittsburgh, and I like Basquait because they made a movie about him. Wyeth was all my own and I didn’t have to share that love with anyone. I moved through his galleries that afternoon and just existed among the stories and the art. I will miss you, Andrew. Thank you for leaving me the gift of your paintings.

While growing up in Pittsburgh and traveling extensively domestically and internationally public transportation was a given. During grad school I rode the bus and subway daily with my mum to town from the suburbs. When we moved to Phoenix, the paucity of public transportation surprised me. We have a bus system here, but it’s terrible. The Port Authority Transit (PAT) system in Pittsburgh rocked. The buses were on time and went everywhere we wanted to go. In Phoenix, I couldn’t even tell how bad the buses are. Several years ago now, we, Arizona residents, voted in a proposition to raise money for a light rail system (think subways or trolleys above ground). The light rail system opened at the beginning of this month.

Claire and I decided we to take the light rail into Phoenix to go to the downtown farmer’s market Saturday. She’d never been on public transportation (other than the airport shuttle), so it was fun for both of us. We packed our belongings and headed out. The light rail was packed because it’s such a novelty right now, but we found seats.

I think I expected the light rail to move quicker, as it took an hour to get from Apache & 101 to Central Avenue. Along the way there were a ton of cool places to go back to, including restaurants and bars I’ve never seen. The train also passed the AZ Science Center (to where we have a membership!), Chase Field and America West Arena. It also passed two cool breakfast places and then headed up Central Ave towards my destination. There’s a lot of new businesses cropping up along the route, and I expect even more within a year or so.

We’d gotten moving after morning gymnastics, so it was a little later than I’d hoped. As we walked up to the market, a man was pulling down the welcome sign. I glanced down at my watch and saw it was 12:59. I sure wish I’d seen that it closed at 1pm! We moved quickly around and picked up a couple things as they closed up shop. Claire bought some honey, and I bought a carton of dates. We walked down Central just to check out what was around. We came upon Central Station and hopped the train home. Claire slept most of the way home, and I enjoyed the trip but knew if I’d just driven up then it would’ve been way quicker (think about it, I could’ve driven to Payson and back). For commuters, the train’s great because you’re not sitting in rush hour (time to sleep, read, listen to music, or work while someone else drives you to work downtown).

Dan & Madeline moved to Amsterdam in February 2008, and since then I haven’t seen them until today. They called a month ago to say they’d be in AZ around New Year, and we realized our schedule would overlap just for this evening. We flew back from Pittsburgh this morning, got a ride home, picked up the dog, had lunch and watched the Cardinals kill the Falcons before Dan & Madeline got here with dinner.

Their daughters are 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 and Claire’s 3 1/2, so we all figured our house would be better than going out. It was freshly clean since we’d not been here so we quickly agreed for them to bring dinner.

Dan’s an Intel engineer doing an Expat program, and while Madeline’s in Amsterdam she’s picking up another law degree. Lilliane and Amelie are enjoying learning from the nannies and taking in a culture many american children aren’t exposed to at this age. We spoke of family, holidays and work over a nice meal, which was finished with cake and black tea for Dan & I and wine for the ladies. The girls played nicely together after the Mahoney girls realized Claire’s agressiveness was mostly just excitement to have her friends come over. (I know she shouldn’t remember Amelie, but I sure bet she remembers Liilane.)

We talked, enjoyed each other’s company, watch Peyton bite it in HD, and then we all said goodbye so they could head back to the hotel to pack and fly back to the Netherlands tomorrow.