Arizona Road Trip 2019- Parker to Phoenix ( London Bridge in Lake Havasu)

We woke up early and enjoyed our included breakfast buffet at the Hampton Inn. Although we were told that the hotel was filled to capacity, breakfast was surprisingly quiet. It also included more hot options than the usual Hampton Inn breakfast. The Parker Hampton Inn is not located in the nicest area, but it was definitely a cut-above average for the hotel brand.

Dan hates to backtrack on road trips, but we decided that it was worth it to check-out The London Bridge in Lake Havasu. In 1968, the city founder of Lake Havasu, Robert P. McCulloch, won a bid to buy The London Bridge and he had it brought over from England, brick-by-brick, to be reassembled in Arizona. The original London Bridge from the nursery rhyme, had been replaced with this bridge in 1831. This “new” London Bridge began to sink and was not efficient for modern living, so the city of London decided to auction it off. It’s definitely unique to have a piece of London in Arizona and it was just thirty-minutes out of our way, so we had to make the effort to see it.

Lake Havasu is a resort town in the desert that is filled with snowbirds in the winter and is known for being the west coast spring break party central. I had visited once before in my early-twenties (not for spring break) and didn’t think much of the area. It was back then, as it is now, kind of a dead town. The London Bridge is one of the main attractions and much is made to promote it. There is even a little tribute to England with lions and red phone boxes. It’s tacky and touristy, but we were delighted. Gone from my first visit, was a British Pub. They need to bring back the pub; My husband wanted a full-English breakfast!

Another phone-less, phone box was located near the water, in front of The London Bridge!

The overcast weather was perfect for our little piece of London.

The bridge had a section covered in love locks.

Here is a view from the bridge, showing a few of the many boat rental shops.

Posing with “The Dedication” statue.

A visit to The London Bridge would not be complete without a stop at the gift shop. We did buy our obligatory fridge magnet, but we skipped the teapot.

We spent about thirty minutes at Lake Havasu. It was just enough time to enjoy the bridge. If the weather had been nicer, it would have been great to rent a boat and get out on the lake. While I don’t think I’d come back to Lake Havasu for a full vacation, it is worth a short visit.

It was a quick backtrack to Parker, where on the drive we enjoyed the views of mountains, rivers, and a million RV parks. I cannot emphasize enough the volume of RV parks. It was staggering.

In Parker, we made a quick pit-stop at a Walmart to buy “bug resistant” windshield wiper fluid. The bugs were too mighty for the special fluid and we were battle guts the entire trip. We did see a fun display of Parker Monopoly at Walmart. Perhaps we didn’t spend enough time in Parker to really appreciate it, but we were very surprised that the town had its own monopoly game!

On the drive to Phoenix, the sun started to come out and the cool weather melted away. Nature knew that we were ready for pool time!

A little less than three hours later, we reached Phoenix! We drove near downtown, but not through it.

A few exits from our hotel, I saw a familiar name: Glendale Avenue was the major cross street for my childhood home in Glendale, California!

In my next post, I will review our stay at an amazing resort in Phoenix, Arizona!

Arizona Road Trip 2019 - Big Bear Lake to Parker

We have had a really cold, snowy, dreary winter, so in efforts to escape to somewhere warm, Dan and I hopped in our truck and went on a last-minute road trip to Arizona. I had been to Arizona, but I had not seen much of the state, including its capital, Phoenix. It was early March and Phoenix looked to have pool weather = mid-high 70’s, so it was the perfect place for our escape.

I love road trips. Even when the unexpected happens ( like getting lost and driving a day out of our way in remote Utah), I’ve never had a bad time on a road trip. Road trips invite discovery and adventure. You get a real sense of a place, visiting towns that are not over-run with tourists. For example, on that Utah trip, we discovered an amazing restaurant in the middle of a field, where I ate the best cherry pie that I have ever tasted! I get a huge amount of joy from planning a vacation, but I like how on a road trip, we always find places that I never encountered during my planning. Road trips are by nature flexible and this aspect is exciting.

We hit the road early on a Friday afternoon. The first part of our drive was familiar, taking us off of Big Bear mountain and into the stunning desert landscape of the Lucern Valley. We’ve done this drive dozens of times: it’s our road to one of our favorite destinations, Las Vegas. However, for the first time, we were able turn off on the 40 East and head towards Needles!

I never grow bored with desert landscapes. I love the soft palette of buttery sand and pale green cactus. The blue sky was filled with clouds. We took tons of pictures until we lost the light.

We got excited when we spotted a helicopter on a trailer!

Here’s a shot of Dan behind the wheel! A big thank you to Dan for doing nearly all of the driving. I took over for a little bit on the way home, but Dan did about 90% of the driving on our four-day trip. We drove for over twenty hours!

As the sun was setting, the landscape was changing. The hills were turning more jagged and the colors was becoming tangerine and rust. We both wished that we had been able to start our drive earlier in the day, as we were missing the stunning Arizona scenery. A road trip is all about the views and driving at night spoils it. The last few hours of the day were driven in the dark.

We battled bugs on our trip! Well, actually they died on our windshield and we battled the heavy accumulation of bug guts!

On the first night, we stayed at a Hampton Inn in Parker, Arizona. I have to confess that the hotel was not in the best area. The Hampton Inn was lovely and consistent with the brand. I’m a fan of Hampton Inn, I always find them to be a decent and reliable place to stay. The guy at check-in gave us a huge bag of snacks and extra water, so that was a bonus. Unfortunately, the hotel’s location was in a very industrial area with several unsavory looking people lurking nearby. I would not have felt safe outside of the hotel, if I had been alone.

We walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant called Maya’s Restaurant. Immediately, I liked Maya’s Restaurant because of the warm welcome that we received from the staff.

Although it was a Friday night, the place was dead and we were among a handful of customers. The decor was festive, even if the vibe was quiet. It looked to me that it had originally been a 1950’s diner that had been changed to a Mexican restaurant.

We kicked off our mini-vacation with a large banana margarita for me and a Corona for Dan.

We feasted on the combination (shrimp, steak, chicken) fajita platter. My mouth is watering just remembering our meal!

In a store window next to Maya’s Restaurant, I spotted this picture. It made me laugh, but I also took it as a reminder to keep from getting speeding tickets on this trip. I’m happy to report that this was a ticket-free holiday!

We were back in our hotel room before nine and asleep, getting rest for all of the fun that we were about to have on Saturday!

Brick and Mortar: The Closing of Samuel French on Sunset

A few days ago, I heard that Samuel French Film & Television Bookshop, is closing its Sunset Boulevard location at the end of this month. I felt crushed by this news. Samuel French, especially the Sunset blvd. location ( other locations still live on,) has been one of my favorite places since I was a teenager. Bookstores are magic and for a theatre lover, Samuel French is the most magical of all.

My love of theatre and plays began well before I discovered Samuel French. It started in elementary school, when I was about ten and I found the play section at our local Crown Books. My mom and I used to have an amazing ritual, where every Friday night we would go the bookstore and she would buy us each a new book. As soon as I discovered theater, I began to amass quite an impressive collection of plays. Neil Simon, especially his Brighton Beach Trilogy, was the first playwright that I really loved. I read plays and became familiar with playwrights, before even attending my first play. My mom had instilled a love for books and movies (our Sunday morning ritual was a trip to the cinema), but she wasn't a fan of live theater.

As soon as I saw my first play, I was hooked. It was a production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I would guess that many Los Angeles kids of my generation had this same show as their first musical or theatre experience. It ran at the Ahmanson Theatre for four years and to say it was a big deal in Los Angeles is an understatement. I ended up seeing it seven times during its run.

Shortly after, I auditioned for The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and was accepted to begin my sophomore year as a theatre major. I love theater and respect the art of acting, but acting was never for me. I love my high school, the friends that I made, and the many incredible experiences that it afforded me, but I wish at the time that my school had offered a writing department. It would have been a better fit for me. I did take the optional playwriting classes, where I worked on abysmal experimental theater pieces that I’d be mortified if they ever come back to haunt me!

It was through LACHSA, that I discovered Samuel French Bookshop. It changed my life. My passion for plays was no longer relegated to the single bookcase that most bookstores offered, but now I had an entire store of theatrical books. AN ENTIRE STORE!!!

Samuel French had two locations in Los Angeles. The smaller location was in Studio City and it’s lovely, but the real prize was the Sunset Boulevard location in Hollywood. Both bookstores were located about a twenty minute drive from my house, but asking my mom for a trip to Samuel French, was akin to asking her to drive me to Florida. She hated it. I think worse, she knew that it wasn’t as simple as a quick shop, that she could leave me to browse all day. She would agree to quarterly visits or if I desperately needed something for school ( this was the early/mid 90’s, before online shopping was a thing) and she would wait in the car with a novel, while I had about an hour to shop.

When I had my first car and could drive myself, it was bliss. I would spend hours discovering new playwrights. Samuel French on Sunset blvd was my happy spot. I continued to be a regular customer for many decades and it was a bookstore that not only brought me so much joy, but opened me up to new writers and new worlds.

Learning about the closure, I’m not only sad for what will no longer exist, but I feel guilty. Through changes in my life and reading habits, I have not been a recent customer. I have not visited Samuel French in over five years. One of the reasons that the store is closing, is because more customers are shopping online, they cannot justify a brick and mortar store. The delight of browsing and the thrill of discovery is a unique aspect of physical bookstores. I am using this as a stark reminder, to keep shopping at physical bookstores, to keep spending my money in the stores, rather than online. As much as I love the convenience of online shopping, it simply does not replace the magic of a physical bookstore. Online stores cater to well-known authors, rather than exploring new or lesser known talent. The experience for a book lover does not compare.

Samuel French will continue to exist in other physical locations and online, but it hurts that the Sunset location is closing. It really hurts.