The end of My 30 adventures

My 30 adventures to celebrate my 30^th birthday have come to an end.  It might have taken 3 years instead of 1 but I finished it.  I started out with big plans, but before I even got started, I ended up in the ER for An unexpected adventure.

After this setback I had to re plan my adventures, but still had some fun adventures in Arizona and Utah.  

This included The 30th Annual Chandler Chamber Ostrich Festival

and Birdwatching in Gilbert, Arizona and Chandler, Arizona.  

In Utah the Red Butte Gardens Lego display in Salt Lake City, Utah,

“The Sandlot” movie tour in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah 

and Ogden's George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden, Utah.

After more unforeseen circumstances I had to plan and do more things closer to home. 

Like having Peruvian food and seeing the Ansel Adams early works display both in Longmont, CO 

and the Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland, CO.

However, before I got all of these done Covid hit, and I had to go virtual and do the rest from home.  This included watching 30 movies I hadn’t seen, 

building a Lego Christmas tree  and seeing Keukenhof garden in the Netherlands.  

Then I finished with my Virtual Road trip.

 

My adventures never went as planned but I was able to see and do things I didn’t expect. I’m glad I didn’t give up and made it all the way to the end.  Thank you so much for reading and following along, I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did! 

If you want to continue reading my posts, I have another blog Ryan’s Good Eats that you can check out.  I don’t know what my next big adventure might be but I’m looking forward to seeing what life brings next!

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 11

For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 11

We started our day off in Albuquerque and then stopped in Santa Fe for lunch.  Every year we would stop for breakfast or lunch in Santa Fe. 

One year we stopped at Blue corn Café and Brewery and had green chile stew.  We’ve been making it at home ever since and decided to make it for our last meal of the trip.

After this we made the long trip home. 

 

And with that our trip has come to the end of the road.  We saw and learned a lot of new things and even though we never actually left home we were still able to have a great trip!  Thanks for reading and following along.  I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 10

For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

 

Day 10

 

We started off our day in Las Cruces with a breakfast burrito (technically from Las Caras in Denver).  Then we took another Virtual Scenic Drive: Taking a Cruise Up NM Highway 185.

https://www.lascrucescvb.org/scenic-drive-heading-north-on-new-mexico-highway-185/

This showed the Mesilla Valley and headed to the Hatch Valley and the “Chile Capital of the World” Hatch, NM.

Further north we stopped to check out Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, NM.

The Friends of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge website has a bunch of photos and videos about birds, their Desert Arboretum and their Festival of the Cranes.  I spent awhile looking at these and enjoyed them very much.

 

https://friendsofbosquedelapache.org/gallery/

After this fun day we stopped in Albuquerque.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 9

 For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 9

We started off in Tucson and took off east.  Then we made a stop in Lordsburg, NM for lunch.  

A couple of times in the past we stopped at a restaurant named Kranberry’s that had a mining theme.  This might have been the only place in town.  They mostly had breakfast and lunch items.  I had a grilled cheese with ham sandwich.

Next, we took off again toward Las Cruces.  Once there, we watched a Virtual Scenic Drive: Heading Down NM Highway 28 toward El Paso.  I enjoyed seeing the pecan orchards and driving through the little towns.

https://www.lascrucescvb.org/virtual-scenic-drive-heading-down-nm-highway-28/

 

After this we took a Virtual Scenic Drive: Baylor Canyon Road.  This showed the Organ Mountains and the Mesilla Valley.

https://www.lascrucescvb.org/virtual-scenic-drive-baylor-canyon-road/

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 8

For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 8

This day was a very busy day in Tucson!  We started out our day with Saguaro National Park.  Here I watched some videos including the video they show at the park.  I also checked out the NPS photo gallery.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5gf9_c4qlv_DmCL72k8daQ

Photos & Multimedia

https://www.nps.gov/sagu/learn/photosmultimedia/index.htm

 

The next stop was the Pima Air & Space Museum.  I enjoyed watching their flyover video.  They also had videos about some of the planes they have and a couple of virtual tours of the planes outside.

 

https://pimaair.org/about-us/news-and-media-center/

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.1390114,-110.8681212,3a,75y,303.42h,82.95t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAfASMMlULEPHJpgcGTqIiw!2e0!3e5!7i13312!8i6656

 

Pima Air & Space Museum | 360-Degree Tour

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uNuBic6pIU

 

After this was a stop at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  We visited this place a long time ago, but mostly I just remember it being a really hot day.  Their website has a lot of short videos of nature plants and animals.  I liked the Meditation Monday videos the best.

 

https://www.desertmuseum.org/center/edu/dtdo/video/

 

 La Parrilla Suiza was one of the restaurants I remembered from our trips to Tucson.  

So, for dinner we made enchiladas suizas.  These reminded me of this place because the food was more like food from Mexico City.

This was our last part of our time in Arizona, but there is more to come from New Mexico.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 7

 For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 7

 We started out the day with lunch.  We visited an Italian deli DeFalco's Italian Deli and a couple others in phoenix and always enjoyed them. So we made our own Italian deli. 

I ordered some deli stuff mostly from whole food salami, calabrese, mortadella and ham. We put all these meats together with rustic Italian bread, provolone, tomatoes, onions, spinach, pepperoncini and Italian salad dressing.  

This was a pretty much a perfect sandwich that I had with a blood orange Italian soda.

Then we headed toward Tucson.  On the way we stopped at Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUMB25mmRn0

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP0HLoL8uBE

Next we made a stop at Picacho Peak State Park right next door.  I watched a video of a hike on one of the trails.  As well as a google street view tour.

 

Picacho Peak State Park: trail views courtesy of Google Street View

 https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6458604,-111.4006262,3a,75y,159.76h,94.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3HK6EfqZXa_TYxrXFq1EpQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Picacho Peak State Park - Hiking and Campground Tour - Park Travel Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdNbiJx0ovk

After all this we made it to Tucson.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 6

  For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 6

Our first stop of our last full day in Phoenix was the Desert Botanical Garden.  This is one of my favorite botanical gardens I’ve visited over the years. Watching this video tour brought back some great memories.  I really enjoyed looking at all the different cacti and the large variety of other plants.  Here are some pictures I took in the past.

 

 Desert Botanical Garden | Phoenix Arizona RV Travel Destination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcicDvXmy4c

Next we watched the Rockies vs Mariners game on tv. 

This was an alright game for a spring training game.  Along with the game we had some nachos. 

This was individual nacho cheese cups with tamed jalapeños (regular are too hot for me) with round tortilla chips just like at the ballpark.

Nothing too exciting happened during the game until the walk off homerun from Greg Bird that I missed because I was eating my nachos.

We finished off our day with Snickerdoodles.  This reminded me of a restaurant in Phoenix called Chino Bandido, which gave you a snickerdoodle with your meal.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 5

 For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 5

Our first stop of the day was the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM).  Multiple people have told us we should visit but we never did.  

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.6672437,-111.9785815,2a,75y,359.45h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1snsrDQK0ALdsebdvYaX8eiQ!2e0!3e5!7i13312!8i6656

Visiting the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRXJqB3xFvU

 

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MUSEUM visit - PHOENIX AZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCqhmC_QIWY

I’m not really into music, but the virtual tour was interesting to see. I enjoyed the exhibit part split into different countries. I think I liked the Asian section the best.  The videos showed a little more of their other exhibits as well.

 

Next stop was the Phoenix Zoo.  Their website has a nice Digital Safari with videos, photos and information about a bunch of different animals.  

WELCOME TO THE PHOENIX ZOO DIGITAL SAFARI!

https://www.phoenixzoo.org/digital-safari/

I watched quite a few of the videos and enjoyed seeing all the different animals including the sloth, tortoise, tigers, monkeys, elephants and birds.

We then ordered Mexican food from Mi Tierra in Windsor CO.  

I had the Cowgirl burrito which had chicken, potatoes, onions and guacamole and smothered with green chili.  It had pico de gallo on top and inside with very hot jalapeños.

We have eaten at so many Mexican restaurants in the Phoenix area.  One of our favorites is Tortas Chano, a very good family run restaurant with the best tamales! 

You can read my review of Tortas Chano here.  We also enjoyed El Bravo, Rosas, and more.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 4

 For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 4

Our first stop of our first day in Phoenix was the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix.  This is one of my favorite places to visit in phoenix.  I enjoyed visiting because it is a quiet and very peaceful garden.  Here are some pictures I took in the past.

 

We watched a couple of videos which brought back some great memories! We also got to see the Tea garden, which was closed when we visited.

 Morning walk at RoHoEn - The Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PKkvFHG6nI

Tea garden at the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2987690107936027&ref=watch_permalink

Next was a Spring Training baseball game.  I watched a White Sox vs Dodgers game on MLB Network as well as parts of others. 

To go along with the game, we had Ballpark hotdogs with Ballpark mustard and onions.  This is the same kind of mustard they have at Cleveland Indians games including spring training games in Goodyear AZ.  

I also got out my mini-Angels helmet and filled it with Breyers Reese’s ice cream.

Then later we finished our day with pizza night.  We ordered Dominos which is not quite like our favorites in AZ Pomo Pizzeria, Forno 301 or Grimaldi’s but it will have to do.

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 3

For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 3

We started out with breakfast consisting of cinnamon rolls with orange juice and coffee.  Then our first stop was Grand Canyon National Park.   Which is around 74 miles north of Flagstaff, AZ. 

There are a ton of videos, virtual tours and pictures all over the internet, but we just checked out a few things.  I really enjoyed seeing all the pictures and videos and seeing such an amazing place.  I liked seeing the Raft tour pictures as well.

 

Ranger-led walking tour from Bright Angel Trailhead to Maricopa Point with Ranger Dave.

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtour.htm

 

 Colorado River Raft Tour

https://www.usgs.gov/science-support/osqi/yes/national-parks/colorado-river-raft-tour

 

 B-Roll Video Index

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/photosmultimedia/b-roll_hd_index.htm

 

 Photo Gallery

https://www.flickr.com/photos/grand_canyon_nps/collections/

 

 Virtual Tour - South Rim Grand Canyon National Park - Arizona – USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L43Rdc9xW8Q

 

 Our next stop was Antelope Canyon a bit north and east of Grand Canyon near Page, AZ.  I thought the video was really neat to see, since its so different than anything else.

 

 Lower Antelope Canyon

https://antelopecanyon.az/lower-antelope-full-walkthrough-video/

 

 Upper Antelope Canyon - Arizona, USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRw422TpXHU

 

After this we headed to Montezuma Castle National Monument just north of Phoenix.  I enjoyed their virtual tour, photo gallery and the video was pretty good as well.

 

Virtual Tour

https://www.nps.gov/moca/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtour.htm

 

 

 

Photo Gallery

https://www.nps.gov/moca/learn/photosmultimedia/photogallery.htm

 

 Montezuma Castle National Monument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH1GhxvMQoE

 

 After we were done here, we made it to Phoenix!

#30 Virtual Road Trip Day 2

 For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 2

We started the day off with lunch at subway.  We have in the past stopped at the subway in Grants, NM a few times. 

I had the American club sandwich.  Our first stop after lunch was El Malpais National Monument about 20 miles from Grants, NM.  We have stopped at their visitor center in the past but never made it to the actual monument. 

 We checked out their photo galleries.

Photo Gallery

https://www.nps.gov/elma/learn/photosmultimedia/photogallery.htm

I watched a few videos; 

El Malpais National Monument - Part 1 | New Mexico

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S84-WWF5tVc

 

The BEST Activities at El Malpais National Monument | Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmclZ3etfVQ

 

Hiking El Malpais National Conservation Area

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue5W5H5xFCw

I didn’t really like the video in the cave.  I did like the hiking videos and all the scenery. 

  

Next we stopped at El Morro National Monument which is 14 miles away.

We watched a video and checked out their Photo Gallery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WF3t3GnTUM

 

Photo Gallery

https://www.nps.gov/elmo/learn/photosmultimedia/photogallery.htm

And watched an interesting  video about Juan de Archeluta

https://www.nps.gov/elmo/learn/photosmultimedia/multimedia.htm

Then we stopped at Petrified Forest National Park.  We used to stop here for a rest stop and once changed a tire in their parking lot.  

I really enjoyed looking at the photo galleries. 

We also watched the video they show at the visitor’s center.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zTbY4Tl2CQ

Then we made it to Flagstaff for dinner.  We had Italian night because I figured there has to be a good Italian restaurant in Flagstaff. 

We made grilled chicken and gnocchi with Daves Gourmet Creamy Parmesan Romano Pasta Sauce and with garlic bread.  Then we called it a day

 

#30 Virtual Road trip Day 1

 For my final adventure #30 We’re taking a virtual trip through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We’ll be taking virtual tours of different national parks and monuments as well as other attractions, watching baseball games on tv and trying to recreate some of our favorite restaurants and foods. Make sure to follow along for my daily post with pictures, links and videos.

Day 1

We started out Day 1 of our road trip by heading south from Home to Albuquerque.

 

We stopped for lunch at Wendy’s. I had a Dave’s single with fries.   Also, we stopped at Fort Union National Monument.  I looked through their photo galleries.

https://www.nps.gov/foun/learn/photosmultimedia/photogallery.htm

Once in Albuquerque we stopped for dinner. 

 

This was a few different products from New Mexico including The Authentic New Mexican beef with red chile sauce and chicken with green chile sauce enchiladas.  

We also had salsa from Sadie’s, a restaurant in Albuquerque, we got the not so hot salsa.  We found these products at Safeway.  Then we made it to our hotel in Grants, NM and finished Day 1.