Category: States

Pizza Roundup Pisa Lisa

Pizza Roundup Pisa Lisa

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Pisa Lisa has some of the best pizza ever with super tasty gelato, but we’ll talk gelato later.

Pisa Lisa is in Sedona, AZ right on the main strip.

I had a really good feeling about this place. It started off right with some of the best blueberry soda I’ve ever had!

The menu has pizza, salads, panini’s, tapas, and more. So you’re sure to find something you like!

We just got pizza. You could see into the kitchen so we could see the chefs tossing pizza dough.

Now, let’s talk gelato! They had lots of flavors like strawberry cheesecake, raspberry, pistachio, mango, that is all the flavors I remember but there were more.

They also had tiramisu on the dessert menu. This is my dad’s favorite!

I can’t leave out the top notch décor! You know any place that has Elvis already is gonna be good!

The bathrooms were clean and the service was good. Pisa Lisa is definitely getting a 5 star review.

Typing this review made me drool!

See you next time on

Pizza Street!

Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix, AZ

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We’ve been in Arizona for about a month now and we’ve finally made it to the State Capitol Building! We don’t add the state sticker to our map until we’ve been to the Capitol Building, so we’d been looking forward to Phoenix. See the pretty statue on top of the copper dome? It moves! We thought that was a nice touch. I’ve decided the Capitol Campus in Phoenix is my favorite so far.

It’s not my favorite because of the SCB it’s self…although the fact that the original section of the Capitol Building has been made into a wonderful museum, definitely helped put this Campus on the top of my list. The building isn’t the prettiest, the architecture isn’t the most interesting, but the museum was brilliant! We got a look at what life was like in the SBC in the early years. And, we got to see the state flag made from Legos! How cool is that? They also had examples of all the state symbols on display…which we all thought was pretty neat.

The rest of the campus was very lovely with several memorials dedicated to the wars. We spent a couple of hours perusing through the museum and the grounds.

And, of course, there were the flowers! These pink ones were everywhere.

We ended up eating dinner that night at a German place called Haus Murphey’s. The weather was perfect for eating outside. I knew it was going to be a wonderful meal when it started off with creamed pumpkin soup that even Nicholas, who doesn’t like soup, loved.

The meals came and we all made appreciative noises as each plate was presented. I think the waiter got a kick out of our reactions. Ha! We do love our foodies. Everything we had was amazing and best of all, there was enough leftovers for everyone to have lunch the next day! Score!!

We’ve put Haus Murphey’s on our list of places to visit again!

See y’all down the road!

Wildlife Watch: Lost Dutchman State Park

Wildlife Watch: Lost Dutchman State Park

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We did a lot of hiking and exploring while we were in the Lost Dutchman area and we saw a lot of wildlife!

We didn’t have to go far to see Wiley Coyote. This coyote was hanging around our campground. We heard a pack of them howling during the nights, but this one was not in a pack and was attacking cats (and maybe Roadrunners). The Camp Host told us the coyotes in that area will try to eat any food left out on the picnic tables even if it’s just for a few minutes.

We also saw a lot of Gamble’s Quail . They are VERY noisy!!! We didn’t get a picture of any because they wouldn’t hold still. They ran in flocks of five or more and were constantly moving.

We saw several Cactus Wrens too. Cactus Wrens like to build their nests in Palo Verde trees, Cholla, and Saguaro cacti. The Cactus Wren is Arizona’s State Bird. Cactus Wrens will stand on their nest of twigs and mud chirping loudly to let others know that this tree/cactus is claimed, so they’re hard to miss. Somehow, we didn’t get any pictures of them though.

While we were at Tonto National Monument, we saw these snake heads. We don’t know what kinds of snakes they are, but we think one is poisonous and the other one isn’t. Either way, that’s a lot of teeth!

We also saw a Gila Monster replica at Tonto National Monument. The Ranger warned us about how the Gila monster is poisonous. We looked all over the place, but we never got to see a real one.

We did see a bunch of these little lizards everywere.

And…we saw some big spiders (this one was in the bathroom).

The coolest thing we saw was a White-nosed Coati! We found this White-nosed Coati while we were on a scenic drive. I think White-nosed Coati’s look similar to a Red Panda except they have gray short fur. They actually belong to the raccoon family. You can see how long their claws are! They use their tail to help balance and climb. The one in the picture was really curious about us. We stopped and backed up in the car and watched it as it just watched us for a while.

We saw a lot of Jackrabbits. They blend in well with their surroundings and are really quiet so you have to look carefully to find them.

There were also bat houses in the state park we stayed in. We never saw bats going in or out of one, but we did see bats in the area.

Those are the animals we saw at this time! Hopefully we’ll find more down the road!!!

The Lost Dutchman State Park

The Lost Dutchman State Park

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The Lost Dutchman State Park is a 320 acre patch of paradise sitting near the base of the Superstition Mountains in the Sonoran Desert. The Superstition Mountains got their name from Pima Indian legends. The Sonoran Desert is so different than the desert we found in Nevada. Far from the desolation of the Nevada desert, the Sonoran Desert is filled with an abundance of plants and animals that have adapted to survive.

Who is the Lost Dutchman? Well, there are several different versions of the Dutchman’s story. In all of the stories, the Dutchman is Jacob Waltz. A popular version of the tale states that Jacob and a friend found a lost gold mine and hid several caches of gold in the Superstition Mountains, but Jacob was killed before he could properly claim the gold. Now, there are more than a few theories as to how Jacob met his demise. The two version I found the most were that Jacob was killed by the Apaches or that he was killed by his friend. Either one of those ways, wouldn’t be a nice way to go.

We did as many of the hikes as we could. The hiking trails were wonderful! We could see all the way across the valley to Phoenix (bottom left photo above) . And then there were the views of the mountains. I could have found a spot and just sat there looking out at the views for hours.

I mentioned the cholla cactus to you before…the way the spines will fall off of the cactus with just a light brush and embed themselves into things like…skin. At Lost Dutchman State Park, there are Chain Fruit Chollas. If you look at the bottom of the cholla in the left photo above, you can see the little balls of spines that fall off of the cholla cactus. Those sneaky little balls are a menace!

That’s Jerl’s hiking boot. He nudged the cholla ball very lightly. When he kicked to try to get the cholla ball off, it moved it’s way to the top of his boot. He had to use a rock to remove it. Talk about tenacity! See the spines it left in his boot? That’s hard rubber, guys. Just imagine what those spines would do to skin. We avoided chollas as much as we could!

There are a good number of saguaro cactus’ here too. Guys, the saguaros still amaze me!

I thought I would show you what the inside of a saguaro looks like. The Native Americans use the saguaro ribs to get to the saguaro fruits that grow way up on the top of the cactus. Pretty ingenious if you ask me!

We found this really cool sun dial on one of the hikes. It was pretty accurate! And we saw some coyotes while we were there. We heard them a lot. Apparently, the park has some issues with them stealing food from the camp sites…even during the day.

Now, I’ve shared with you our foodie find, but I’ll put it in this post too just in case you missed it. It’s known as The Burger House and it was a 45 minute drive (one way) from where we were staying. Guys, we went there twice in the seven days we stayed at the Lost Dutchman SP. Both times I got the same thing…the Green Mix Burro, Enchilada Style. In the bottom right photo you can see the French fries enchilada style. They were a gooey cheesy mess of yum, but they weren’t as good as the Green Mix Burro.

I have a confession. Until our time here at The Lost Dutchman, I wasn’t super impressed with Arizona. I mean, yeah, it was pretty and yeah, I was seeing new things…but, I hadn’t seen anything that really made me say “Oh, wow!”. Plus, I hadn’t found any truly amazing Mexican food. And, they call their burritos burros…doesn’t burro mean donkey in Spanish? I’ve always wanted to go to Arizona, and I was pretty disappointed with my experience. Our time at Lost Dutchman SP changed that though. I feel like Arizona has redeemed itself some…which is good since we still have a month left in Arizona!

See y’all down the road!

The Apache Trail Drive

The Apache Trail Drive

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The Apache Trail drive is only 46 miles, but plan on spending the entire day exploring this scenic road.

The first thing you should know about this road is that 25 miles of it is dirt. What is it with us and dirt roads? We always seem to find ourselves driving down one. And it’s usually worth it. This drive was no exception. It was worth every dusty, washboard, bumpy mile.

Our first oooo-ahhh view was the Canyon Lake. The sky was overcast so it was hard to see, but the water is a deep blue.

This drive shadows an ancient Apache Indian footpath and has quite a few narrow switchbacks. The dirt road should really have been a one way, but it wasn’t. We would have to find a wide-ish spot and pull over to let a car pass and if heights bother you, this might not be the road for you. There are also several one lane bridges.

But, the views…were…stunning! In the photo above you can see the Painted Cliffs of the Mazatzal Mountains next to the Apache Lake. Guys, I really wish y’all could see this in person. Pictures don’t do it justice. Someone needs to come out with a way to easily and cheaply add 3D photos to blog posts.

Seriously, that should be a thing.

We also got to see the Theodore Roosevelt Dam which was the world’s largest masonry dam back when it was built in 1911. 280 feet high and 723 feet long, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam is impressive. On the other side of the dam is the 23 mile long Theodore Roosevelt Lake where the original town of Roosevelt is now laying underwater.

This is actually where the Apache Trail Drive ends and where the paved road picks back up, but we went on to the Tonto National Monument which was only five more miles down the road.

Tonto National Monument gives you a peek into the lives of the Salado people.

You can walk up the 350 feet to the Lower Cliff Dwelling where a Ranger is posted to not only answer any questions but to protect the artifacts. We got to walk around and through a few of the rooms while the Ranger told us what life was like for the Salado people. There are still a few artifacts left up in the dwelling. In the photo above, you can see a grindstone.

The view of Roosevelt Lake is spectacular from the Lower Cliff Dwelling.

The boys took the opportunity to get another Junior Ranger Badge.

In the visitor center, you can see some of the more impressive artifacts they found in the dwellings. Apparently, until the 1930s people would steal, smash and deface the dwellings, which is why there’s now a Ranger posted there. I’ll never understand some people’s need to destroy. In the right photo you can see a model of the Lower Cliff Dwelling. There used to be 19 rooms and they think there were probably somewhere around 60 people living there. There’s also an Upper Cliff Dwelling that has 40 rooms, but it’s only open from November to April. I imagine we’ll come back someday to do the three mile Ranger hike to see it.

Down the road from Tonto NM there’s a scenic pull-off that gives you a faraway look at the Upper Dwellings. It looks really cool! We’d all like to do the hike there sometime.

While we were exploring, we came across this gem of a place. You’re looking at the best burrito I’ve ever had. It’s called a Green Mix Burro, Enchilada Style. We liked this place so stinkin’ much we ate here twice in the seven days we were in the area. Charlie got the Burger Olé which is a double burger covered in the yummiest green chili. He had to eat it with a fork and knife, but he ate it all.

One of our favorite things to do is take the road less traveled. You never know what amazing vista or interesting foodie place you’ll find.

See y’all down the road!

Tucson, AZ

Tucson, AZ

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Welcome to Tucson, where there’s 350 days of sun a year!

Wait, what?

Yup, we picked the week it rained three out of the seven days we were there to visit Tucson, AZ. Who goes to a desert to get rained on?

We do.

Kind of like when we were hiking through a rain forest in Alaska and it didn’t rain single a drop. Oh well, what are ya going to do? We still had four glorious days of sun to explore the area. And we utilized every moment we got!

Saguaro National Park was at the top of our list of places to see. Saguaro (suh-WAHR-oh) NP is made up of two districts with Tucson in the middle of them.

I wasn’t expecting so much green and life and…mountains. We cautiously did a few hikes here. Between the six different kinds of rattle snakes, the Africanized “killer” honey bees, and the fact that all of the plants are trying to kill you…we didn’t really stray off the beaten path. Seriously, we stuck to the path like our lives depended on it.

Saguaro National Park is a desert with tons of different cacti…and they really do reach out and grab you. Literaly. There’s a type of cactus called cholla that has barbed spines that detach from the plant easily and embed in your skin. Sounds fun, right? No?

There was also an unexpected beauty in Saguaro NP.

The bright colors really stood out next to all of the green and brown. In the desert, even the pretties have teeth.

We never saw any snakes, but we did see some petroglyphs!

We found some shelters built by the CCC! Can you spot them in the photo above? They really blend into the landscape!

The only wildlife we saw was this mule deer. Actually, there were two of them, but we only saw a flash of the other one.

The saguaro cactus is an icon of the American southwest. In a single rainfall, a saguaro may soak up as much as 200 gallons of water, they can live more than 150 years, grow over 60 feet tall, and weigh up to 8 tons. They were impressive in their almost human-like shapes, towering above the rest of the desert.

Mission San Xavier del Bac is called the “White Dove of the Desert”. This is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona. The church is open to the public unless there’s mass taking place. We roamed around the open rooms and the grounds. If you’re ever in the Tucson area, make sure you stop by.

I’ll be honest with y’all…I wasn’t really looking forward to the Titan Missile Museum. I like the outdoor stuff….the hikes and the scenery. Museums aren’t really on the top of any of my lists, but this is one of those times I’m glad we went. The docent did a great job of keeping it interesting and informative. They had some memorabilia out on display. See the canned drinking water in the bottom right photo? They had those for sale. The cans reminded us of when the tornado hit our house and someone came by handing out canned drinking water. The guided tour took us into the control room and explained what life was like for those working at this facility and we got to see the Titan Missile. The boys did the Junior Missileer book while we were there and earned a patch for their effort. We got a surprise when the woman in the gift shop signed their certificate, identifying herself as one of the soldiers that used to work there at the facility!

We found this place as we drove by it. It’s hard to miss with all of the huge planes sitting out front. We got there in the late afternoon and had to rush through it before they closed at 5pm, but we got to see pretty much everything.

The boys learned a little about airplane controls.

Hmmm…I think I’ll take a different flight if these two are at the controls.

The Pima Air & Space Museum is one of the world’s largest non-government funded aerospace museums. There are over 300 aircrafts spread over 80 acres of land. We would have liked to have been able to slow down and get a better look at some of the different kinds of aircraft. It’s definitely worth a visit.

Of course we had to try some of the Mexican food in town. How could we not? We ended up eating at four different places. Two were fantastic (Taqueria el Pueblito, and St. Mary’s) and one was, well…it was food…I think. At St. Mary’s I found out there are rolled enchiladas and flat enchiladas…so, of course, I had to try them both. The rolled enchilada is what most of you are familiar with and the flat enchilada is kind of like a fried disk of the masa that’s on the outside of tamales and then it’s covered with the toppings you want. They were both very good!

The other place we ate is called El Guero Canelo. We ate there because we heard that it’s the place to go to try a Sonoran Style Hotdog. What is a Sonoran Hotdog? It’s a bacon wrapped hotdog with beans, grilled onion, fresh onion, tomato, mayo, mustard, and jalapeno sauce. It’s a big mess. The bun is made in house and is the sweetest hotdog bun I’ve ever had. It was good, but I can’t see myself ever really wanting one again. Jerl didn’t even finish his…it’s not his type of thing. Maybe we got one at the wrong place?

Tucson is an interesting town. There’s enough to do in the area to keep a family busy for two to three weeks. We’ll probably be back in the Spring sometime so we can see the saguaro cactus’ bloom…and for more food.

See y’all down the road!

Pizza Roundup Prospectors Pizzeria

Pizza Roundup Prospectors Pizzeria

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Today let’s talk about the Prospector.

The Prospector is a tasty pizza place in Denali, AK. There is a good selection of pastas, sandwiches, salads, and a huge variety of pizza on the menu.

They have pizza for every taste and really good homemade root beer to drink!

My parents got loaded fries for us to try. They were really good!

The décor was really cool with the antler chandeliers and was very rustic…very Alaskan!

It was really crowded but we had great service. The bathrooms were clean.

Because of all of this, I’m giving Prospector a 5 star review!

This finishes up my pizza reviews for Alaska. Alaskan’s sure love their pizza! We saw so many pizza places and even though we didn’t’ get to try them all, we got to have some really great pizza!

See you next time on

Pizza Street!

A Change Of Plans

A Change Of Plans

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We had originally intended to spend two weeks at the Grand Canyon National Park, but when we got to the RV park we’d planned on staying at, things changed. The park was a total dump and on top of that, Jerl didn’t have good enough cell service to work. We went in search of a new place and ended up staying at a much better place that was even closer to the GCNP, but it was twice the cost and we didn’t have full hookups. So, we changed our plans and only stayed for one week then headed south to Williams, AZ which is about half an hour outside of Flagstaff, AZ. The RV park in Williams was wonderful and the town is right on Route 66 so it’s got some nostalgia.

Since, we were leaving the GCNP a week early we had intended to take that week and get some work done, but then we found the Lowell Observatory and all of our work plans kind of just flew out the window. We ended up spending one entire day and then three evenings at the Lowell Observatory. Yes, we are those kinds of nerds.

The Lowell Observatory was started by a guy named Percival Lowell back in 1894 because he was convinced there were Martians on Mars. Percival was from one of, if not the, wealthiest families of that time. The whole family was made up of brainiacs who were known for spending their money on worthwhile endeavors.

For those of you who don’t know, the Lowell Observatory is the place where Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. With all of the recent Pluto pictures coming out from New Horizons…well, the staff at the Lowell Observatory were all extremely excited.

The first day we spent at the Lowell Observatory was during the daylight hours. You might not think there would be anything to do at an Observatory during the day, but there’s actually quite a bit! We started the day off by looking through a special telescope at the sun.

You can see Alex and our guide, Travis, in the picture above. We all had a few chances to look at the sun and a huge prominence that was coming off the sun at that moment.

We spent time walking around and looking at the different buildings. The Clark Dome just opened back up to the public a week and a half before our visit. It had been closed for renovations for over a year. The Clark Telescope dome is the oldest standing building at the Lowell Observatory. The Clark Telescope was built in 1896 and was used to discover the first evidence of the expanding nature of the universe. It’s a pretty big deal. All of the scientists working at the Lowell Observatory were super excited about it. We got the chance to actually look through this telescope at one of the evening programs. We saw M2 through it. You don’t know what M2 is? Well, we didn’t either… it’s the core of a galaxy that our galaxy absorbed. It was really amazing to see and…it was so pretty!

Because Pluto is such a big deal at this particular observatory and there’s been some really exciting developments with the New Horizons project, we learned quite a bit about Pluto. The Pluto Dome, in the picture above, houses the telescope used to discover Pluto. Now, what’s funny, is that the guy who found Pluto wasn’t actually employed as an astronomer. Nope, Clyde Tombaugh was actually on the grounds staff. When Percival Lowell decided to spend time finding Planet X, no one wanted to do it because it was such a tedious project and they thought it was kind of beneath them, so it got assigned to the “lower” staff. Clyde Tombaugh was a poor boy from Kansas who wanted to go to college to become an astronomer, but couldn’t afford it so he took a job at the Lowell Observatory in hopes of learning more. He found the work fascinating and spent as much time at night as he could searching. As you can imagine, once he found Pluto, he had offers from several colleges for a full ride. He ended up going and getting his Astronomy Degree then working at the Lowell Observatory as an Astronomer.

This is the astrograph telescope used to discover Pluto. An astrograph telescope is a type of telescope used exclusively to take pictures. You can see the big square at the bottom of the telescope where they would put the glass slides in.

Finding a planet in this manner is painstaking work. You’re basically comparing little blips on glass plates to see if they’ve moved. In the left picture above, you’ll see one of the two glass plates used to confirm the discovery of Pluto. Since planets move and stars don’t, these plates allowed Tombaugh to see the slight movement of Planet X (Pluto) when compared to the background stars. Some of Tombaugh’s ashes were placed in a little container on the New Horizons space probe and when New Horizons passed by Pluto…well, the guy who discovered the planet was the first to go there. Percival Lowell was so passionate about his work in astronomy, his mausoleum is on the grounds right next to the Clark Dome. Notice the glass dome on the mausoleum? Someone said that’s so he can always see the stars.

We ended up going back three nights in a row because we didn’t want to miss any of the lectures. We had a couple of favorites. In the picture above you can see part of the Cosmic Zoom lecture where we got a virtual tour of our solar system and the universe. This guy (in the red shirt) was great! He kept it flowing and entertaining. And the projector they used was super cool! Our little nerds were completely absorbed with the lectures.

We also heard the Sky Tonight lecture. It was with a different guy…who wasn’t quite as good. But the material was still interesting.

There was a section of the night where they did some science experiments. We got to look at some pretty spectrum lights through some special glasses. I could’ve spent a long time looking at the different gasses through the spectrometer. Each gas had a different color range that showed up. I didn’t get any pics because the lights were all out and I didn’t want to be that lady. The liquid nitrogen experiment was probably the boys’ favorite. I mean…liquid nitrogen is always fun, right? All of the experiments were great and they did a wonderful job explaining space in terms kids could easily understand at any age.

We did make it to the Pluto & NASA’s New Horizons lecture. Kelly, the lecturer, was really knowledgeable and extremely passionate about Pluto. She did a great job at keeping it entertaining. We got to see some very amazing photos of Pluto. In the picture above, you can see what they’re calling The Heart. What’s super amazing is that the surface of Pluto is still alive! It’s still changing and moving! Very exciting!

There’s been a naming frenzy going on now that scientist have been able to really get a good look at Pluto and some of it’s moons. I pulled the right picture above off the internet so you can see some names that have been unofficially chosen for some of Charon’s craters, plains, and chasms. For those of you who don’t know, Charon is Pluto’s biggest moon. My personal favorites are Tardis Chasma, Gallifrey Macula, and Vader Crater. There’s a large dark feature on Pluto that’s being called Balrog. None of these names are official, but it’s fun for right now. The IAU will eventually officially name everything, but maybe some of these names will stick. Don’t worry, I won’t totally nerd out on you. I’ll leave the lecturing to the pros at the Lowell Observatory.

If you want to keep up on all things Pluto you can search the hashtag above.

We enjoyed the observatory so much we ended up getting a membership that gets us into around 300 other observatories and places of nerdery. The Alex and Nicholas have decided that not only are they going to be Park Rangers…they are going to be Astronomy Park Rangers and work in the dark sky parks so they can give Ranger Walks at night.

See y’all down the road!

Pizza Roundup Uncle Joe’s

Pizza Roundup Uncle Joe’s

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Uncle Joe’s is a nice tasty pizza place in downtown Anchorage, AK.

The décor was good, it looked like typical pizzeria. Nothing special.

The pizza was great, but they had more than just pizza!

They had Calzones, gyro’s (my brother got the gyro and it wasn’t very big), and more.

Uncle Joe’s had to share a single bathroom with a few other restaurants but it was clean.

I’ll give Uncle Joe’s a 4 star review.

See you next time on

Pizza Street!

Wildlife Watch Grand Canyon

Wildlife Watch Grand Canyon

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One of my favorite things about being outside is seeing all of the animals. Here are some of the wild animals we saw while visiting the Grand Canyon National Park.

I’ll start with the squirrels because we saw so many of them. We saw 3 different species of squirrels.

Abert’s squirrel (we didn’t get a picture of one of these, but this is what they look like),

Golden mantled squirrel (we saw these everywhere!),

and the common tree squirrel. There were signs all over warning about how dangerous the squirrels are. They have fleas that carry the plague and squirrels are known to bite. A squirrel bite can get infected fast. One of the Rangers told us that out of all of the animals at GCNP, squirrels are the most dangerous because they beg for food or water and will sometimes bite.

The squirrels at GCNP are NOT afraid of humans. You can see how close the squirrel in the picture above gets to a group of humans.

Outside of the Grand Canyon Market Place we saw a herd of elk munching on the grass and leaves scattered through the trees. When it is hunting season, the elk go to Grand Canyon NP for shelter because hunting is not allowed at the National Park. Pretty smart of the elk!

We saw about 7 females and 1 male at the market place. One of the female elk was on the sidewalk close to us, on our side of the fence. She was just walking and eating grass and leaves and didn’t seem to mind the humans gathering to watch.

This male elk (buck) had one side of his antlers messed up. One side pointed downward and wasn’t as big as the other side.  We saw a lot of elk at GCNP, but didn’t get to take pictures of the others.

When we walked the rim trail, we saw a tarantula with its front two legs disconnected from its body. The unattached legs were twitching on the ground. It was kind of cool to watch!

At Hermits Rest we saw a snake which we believe was a baby California king snake in a hole on the side of a statue.

There were a ton of different kinds of birds at GCNP. We didn’t get pictures of very many of them. It’s hard to get a good picture of something that doesn’t hold still for long. My brother took the picture of the bird above.

Those are the animals we saw at Grand Canyon National Park, maybe we will find more down the road.