Articles Tagged with: Blog

As most people now know, we’ve lived in Delray Beach, FL for just over a month now.  So far, we love it!  However, like any new region, there is that whole “getting used to the new stuff” time period.  For us, that includes critters and drivers.

Let’s compare drivers. Please know this is one person’s (my) opinion, and does not represent the opinions of everyone in Seattle, Phoenix, or Delray Beach.  How’s that for a disclaimer?

Seattle:  The drivers are pretty polite.  Not a ton of road rage, not a lot of tailgaters (unless you’re referring to our kick-ass Seahawks Tailgating brethren), but plenty of just plain bad drivers.  It’s tough to give Seattle an accurate grade because of all the days spent driving in dark or wet conditions.  Most drive 5+ above the speed limit, use turn signals, will let a merging car in front of them, and rarely use their horns.  However, I have met my fair share of full blown crappy drivers during my 23 years in Seattle.

Phoenix:  The drivers are crazy.  Most drive 10+ over the speed limit and they’ll tailgate you like nobody’s business.  That being said, the average skill of driver is well above average.  They’re completely unsafe, but they generally drive with good skills (if that makes any sense).  Let’s just say that overall, they are very aggressive drivers, and have the fifth highest rate of DUI in the country!  Just ask TravelGirl how many drunk drivers she reported during our time in Arizona.  They also enjoy rolling into the crosswalk as they anticipate the light turning green.  It’s a good thing very few people walk in Phoenix, because all the crosswalks are occupied with cars!

Florida:  I only have one month of driving under my belt in the Delray/Boca Raton/Fort Lauderdale area, but the drivers here are overall the worst of anywhere I’ve lived.  You get a complete mish-mash of insane drivers and/or bad drivers who just can’t seem to stay in their own lane while driving or even while parking.  And if there are multiple lanes turning left, look out!  Many drivers here have their own idea of which lane to turn in to.  And the amount of people who aren’t paying attention when the light turns green is unreal.  I guess they’re all re-upholstering their cars at red lights.  This brings me to the one thing I absolutely love about driving here… honking.  If you honk on the west coast, you might as well be flippin’ them the bird.  Here, everybody honks.  I love it.  If you’re screwing up, you should be honked at.  Pay attention! *honk*

Now lets talk about the critters.

Seattle has raccoons, possums, rats, wasps/hornets, and sugar ants.  Most of those are either easy to control or only come out at night, so you don’t see them all that often.

Phoenix has scorpions, cockroaches/palmetto bugs, snakes, black widows, coyotes, lizards and javelinas.  Our battle with scorpions seemed endless until our cat (Patti) adopted us, as they’re immune to scorpion venom.  Saw one black widow and that was it.  Heard coyotes, but we had a walled in yard, so no worries there.  Only had one cockroach and one palmetto bug the 18 months we were there, so no big deal.  Saw one snake on the highway one time and that was it.   TravelGirl saw a javelina, but it was deceased on the side of the road.  Overall, the scorpions were a pain in the neck the first few months, but we ended up getting it under control with a scorpion slaying stick and Patti.

Again, Florida has a mish-mash of critters compared to the two cities above.  Raccoons, possums, wasps/hornets, snakes, cockroaches/palmetto bugs, lizards as well as ghost ants, fire ants, bufo toads, and alligators.  So far, except for the alligators, we’ve seen the entire list of these critters, though some were just laying on the side of the road.  We’ve hired a pest control company to keep the critters under control, and so far, so good.  The bufo toads are the most alarming.  They’re nocturnal and can spray venom on you or your pets.  I found a toad floundering in our pool and then saw another one as I patrolled the yard before letting the dogs out.  Not sure if it was the bufo toad or not, but it’s scary knowing that these toads could kill our dogs. TravelGirl has found three lizards in the shower, but Patti is now on their trail.  All is good.

A key reason we left Phoenix is because of the beach… or lack thereof.  We are currently living 3.4 miles from the beach, which is something we’ve never experienced before (in terms of a true swimming beach – Richmond Beach in Seattle doesn’t count!).  We love it!  The culture and speed of Delray Beach is right up our alley as well.  Atlantic Avenue is awesome, and we can easily find Asian food again on just about any corner.

For now, we’ve found our little slice of paradise – a bit of NW culture, the sun that we so desperately seek, and a friendly and welcoming village.

By TravelGirl:

Last weekend, TravelGuy and I decided to take a trip up to rim country, and check out life in the “not so hot” part of Arizona.  We made our way up to Pinetop, in the heart of the White Mountains.  It’s funny though.  Coming from the NW, to call something a mountain means that it’s really a mountain.  To me, you can ski on a mountain, it snows on a mountain (usually year-round, depending…), and sometimes mountains will erupt (think 1980 Mt. St. Helens).  Mountains and hills are not the same thing in my mind.  So, when we made our way to the White Mountains, I expected to see the snow-topped mountains during our drive, not a forest of green trees with an elevation of 7,000 feet and no “pointy top” (except for Mt. St. Helens of course).  To be fair, we were there in July, so I wasn’t planning to be driving in 12 feet of snow, but I DID expect to see a big pyramid-like natural hill that I could call a mountain.  Well, that didn’t happen.

Nevertheless, the White Mountains (can’t we all just call it the White Hills?) were beautiful!  We stayed in lodge-style accommodations in Pinetop, the perfect location for our weekend adventure.  Our back deck faced the trees…and nothing else!  This area of Arizona boasts the largest concentration of Ponderosa Pines in the world!  The pine trees, though a different variety, really added a NW flair to the area, complete with sightings of squirrels and birds fighting over food in the trees. 

Having not been camping in two years, we REALLY needed this weekend to get back to nature.  Phoenix isn’t exactly an earthly locale, so this getaway was perfect.  Near Pinetop is Show Low, and our research indicated that the Show Low Farmers Market would be open during our visit.  Our idea of a Farmers Market is of local farmers selling their locally grown produce at a fair price — good deal for them, good deal for us.  Well, not so in Show Low.  Their Farmers Market consisted of exactly 10 booths, selling t-shirts, waffle dogs (uh huh), framed pictures — it was really more like an arts and crafts carnival.  Good thing we had an alternative activity as a back-up!  We headed over to the Show Low Dog Days of Summer, where dogs were participating in agility contests, musical chairs (yep, you read that correctly) and strutting around for the rest of us to oooh and aaaaw.  Good thing we LOVE canines because our 30 minutes at this event was a snoozer as well.  We weren’t really in rim country to check out dogs and a farmers market anyhow, so our trek took us up north to Snowflake where we happened upon a cool little secret spot called Amelia’s Garden.

We don’t like to eat out much, as it’s just not a healthy way to live, you lose control of the ingredients that go in to making your meals, and it’s not how we choose to spend money (when we’re not traveling)…and yet people wonder why they are overweight.  Eat at home, folks!  Though we packed a cooler with food, we just had to check out this little green, healthy place.  Amelia’s Garden is part cafe, part organic grocery store.  It was here that I was able to buy my hulled hemp seeds (I was jonesin’ for a snack, BAD!), and grab a healthy vegetarian sandwich on gluten free bread, and thank Buddha on my way out the door!  If you’re in the area, and like healthy food, check out Amelia’s Garden.


Our trek up north brought us to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert within it.  Oh.  My.  Gawd.  The Painted Desert was simply one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in my lifetime.  To think that this natural creation is made up of stone and petrified wood, yes petrified wood that is 225 MILLION years old, qualifies as simply amazing.  The panoramic view of the landscape gives me shivers.  When you’re standing at a lookout, and all you can see around you is the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, it’s easy to forget you’re in the desert, let alone Arizona, or the U.S. or even on earth.  It really is that surreal.


With so many hiking and camping opportunities around this portion of Arizona, we found ourselves exploring grounds and performing a level of “recon” for a future trip.  While visiting Lyman Lake, we encountered a bug in the road within the campgrounds.  It wasn’t just any ol’ bug though.  It was a tarantula, but this one wasn’t a stuffed one that you can buy at Spencer’s.  This was the real thing.  Yes, we stopped to look up close.  Yes, we took a photo.  Ick.


Our trip continued south through Springerville, then west to Greer.  Neat little place, that Greer.  The lodging there consists primarily of authentic log cabins, in a woodsy setting, surrounded by ponderosas.  The place to be is Molly Butler’s, and while we didn’t actually stop in, it was Casino Night and the place was hoppin’ at just 4pm.  Get there early!

Back in Pinetop, we enjoyed our camplike setting among the trees, woodsy scents, pine cones, squirrels, and birds.  This wasn’t a camping trip, but it’s the closest we’ve come to camping in awhile.  The native NW girl in me longs for a flannel shirt, roasting marshmallows by the campfire, and a good game of gin rummy before the rain hits!  Did I really say that?  Ok, maybe just a couple of days of that as long as it’s combined with 363 days of sunshine!

Visiting Arizona?  Check out the White Mountains — Beauty at its best!