Friday evening was an unexpected adventure. The night before, James’s dad had called and invited us to dinner, telling us that he and Helen wanted to treat us to a train ride to Tempe and dinner at Monites, a fairly historical restaurant residing in a bit of a younger town. James and I accepted and met his parents at their home in the early evening so we could catch the train together. The ride to Tempe took about 25 minutes. We had fun talking about our week and his parents, the faithful tour guides, told me more about Tempe and Phoenix.
After we arrived at Monties Helen explained some of the unique architectural aspects of the building: the building was constructed before the days of air conditioning so the walls are about two feet thick to allow the building to stay cool during the heat of summer. The décor was made of paintings and newspaper clippings that depict some of the history of the area.
After the waitress took our order and we were served our drinks and the bread appetizer a waiter came to our table to tell us that there had been a bomb threat in the park across the street and that the police were there telling the management that the building had to be evacuated. Still hungry and wishing that we had been able to eat at least part of our meals we left Montes through the south exit as requested.
After we cleared out of the threat zone we ended up walking down the streets of Tempe to a different restaurant called My Big Fat Greek. There we were able to order and eat our food without threat of another bomb. Once we were done with dinner we left and rode the return train to Phoenix.
Saturday was still a fun day even if it didn’t include a bomb threat. I met James at his apartment at 7:00am so we could take our first bike ride together. I ended up riding his mom’s beach cruiser bike. The pink bike has no gears or hand breaks, if it would have had a banana seat and handlebar tassels and my trip back to my childhood would have been complete. James road a really nice mountain bike and kindly enough kept it in a higher gear to make our workouts be a bit more comparable.
After our two hour bike ride we drove to Gilbert, AZ to meet up with Brenda and Eric Bryson. It was SO NICE to see people from home. I haven’t really been dealing with homesickness, but not having friends in Phoenix is starting to get hard. BUT I know that as James and I continue to get connected at church I will be able to make friends.
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