Phoenix vs Mesa

A shoot from the Phoenix Airport.

The city of Phoenix at night was pretty from a distance but once we were in it I decided within a couple minutes that I hated the place with passion.  Especially since Pam called it a city that never sleeps, in my head I was thinking, "It's always this bad?"  It's too big for my taste and I wanted out of it as soon, there was no way that I would stay the night there.  After Pam left on her plane I left for Mesa.
Mesa is much more my taste; no where near as much traffic and I've gotten to go to the temple twice this weekend.  Mesa has had its ups and downs but I'm glad I'm here and not in Phoenix.  Mesa is such a peaceful place, its been nice to be able to walk around.  Even if I haven't been able to do the things that I was supposed to to.

I wanted to get a picture of the bears, and these kids seemed to have had the same idea.  Made a pretty cute picture.

Most of the statues around town have historical significance like this one.  A few of them like the pink chair and the Polar Bear with its two cubs are a tad random but still kind of cool.

The temple was pretty great tonight.  It's been a difficult day, between not being able to get my passport today and not really getting anything else done that I needed to, I really felt like I needed to visit the temple a second time.

As you can tell by the pictures it was late when I got to the temple.  It was too late for a session so I did initiatories which were nice.  My main complaints about Mesa are mainly about the difficulty I've had with the post offices and getting my passport and about my hotel, Knight's Inn.  Not going to stay here again.  At least their internet works, most of the time.  Going to the temple made the day feel and be much better.  Dad talked to me before I went and Mom talked to me after I got out and heard from a much happier me.

After the temple I walked to Pioneer Park and checked out the sights the pictures aren't great though since it was so dark.  A funny thing about Pioneer Park and the Temple.  They are across the street from each other and both are owned by the church.  Pioneer Park grass is yellow, just like most of the grass in Mesa.  The temple grass is green.

One thing that was kind of cool in the park, there was a sign that talked about Arizona's famous Honeymoon Trail.  Many cities and towns including Mesa were originally founded by Mormons.  For a while St. George in Southern Utah had the only operating temple.  The Honeymoon Trail refers to way people would go to travel from Mesa to St. George in order to get married.  It made me think of Pam, I'm just glad that we have planes to go to where we are going to get married.