Driving in Arizona

I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of what is looks like here in Arizona. Returning to Phoenix after living in Himeji for a year, everything looks the same, but everything feels different. The roads are wider, the space is more open...just different.

I took this picture while driving (I was stopped at a red light) so you could see an intersection. There is usually at least one gas station and one fast food restaurant.

This is a main street near my parents house. You can see that there are 3 lanes on my side of the road, a yellow lane (it is used to make left turns in both directions) and there are two lanes on the other side of the road. Very wide compared to streets in Himeji.

While driving home from Tucson this past weekend, I wanted to take some pictures of our scenery. This is a prickly pear cactus. It is in full bloom. They say you can pick the fruit (that is those pinkish red things on the cactus) and eat it or use it to make jelly.

This is a picture of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson (about 2 hrs south of Phoenix by car).I use to live at the base of those mountains while I was going to The University of Arizona.

I love the big puffy clouds above mountain ridges.

This is the east side of the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. There said to be gold in them there mountains.

While we were driving around the Phoenix area last night I asked Mitch if there were that many mountains in the area before we left...of course there were but it seems so weird to be able to see wide open spaces.

I hope to do more blogs soon for all of you back home (in Himeji). I might be off line for about 2 weeks, but I will be back. If you haven't checked my Japan blog lately (http://merryinjapan.blogspot.com/) check it...I finally posted the rest of Tokyo.

I hope everyone is doing well....