On our second morning in Phoenix, we made it out of the motel at about 9:00 am (after a nice breakfast of cold Cafe Istanbul leftovers), heading for Boyce Thompson Arboretum (which is about forty-five minutes east of Phoenix). The road to the Arboretum goes through some low mountains, and there were tall pink Penstemons on both sides of the road. Beautiful!
Here are some photos, in no particular order, from BTA.
Here’s the one and only new plant I brought home from Phoenix. It is Haworthia herbacea. I love it!
After several lovely hours at the Arboretum, we drove back to Phoenix, and had a lovely late lunch at a little diner right next to the motel called Jim’s Coney Island Cafe. I had a really good tuna melt (which I am always on the lookout for – I LOVE a good tuna melt). Mom had a bacon cheeseburger, which she said was great.
We relaxed in the room for a little while, and then Janelle came to the motel and picked me up. We went out to have dinner and drinks. It was great to see her. We went to a place called Crave. The food was really good. The garlic fries were amazing! I had a beer, and Janelle ordered the sangria, not realizing it was a whole carafe of it. It was delicious, and she was nice enough to share! 
That’s me, drinking out of the carafe, and me and Janelle at Crave. The photos are phone pictures, and it was dark, so they aren’t great.
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November 10 was the first annual Moab Adult Spelling Bee. It was put on by the Grand County Education Foundation (benefiting Grand County Schools). The cost to enter was $150 for a 3-person team. I am sure it was so pricey because the money was going to help the local public schools.
Paradox Pizza owner Susan sponsored a team, made up of me and my coworkers Liz and Steph. We were one of 19 teams. We had no idea what to expect, as none of us had been in a spelling bee since our own school days. They gave us an extensive list of words to study, which we did. By the night of the spelling bee, we knew all the words on the list inside out and backwards. We were very secure in our spelling prowess. That’s Liz, me and Steph below.
The format of the spelling bee was utterly foreign to us. We were to sit on the stage with three other teams, each with a chalkboard on which to write our word. The four teams would be given ONE word, and anyone spelling it correctly stayed in, and incorrect spellers would be eliminated. Of all the words given over the course of the entire evening, only ONE was actually on the list we were given. Team Paradox got eliminated on the first round, with the word ‘perquisite’, which none of us had heard before, and the definition the pronouncer gave was not understandable. GRRRR. The actual spelling portion of the evening was over in less than an hour, thanks to words like ‘eurytherm’, ‘nyctalopia’, ‘eupepsia’, and others.
To say that the three of us were disappointed is a bit of an understatement. In any case, we now know what to expect if there IS a Second Annual Moab Adult Spelling Bee.
Here are some photos of some of our competition (many are left out, as good photos were hard to come by):
Backcountry Trail Rides, Buck’s Grillhouse and ‘I’ll Take 4 Letter Words For $100, Alex’:
KZMU, Sloan Law Firm Beehives and The Spelling Elvises:
Team School Board, The Vicious Vampires, and Zions Bank Spellbounders:
…and last but certainly not least, here are the winners. Canyonlands Community Recycling:
Here’s a photo of the pronouncer, who didn’t enunciate well, and pronounced ‘malfeasance’ as ‘mal FEE ance’. Double GRRRRR.
At the end of the spelling bee, all the teams had to return to stage to have our costumes judged. Here we are, prancing about.
So, we didn’t win. I guess that’s all okay, as the prizes for the winners were turkeys. Not even Butterball turkeys…I think they were Norbest. Next year, we’ll triumph.
I really don’t want any of this to sound like we didn’t have fun – we had a GREAT time. Learning new words, laughing with friends, etc. It was a great experience, and I thank Susan for sponsoring us, and Liz and Steph for being good sports, too. Also, thanks Rich and Mom for coming to the spelling bee to support us and laugh at / with us!