Week #8

Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a great week because mine was absolutely insane. So insane in fact that I did not actually travel anywhere. I know this mainly a travel blog but I truly did not have the time, nor funds to do any traveling.

The time was taken up from moving from an apartment to a house. It was an awesome decision made last year and now that I'm finally moved and almost completely settled I couldn't be more happy. My roommate to the master bathroom, so unfortunately no bath tub reading in the future, but I am happy with 2 rooms and a bathroom as well. Even though its not one big suite. This gives me the opportunity to spread out. So I have my bedroom for sleeping and clothes (and in the future an apple TV!), my bathroom for....bathroom stuff, AND an extra room which I have turned into a office/reading/ office space!

I am really excited to use this space as a creative space. For writing these blogs and hopefully some stories. I recently got a notepad with some pens for cartooning so hopefully more sketching and drawing in the future. I have an ocarina I have to learn how to play and also my ukulele and cajon which should make for some interesting tunes. And of course, reading other peoples creativity and ideas. So hopefully more will come out of this blog because of this creative space I've created.

So the move wasn't the only thing. I started year two of teaching yesterday. It feels to be great to be back in the classroom and I feel so much better about it than I ever did last year. I'm at a new school in the district so we will see how it goes but it should be awesome!

Anyways that's really all I've been up to this week. I have been reading and watching shows. I am about 100 pages into Rick Riordan's "Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer" which is good so far. Diffidently switching it up from his normal formula so I really like that! I'm also on season 2 of "30 Rock" which is pretty awesome so far. I am a huge Tina Fey fan and enjoy most of what she puts out so I'm excited to see the series progress. Jackie D is my favorite so far on the show. Anyways on the three reviews I have this week. Hope you enjoy this short post after a few long ones!

Movies: Suicide Squad is the next installment to this most recent D.C. Universe. In my opinion, it is starting to figure out the tone and themes of this universe. I really hope that the rest of the movies have this idea behind them because I enjoyed this movie a lot. Acting was all great and that's where this movie really shines, the characters were all great! Costumes, back stories, motivations, and interactions. There a few problems due to editing where some things just don't make sense but I really enjoyed this film and hope to see the D. C. universe turn around it's movie career! Suicide Squad gets a 4 out of 7

Music: "Falling into Place" by Rebelution is a reggae album. Now I love reggae as a style of music and feel like Bob Marley perfected and owned this style of music for all time. I feel like reggae has not gone anywhere or changed since Bob Marley. Rebelution classifies themselves as a reggae fusion band but all I hear is the generic reggae sound I've always known with nothing new to the table. No songs really stood out to me on this album, maybe "Inhale Exhale (ft. Protoje) but other than that this album did nothing for me in the terms of enjoyment of musical movement. "Falling into Place" by Rebelution gets 1 out of 7 stars

Music: "Guidance" by Russian Circles are one of my best friend's favorite bands. I have heard them and listened to them before and have not enjoyed them much. That is not the case for this album. It is a very well crafted, beautifully mixed, and moving album. It's not my favorite type of music though so I am not truly drawn to it but I did enjoy this album as a whole. The first track "Asa" really set the tone for it and "Mota" was where it really picked up steam. With all that being said it still does not compel me to listen over and over again. With all that being said "Guidance" by Russian Circles gets 4 out of 7 stars. 

Now that's this week's extremely short blog. Let me know if you guys like this length better! Or maybe you liked the longer weeks with travel topics in it too. Either way let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or comment on here! I would love to hear your feedback! Have an awesome week everyone!

                                              All the Best, Ross

Week #7

Hello Journey fans! I hope you had a great week! I know I did! Lots of stuff to cover this week! It was my first week back in Arizona from being in New Jersey for the summer and am excited to move into my new house and start work next week! This week we have some travel sites (big and small), a game review, a manga review, a show review, a movie review, AND an album review! Lots of stuff to cover so here....we....go!....

Cesar Chavez Park in Laveen Arizona is kinda a hidden gem. It's not only the park with barbeque stations, a stage, green space, a playground, and a lake to walk around; but it's right next to a Library and the Aquila Gold Course which makes it sort of a destination in the Laveen area. There isn't much to do in Laveen so when I move in that direction, be sure for more pictures of that place!

Tempe Town Lake + "A Mountain"  is in the heart of Tempe, which is becoming one of my favorite cities. It's a college town that has become much more than that. The city surrounds "A Mountain" which has a giant A on it

And comes right up to the Salt River which is where the Tempe Town Lake is. The salt river is dammed off creating an almost lake effect. Usually it's a calm place in comparison to Mill Avenue which is where the party scene is. With the Pokemon Go craze happening, it's was a little crowded but still a great place to sit and enjoy the outdoors after the heat of the day has past. 

Kiwanis Park is also in Tempe but on the other side and out of the city area. This also has a man made lake with a walking trail around it and right next to the canal. This is one of my favorite parks to walk in because there are so many nooks and crannies and different kinds of birds. There are ducks, loons, blue herons, and geese. In a desert city, it's refreshing to be by the water even if it's man made.

Horseshoe Bend is the big trip this week. It was about a 4 hour drive from Phoenix but it was an amazing drive. In those 4 hours the landscape changed so many times. There was Phoenix, the Sonoran Desert, the plains north of the desert, the pine forests of Flagstaff, the mountains and volcanoes of Flagstaff, more plains, Red Rock, and then this weird mounds that looked like we were driving through Mars, and finally the light orange rocks of Page, AZ. When we were almost to Page, there was a small parking lot off the side of the road which was how to get to Horseshoe Bend. This was odd to me, this is one of the main attractions of the state of Arizona and there was no visiting center, no restrooms, no place for people to buy their souvenirs. But this was super refreshing to see a natural landmark of the American Southwest being a beacon of pure entertainment. No one has tried to capitalize on it, it was just there for everyone to enjoy. It was a longer walk than I thought, we heard someone say 2.5 miles out and then another 2.5 back. But it was worth it! I have pictures but it truly does not do it justice. The river curving around the rocks in a horseshoe shape hundreds of feet below, the erosion scene on the cliff faces and where we were walking, and of course the backdrop of the red mountains in the background.

It was a phenomenal experience and worth the drive. My favorite things about this place to realize how big of a destination it really is by hearing so many different languages being spoken while were there. I head French, Polish, Mandarin, and Japanese. Most of the people there were not speaking English there and it made me realize how important this place is. Another favorite thing was the landscape on which we were walking. I couldn't believe the rock formations found on the flat ground and on the side of the rocks. It seemed like something from another world!

There are so many words to describe every tiny section of the rock there but I'll let the picture do the talking. Anyways, a storm was blowing in from over the mountains to the south and as we were walking back up the hill, we were seeing lightning strikes, the rain moving at a quick pace and thunder in the distance. That was another surreal experience! It did cut our trip short. We did go up to Lake Powell dam which was cool but not as magical as Horseshoe Bend, and on the way back we were going to go to the Navajo Bridge but didn't think it would be wise to walk on a metal bridge when a thunderstorm was passing by so we saved that for next time! We drove back to Phoenix going through the different landscapes of Arizona looking the opposite way making it a successful trip!

That's it for the travel section! I hope you enjoyed! Now onto the reviews!

Games: Pokemon Alpha Sapphire- It's a remake of the classic games which are now 13 years old; but they added so much into it seems like a completely different game! The team this time around was Swampert, Gardevoir, Cacturne (new favorite), Ninjask, Torkoal, and Hariyama. It was a very well balanced team and I was very proud of it! Anyways these games look great, feel great, and are the newest in the Pokemon main game series. Alpha Sapphire gets 6 out of 7

Books: Akira Vol. 1- Akira is one of the most influential Manga of all time. It is well written, with a great plot, and has phenomenal artwork. I am usually not a Manga fan, it seems so quick paced to me and doesn't grasp the intensity of the story sometimes but this one was different. It felt like watching a movie and I wanted to take my time through this because the artwork was so stunning it was more of an experience than a book or comic and I can't wait to get the next volume! Akira gets a 7 out of 7

TV Show: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt- This show had me since the first episode and never let go. The characters were very well fleshed out for a quirky comedy and there were so many quotes. I loved the plot and the execution of it. It seemed to resolve the problem with the bunker and the reverend but the problem was there in the second season and it was evolving into something more. Diffidently a great watch, and I can't wait for season 3! Kimmy Schmidt gets a 6 out 7

Movie: Finding Dory- This diffidently a sequel to Find Nemo and a sequel that actually makes sense. It covers every part of Dory up until the point of her meeting Marlin which really connects the dots of what happened and makes more of a tacked on sequel like I thought it would be and more of a sequel that needed to happen. I have a favorite part and a least favorite part. My favorite part was the supporting characters! They were so well written and fleshed out which I was worried they would just be gimmicky. My favorite being Hank the septapus. He was such an interesting character and is the one that moves the story forward the most other than Dory. My least favorite part was a specific joke. The whole movie is about overcoming your disabilities and moving on, so why make fun of another characters disability? It just seemed very distasteful. With all of that being said... Finding Dory gets 4 out of 7 stars

Music: The Dirty Head by The Dirty Heads- This album did not grab me on the first listen. I am a huge Dirty Heads fan. I love the groove and attitude of the first album. The concept behind the second album and more mature sound of the second album. The third album wasn't my favorite but there was an idea behind it and I did enjoy some songs on it. Now this album seems like a combination of all of those albums combined but something is missing. To me, it doesn't seem like they love it anymore. It seems almost bored with this style of music which may be true. There are some exceptions to that though like "That's all I need", "Moon Tower" and "Doesn't Make you Right" which makes me believe that they do still have some fire left in them. The way the band is set up, it doesn't really call for much change and they have tried on the third album to change their sound with not as much success. But after listening to this album over again, I enjoyed it more. The Dirty Heads gets 3 out of 7 stars

Big week! But a lot of good stuff! please follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more updates throughout the week and like us on Facebook! If you like something let us know! If you don't...let us know! Any criticism will help make this better and more enjoyable for everyone!

               All the Best, Ross

Week #6- Some Great Album Names

The county of the U.S.A. is amazing. The fact that it spans the width of the whole continent. The fact that almost every type of place can be found here. Considering I took a plane ride from the farmlands of South Jersey from the sprawling metropolis of Philadelphia to the deserts and mountains of Phoenix. It just amazes me that I am still in the same country in such a drastic change of scenery.

This will be my second year in Phoenix. I had a lot of great journeys last year; here is a list of some of them. Hiking South Mountain, Chiricahua National Monument, Grand Canyon, Walnut Canyon, Tubac Glowing Balloon Festival, Tonto Natural Bridge, Watpaki National Monument, Casa Grande, Superstition Wilderness, Canyon Lake, Phoenix Botanical Gardens, and Sunset Crater. And those were just the trips to other places in Arizona.

This week has been weird. The adventure was truly flying from Philly to Phoenix (that kind of sounds like an album name) even though flying isn't much of a journey any more rather than a task that needs to get done. I remember when it used to be an all day event; where if you were flying somewhere it was a big deal and that was your event that day. This one was much different, so let me recount the journey after I got off the plane.

So my friend picked me up from Sky Harbor Airport which is easy to get into but impossible to find your way out of it. So after one full loop around the place we finally figured it out. We are looking a place to live so we drove all around South Phoenix which is an odd place. Every three blocks it changes scenery.

First you're driving through a nice new development, then farm land, then a sketchy neighborhood, then a nice shopping center, and then a weird empty field, then back to the nice neighborhood. Its like that all over Phoenix which confuses me but makes me believe that all the places are a mesh of everything and all types of people.

Then we stopped for lunch at some Popeyes, which is a fast food journey (another good album name) nothing special there just some fried chicken, fries, biscuit, and a drink. We kept looking, and used a lock box to let us into one which was pretty awesome. We are looking for more houses today and hopefully gonna find the one we will move into! That will be a whole separate post for next week!

Anyways after that he dropped me off at the apartment and I relaxed for a bit and then decided to go somewhere so I walked up to the South Mountain, played some pokemon on the way and then went to Tempe Town Lake. This is an awesome park which is situated in between the college city of Tempe (home of Arizona State University) and the Salt River which has been dammed off to make it like a lake setting. They have places to walk, grassy areas (rare for Arizona), a splash pad, Arts building, and boat and board rentals on the Salt River. This place is great on a normal day because you can go and skate, grab some food off of Mill Avenue and eat it at the park, and rent a paddle board and enjoy the cool water. But that day was different; I would say close to 200 people were there just walking around playing pokemon Go. It is officially a cultural and global phenomenon. I didn't think it would blow up like it did! But it is pretty phenomenal to see and to know exactly what everyone is doing.

The next day I had to work (boo) and then I came home and got packed up and went to a smaller park called Kiwanis Park in Tempe just south of Baseline Rd. Again many people playing pokemon. It was nice to walk and have a clear loop that I could walk around enjoy the grass, water, birds, and people watch. I also brought my skateboard but wasn't feeling using it.

That's pretty much the small journeys I've had so far in Phoenix and Tempe (mainly Tempe). I'm closer to Tempe even though I technically live in Phoenix. Anyways on to the next section.

FOOD!

Ry's Bagels (aka Don's Bagels)- Ry's Bagels used be named Don's and if you go to it you will still see a sign out front saying "Don's Bagels" so to me the name never truly changed. It is the best bagel place I've ever been to and it's in little ole' Glassboro, NJ. It has never disappointed me and I almost always get something different. Homemade Bagels of various flavors, homemade cream cheese of various flavors, breakfast sandwiches, sides, coffee, and lunch bagel sandwiches are just a few things on the menu. My two favorites are buffalo chicken on a cheddar bagel or pork roll egg and cheese on an everything bagel. This time I went with the pork roll egg and cheese but on a specialty bagel. Well actually it was just a plain bagel in the shape and color of a pokeball (keeping with the pokemon theme here) Delicious, unique, and perfect as usual!

Mike's Seafood- Before I left for the desert, the last thing I truly wanted was a legitimate seafood dinner and then hang out with my friends. That is exactly what I did; but it was much more exciting than I expected. Mike's is in a place in Sea Isle City, NJ called Fish Alley with all the other fish markets and restaurants. Mikes is a more casual place than the others. It's open air and right over the water on the bay. If you're on the right side you can see the fishing boats pulling in and out of the docks. I ordered the captains special. Fried scallops (my favorite), crab stuffed shrimp, fried flounder, fries, and cole slaw. It was a pretty normal night with the family with a storm brewing in the distance. That storm however was heading right in our direction. Now remember the place is open air; that is a very important part of the experience. Since when the storm finally made it to us and it started raining all the tables on the end were getting soaked and came into the middle. We had a few people join our table to escape the rain. The lightning and thunder was intense especially the one that was directly overhead so there was no delay. Anyways the storm was past within five minutes and everyone dried off their tables and returned to their meals, hopefully not waterlogged. It was an amazing experience to see everyone just accept the storm was here, move away from the edge, and when it was over just go back to their tables and continue their meals without anyone making a fuss or complaining.

Green Mix- I drove past this place every year last year knowing it was there and never stopping. Now I regret doing that. This place is great! Salads, Rice Bowls, Soups, and Sandwiches. It's healthy, delicious, and not expensive as I thought it would be. I was extremely surprised with it and will diffidently be going back again. I had a brown rice bowl with broccoli, red peppers, onions, chicken, a fried egg, and some sweet thai sauce. It was delicious and just enough to fill me up but not make me feel full. I will diffidently be going back for more in the near future!


Well that's the journey this week! I hope you all enjoyed. Next week might not be as adventurous but I will have some stories to tell I'm sure. Anyways follow us on twitter, facebook, and Instagram for more awesome info and pictures throughout the week.

I'm gonna try a new thing this week. Comment on this post, tweet at us, or post on our facebook page a topic and I will write a haiku about it! Please keep it PG but it can be anything within that rating! Hoping to get some good stuff from you guys! Don't disappoint me!

All the Best, Ross