Pedroza's Place

So you decided you’re crazy and want to actually see how south you can go in Arizona. Well, then this is the post for you! Ok, here’s the story… As described earlier I was escaping a BYU football game and so I went to a mine museum in Sahaurita. Having missed the tour I had a lot of time on my hands. The mine museum was nice, but let’s face it, you can only read so much about rocks (unless of course your a Geologist, but I am not). Not really knowing what to do I decided to head south. At about mile marker 50, I started to notice two things: one, the terrain was getting surprisingly greener and all the license plates one the road were from Sinaloa, Mexico. For those not in the know, Sinaloa, Mexico is a state in Mexico just south of Arizona. If Sinaloa doesn’t sound familiar to you all I can say is that you don’t read the news much. So it was also at this time that I came to three more conclusions: 1) I didn’t have my passport with me, 2) I was driving a California plated car, and 3) I had just passed my 10th heavily armored distinctive green border patrol car. Not sure what to do at this point I decided I should probably turn tail and retreat, but then I saw this sign:

So it was at the sight of really shiny signs I decided to ignore my better judgement and pull over. In doing so I saw this:

That’s right pots… Lots of them… They were really pretty pots…

My favorite ones were these:

Despite all the pots the town was eerily empty. Just a lot of artists stalls and a few confused tourists. Apparently, the state of Arizona had anticipated this might happen and so I also saw this:

Reading more signs I found this:

For those with Spanish deficiencies, it reads “Ancient Plaza of Mexico Tubac” (I bet you could have guessed that on your own, but I like translating). It turns out that the sign has some backing to it. Tubac Arizona was established in 1752, making it one of the oldest European establishments in the region. Not sure what the significance of that last sentence is, but I will say if you like colorful pots then Tubac is the place for you.
Slowly coming back to my senses I decided to get back on the road and head north, but then I saw this sign:

As I slowly approached (they make you drive really slow) the Border Patrol Check Point I noticed that they were not stopping any Arizona plated cars, too bad I was driving a California plated car. It wasn’t too bad. In fact, as far as being interviewed by heavily armed men I would have to say these were the nicest I have ever met. My conversation with them was rather brief, basically it went something like this: (I roll down my driver side window)
“Hello,” says the border patrol inspector.
“Hello, Good Afternoon,” I respond.
“On your way sir,” he instructs.
Luckily, I didn’t fit the look of a crazy drug smuggler (and I am glad I didn’t because those dogs didn’t look like Lassie). The experience was very surreal to me, I kind of understand why this is necessary, but I am not sure I would want to go that way again, it was a bit weird and a little too intense for me in my tourism mode hat. Seems like something more fit for the Ben Clark Training Center at work.

I am going to start out this blog post by saying that I realize that Arizona has had a lot of difficulties lately. Between a massive state budget cut and controversial legislation the state of Arizona tourism has been reeling. When we were able to get a $30 dollar (tax included) hotel room in Phoenix I knew that tourism in Arizona was hurting. Even so, this is not an excuse for the Arizona State Tourism Board not to update their website. I am not sure if they are going to update it soon, but for right now, my advise is to use it only for ideas of what to do and not detailed information.

That said, I will now talk about one of my little adventures yesterday. Yesterday there was a BYU game. I am not really into BYU games and not that it usually matters much. Unless, your staying at the Jackmans, then it matters, and so I found myself needing to flee the Jackman house. So I decided to take a random road trip. Knowing about the mine tour I started wandering in that direction and first found this:

You would think there wouldn’t be much to do in the desert, but like me you’d be wrong. Coming into town is was very hard to miss the sign for the ASARCO Mineral Mine Tour.

Further wandering the Arizona State Tourism Board I found out during the summer the tours are held every Saturday. It wasn’t until I got there however that I found out that the last tour leaves at 3:30PM. The site is open however until 5PM, but seeing as how I had missed the tour I had to settle for the secondary greeters.

I don’t know what the deal with these guys were, but they were wondering the grounds freely.

ASARCO stands for American Smelting and Refining Company. It is a relatively established company (started in 1899), but despite the meaning behind the acronym, it is anything but American. The land itself is technically not American, it belongs to the Tohono O’ohodam Indian Reservation. The company used be all American owned, but in 1975 it changed it’s official name to just ASARCO when it was acquired by Grupo Mexico, it is now a 49% Mexican owned company.

I didn’t get to go on the tour but I did walk the grounds a bit. Walking across the grounds you will find various pieces of mining equipment. Some of these items are new and some of them were old. Releasing my inner two yearold I gravitated towards the big truck.

I say this truck is big, but it is really hard to understand how big this truck is without a point of reference.

Inside the museum you will find various displays and videos describing the process of copper mining. Being one of the largest copper mining operations in the US, it is kind of interesting. I wouldn’t call it a deal breaker to go to Sahaurita, but if your passing by and you have the time it could be a fun few hours. It is free to go inside the museum and walk the grounds, but the tour costs $8. For more information visit their website at http://www.asarco.com/AMDC/home.html .

I am in Arizona for a few days visiting my nieces and nephews. I have been in Arizona only one day but I have already heard 6.5 bedtime stories (Taylor’s bedtime story only counts as half because it only consisted of “shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”). This has however stirred enough creativity within me to create a short bedtime story of my own. So without further ado here is what I am calling “A Bedtime Story”….
There once was boy name BK and he lived in a little blue room with a little blue blue bed.

As one can see BK was a for the most part a happy boy, but he had a little problem.

You see his bed was too small. What was BK to do?! He called in his magic mommy and she found that not only was BK’s bed too small, but it had holes in it too!

Magic mommy could fix many things, but she could not fix this problem. Knowing this made poor little BK sad.

Just then came a magical piggy.

The magical piggy said “don’t get all wiggly, just make a magic wishy.”
Just then a new bed arrived. It’s fit was just right.

“Oh my goodness!” declared BK. “My fairy Godmother must of heard my wish!” Indeed she had, and even though BK was as bright as can be, she even threw in a magic lamp for the magic piggy.

And so it came to be that BK got a new bed and the magic piggy got a new magic lamp, and of course all three of them lived: Happily Ever After. THE END.

I would like to add a disclaimer to this story to let you know that the characters in this story were real and implied and grossly based on real and actual events. No animals were harmed in the making of this story, unless of course you count the brute’s thumb who may or may not have put together said implied bed. Thanks go to the Grandparents of this family for without said story could or could not have existed.

This morning I made some Atole for breakfast. At first I didn’t offer it to anyone because I didn’t think anyone would enjoy it but me. I then offered it to Denise and she had some. AJ saw that both Denise and I had and of course immediately asked for some. I poured him a half a cup thinking he would try it and not like it. Atole is basically milk heated and thickened with corn powder. Denise didn’t say anything, but AJ started shouting “AJ like, AJ like.” I filled up his glass to the top. He drank the whole glass and started saying “AJ more, AJ more.” Unfortunately at that point I didn’t have anymore. It did teach me a lesson however, I need to start teaching AJ more about his hispanic culture. I didn’t think he would like it because it was different, but I liked it, so I guess he does have some of my tastebuds, so I really shouldn’t have thought that way. So my next question is when should I go buy the tamales?

Today I went on a walk with AJ and saw this sign:

New menu, same great food? I think the Stockade needs to pick a side. That or stop eating grubs…

Oh well, on the other hand AJ really enjoyed his Chocolate milk today.

The joy comes complete with a chocolate milk dance, but unfortunately my video capture didn’t work right. BTW, we buy the chocolate milk at the Stockade. I really doubt that they even have chocolate milk in there. The chocolate milk came from Paula’s Cafe. A place where they make really good omelettes.

(HINT: Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

As the southern bookend to the National Mall, the Jefferson Memorial shows me the southern nature of Washington DC. The original plan for the Capitol was to include parts of Virginia, but that was not to be. If Virginia had been included I think that the Jefferson Memorial would of made for an appropriate gateway. Due to our travel plans we got to see this monument both early in the morning and right before dusk:

The view at dusk is remarkably more dramatic, but as you can see there were a lot more people there at dusk than dawn.
Almost like all US Capitol monuments you will be immediately struck by the size.

Cast in bronze the Jefferson Memorial towers above you. Construction began in 1939, but because of the shortages of World War II, there wasn’t a bronze statue built until 1947 (in the interim they used a plaster statue).
Besides it’s enormity, I really enjoyed looking at the columns.

One thing you may or may not notice is that Jefferson is pointed to the White House:

I asked the Tour Guide about that and he said it was done that way by the designer so that the current President would always know someone was looking over his shoulder. Don’t know if it is true, but it sounded cool.
I don’t think we think of Jefferson so much as a architect, but his design influence is definately felt within every Federal building in existance.
The last thing I think about when I think about Jefferson is his words. Inside you will find excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and from A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1777.

Admission to the Jefferson Memorial is free and there is no screening, but there are plenty of armed park rangers standing by so I wouldn’t act too crazy if I were you!

Having a Relief Society President as a wife has a lot of positives. You know as long as she is in that calling you are safe from any calling of serious responsibility yourself. You know that you will be invited to some really nice dinners. Unfortunately, you also know that if there is a blood drive in town your going to be donating. That is exactly what Denise did today. Actually she had both a blood drive and a clothes give away at the church today. Attendance was good, in all she got 27 pints of blood today.
If your interested in donating blood yourself it is a fairly simple procedure. All you have to do is find a local blood donation center, register, answer a few questions, and then you can donate. It does hurt a little bit when the needle enters, but it goes by fairly fast. If you have rare blood or A+ blood they might even pay you for it. Usually it is just by donation though. In today’s case I did get a coupon for a free pint of Baskin Robbins ice cream.

The corner stone for the White House was laid in 1792, but it wouldn’t be until 1901 when it would get it’s official name. It was then that someone asked Theodore Roosevelt about the place and he said “oh, it’s just a big white house…” The name stuck and here we are, or were I guess.
Getting to the White House is relatively easy. Luckily, you can ask any local and they know where it is and can tell you how to get there (and if they can’t they they have some major direction problems).
While getting to the White House is easy, getting inside the White House is not. Most of my pictures as you can see are from far away. One of my favorite pictures I took was from up top of the Washington Monument looking down onto the White House (I wondered if the guards could see me up there):

Had I not gotten into the White House it wouldn’t have ruined the trip for me, but I do think that the White House is an iconic image of Washington DC. Despite all the tour guides calling it “your White House,” you just can’t go up and ring the door bell and ask to be let in. There are a lot of bells connected to the White House, but trust me you don’t want to hear them. To get into the White House you are going to need an invitation.

Invitations are free but unfortunately, I don’t know any members of the Presidential family and so getting a Presidential Invitation was out of the question. The next best thing was to get a Congressional Invitation to the White House. To get a Congressional Invitation you need to be recommended by one of your US Congressional leaders. Like every US citizen (if you are not a US Citizen you have to be recommended by your US Ambassador) I have three of these people (2 Senators and 1 Representative) and so about 6 months before we left I wrote to all three. I sent them my request along with the full names of everyone in my party, addresses, DOBs, Social Security numbers, and a description of what valid form of picture ID we were going to use (in our case California issued driver licenses, children under 5 do not need a picture ID). I followed up regularly with my Congressional leaders’ offices to see how the progress was going, but was ultimately told I wouldn’t know anything until at least 2 weeks before we left. As it turned out the first Senator I wrote to lost my paperwork, the second Senator tried, but was not able to get a spot, and ultimately 10 days before we were about to leave our Representative Jerry Lewis got us an invitation. This to me was funny because our two Senators are Democrats (the same party of the President), but our Representative is Republican. Anyhow, soon enough we got our invitation in the mail.
Normally to get into the White House you have to be a group of 10 or more people. We were only a group of 4, so our Representative put us together with another family named Flynn (don’t know them at all). The paper we were given had this name on it and a confirmation code. We were told to bring the paper with us at our appointed time and we could go on our tour. All good except for the fact that at 5:30 EST the day before our tour we lost the paper we were supposed to give to the SS (Secret Service). Lucky for us, we don’t live in EST, we live in PST. So even though Representative Lewis’ Washington DC office was closed, the Redlands, CA office was still open. Jerry Lewis’ staff was very helpful to us. The Redlands office blackberried the Washington DC office, which then emailed the White House, which then put us on a list for the Secret Service and so we were still allowed in. Talk about cross-country teamwork!
To start the tour you have to find the General Sherman monument.

This is actually across the street from the White House. The somber mood of General Sherman on his horse I think denotes the seriousness of the entire security process. As if getting back-grounded wasn’t enough you must also get booked. Oops, I meant screened, but having seen people get booked I wouldn’t say it was much different. You are not allowed to bring anything that doesn’t fit in your pockets and your pockets better not contain anything illegal or you will be escorted out by several people with Colt 45s. When it comes to the White House you also have to know that you are not allowed to bring in any recording device. This was kind of funny to me because they allowed me to bring in my cell phone which clearly had recording capability, not that I had any motivation (first tour I ever had where the docents were fully loaded) to use it inside.
Since I wasn’t able to take pictures inside the White House I have some pictures I got from an archived President Bush website(during his administration there were no tours) and a scan of our tour map:

You enter the White House by descending into the East Wing. I took this photo from outside the White House looking at the East Wing:

The East Wing is where the First Lady’s offices are. I am not sure what business goes on in those offices, but her staff was very busy going in and out of locked doors. This was interesting to me because Michelle Obama was in Spain when we were visiting. I wonder if her staff doesn’t get to travel with her or if it is like a Broadway production where there is more than one cast. If so, I have to say the local cast was very engaged in their work.
After walking through a long hallway we found ourselves under another underground hallway (a lot of Washington DC is underground) that lead to the China Room, Library, and Vermeil room. It also lead to the West Wing (the executive offices of the President), but we were only allowed to go half way down the hall. Even though I didn’t get to see the West Wing I learned that the current Press Room used to be an indoor pool. I also learned a little trivia about the Vermeil room. The Vermeil room houses portraits of 20th century first ladies. The most striking of which I think has to be of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Onassis Kennedy (she really liked accumulating those names didn’t she?):

As interesting as the portrait was, it was the name that was more interesting to me. Apparently, vermeil is when you take silver and dip it in gold. It makes the gold even shinier (I didn’t even know that was possible). This Vermeil room is filled with a lot of objects decorated in this manner, hence the name. Heading back into the hallway a Secret Service guy told me a story of President Obama setting up a ping pong table in the hallway and playing an epic ping pong tournament (he wouldn’t tell me who won).
Going up a well worn marble staircase, we entered into the East Ballroom.

The painting of George Washington is of course the famous one Dolly Madison saved in the battle of 1812, and consequently is the oldest thing original to the White House. The piano is a Steinway and was donated 1938.
After going through the East Ball Room, you get to walk through the Green room, the Red Room, the State Dining Room (where they get daily fresh flowers), and the blue room:

The Blue Room was my favorite room of the house. According to the Secret Service it is the Obamas’ favorite room too. President Martin Van Buren was responsible for it’s color when he first painted the walls in 1837.
To go through the main floor rooms, you get to go through the Cross Halls.

This particular view of the Cross Halls to me is cool because it is the one that they always show when the Secretary of State is going to meet a foreign leader.
After the tour and we were outside again I was allowed once again to touch my cell phone and so I took these photos at the North door.


Undoubtedly the closest picture I will ever get to take of the White House. Anyhow, the tour was awesome. Definitely, one of the highlights of our trip.

BTW, if for some crazy reason the President does read this I think I would make perfect fit for a White House Staffer:

See what I mean, now all I need is one of those red A pass cards and I will be all set!

Everyone in the US knows that the Supreme Court is the highest court of the land. What many people don’t know is the Supreme Court building is rather new compared to it’s Executive and Legislative counterparts. For the longest time the Supreme Court met in whatever spare room the Legislative branch had. This changed in 1929 when then Chief Justice Taft (only person to be both Chief Justice and President) argued to Congress that the Judicial branch was separate (why it took them 146 years to figure this out I don’t know) and they made plans to build the Supreme Court it’s own building. Of course, like all good legislation it took a long time and so sadly Chief Justice Taft never got to see the new Supreme Court building (it got finished in 1935).

The Supreme Court is done in the Federalist style and so it is not surprising that it’s exterior has a lot of columns and marble.

The inside however really shows off it’s 30′s design elements. In particular I really noticed the rosette ceiling motif.

I have to say that there were several spaces in the Supreme Court that I didn’t understand. One in particular was the Great Gathering Hall.

Basically, it is a very wide long hallway with marble benches and a statue of Chief Justice Marshall and the end of it. On the third floor is another hallway where you wait in line to see the Supreme Court Chamber Room so it makes the Great Gathering Hall seem rather redundant to me. From the Great Gathering Hall there is the Great Spiral Staircase (they like to use the word great alot in there) that leads to Chief Justice Hall (the waiting area for the Supreme Court Chambers).

The Great Spiral Staircase is impressive, but unfortunately they don’t let you walk on them. Not that it mattered much because we had a stroller. Having the stroller we took the not great elevator. It didn’t have great in the title, but even the elevator was highly decorated.

Upstairs is the is the Chief Justice Hall which is called that because it contains the bust of every Chief Justice. Chief Justice Hall is the entry way to the Chamber room. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in there. This is the closest we were able to get with our camera:

In the picture you can see the middle chair (second chair to the right of Denise) which is the Chief Justice’s chair when they are in session. Which in our case they were not.
The way the court runs is very interesting to me. They only meet 8 months out of the year Mon-Thurs. for only two hours from 10am-12pm. They are there until 4:30 pm, but they spend that time to review current and future cases. They get over 10,000 petitions a year, but they only hear about a 100 of them. I asked how they decide which cases are heard and which are not and the answer was in order to get on the docket (to be heard) 4 out of the 9 justices have to agree to hear your case. Once the Supreme Court agrees to hear your case there is no time limit on how long it will take to get a decision, but they cannot recess for the year until they get a decision (talk about motivation).
The Supreme Court is a very impressive building, but I have to say I hope I never have to use it, but if I did, I am glad it is there. Visiting the Supreme Court is really easy. All you have to do is show up when they are open. If they are in session you have to wait in line for a ticket and if not you can line up for lectures that they give in the chamber room. No cost for admission, but you do have to go through airport like screening.

Visiting the Capitol in Washington DC is fascinating. If you go as a tourist you will see many things. You will see exhibits, statues, paintings, and even a movie. Surprisingly you will not see the reason for it’s being. The Capitol was created as birthplace for laws. They talk about that a lot on the tour, but you never see it happen. To see a law you need to visit either the Senate or House Gallery. In order to do this you will need a ticket, and luckily it isn’t that hard to do. Basically it just takes some footwork, so comes the purpose of this post (if you want to make this post really short just skip to the last paragraph).

To get a ticket you have to go to either your Senate or your Representative’s office. In our particular case we had already gotten tickets to the House of Representatives but they were not in session while we were there. The Senate was in session, so our first mission was to find out where our Senator’s office was. There are three Senate Office buildings: Russell, Dirksen, and Hart. I could have figured out what building I needed to go to by looking it up on the Internet, but that would’ve of course been the logical thing to do. I instead asked a random guy on the street. He in turn told me to go to the building with a green roof. The building with a green roof turned out to be the Dirksen building. The Dirksen building is what you would imagine a Senate Office to look like. Very old, Federalist style, lots of marble, and very big.

Like with all government buildings at Washington DC you have to go through screening to get in. At the entrance of the building is a very long list with all the states and their Senators. I found out that Senator Feinstein’s office was 331. After getting lost in the elevator and walking down a very long corridor I made an interesting discovery. There was no office 331. This was rather peculiar to me because I was pretty sure that Senator Feinstein was my Senator and she wasn’t under any indictment that I knew of, but then again I couldn’t find that office. What was weirder was that even though there wasn’t a 331, there was a 332. So I went into office 332, which turned out to be Senator Benard Sanders office. Senator Sanders is from Vermont, one of only two Independent Senators in the Senate. His office was really small, but his staff were really nice and helpful. I found out that he doesn’t like the name Benard and prefers to be called “Bernie.” I also found out that both California Senators were in the Hart building next door. Bernie’s staff directed me to this kind of covert bridge that linked the two buildings together and I was once again on my way.

The Hart building is a very distinct building. Kind of the exact opposite of the Dirksen building. Instead of marble, there was lots of glass. Instead of long passageways the offices were arranged in mostly circular pods. A definite modern change to the Federalist style I had seen throughout Washington DC.

The first office I found was Senator Feinstein’s. Her office was much bigger than Bernie’s. There was lots of staff in there. A nice lady asked me what I wanted and gave me the tickets. I was also later invited to have breakfast with Senator Feinstein, but we had to turn her down because we had an appointment at the White House on the same day of her breakfast. It was a very quick transaction. On my way out I saw Senator Boxer’s office:

It was in a corner and it was one of the biggest in that building. I didn’t go in but I must of seen several dozen staff members in there.
While I was lost in the elevator I found the cafeteria. I think one of the best kept secrets in Washington DC are the government cafeterias. They have great food, they are way cheaper than all of the above ground concessions (almost all government cafeterias are in the basement), andto you get hang out with staffers. Anyhow, as soon as I found the Senate cafeteria I called Denise. While Denise made her way down the long hallways of the Dirksen building I ordered Senate Bean Soup.

It was good, but as with many things, it wasn’t as good as the hype. It was good though, and I really liked the ham melt special I got with it.

Anyhow, if you want to see a law come into being here in the United States all you have to basically ask. Go to your Senator, get a ticket, and you can see the laws of this country come into being. It is a very interesting process. When we were there they were debating Supreme Court Justice Kagan’s nomination. One of the amazing things about American government is the access you get to it. 9/11 has added lots of security, but it is still a government “of the people, for the people.”