Cactus, cactus, and more cactus

Sunday, April 9th:

The only cactus I've ever seen (aside from the media) are the little ones that you might give as a housewarming gift. So it was pretty cool to see these green prickly plants tower over me. We arrived at Phoenix, Arizona a little bit before noon. Ray's parents picked us up and we went straight to lunch. It was 81 degrees when we arrived. It seriously felt like summer! We got to this Chinese restaurant where a lot of his parent's friends and some relatives were there. We were having a late bday lunch for his mom (her bday was last Sat.) Dim sum there is pretty decent. There were actually a lot of asians there.
We got to his parent's house around 3:30. It's a really nice house. They actually designed it themselves. I've only seen the inside of the house but it's really nice. I'm staying in Liz's room. Her room leads out to this balcony that overlooks Phoenix. It's a really nice view. Everyone that was at lunch came over to hang out and play mah jong (is that how you spell it?) I was so tired! I started falling asleep on Ray in the living room so his mom took us into the guest room where I slept on the twin and Ray slept on the futon. I was out until 9p.m.!! We woke up a little after 9, ate some fresh lumpia, empanadas, and ham, took a walk around the neighborhood (because the weather is that nice at 10 p.m.!), and now Ray's watching the UFC championship while I'm blogging. Tomorrow we're going to Sedona to look at the pretty rocks. I'm very excited to them and to get a little closer to a cactus and give it a hug!