Travelblogity!

After close to 2 and a half years laying dormant, Travelblogity! is back, and I’m going to get everything started off with a kick. Stay tuned this weekend as I review Out of Africa wildlife park. Unlike the snowbird’s seen around Phoenix every winter, expect to see Travelblogity! and our mascot Bob the traveling gnome popping up around the state year round once again.

One of the oldest parks in the Phoenix area is also one of the most fun of the city parks to visit. Nestled smack dab in the middle of Phoenix at 15th Avenue and Thomas Road, this park is a great way to spend a day with your friends or your sweetheart alike. The easiest way to reach the park is to either take the 7th Avenue exit from the I-10 freeway and go north to Thomas, then go West a half mile down Thomas Road to 15th Ave, then take 15th south until you see the parking lot. Although it is not nearly as large, Encanto Park would easily qualify as a smaller version of New York’s Central Park, with the added bonus of very few, if any Yankee fans lounging around.

One of my favorite things about Encanto Park is the fact that you have plenty of options on what do with your day. If you have an Arizona Urban Fishing license, you can spend the day wandering the shores of the lake that weaves through the park. You’ll find a decent amount of bass, sunfish, and carp throughout the lake, and seasonal stockings of trout in the winter and catfish throughout the summer. If fishing is not your thing, there are plenty of picnic areas, as well as large areas of grass to play a game of catch in, or just lay down under a tree with a good book.

The thing that sets Encanto apart from all of the other Phoenix area parks is the fact that you can rent paddle boats and go for a ride all around the park. The lake that goes throughout the park is not just a large lake, there are lots of small canals and offshoots that offer a much more interesting trip than simply paddling your boat around a big circular lake. The paddle boat rental is fairly cheap running only $8 for two people and a half hour, and $12 for a full hour. I recommend purchasing a full hour because a half hour is not quite enough time to make it all the way around the park, an hour will give you breathing room.

Finally, if you’ve got kids, or you’re still a kid at heart, make sure you pay a visit to Enchanted Island right in the middle of the park. Enchanted Island is like a miniature carnival that runs year round on the island created in the middle of the lake. You’ll find carnival games and rides for the kids, as well as an arcade with many old classics arcades. The prices of some of the rides are a bit much in my opinion, but I the train ride around the island is worth the $3 per person.

Overall, Encanto Park in Phoenix is a great way to spend a morning or afternoon, toss in some fishing or a few hours on Enchanted Island, and you can easily spend an entire day for about $30 for a couple. The paddle boats are a great way to kick back with your friends, or float slowly around the park with your special someone. No matter who you are, you will find something that you enjoy in Phoenix’s Central Park.

One of the greatest things about Arizona for me is that fact that anywhere you go in the state, you can find an out of the way attraction that has real character to it, and Arizona’s very own Mystery Castle is certainly no exception to the rule. Mystery Castle is located just out of Phoenix city limits and while its incredibly easy to find, if you’re not looking for it you can easily pass right by and be none the wiser. From just about anywhere in Phoenix, take Central Ave South past Dobbins Road and then head East once you get to Mineral Road. You’ll have to take a short detour through a housing development, but as long as you stay on the road you’ll soon run right into the Mystery Castle.

You can visit the castle Thursday-Sunday from about 11am until 4 pm during the months of October through mid June. I’d recommend getting there as early in the morning as possible if you are not used to the Arizona weather because it gets hot in a hurry during the Arizona summer. The tours around the castle start every 30 minutes or so (in case you haven’t caught on, everything here is about as laid back as you get) and you can expect it to take right around an hour to tour the entire house. Admission is only $5 for adults and $3 for children, but if you have purchased the Entertainment coupon book, there is a coupon for buy one get one free admission that will easily qualify this as a free trip. (Remember, anything under $10 for a couple is free!)

While the story behind Mystery Castle is a bit of a sad one, it’s heartwarming at the same time. Back around 1930 or so, a man by the name of Boyce Gulley was diagnosed with terminal Tuberculosis. Not wanting to give the disease to his young daughter Mary Lou, Gulley headed to the Arizona desert to die alone and away from his family. 15 years after he left, Mary Lou got a note from a lawyer that she was now the proud owner of a castle in Phoenix, Arizona. The story is much more involved than that but I don’t want to spoil it for everyone.

The castle itself is over 8800 square feet and has 4 levels (that’s if you count the room on the roof and the trap door to the cellar where Gulley left his wife and daughter his biggest surprise) and each room of the castle has a different theme. The entire castle is built with materials that Boyce found in the desert and around the city, he even destroyed his own car in order to build parts of the castle. While you are touring the house, you’ll see memorabilia from some of the most famous people of the 40′s to the 70′s scattered around.

At the end of your tour, make sure you look around for the sweet old lady with all the spunk. Mary Lou, the little girl that the entire castle was built for still makes the castle her home. My girlfriend and I stopped to talk with her about the Castle, her father, and life in general and before we knew it, we’d been sitting on her living room floor talking with her for nearly two hours. I highly recommend this trip to anyone that visits the Phoenix area, or anyone that lives here currently, it is not a trip you will soon forget.

Alright, for the past few years I’ve always wanted to go to one of those restaurants where all the food and drinks go around the restaurant and past each table on a mini conveyor belt, allowing you to reach over and grab a plate of goodies whenever you feel like. Up until a month or so ago this has not been possible anywhere in the state of Arizona, but with Chandler’s newest addition to old town, sushi seekers and fun lovers rejoice for rawdemption is here!

Sushi eye is incredibly easy to find, just head towards the intersection of Chandler Ave and Arizona Ave and head south about a block to old town Chandler. You’ll be able to hang a right (east) into a long area of parking spots. Sushi Eye in Motion is in the building at the North side of the area and you’ll have to pass it to park. The restaurant has both regular tables, as well as the counter with the conveyor belt, it’s the only one in Arizona, sit at the conveyor belt. When sitting at the conveyor belt, it is very important to sit as close to the start of the line as possible, or you will end up getting the scraps that no one else wanted to grab and will see nothing more than a lot of California rolls coming your way.

If you’re in a bit of a rush, there is a regular dinner menu that you can order from where you can get a large plate of one particular type of sushi (again, you’re in a restaurant with a conveyor belt, why are you using a menu!), but you’ll find that just about everything on the menu will travel past you. The plates on the belt are all color coded and there are convenient signs along the bar that tell you exactly how much each plate is. The best advice I can give when sitting at the conveyor belt is to keep a close eye on your plate count. $4 a plate is not that bad until you glance over to the side and realize you have 10-15 plates stacked next to you.

I am a huge fan of sushi and Sushi Eye in Motion of Chandler does not disappoint. I highly recommend the squid sashimi as well as the ahi tuna and smoked eel (if you’ve never had eel, imagine a mild version of catfish, it’s incredibly tasty!). There are many specialty rolls that come out throughout the night covered in eel sauce, miso sauce, wasabi sauce and the likes. I don’t know any of the names of the specialty ones but each and every one was great so it’s a bit hard to go wrong. Even if you are not a huge fan of sushi, there are plenty of fully cooked items that will make their way past you, and everything, raw or not is mouth watering. The tempura ship run around $4 for 4 large shrimp, and they are easily the best tempura I have ever had. A house specialty with a bit of an Arizona twist to it also comes out a few times a night, lightly panko battered and fried jalepenos with cream cheese and smoked fish. Those not fond of seafood will throughly enjoy the fried dumplings that pass by.

While I was there, a woman I could only assume was the owner was running around making sure everyone was having a good time, it was some of the most personal service I have had at a restaurant in years. She is quick to make suggestions to both new and experienced sushi lovers alike and will have them create dishes special to place onto the conveyor belt for you and the other guests. Now I know this trip was mostly about the restaurant, but I feel it also deserves its place in the cheap trips section because of the uniqueness of this sushi bar. It is very easy to make it out for less than $50, just pace yourself and keep an eye on your stack of plates.

While this may not be a trip you can take any weekend you want, the celebrity baseball tournament is one of the first semi-pro baseball games of the year. It was fairly hard for Krystina and I to pass up as well seeing as we were given two free tickets by her stepmother. The tickets normally run only $10 a piece so even without free tickets, this easily falls into the cheap trip area. The stadium is incredibly easy to find, just take the 202 to the Scottsdale Road exit, and go North until you run into a ballpark! If you’ve been in the valley a long time, you may also remember Scottsdale stadium as the old home of the Phoenix Firebirds minor league team, and during spring training it is the home of the Giants.

If you are itching for the thrills of a hard hitting, fast paced ball game to lull you out of your winter slumber, this is definitely not the game for you. Most of the players were retired baseball players with a few football players and comedians thrown into the mix for some extra flavor. The game was full of fun little jokes, bad pitching, worse fielding and at times absolutely hilarious. One of the best parts of the day was when an old football player stepped up to the plate and was having trouble connecting with the ball, out came the over-sized tee, and they let him take his swings at a stationary target. Throughout the game, the announcer would crack jokes at the players, grab random kids from the crowd to interact on the field, and they even did a raffle for an old Red Sox jersey signed by Ted Williams.

Of course what fun would a ballgame be without the hot dogs, Cracker Jacks, peanuts, and beer. Unfortunately, while the price of admission was cheap for this game, the concessions were just about par for a ball game, $4 hot dogs and $9 beers were hacked out of every stand in the park. The blow of these prices was softened by the fact that all proceeds of the entire game (tickets, raffle tickets, food, drinks, souvenirs) went straight into the little league teams of the Phoenix area, a few lucky teams scoring $1,000 – $25,000 a piece.

Overall I would highly recommend hitting the celebrity baseball tournament next year, and if you missed it don’t fret… Spring Training is only a few weeks away! Time and funds permitting, I expect to have a tour of all the ball parks laid out throughout the season so keep your eyes peeled for updates.

When I was younger, my mom used to buy a book full of coupons that she could use throughout the year, normally through the school or from someone selling them door to door. I had forgotten about these little books until I saw them appearing in book stores around the valley. The price of the Entertainment book has gone up a bit to around $30, but I’ve found a great way to save money on this too! If you run to a Walgreens within the next few weeks, they are giving a $10 discount on this book full of great deals, allowing you to score it for only $20.

I highly recommend picking this book up as many of the trips that I plan to review over the next year are all included in the Entertainment book and you’ll be able to cut the price of nearly all of your trips in half. I’ve already looked through the whole book and there are a tons of restaurants in there as well, so after any day trip, you can grab a two for one dinner and still stay under $50 for the day.

One of the first discounts that you can use out of this book of coupons is a great two for one coupon for the Arizona Renaissance Festival. The downside of this coupon is that it can only be used this weekend or on President’s day, but with tickets costing $20 a piece, the first use of the Entertainment book will allow it to pay for itself. Even if you don’t pick up the coupon book, you can still get a discount for the Renaissance festival by going to Fry’s and grabbing your tickets at the discounted price of $18 a piece. I’ll have a full review of the festival next week after President’s day (more than likely I’ll have a full week long review with all there is to do there)

So I know I’ve been fairly quiet over the past month, but life gets busy sometimes and apparently, mine is no exception. Krystina’s Birthday was a few weeks ago and she was hitting the big 21 so we decided to go to the video arcade for grown-ups, Dave and Busters. Dave and Buster’s is a fairly new arrival in the Phoenix area, before them we only had Gameworks which was great when it opened but very quickly went downhill as the Arizona Mills quickly became a run down area.

When I first walked into Dave and Buster’s I was blown away by how incredibly nice and spacious it was, the games were not crammed tightly together and there was plenty of room to casually walk around without having to dodge small children. They card everyone at the door and only allow people 18 and older in unless there is someone 25 years old in your party, and they are very strict on this. If you are under 18 don’t even try to get in, the ushers at the door will stop you in your tracks.

I would advise eating before you go in to play games, they have a decent menu but the service is pretty crummy and the food is just as bad. They have a few deals where you get food and a $10 or $20 game card but it’s best to just load up on a big game card. If you go only to play games and don’t plan on having any drinks, I can barely qualify this as a cheap trip, Your best value is their $50 game card which will easily last two people a couple of hours. Everything at Dave and Buster’s is driven off of your game card, pretty much a credit card without the monthly fees. They have games of all styles so if you feel like shooting aliens, driving a race car, or playing space invaders (yes they really have an old space invaders game, I freaked when I saw it) you can easily get your fill. When you’re done saving the world from the forces of evil, you can relax with their numerous ticket games. I’m normally not one to play ticket games, but the ticket payouts are amazing and there is an entire store of things you can buy with the tickets. The store has great items, not kids junk, you can buy shirts, glasses, teddy bears for the girlfriend, even video games, all very decently priced (in tickets of course!)

Lest I forget, there is also the greatest thing about Dave and Busters, because of the age restrictions you are allowed to drink on the game floor and carry it with you. Most of the games actually have little switches on them that will call a server to you so that you can place a drink order, or if you’re not feeling lazy there are two bars at each end of the building. The drinks are moderately priced and if you’re a beer nut like myself, they actually have some decent micro brew on tap. Overall, Dave and Buster’s is well worth the trip and if you used to be a Gameworks junkie, you’ll never go back after a visit here.

For the most part, I hate malls and shopping with a passion. I don’t like the pushy crowds, I don’t like the type of people that you find in them most of the time, and I don’t enjoy the entire shopping process (I’ve got a website about saving money, why would I go someplace where shoes cost a few hundred dollars?) I will say that I go to malls occasionally to sneak into a game store, or grab some heart clogging mall food, but that’s about it. After a failed attempt to go to zoolights last weekend we decided to swing by the newly opened Tempe Marketplace near the 101 and 202 interchange. Tempe Marketplace (aka. The District) is easy to find but hard to get to. You can’t miss it as you drive by, but in order to get there easily I recommend taking the 101 to University, go East on University to Rural, go North on Rural and you’ll see the entrance about a mile up the road on your right.

I’ll be honest, when I first pulled into the area the only thing on my mind was that this area was going to be full of stuck up little rich girls and obnoxious frat boys, but I was in for quite a surprise. The entire “mall” is outside, there is plenty of room to just casually stroll through the area. Scattered throughout the area are beautiful fireplaces with seats around them, couches, tables, everything you need to just relax and have a bit of fun. The crowd is very relaxed and everyone just seems to be there to stroll around and enjoy themselves, something I’ve never seen in a mall before.

There are quite a few stores scattered throughout the area, I’m not going to list them because I honestly was not paying much attention to them, but there are plenty of ways to kill time in the area that don’t involve shopping. You’ll find numerous unique restaurants scattered throughout the area, most with fairly decent drinks and great food. There’s is a huge Dave and Busters with food, drinks, and video games, does it get any better? There is also something you can only find in Arizona, a Harkins Cine Capri Theater. It’s only 50 cents more to see a movie on the Cine Capri screen and it is well worth the money, the screen is HUGE, the seating is great, and they actually reveal the screen from beneath huge golden curtains (this is one of two screens like this that were built in memory of an old theater in the valley). Lastly, the icing on the cake for me was the fact that right next to the theater can be found my hamburger mecca, CheeBurger CheeBurger, the greatest hamburgers on the planet.

Having grown up on the west side of Phoenix, one of my favorite attractions was always when they decked out the park around the Glendale library in Christmas lights. After a year or two of doing this they termed it Glendale Glitters and every year they add more and more lights to the amazing displays. As of this year they have well over a million lights hanging in the trees, and decorating the myriad of little shops surrounding old town Glendale.

Glendale Glitters is incredibly easy to get to, just take Grand Ave (US-60) To the Glendale Ave exit. If you are going Westbound on Grand you will want to turn right at 57th Ave in order to make it to the park. Most of the parking is free but keep an eye out because some of the merchants have strict tow away policies and will have you towed in a matter of minutes if you are not a paying customer. Once out of your car, just walk down Glendale Ave towards the huge glow near 59th Ave and you’ll hit the park without any problems.

This Trip can very easily be made as a free trip as there are no vendors in the park begging for your cash, and there is no entrance fee to walk around the park. This truly is a display meant to be enjoyed by all and it really captures the holiday spirit. If you want to make this a bit more of a romantic occasion, be sure to bring along $25 for a carriage ride. There are usually about 3-4 horse drawn carriages that run a route through the historic district that takes about 10 minutes to complete. In my opinion, the price of the carriage ride is incredibly expensive, but well worth it if you have someone to cuddle up next to under the blankets.

One of the challenges of Christmas time has always been trying to track down the greatest light displays in your area without driving around for hours and hours on end. In the spirit of both Christmas, and the cheap trips that I try to provide here at Travelblogity! I am going to try to list a different out of the way Christmas light attraction in the Phoenix area every day. If you visit the site over this week and know of an amazing display, drop me a line at suggestions@travelblogity.com and if I decide to feature it I’ll be sure to give you credit for the find as well as a link to your site if you have one.