10. Tempe/ASU

Jul 28, 2009 Uncategorized

Today I decided to explore a little bit of Tempe, AZ. If you aren’t familiar with the Phoenix metropolitan area, allow me to try to explain it. Although it is known as Phoenix, there are 5 or 6 cities that are all connected that make up this area. Tempe is where the ASU campus is located. It touches Phoenix though.

Anyways, my dad grew up in Tempe and also went to ASU. Because of this I’ve heard about ASU related topics my entire life. I figured I would take this day to explore some of the things he’s always told me about. I started at a steak house at the heart of Tempe called Monti’s. My dad has pressured me to get a steak there since I moved to AZ for college. Today I finally gave in and had a meal there. Look at my giant Prime Rib I had for lunch. It was delicious. I should have listened to my dad about this long ago. Here are the pics from lunch:

That’s what I call a mouthful

I bought this shirt

This is the view across the street from Monti’s

After Monti’s I decided to explore ASU a bit more. I wanted to check out Sun Devil stadium. This proved more difficult than I thought it would be. I did a partial lap around the stadium looking for a way to get in that wasn’t fenced off. I thought I sneak in through what looked like a back way. To get there I started with an arboretum. This must be the largest gathering of plants in all of Phoenix

Then I walked on this path for what felt like an hour in that sun and in all my gear. According to my phone it only took about 5 minutes though.

And then I reached this fence, ugh.

I decided to check out the Wells Fargo Center next. This was a cool stop because they had lots of old sports photos and stuff. My dad was a bus driver for the ASU football team in the early 70s. My friend’s dad played for ASU football in the early 70s. Two years ago we learned this which was one of those small world moments. Here are the pics from the Wells Fargo Center:

Here’s a tribute to the Rose Bowl victory against Michigan and a shrine for ASU’s famous coach Frank Koush.

Here was another sports shrine connected to Sun Devil Stadium.

It turned out the stadium was closed for renovations. I was only able to take this picture:

That’s it for ASU. I was hot and exhausted so I went back to Matt’s place. A few hours later I met up with my friend John from NAU who now works in Phoenix. We got dinner at a terrible Mexican place, but we still had a good time. It was nice catching up with John and hearing about how he’s been.