Hosa - Hub of Social Activity Post 1

HOSA Post 1 - May, 29th 2016

Now that I have explained what the HOSA is I can start my first Hosa post. (Here is link if you missed: HOSA). I have been wanting to share this for almost a month, but I could not work out how to do so on a travel blog. I didn't travel anywhere, unless you count to my parents, which I don't count. If you do visit Phoenix ever, then you might want to partake, so there is trip related value to people outside of the area.

Anyway, for this first Hosa post, I want to explain what happened on my birthday this year. As I said I went over to my parents house first, in the morning. Let's skip ahead a little, because that part wasn't too interesting. I mean for me it was interesting because my parents gave me gifts. Also, my mom and I went to get pedicures. So it was fun for me, but not very interesting to read about.

The week before that was my brother's birthday and I suggested that we should try an escape room, but by that time it was a little hard to coordinate. So we decided to go for my birthday instead. If you don't know what an escape room is I'll explain. What happens is that your and your group are locked into a room. Inside the room there are puzzles and clues that you need to solve in order to find the key and escape. You have one hour to escape. Now, if you are curious the door to the room is not actually locked, but if you leave the room then you cannot go back into the room. Also, these are all puzzles and there aren't any physical obstacles. That would have been fun too, but I think I understand why they limit to just the mental games and puzzles. The escape room we did was called the Puzzle Room.

Let me back up, because part of the fun during the day, though maybe not fun for the driver, my Dad, was that on the way to the Puzzle Room, we had to pick up my sister, Caitlin, and my brother, Tyler. Separately! It was quite hilarious, though don't tell my Dad. He seemed a bit stressed. We picked up Caitlin alright, except that she was a little slow at getting in the car, apparently there was an emergency session of her putting a gift in a bag! Also, Caitlin had just spent the day-before and the morning-of driving in a Razor thru the desert. She had barely arrived back.

Then, we went to pick up Tyler. He suggested that we meet off the freeway at Southern, but I said, there is not an exit at Southern. But he was saying there was, and my Mom believed him, which is fine, but she has google maps on her phone, so she could have looked. Then, for whatever reason, my Mom said that we needed to get off the freeway early, drive through the speed trap that is Guadeloupe. Then he ended up meeting us at a different location! All the while we were all trying to give Dad direction. He did the right thing by listening to Mom, but that wasn't the fastest thing!

Either way it doesn't matter, because we arrived at the Puzzle Room in plenty of time. The door is unlabeled maybe to be mysterious, but there was a sandwich board out front so it wasn't too hard to find. My brother had purchased a groupon for the room and he did it for six people. There are only five of us, so I invited my friend, Kelsi, to come. She was the only one who had done an escape room, before. However, she had never been to the Puzzle Room before. She wisely made the decision to meet us at the Puzzle Room instead of getting a ride.

Since we had never been before, the moderator took an ample amount of time explaining the game, and fielding questions, but I think we were all still confused. Once we were ready to start the Moderator did this funny script about us being there to look at a place to open a coffee shop. He explained who the previous tenant was and why the room looked the way it did, then he left the room because he "forgot" something. Then on screen there was a silly video about being trapped by the previous tenant and if we didn't get out we'd be cursed! For Life!

Anyway, after that the time starts on the clock. I wouldn't explain all the tasks, because maybe you want to experience them for yourself. I don't want to ruin it. I will say that I learned a lot about my family that day. Like, we cannot count to seven. However, we can multiply large numbers easily. We also turned off the lights so many times, that I think it fits the definition of insanity. As in doing the same thing and expecting different results! I also learned that you can't just decide which letter goes to which symbol on a cipher, you have to have a clue! Finally, if you open locked boxes, make sure you take everything out of the box!

The Puzzle room ended up being very fun. I love it! It was hard at first, since we had never done an escape room before, we had to learn as we went along. We were pretty good at the puzzles, but we weren't as good at finding the puzzles. So in the end, we lost. We were so close too, the key was in our mitts, but we didn't have enough time to escape! So, now we are cursed! For Life!

The Puzzle Room is downtown, which is near where I work. So I know the restaurants in the area. After we were cursed, we decided to find a place to eat. I wanted to pick a place with delicious food, that is too far to walk to at lunch, and some place that my family had not been. So we went to Cibo. It is the best! The pizza is so good. It is in an old house, there are a lot of restaurants in old houses in Phoenix. As I said the pizza is very good, but the pizza is not served at lunch, during the week.

The only complaint about dinner was that the table next to us were a bit loud and the acoustics of that room made it a louder still. They didn't really bother me too much, but my parents are starting to get sensitive to loud restaurants. The outdoor seating may have been better, but my birthday is in May, and we weren't sure if it would be too hot so we sat inside. The pizza was just as good as I remembered it. They are 12" pizza, and you can share with another person, but I did not! We also had a birthday crepe, with Nutella and banana! Yum!

So, I think that's it for the first Hosa Post. The Puzzle room was fun, I can't wait to do a different escape room, hopefully this one will be more successful. Dinner at Cibo was delicious.

Mexican Weekend, Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 Puerto Penasco, Mexico

A few weeks ago, my Mom, Melissa Emery, asked if I could get two days off work so that I could go to Puerto Penasco, also called Rocky Pointe, with her and my Dad, Bernie Emery. I did and so it was set. We were going to go to Puerto Penasco and stay at the Mayan Palace a timeshare that my parents own. Not only that, but my eight-four year old grandma, Mary Lou Holmes; my uncle, David Saegart; and my aunt, Mary Dillon were going to come with us. I was super happy because it had been a while since I took a vacation and Puerto Penasco was one of the places we visited throughout my childhood. I love it!

On Thursday morning, I was up at 5:45 am. At 8 am, I took my dog, Jojo, over at the neighbor's house for his own little doggy vacation with several other dogs there. Oh boy!

We were out of the door nearly and my Dad's car didn't started! He decided to jump the battery and keep going, because he just had the mechanic look at it before leaving and didn't think it would cause any problem. The trip to Puerto Penasco is only about 6 hours and goes by relatively fast. I sat in the back and read my book and listened to Mom and Dad discuss whether or not the car's battery was good or bad. They made a bet that the car wouldn't start on Sunday (when we leave).

We were making good time so we decided to stop in Gila Bend at McDonalds. I got a large coffee. We were supposed to meet up with Mary Lou, David and Mary in Why, Arizona at 11:30, and because of our stop we were a little later. We were the ones that ended up waiting, because Bernie told them what time to leave to get to Why, and he was incorrect on how long it took to get from Tucson to Why. We bought car insurance for three days that we were going to be in Mexico while we waited, and then waited about thirty or forty minutes. Once the rest of our party was in Why they bought insurance as well. Then were were off. We crossed the border and went through Sonoyta without any trouble. My Mom noticed that they put up S.O.S. phones along the 8 highway which they did not have before.

The Mayan Palace is about 40 minutes east of Rocky Pointe. We have stayed in different locations. The driveway into the main resort is 5 miles long. They plan to build lakes and houses and a Grande Mayan and the long driveway runs through all of that! When we arrive at the Palace we got checked in easily enough, but Melissa asked for a room with an ocean view, and it wasn't ready yet. So we went down to the pool and had a cocktail while we waited. The Mayna Palace has a huge pool that sits between the rooms and the oceans. We caught up with everyone for a while and then went back up to see about our room. That's when we found out that the room wouldn't be ready until five. So Melissa, Bernie and I decided to take Mary and David on a tour, Mary Lou decided to sit in the beautiful lobby and have a rest.

We gave them a tour of the tennis courts, spa, gym and beach. We didn't tour the restaurant, because we had packed coolers full of food for all our meals, except for one night in Puerto Penasco. When we returned to the Lobby the room still wasn't ready (it wasn't 5 yet), so we broke out chips, salsa, and popcorn and had snacks until it was.

At 5 PM we were finally able to go to our room, it was right next to the lobby on the third floor. The room had a two bedrooms one with a king bed and one with two fulls. Two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living area and dinning area. Also the couches in the living area are really comfortable. I love them, except that Bernie tends to wake up earlier than everyone in the family and always wakes whoever is in the living area up. So he had to sleep in the living area for this trip, Melissa's orders.

View from the room at dusk.

After we were all settled in to our rooms, Mary and David made pork sandwiches for dinner and Mary-Lou made coleslaw. It was all very delicious. We also had some cocktails.

When dinner was over, Mary, Bernie and I went down to the pool to swim, Melissa and David were going to meet us down there. The pool was a little chilly when we first got in, but it was easy to get used to, but after and entire day of being used it was a little greasy from all of the sunscreen and sand. While, I was swimming I also caught some of the Thursday Night Football game. Melissa and David came down and played ping-pong near by.

After the ping-pong game, we took a walk on the beach. It was very dark and you could see all the stars. It was so cool. Also, Bernie found a sea turtle in the sand, oh wait, no it was a turtle made from sand and seashells! Then we went back up to the pool, Melissa and Mary laid down on one of the cabanas once they did they didn't want to get up. So, David, Bernie and I went to the room to see if the University of Arizona game was playing, Mary Lou was also upstairs so we wanted to keep her company. The game wasn't on, but we could watch the highlights on ESPN so we did that while we were talking. After a while, Bernie went down to see if Melissa and Mary were still at the cabana, they were! And, I went to the sports bar in the lobby to see if the game was on there, it wasn't!

When everyone returned to the rooms we decided to get to bed.

Friday, October 3rd, 2014 Puerto Penasco, Mexico

I work up at 8 am and decided to start out by going to the gym. I got ready quickly, but was stopped in the kitchen because Bernie and Mary were making fresh smoothies and offered to make me one as well. They were spinach, berry, banana, flaxseed smoothies and tasted like peanut butter. They were so filling that I didn't even eat breakfast. When I got to the gym I used the treadmill for thirty minutes, did some weights and then tried to do burpies, and squat jumps. The treadmill was in Kilometers though so I was a little confused, so instead of jogging, I pushed up the incline.

After the gym, I went into the spa steam room and sauna for a little while. Then, I went back to the room. Mary Lou was the only one in the room and she said she was meeting everyone at the gym, doing zumba, and I said that I was going to the beach, but offered to take her to the gym since she hadn't gone the day before. She said she could find it or ask for directions. So I went to the beach to find chairs and get a spot under an umbrellas. The umbrellas closest to the room were mostly occupied and there were loud children there so I moved away toward the umbrellas near the gym when I arrived I saw that Mary was already there. So I sat down next to her. I have brought my book down with me and we went back and forth with reading and talking for a while. Then, David, Bernie, Melissa and Mary Lou came down from the gym. David and Bernie had worked out while Melissa took Zumba that turned out to be a stretch class instead. Mary Lou had gotten a little lost on the way to the gym, but she made it. They told us that they were going to get their suits on and meet us back down there. I asked Bernie to bring me back a cocktail because it was 11 AM and Mary said that I could drink at 11.

Bernie, Mary Lou, David in living area

We spent most of the day sitting at our beach spot and going back to the room for lunches and drinks. Though some of us found time to nap while we were at it. Around 4, Mary, Melissa and I went into the ocean. It was low tide so it took forever to walk out there and even longer to walk until we got to our waists. Then we stayed out there until nearly sunset. I saw Bernie and David on the beach and waved to them, but they didn't see us, so I thought it must not have been them, but when we went back in to our spots on the beach it really was them, they just hadn't seen us.

We decided to go up to the room and make dinner. Melissa and Bernie made tacos and I helped as much as I could. The tacos were great!

After dinner we decided to play cranium, the teams were, Melissa and Bernie, David and Mary, Mary Lou and Bernadette. Everyone did pretty well at the game except that Melissa couldn't whistle without laughing, and she couldn't guess a movie that was "Blank, Blank, the Wind." I'm not sure really who won because every round was the last round, but we never had an official last round, but I think David and Mary played the best game even though Mary had her eyes closed for most of the game.

Saturday, October 4th, Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Woke at 8:15 AM. Melissa, David and Bernie decided to play tennis until 9:45 AM because Melissa had a massage at 10 AM. I stayed back with Mary and Mary Lou for a bit, but met them at the tennis courts. We made great spectators and I even fetched a ball that rolled under the fence for them. At 9:30 AM I went back to the spa because I also has a massage at 10 am. I tried to use the steam room but it was had more steam today and I didn't last very long! Oh boy! But Melissa liked it. The message was so great! I felt really relaxed after and my neck didn't hurt! Yippee.

After that we got ready and went into Puerto Penasco. We decided yesterday that we wanted to swim in the ocean at sunset again, so we decided to have lunch at Rocky Pointe. We went to La Casa del Capitan up at the top of the rocky point next to the Lighthouse. It had a beautiful view. Melissa, Bernie, Mary Lou and I ordered giant margaritas, David ordered a beer and Mary decided to stick with iced tea. Before we were finishing ordering our food, Bernie ordered a second margarita! I ordered one fish taco and two shrimp tacos on corn tortillas. I felt a little bad because they put it on flour tortillas, which didn't bother me, but the waiter heard me ask my mom what kind of tortillas she got and she said flour as well and he realized that we both wanted corn, so he took them back to get corn. Mary Lou had a shrimp basket, David had three fish tacos, Mary had enchiladas and Bernie had relleno. Mary Lou said she couldn't finish her drink so I helped her finish it.

When lunch was over, we went shopping nearby. David wanted to get a shirt and Bernie wanted sunglasses. The both found some, also Mary, Mary Lou and Melissa bought shirts as well and I bought vanilla because it is really good in Mexico and the last time I was in Mexico, I brought some back for my boss and I broke the entire bottle all over my garage floor. So I wanted to get her a new bottle. While, Mary Lou and Melissa were buying shirts, Bernie and Mary went over to Sr. Amigo and Bernie had another margarita. David, Mary and I had beers.

Then we went back to the Mayan Palace. Bernie decided to take a nap. What a surprise! Melissa made a bet with him that he wouldn't make it down to the Sea of Cortes to swim with us before sunset. David and Mary Lou also decided to take naps. Mary, Melissa and I went back to our spot from the day before and sat about an hour while we wait for the sun to get closer to setting. We also ordered Pina Coladas extra strong because it was happy hour. When I was finished with mine, I went back to the room to see if any one else wanted to go into the sea with us, but before I made it to the room I ran into all three of the nappers on their way to the beach! I guess Bernie won the bet. The three of them sat down with Mary and Melissa, but I thought the sun was down far enough, also the walk from the beach chairs to the ocean was even long than it was yesterday. So I started walking. It took forever! And I walked in the water for even long, but I never go it over my mid leg so eventually I just sat down on my knees and floated around. It was a lucky thing that I went down when I did, because everyone followed me about ten minute later, even my Grandma! She was a little nervous because she was feeling dizzy lately, but she went in. Melissa and David helped their mother the whole way. When they finally reached me I told them to get on their knees because it was easier than standing. At first they didn't do it, but eventually they did!

We all swam about until the sun started to set, we wanted to see if there would be a flash of green when the sun set in the sea, but it didn't. We stayed in the water a while longer, but we didn't want it to get too dark so we went back onto the beach.

After our sunset swim we went back to the room and sat around chatting. We also snacked on some of the leftovers. eventually we decided to play a game of catch phrase. It was fun!

Sunday, October 5th Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Up at 8 am. We decided that we needed to leave early enough to make it back over the border before the insurance ran out. So we packed up and checked out. Guess what! Bernie's car didn't start and had to be jumped with David's car! Guess Melissa won that bet! After that we drove home, at 1 PM we turned on the radio to listen to the Cardinals game, and we should have kept listening to it in the car, because they did much better when we were listening to the first half then when we got home and watched the second half on television.

Grandma's cabin.

August 30th, 2014

Three Emerys, five Scotts, Frank Bost, and Grandma decided to go up to Grandma's Cabin for the Labor Day weekend. It is located in the White Mountains of Arizona in a town called Pinetop-Lakeside. It is a place that Grandma brought and we have been visiting since I can remember. It is awesome. In the summer it offers cooler temperatures than Phoenix or Tucson. That means we spend time outdoors hiking and playing volleyball. In the winter it is used for skiers and snowboarders. I am not either, but I will still visit. One of the things I love best about the Cabin is that we all bring our dogs. The dogs love the cabin because of the outdoors activity and family.

After a night of bowling we got up 6 in the morning, Melissa, Bernie and had two things in mind: coffee and packing the car. The plan was to rendezvous with Frank, Dad's old college roommate and family friend, on the on ramp in Gilbert. It went off without a hitch!

Since we were all tired and hungry the trip was a little bit of a doozy. Just as we were leaving the phoenix area we found out that Carson and Megan decided not to go to the cabin at 6 in the morning. So now the trip is the three Emerys, three Scotts, Frank and Grandma.

We arrived at the cabin around lunch. By the time we unpacked the car the Scotts and Grandma arrived. Briana immediately started weeding weeds and raking leaves! Karen made delicious chicken salad with grapes and cherries on the side. Yum!

After lunch Bernie, Melissa, Frank, Karen and I went hiking. Grandma and Jim stayed to relax, Bre was still weeding! She wanted to get leaves ready for HOSA later that evening.

The hike was at Billy Creek a nice trail that can be as long or short as you like especially if you get lost, which has happened in previous travels. Also, on previous travels we stopped by the creek for a cool break. Carson and I were wading around in creek when we heard from the edge of the creek that were crawdads in the creek. The two of us weren't too concerned until something brushed by us in the water. We both screamed in panic and jumped on to a rock that was small for one but miniscule for two. After trying to balance together we fell back into the water. Neither of us stayed long Carson went to one side of the creek and I went to the other in record time. Needless to say the story is repeated every time we return to the trail and creek.

This hike wasn't as eventful. We walked about two miles in and turned around. We took a slight different route back and ended up trekking in the forest a bit when we ended up at the wrong trailhead. See its always fun!

We stopped at the Safeway on the way back for some supplies for Monday's breakfast. We ended up forgetting to get S'Mores supplies which caused a bit of a hoopla for the rest of the evening and dinner. So much so that Frank, Bernie and Melissa made an emergency trip to get supplies!

After the hike we did a little relaxing and a lot of chatting until it was time to make dinner. It was Grandma's meal but everyone pitched in and dinner was lovely. Streak, salad and baked beans; there was supposed to be bread but we used it on lunch!

While dinner was cooking Bre and Karen started the fire at the HOSA (hub of social activity) and they burned some of the leaves that Bre raked that day. At first it made quite a bit of smoke and Grandma was worried because its the first year in a few that the fire levels were moderate.

After dinner we sat around the HOSA and chatted about everything. There was also the emergency run to the store for s'mores supplies. So of course there were s'mores which was a task. Melissa was stuck supplying all. Karen couldn't eat crackers so she sandwiched the marshmallows between chocolate and it worked out as well as one would think.

Around nine everyone start to get ready for bed. Guess we were tired from getting up early and all the hiking/work. What a fun first day!

August 31st, 2014

My puppy Jojo loves to wake me up at 5:45 am every morning, so once again I was up before 6 am. I took him, Reggie and Angie (two other dogs) outside and sat on the porch so people could wake. One thing about the cabin is that the walls are thin so its easy to wake everyone up, so going outside was the only option. But it was cold! In the fifties. After a summer in Phoenix fifties is cold! So, I ended up sneaking back inside for socks, shoes and a jacket. I got some more water for the dogs while I was at it. When I was back outside, I read a little bit, but mostly watched the dogs run around and play. The neighbors dog was behind a chain link fence and the dogs played with him through it. 

Around 7 am, everyone else started getting up. Frank was packing to go, he only planned to stay one night, and everyone else was staring sleepily into their coffee cups. It was Melissa and Bernie's turn to cook a meal. They decided to make eggs and bacon; with raisin toast and raspberries as sides. Yum! 

After breakfast the two couples, Melissa and Bernie, Karen and Jim got ready to go golfing. Their tee time was 11 am. Frank packed his car. As for Briana, G'ma Mary Lou and I we were on a mission to go to the store. I needed to get Sangria ingredients, G'ma wanted to get Briana gloves because she was still doing yard work! And she was getting a washer for the hose. When Bernie sprayed down the HOSA, the night before, he said he got a shower from the hose.

The trip to the Safeway was not eventful, but we had to stop at the dollar store for the gloves and washers (which they didn't have but they had a new hose sprayer). Then, we went back to the cabin. I began preparing the Sangria. I had never made Sangria before, but the friend I got the recipe from said it was easy. It was! I was done in about ten minutes. It had to chill overnight (or at least an hour) so I left in the fridge. 

Then, I helped Briana with the yard work. By help I mean to say that I put four armfuls of leaves into the bags and then we were done! Woohoo! Just nickname me the Clean Machine. 

For lunch we had leftovers. I took some of the steak and made a sandwich, Briana had chicken salad, and G'ma made a large salad from the various greens we had yesterday. Briana set up the hammock and ate her lunch there then she read some of her book before taking a little nap. 

G'ma and I worked on a crossword after lunch, and I only looked up the answers a few times. Still the puzzle didn't get finished, and G'ma eventually said to throw it out! Then, we also decided to take naps. The dogs decided to nap too, hooray!

We woke up just as the golfers were getting back. Melissa, got an Eagle on a par three! Woohoo! We let her celebrate for a while, then told her that an eagle on a par three was a hole-in-one. She thought a Birdie was two under par and an eagle was a one under par. Jim also made a Birdie on a par three. 

With the golfers back I poured the Sangria. Everyone had some except for Bernie. It was delicious and I was told to make more! So I did, but by the time the hour-chill time had lapsed the girls were onto wine so it didn't go over as well. 

That night it was Karen and Jim's turn to cook. They made white-bean chili. It was made corn free so the meat was pork instead of chicken. It was delicious. I had two bowls, but I probably should have stuck with one. I volunteered to do the dishes and Briana helped me by drying them and putting them away. When we were finished, we went out to the HOSA. 

It was more boisterous this evening and we all said that Frank missed the fun night! We sang songs, made s'mores and chatted about many things from finances to retirement to celebrity nude photos being leaked from the cloud. At one point Briana and Karen made a dash to the corner store for milk and Kahlua so that G'ma could make White Russians, the drink is iconic at the HOSA, by the end of the night they were White Wussians.  

September 1st, 2014

Pinch and a punch, for the first of the month! 

Once again I was up before 6 am, but this time it was not Jojo's fault. Reggie came over and told me he needed to go outside. He would have gone back to bed afterwards, but because he woke me up he work Jojo up, and once Jojo is up he is up for a few hours. I made sure to wear shoes this time and then took Reggie, Apollo and Jojo out (Apollo is Karen and Jim's greyhound. He is older so I was surprised he came with us). 

After I took them outside, I went back inside to cut up some fruit and start my fruit salad. Briana and I were in charge of breakfast. We were making gluten free pancakes, fruit salad and bacon! The fruit salad was strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and bananas. So I knew I only have a few things to cut up. So I left Jojo outside and Reggie went back to bed with my parents, for the most part, and I cut up fruit. I left some of the strawberries and bananas, because I wasn't sure if Briana wanted to make pancakes with fruit inside or not. (We decided not so I added the rest later that morning) After I cut the fruit I poured OJ over it and let it soak. 

Then I went back outside. I laid in the hammock and caught a few zzz's and read a little more. Jojo figured out that he could go under the porch so he spent a lot of time running under there. Reggie would stand on top of the porch and run around overtop of him, looking down at him through the boards. He could get under the porch as well, but he liked being on top better. Silly.

Once everyone was awake and had a cup of coffee, Briana and I made the rest of the breakfast. It was delicious. The pancakes were gluten free and corn free so I think they were made with rice flour. They tasted delicious, some gluten free foods do not taste good, but pancakes are fine! 

After lunch we decided to make it an early day, and so we cleaned up the cabin and headed off. The problem was that Briana had done so much yard work that we had ten bags of dried leaves. We spent some time trying to figure out where to dump them, and eventually we found a dumpster that didn't have a no-dumping sign on it. Though we still unloaded the bags, like we weren't supposed to dump them anyway! We all left so fast we didn't even say good-bye to any of the Scotts or G'ma!