Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Phoenix-Glendale

Avoiding Baggage Fees

by jumpingwithnorman

If you're like me, sometimes you'll find yourself with more shopping bags than space in your baggage when it's time to head home. So I always have 2 options! If I'm staying at a friend's house, then I can always call UPS (1-800-PICKUPS) to pick up the boxed items I have (I consolidate all the items into a single box that I would buy at a local U-Haul store or a FedEx/Kinko store). I can write them a check for the amount needed to ship the box or have them charge it to my creit card. If I'm staying at a hotel or I'm on the move, then I just find out where the nearest FedEx/Kinko store is and head there with all my items. I can buy the box right there, pack it all and send it all in one place. Whenever I'm travelling for over a month with my 3 boys, I've also been known to ship all our dirty clothes home instead of doing laundry. Saves me from having to pack smelly clothes! Hahaha

Glendale, SUPERBOWL 2008

by jumpingnorman

"Pic taken at my kids' pre-school on Father's Day"

The kids are in pre-school (2008), and like me they will have their formative learning at a private Catholic School for good education. Our family believes that the best legacy we could give our kids is not money, but their education...

We actually live in Glendale, but I decided to put in Phoenix, AZ as my HP residence because people always mistake us to be living in Glendale, California!

Glendale is actually about 25 minutes west of Phoenix, and we are an upcoming neighborhood, made popular by the Super Bowl of 2008 being held here.

We decided to build a house in 2006 near the super retractable stadium which was built specially for the Superbowl 2008 (February), and now it also hosts several other events including concerts at the adjacent huge arena. After some very high bidding, the final name of the stadium became Universty of Phoenix Stadium (an on-line university which is apparently richer than Ivy League schools!).

It is one of the few stadiums with a retractable roof (the other one I saw was in Toronto, Canada - we consider Toronto our "third" home in North America, second home and our motherland is "Manila, Philippines").

Seeing a place grow from being just desert land with some corn fields to something so metropolitan is amazing.

My friends and relatives, mostly living in LA, San Diego and San Jose, California visit us often. Here, my three nephews are enjoying a great time rolling around the grass by our house.