"I'm trippin' out, man!" "You are trippin' out, man, man, man, man..."

It is 7 p.m., Ohio time, and I am sitting in the terminal at Sky Harbor Airport in Poenix, AZ, returning from a refreshing four days in the Grand Canyon State. For a slideshow of pictures from the trip, click here.

I must say, it was a much needed respite from the nervous breakdown-inducing grind of law school. I was completely at the end of my rope and if spring break would have started one day later, I’m not sure I would have made it. The goal for the week was just to visit with family, chill, and think about something other than special needs tests, fee simples subject to executory interest, and material breaches.

After my plane landed and the shuttle dumped me off in Tucson, we all went to Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que for a bite to eat. All I had eaten all day was a banana and the snacks they served on the flight, so I was starved. I polished off a dozen hot wings and a Texas Manhandler sandwich with fries in short order.

You know what they say about first impressions … the first impression I got of Tucson came courtesy of the whino who accosted us in the Famous Dave’s parking lot and made his pitch for why we should give him a couple bucks. My brother-in-law, who is always touting the glories of life in Tucson, wanted to crawl into a hole.

Saturday morning we went to Old Tucson Studios, where a lot of old Westerns were filmed. For somebody who was raised on cowboy-and-Indian movies, Old Tucson was a lot of fun. My nephew Brandon's two-year birthday party was in the afternoon. It was nice to meet a lot of the people I’ve heard about since the family moved out here. I got to hang out with Josh R., which was cool because we have chatted a lot through fantasy football. Zion, Shan, Josh, Elijah, and I went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and had a really good time.

The Arizona Renaissance Festival on Sunday was kind of a disappointment. It was a lot like Disney World in that it was really crowded, but without all the fun things to do. We bought some "turkey legs" from one of the vendors there and all decided that whatever it was we were eating, it wasn't a turkey leg. I threw mine, and the $5 I spent on it, in the trash after just a few bites of the mystery meat.

Fortunately, the jousting tournament and the performance by Tartanic (a Scottish bagpipe and drum group) saved the day. The Tartanic show was awesome (click here for video) and, in my opinion, was worth the price of admission alone. When we got home I Googled and found the group’s Web site, only to learn that it was moving on to other projects at the end of April. I did get to buy their last CD, though.

Monday and Tuesday were great as well. We went to a couple Spring Training games at Tucson Electric Park. We saw the Diamondbacks and Giants play on Monday and the Rockies and White Sox on Tuesday. I got to take a lot of pictures and I think a few of them turned out pretty good.

After the game on Tuesday we drove down to Nogales, Mexico. It was my first trip to Mexico, though, to be honest, I’m guessing that going to Nogales and saying you’ve been to Mexico is a lot like dipping your toes in the water and saying you went swimming. But it was neat to get my picture taken under the “Bienvanido a Mexico” sign and to cruise some of the local shops.

We got there just at sunset, so there weren’t many tourists left and a lot of the shops had closed up. But I got a pound of fresh roasted (at least the shop owner said they were fresh, lol) coffee beans for $5, or about half of what I usually pay. If they taste as good as they smell, that will be some gooood coffee. I also bought my daughter a purple sombrero. Of course nothing had listed prices and you had to dicker with the shop owner. The owner where I bought the sombrero started me at $25, offered to sell it to me for “his cost,” $18, then finally came down to my original offer of $15 when I started to walk out the door. I even sample some of the local fare and bought taco from a guy with a little push cart on a street corner. It tasted great and actually was easier on me than my last trip to Taco Bell. (I made a point of praying extra hard for it when I said grace.)

The Tucson area is actually kind of pretty, in its own unique way. It's not like Arlington, VA pretty, and [princessbridereference] I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here. But the trees are actually quite lovely.[/princessbridereference] I'm sure it helps that I'm here at a good time of the year weather-wise. I think I'll pass on coming back in June. It will make a nice spring break stop when January and February start feeling like 45-day-long months.

Now, it’s back to reality. I’ll have a couple days to try to get caught up on outlines, etc. Then it’s back to class on Monday.

[sarcasm]I can’t wait.[/sarcasm]