Riding the Rails !

Denise and Judy and Linda and I took the day and played hookie ! We met at the light rail in Mesa and went for a ride. Denise was the only "seasoned" traveler so she showed us the ropes and we went downtown Phx. on the train. We went a ways past our destination to another spot Pane Bianco, it's a little hole in the wall place that is known for their great food on Central. We just stopped in as the rail has a stop off near there and each bought some bread to take home, course we had to nibble just a bit on the fresh bread while we walked ! Here is Denise with her treasure ! We felt like tourists out of town walking in "downtown Phoenix" like we'd never been there ! So off we went on the train then to another little hole in the wall on Jefferson and 8th street. Mrs. White Golden Rule. Both these restaurants look like places you might not really stop to eat at unless you know about them !

So it's southern FRIED everything. Denise and I had fried chicken and Linda tried the catfish...fried. Judy tried the pork chop...fried. It was all yummy and had more salt than we'd eat in a month ! But ohhhh so tastey ! Came with corn bread that had butter ladeled over it ! Amazing. Each of the entrees comes with 2 sides, I tried green beans and potatoes...that was one thing ! Then I tried the sweet potatoes, others tried the greens and the cabbage. What fun to try all this fried southern cooking ! So we were all full and it's a good thing we don't eat like that normally !

The train ride back was fun and eventful, at least we had to walk a few blocks back to the station after eating that kind of food ! The police came on the cars at the station and were checking tickets, I wondered how they did that since no one takes your ticket when you enter, no turnstile, nothing, now we know. One man didn't have a ticket and he was told to get off at the next stop and they accompanied him and wrote that ticket...I was hearing $300-$500 fine. So if you ride the light rail, they do check ! Next stop a group of red hat ladies got on, they started singing christmas carols ! Then they didn't know where they were going but wanted to go shopping, so some nice man gave them directions and bus numbers to get to Tempe Marketplace, it was all quite entertaining !

We all ended up at Denise's house , had some wonderful chocolate cake and some great gifts to share, what a fun day we had ! Now to pretend like I cooked dinner, Ken can have the leftover chicken :-) ! What a fun day !