The kids were a bit scared of the mouse at storytime

One of The Valley’s best Barnes and Noble’s is a newly built 2 story free standing Barnes at San Tan Village.  Located @ the 202 and Willam’s Field.  They are in the prime location of shopping, dining and fun in the new San Tan Village. This Barnes and Noble boasts a huge selection of books, a great discount book area, a cafe and a huge kids section.  Of course my kids love to go so they can ride the escalator!

Anyways, Story time is everyday at 11AM.  It is a different book with a new theme every time.  The craft is unique and supports the story.  Plus, at the kids section they have a huge Thomas The Train track with a lot of very loved Thomas and his friend’s.  But, BEWARE!  They have the Thomas collection for sale there at an exorbitant price!  Plus it is surrounded with lots of kids toys and stuffed animals!

These people certainly know how to up sale!  A Special guest we had at story time time today was the mouse from, “If you give a mouse a cookie”  It was a fun surprise guest that the kids liked and yet were strangely afraid of at the same time because I believe the mouse suite blinded the wearer and so the mouse had to be lead around by the arm and directed where to sit.  And, it was plain just a HUGE mouse!

We did manage  a few fun pics and headed over to the craft area where they were making fairy wands.  Seeing as we have all boys they were not that interested in the wands.  We perused the books and purchased a few good one’s for the kids.  This particular Barnes and Noble’s check out was a bit slow as they had 10 registers and no one manning them!  But, we had yet another fun story time at  Barnes and Noble at San Tan Mall.

Family Time with The Mouse

Side Shot of Scary Mouse

Playing With The Trains

Ginormouse Barnes and Noble at San Tan Mall

All I can say is that I was SO impressed.  The music, conductor and singer were all meshing perfectly and it was an amazing show!  I am not old enough to have know a live performance from Sinatra.  But, it felt as though I may have got to experience what it may have been like.  Moving, truly musical and entertaining.  Funny with very few yaws.  They broke up the musical number with stories and jokes!  Not your typical night at the Symphony!

Now more than ever I am inspired to download some oldies but goodies to my iPod and listen to it over dinner…

Family fun: Out door water pad and restrooms right next door for easy access.  Comfortable and trendy outdoor seating with many places to get snacks and drinks.

Shopping:  What is there to say… Barnes and Noble, Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Aeropostale, Target, Ross, Ulta And much…much more!

Eating: California Pizza Kitchen, Dave and Busters, and lots of trendy little cafe’s.

The environment is truly relaxing and fun!  At night there are bands and lots of good music.  As well as a stage with a huge screen playing music video’s.

• Haunted Corn Mazes
• Haunted Pumpkin Patches
• Haunted Houses
• Family Halloween Festival (Tempe)
• Ghost Ball Halloween Block Party (Scottsdale)

We here at iTourAZ just love Halloween, so likely you’ll see some more posts as we get closer to the big day but we just wanted to put this one out there to get you in the spirit and hopefully to get you to start thinking about what you’ll wear and what you’ll do! Make some plans, and go get that costume, they sell out early!

If you’re taking a walk around campus during school hours in the middle of the semester you’ll certainly see lots of lots of the student body running around (there’s about fifty two thousand of them). Here’s my list of top things to see on campus:

SunDevil Stadium

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raillifepics/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
The top photo here is of Sun Devil Stadium during graduation in 2009. President Obama spoke at this graduation ceremony to a packed house of both faculty and students as well as their friends and family. The bottom picture from inside the stadium during an ASU football game.

Rec Center

This is a panoramic photo of ASU’s student recreation center on the Tempe Campus. This is both the rec center field which has a baseball diamond, a running track, and several sand volleyball courts. Additionally you can see the huge rec center building in the background where students can go to take aerobics classes, play some basketball, lift weights, or just lounge by the pool.
Old Main

The picture above is of “Old Main” which is, I believe, the oldest building on campus dating back to 1898 (which was even before Arizona was a state!). President Teddy Roosevelt dedicated the Roosevelt Dam from those steps (well… probably not Those steps as the building has been restored) in 1911!

Palm Walk

The image above is of “Palm Walk” the man thoroughfare through campus with the dorms and University Bridge on one and and the rec center on the other. This walkway is lined with 99 palm trees dating as far back as 1916 and some as tall as 90 feet!

University Bridge

The image above is of University Bridge at dusk. This bridge connects the North Campus Dorms with the main campus area. It’s a gorgeous bridge that was originally designed by a chiropractor to have very little stress on the legs and lower back of the students that walk across this bridge multiple times each day.