Saturday, December 17, 2016

The dangers of living in a 55+ Resort

While walking down the side of the street, I heard a screeching noise behind me. As I turned around, a big clunky bike was barreling towards me. The lady didn't see me until I yelled and she looked surprised that I was there, said "oops" and kept riding to her tennis game. How she hits the tennis ball, I have no idea.

Often while driving, we see a person coming right towards us on our side of the road and often don't see us until we honk. Living on a corner lot, I often wonder if someone will miss the turn and run into us because they can't see at night.. Fortunately, there are not many people out at night.

It has been a good experience staying in a 55+ place as we prepare to leave. There is so much to do and plenty of people around even if they can't see real well.

Papago Park is along the bike path that we rode from Tempe to Scottsdale. We saw these butts lined up along the ridge as we rode along. Kind unusual to see them in the middle of the city.











Scottsdale is all geared up for the season.





Papago Park

Bridge across Tempe Town Lake.


Even though I have "retired", I called Banner staffing to see if I could return to work one day a week since we were staying for a few months. They said "Sure, come on back". I am glad it is only one day a week for a little while. Those tune ups (people and vehicle) got a bit spendy this year.




Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Mormon Christmas

This is our third year visiting the East Valley of Phoenix for the "season" and it was time to visit the lights of the Mormon Temple and Christmas scenes. Sometimes, it is nice to do something that doesn't involve sweat and dirt.
Visiting the Mesa Arizona Temple during the Christmas season is a feast of both sight and sound.
Hundreds of thousands of decorative lights covering ground-level flower beds to towering-tall palm trees illuminate the north lawn with Christmas music playing in the background..
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We expected large crowds but were pleasantly surprised to find them not too big.

Inside the visitors’ center is the annual nativity display. There is a collection of nearly 100 crèches from around the world.








A life-sized white sculptured nativity that appears to float on a negative reflection pool in front of the temple, and a blazing star lights up a large, traditional nativity imported from Italy with a neighboring shepherds’ field.












It was a good way to spend an evening getting into the holiday spirit.


Thursday, December 1, 2016

Bushwacking cactus to Sunrise Arch

Why would anyone bushwack through cactus? We started our hike just off Bush Highway by the Salt River, excited that we were going to see one of the Goldfield Mountains secrets. These mountains have many natural arches. Most hikers do not know this nor have they been to any of them because there are no trails throughout most of these mountains. There are a few faint jeep roads around the lower elevations but the majority of hiking would be off trail.
Wild horse family in the river

We changed our water shoes into our hiking boots after crossing the river.

Good thing Mike carries his handy pliers to remove the chollas as we weaved between the cactus. There were plenty of opportunities to remove the buggers from our body parts.


Another wild horse.
There is controversy over the management of the growing wild horse population in AZ.

There is some steep scrambling the last 1/4 of a mile reaching the arch.




The arch goes through an outcropping of rock with a rock cliff directly behind it is difficult to pick out from afar.

The actual arch is about 25 feet high and 30 plus feet across and has a saguaro growing on top of it. It is called the Sunrise Arch because at one point in the morning the sun from the east shines through the arch. At all other times it simply blends into to rocky backdrop.

The arch is beautiful with varied colored rock walls and the views of Saguaro Lake and the Salt River are spectacular


Time for a snack and rest.


Happy Thanksgiving with Matt and Megan




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