Our Last Morning Walk

It really pays to head out the door at 6 a.m. around here.  We saw a lot of beautiful animals and a few surprises along the way.

These flowers bloom on the Argentinian Giant cactus.  More serious photographers were also taking shots of these beauties.

The best surprise of the morning was watching these two playful coyotes play hide and seek and tag with each other on the golf course.  One was gray and the other was brown.

One of our favorite birds, the Cardinal.  We were able to follow this fellow for quite a while as he jumped from branch to branch on this Ocotillo.

And our favorite friend, the Great Horned Owl, on a rooftop with his nesting palm tree right behind him.  His mate stayed in the tree.  This was actually taken last night.  

Now we will spend the day packing and cleaning the house before the long drive starts tomorrow.

Winding Down

The lazy days of our "summer vacation" are here now that our temps our into the mid-80s each day.  Actually we are to reach record breaking numbers in the low 90s this weekend!  Tells me it's time to hit the road.

This week we did yet another new hike with the hiking club.  The photos here show the usual scenery in the distance.  Wildflower season is upon us and certain parts of the trail were really lovely with flowers.

Hikers taking the mandatory "lunch break" after a 1 1/2 hour hike.

Yesterday Dave and I went to Saddlebrooke's sister property, aka The Ranch.  We kept hearing about their fantastic swim center.  So we took the plunge.  The outdoor pool was enormous and the fun feature was the lazy river.  Dave tried to leisurely float and let the current push him along.  He did feel it would have been more fun at higher speeds but couldn't find any way to ramp it up.  As usual, we had the pool to ourselves, but we weren't complaining.

Romero Pools, again

Things are starting to get warm around here.  Today we hit a high of 84 degrees.  We arrived at Catalina State Park at 8:30 and it was already too warm, for me.  The hike up to the pools is about two hours and involves a lot of rocks and elevation gain.  Lots of young people heading up there to cool off in the water too.  The wildflowers are really blooming and the hike was very colorful.  Jim and Lauren obviously weren't phased by the heat or the climb.

Dave among the Brittle Bush wildflowers.

Road Trip to Mexico

Well, sort of Mexico.  We went with our aunt and uncle down to Nogales, which is a border town.  Two hour drive, walk through to Mexico without anyone questioning us and we made it.  Dave got a little taste of the condition of the city which seemed very similar to Quito, but on a smaller scale.  We did enjoy poking around a store very similar to Walmart.  Later we ate at a nice restaurant and no one got sick.

Later that night we were all set to go to Bingo at the clubhouse.  This is a big event and is held just once a month so this was our last opportunity to play.  There were probably at least 200 people with gray hair setting up their cards and "stampers", eating candy and ready to win big money.  Just as the Early Bird game was to start there was a loud boom and the power went out.  And it stayed out for 2 1/2 hours.  So we all exited, slowly.  A lot of the elderly had to be shown how to use their flashlight features on their cell phones, which helped as it was pretty dark.  I ended up with a Blackout of the wrong kind that night.

Facts about Arizona Life

One of the downsides of living in Arizona is the hair issue.  Normally I have pretty curly hair.  You
wouldn't know that if you saw me now.  Between the hard water in our shower, the dryness in the air, and the wind, I have flat, straight hair.  I finally got a haircut yesterday and the hairdresser tried to bring the curls back but I think they are gone until I see Oregon.

Dave's hair, on the other hand, is getting long.  No haircut in three months - and that's a record! He is starting to look like he did in high school.  He's still got a ton of thick, dark hair.   I think he is turning into one of those old men who sport long, gray ponytails - except he doesn't have any gray hair!  I can see now that we're going to be one of those couples where when we go out people will come up to Dave and say "oh, it's so nice that you are taking your mother out."

Golf balls - my aunt Tina and Dave are both ball hogs.  Now on Dave's daily walks he brings a stick to help retrieve balls that have gone into the brush.  One day he came home with 33 balls.  He can't help himself when he sees a lost golf ball.  My aunt has garbage cans full of rescued balls.  It's a bit like an Easter egg hunt for those two.

This is one part of our front yard where Dave planted three new cactus plants.  We spent some time at Bach's Cactus Garden which was a fantastic nursery.  It was part research facility, part store.  The kind of place where you go crazy buying too much.  Starting to love cactus now.  We're hoping when we come back next year we will see definite growth on these guys.  They may be too young to flower, but that would be nice.

80 degree days are in the forecast!  Hope we can handle it.

Barren v. Abundant

Just walking the neighborhoods is a lesson in cactus varieties and landscaping.  We have been evaluating what plants we'd like to have in our yard, which ones bloom in spring, and which ones can survive without us for many months.  Here are two "opposite" yards. The first one doesn't even "say" Arizona.

 This one is on the deserted, sparse side.  Not our favorite look.

Here is a flower from the Argentine Giant.  This is the plant we hope to get a few of when we go to the cactus nursery - today.  We love these fantastic flowers!

Yesterday I went to the smaller of the two libraries in Saddlebrooke to pick up some books.  As my books were being checked out I noticed a sign on the "for sale" book cart.  It said 

$1 for a book

or

$1 for two books

It struck me as so funny.  Being the shrewd shopper that I am, I bought two books.