Blogs from Arizona, United States, North America - page 6

Well, we were up and at ‘em around 8 am, but David had to scrape the HARD FROST off the car – see photo. We also took a photo of our “landmark” in finding this AirBnB – it’s the huge palm tree. We drove to Madera Canyon again, found the berry bush, but not the trogon that new friend Yvonne Parrott had told us about. Oh well, met Clare (a very well educated birder who works at a park in TN) and her college friend Tina, and got to show them where the birdfeeders were at the Santa Rita Inn. It was cold in the shade! Thanks to Clare we identified new bird # 5, a Townsend’s solitaire – a relative of a robin. We saw many of the other expected birds, busily eating and flying ... read more

After a hard-working morning linked onto a Zoom meeting for Lutheran Marriage Encounter (yes, all you married couples SHOULD attend, what a blessing), we had cheesy scrambled eggs and ½ an English muffin (see, Rosemary, this IS our go-to fast meal), and drove 35 minutes or so to Madera Canyon, a famous birding place we had visited before. First we stopped at the entrance area, paid our fee, and walked a short way at the suggestion of a local couple to a little waterfall (about 20’). It was running freely. Then we drove the mile or 2 up the canyon to the Lodge, where people hang humming bird feeders, put out corn, seeds of all sorts, and have piles of sticks to attract birds. And they were there in profusion. And there were about 12 of ... read more

Why are we traveling in the middle of January on a non-holiday weekend? It’s V’s milestone birthday! It was also the Lunar New Year. What an auspicious guy 😄 After much thought, we returned to Sedona to celebrate. Thu: Hopping over to Arizona Yay to off-season flying on a weekday 🙌 Everything went so unbelievably smoothly. One thing is, though, it pays to look up ahead of time what terminal we’ll need to be at. For this 2-hr flight, we went all out budget and took FrOOOOer for the first time. I was really really scared of all the reviews and kept our bag size a few inches below the limit. The good thing was that this made us travel uber-light and avoid the line because I made sure we didn’t have to interact with the ... read more

Happy 2023 to everyone. It’s a new start so let it be a happy one, healthy one, everyone deserves this wish. Thank you for all the cards and good wishes that found their way to our home. We didn’t expect them but it was so fun to open our mail to see personal cards so far from Lynnwood. The RV Park here remembered the reason for the season with a Christmas Eve service that was quite touching with music, lit candles for Silent Night, the Hallelujah Chorus, and a really good turnout. Our Christmas celebration was unique this year, to say the least. No tree in our RV, no typical wrapped presents, but that didn’t keep Mr. Amazon Santa away. Santa brought us a table for outside use that collapses and is lightweight but big enough ... read more

Olivia and Luke came out to Arizona for a visit. Rather than bringing them out to Quartzsite, we enjoyed a hotel in Phoenix during their stay. We visited the Heard Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, drove the 36-mile Castle Hot Springs OHV trail, hiked half of the Cholla Trail on Camel Back Mountain, enjoyed the Medieval Times Dinner, and the Musical Instruments Museum. We dined at Lou Natali for pizza, Butter's Pancake Cafe for breakfast, the Local Donut shop, and Little Miss BBQ. All were delicious! We stayed at the Cambria Hotel in Chandler, north of Phoenix. The rooms were spacious, and they have a workout room, pool, and hot tub. It was a fun, activity packed 3 days.... read more