We are on our way!

Tuesday, March 29 - packed up and ready to go! We are leaving the lovely Mesa.,Arizona to begin our wandering way home. It's bright and sunny and predicted to be 90F but it is time to head home. We will follow the Bush Highway #87 north to Payson and then to Winslow. We do not expect to get home for about 2 weeks - there is much to see along the way.

A visit to Queen Creek Olive Mill

Al fresco lunch in the olive grove. We bought some Mexican lime flavored olive oil, olives stuffed with feta cheese and a wonderful asiago parmesan olive tapenade. There were opportunities to taste all the different flavored oils, balsamic vinegrettes and other specialties - but first we had lunch - yummy sandwiches and soups made with their specialty oils and olive products

Desert Botanical Gardens

Wednesday. March 23 - the entrance to the gardens welcomes us with a display of yellow blown glass "trees" by Dale Chihuly

How fitting to spend the day looking at flowers with our friends the Bloems

Cactus flower

A forest of cacti with Papagp Mountain in the distance.

We saw this lizard on a log - he blended in very well!

Mickey?

This pack rat was busy transporting needles to line his den - hole in the foreground

This yucca has a tall stalk of blooms. A Palo Verde in the distance is full of yellow puff ball flowers

How do they do it?

A Bishop's Cap Cactus in bloom

Old Man Cactus

Arizona Lupine

Agave in bloom

Contrast

Celebrating!

Our 42nd wedding anniversery was on March 22. We were given the royal treatment - our own mats and tea and cookies in the morning at our friends

That evening we had a delightful dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill with our good friend Dan and Barb Bloem and Gerry and Dia TerHaar.

March 17 - A Day of Travel and Exploration

We left at 8am with our friends Gerry and Dia to make a daylong circle trip - first to Prescott, then Jerome and ending at Montezuma Castle. We arrived home at 8pm after putting more than 500km on our faithful Jetta.

Courthouse Square. Prescott was the former territorial capital of Arizona. After Arizona became a state, the capital was moved to Phoenix. Now this building houses courts for the local county.

Symbols of the Old West

The Palace Bar has been in business since 1877 - a true relic of the "Wild West". Wyatt Earp and his brothers played cards here as well as Doc Holliday. Little Egypt and Big Nose Kate were also dancers in this saloon. We pushed open these doors for a look - they had lots of memoribilia of those bygone days but it is still an active bar and resturant.

Just north of Prescott is Watson Lake and the Granite Dells. The rock formations were really interesting! They sort of looked like the 'drip castles' we used to make at the beach of a sandy lake. After walking around the rocks, we ate our lunch here.

We called this "potato rock". Gerry and Dia TerHaar - our friends traveled with us today.