January 2019- the "quiet month"

Once the holidays were done, we settled into somewhat of a routine- for about 10 days.
Marilyn and I hiked on a regular basis. Sometimes Paul came with us, sometimes he didn't.

We still had a lot of shared meals- our "Chinese" night was particularly memorable and delicious!
















Havasu has a balloon fest each January-last year the weather was so bad, they didn't fly at all during the 3 day event. This year the weather was much better and they flew every day. My favorite event is the night glow, when the balloons are tethered, but light up. Sometimes they play music and have the balloons glow on and off to the beat.

Once balloon fest was over, it was time for us to leave town. Most years we head to Quartzsite, AZ where we hang out in the desert with a bunch of friends. When we were fulltimers, this was a lot of fun, and we would stay in Quartzsite for a week or so.
Now that we have a house just 90 minutes away, it doesn't have quite the allure, but we still went, so that we could see friends we hadn't been able to see for a while.    Here the guys are learning how to split wood properly, haha.





Of course, we did manage to host our annual Margarita/Quesadilla night!

Our trip to Quartzsite usually  lines up with our annual doctor appointments in Phoenix. This year we only spent a couple of nights in Quartzsite ( may not go at all next year, just a heads up) and then we headed to Phoenix and the Mayo Clinic.


 The Phoenix area has some awesome regional campgrounds, and we managed to snag a spot at Cave Creek, very close to the Mayo Clinic. We did some hiking after our doctor appointments and had an awesome sunset.

Done with our appointments, we headed down to Tucson to meet up with our good friends Mike and Julie.
We've been to Tucson many times, but we always find something new to do and explore.  And when we are done exploring, we relax!
















 Our first adventure was a trip to the Richard Caris Mirror Lab. The Lab produces light weight mirrors for use in optical telescopes. The process they use is revolutionary and they are the only company in the world who produces these particular mirrors.






















Made of glass, the process of melting the glass
into the proper shape involves baking it in an oven that is 40 feet in diameter, until it reaches 2130* Fahrenheit.  After about a week of heating, the cooling process takes another 90 days. And then they have to polish it! Oy!








I have been hearing about the town of Tubac for quite a while now, and was very happy to actually get a chance to check it out.  Its an artsy kind of town, with restaurants, galleries, and all kinds of things for sale. Paul and I saw a life size cactus water feature, made of metal, with an LED light shining out the top. We really wanted it, but the woman told us if the LED died, there was no way to replace it.  Oh well.

In addition to shopping, we visited the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, the first state park in Arizona. This park preserves the oldest Spanish presidio site in Arizona, established in 1752. It also preserves one of the oldest territorial schoolhouses in the state. We sure did have fun playing "school"!







Being a fan of football in general, and the New England Patriots in particular, I am always happy when my team is still playing in January!