April 2019

April was a month of highs and lows.

It started on a high note, as my early birthday present arrived on April 1st. I turn 60 in May, and Paul and I decided to celebrate with a new Mustang convertible.

Half the fun for me is to let other people drive it, which means, I have had a lot of fun with it!

The girls and I had a Thelma and Louise day, taking the car up to Oatman for lunch.  We decided we are all Louise, and the car is Thelma.

Liz and Randy, and Mike and Julie were still in the yard, so we had a great time just enjoying retirement.

Although the boat didn't get much use, due to the constant winds, we did have a few good days on the water.

My favorite was the day we brought everything to make quesadillas, and stopped at one of the many picnic spots for lunch.

Mid April brought more first time visitors to the PPP.  Two of my childhood friends made the trip out here for vacation.  Paul and I picked Linda and her fiance Alan up in Vegas, and the 4 of us made an overnight stop at the Grand Canyon.






By the time we got back to the house, Rita and her husband Ed had already arrived and been greeted by our stand in hosts, Mike and Julie.







I was looking forward to a great time, and I wasn't disappointed! Although the weather didn't cooperate, we still had a great time-

More outings in the Mustang...

Dinners on the back deck..

A game night that had us laughing ourselves silly..

And a Dance Party..

They even surprised me with an early birthday party !

We had a great time- I hope they come back soon!

Unfortunately, as soon as my friends left, the month went from the high to the low.  We knew our cat, Dozer was having problems eating, and things got worse in April. Finally we knew it was time to let him go.

 He had plenty of adventures during his 16 years with us, and was more well traveled than many people.  He even wrote a blog post about his Alaska adventure.

From Newfoundland to Alaska, he had lots of opportunities to explore the great outdoors.

Of course, like most cats, he had to check everything out...

And usually managed to be in the way....

But mostly he was a great companion, and his loss will leave a large hole in our lives.

February (and March) 2019

Yep, I am combining February and March. Not because I suddenly got lazy, but because although March was a busy month, there wasn't much going on that is blog worthy.

 So here are the highlights:

Early February brings both mine and Paul’s anniversary (our 19th, this year!) and the Super Bowl.

I was determined to be home for both. We made it just in time.

No one was happier than me when, after the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots could change their tagline from “Everything we Got” to “We got Everything”

Soon after we settled in at the house, people started arriving and the fun intensified.Hiking was still a regular occurrence, and the views of the lake never get old.

Planet Fitness was also a frequent destination for most of us. It’s so much easier to go to the gym when someone texts you in the morning “are you ready to go?”

Mid February brings the Winter Blast. This is a pyrotechnics show that lasts 4 days. We have been going for about 6 years and still enjoy it.  This year we booked two RV sites down at the show, so we could park our 5th wheel and still have room to park and set up tables and chairs.

Last year, in addition to RV friends, my cousin Linda came, and some friends from Michigan came as well. This year, our Michigan friends brought more friends of ours! We had a full house and had a great time!

Although our friends Carol and Larry were only with us for a few days, we managed to find time to bring them to the Desert Bar…














My cousin Linda and her husband Michael also made the trip to the Desert Bar with us. One of the perks to being in AZ is that I get to see her more often. We are only 6 months apart in age…and I have no intention of revealing who is older!

February and March are our biggest months for visitors..

and we always have a good time!

We had barely recovered from Winter Blast when Paul’s birthday came around. We celebrated at our new favorite restaurant, El Paraiso, famous for their flaming Margaritas.

Late February, early March we made a short road trip to El Paso to check on Paul’s mom.

On the way back we met up with some friends in Yuma, at the home of our good friends Steve and Carol.

March brought in slightly warmer weather (although this winter has hit some record low temperatures and hasn’t warmed up all that much!)

One of the perks to the rain we had was the awesome double rainbow over the house!

March also brought in a changing of the guard so to speak, as our vacationing friends left for home, and our RV friends settled in.

On the rare occasion that the weather was warm enough for boating, we took the boat out on the lake.

Jessica had a week off at the last minute, and came to spend a few days relaxing with us old folk.

And, of course there were more shared meals….at least we got to eat some of them outside!

Although there was plenty of time for fun and games…..

There was also work to be done. Part of the reason I decided to update my blog is because Paul and I are headed to Europe this summer with Mike and Julie!  I know I will want to post about it, so I figured I’d better get caught up first.

Of course, we had some help planning our itinerary. We will spend about 6 weeks touring Scotland and Ireland, with a short visit to England at the beginning of the trip. Mike and Julie have done this trip several times, so their input has been invaluable.

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!