Lake Havasu City (02-14-15)

Last year we came to Lake Havasu with some friends to see the fireworks show, and we had so much fun we decided to repeat it again this year-but this time we are staying a lot longer- we’ll be here for almost two months, enjoying the warm weather and the lake. 
Our first week was spent at the state park, which is on the lake.  We did a little hiking and decided not to put the boat in the water, since we are going to spend 6 weeks at a resort and we’ll be able to keep it the lake the whole time. Instead, we just bummed around and waited for our friends to show up.

One afternoon we heard a very loud droning noise and went outside to see a flyover of a bunch of small planes.  We have no idea why they were doing it, but there is always something going on in this town, it seems like.

Of course, Lake Havasu City is home to the famous London Bridge, and there are many restaurants along the shoreline with great views of the bridge and lake.

The best way to enjoy the lake is to be on it in a boat!  With temperatures in the mid 80s, we all decided that boating sounded awesome, so we rented two boats for the day.

It was a little chilly in the morning but that didn't keep the grins off our faces….

The lake is gorgeous and has lots of places for us to pull off and relax on shore.

There are plenty of canyons to explore too..

 

We were pretty glad we didn't rent a pontoon boat, as we were able to zip around to our heart’s content…

When it was time for lunch we beached the boats at one of the many picnic areas along the shoreline….

We took the opportunity to stretch our legs and show off our goofiness…

   

Julie and I “coincidentally” both wore the shirts we bought in Quartzsite…

       

and when the time was right- we showed them off to our fellow boaters. 

We did manage to get quite a laugh…

Eventually it warmed up and some of us even braved the cold water to go for a (very short) swim.

We finished the day with Quesadillas and margaritas back at the rigs and were so tuckered out that many of us barely showed our faces the next day.

We actually ended up eating most of our dinners as a group, which is a little unusual, but we were having such a good time it seemed really easy to combine forces and come up with a smorgasbord of food with a little something for everyone. We treated ourselves to one dinner out, at the Barley Brothers Brewery, and even with such a large party, we had the best service we've seen in a restaurant in a long time.  We all had good food and a great time.

Eventually we got to see the fireworks that we came here for……

 

 

They definitely had some new stuff this year, including some that were time delayed in such a way that it appeared that a circle was being drawn in the sky..

 

and many of them seemed to have one display within another.

We really enjoy this show but it can get a little frustrating.  Its not a well orchestrated “show” – there are many fits and starts and sometimes a 40 minute gap between the displays, but being parked on the grounds in our RVs makes it worthwhile.



Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye as one by one we left on our journey to our next destination. 





Paul and I didn't have far to go- about 4 miles down the road to the state park.  We’ll spend one night here before moving to a resort for 6 weeks.


I am pretty excited because on Saturday, my brother Ray and his wife Dawn will arrive for a week.

 Come to think of it though, they may be even more excited than me….they live in Boston and have had 5 feet of snow dumped on them in the last few weeks. 




Add wind chills of 25 degrees below zero and I bet they will be pretty darn happy to get out of town for a while. 

Yes, More Lake Havasu (02-18-14)

  Yes, yes, I know that a week has passed since we were in Lake Havasu City, but I wanted to post some of this information.  Our final hike in the area was to a mine..of course. Just getting to the trailhead involved driving off road for several miles. Our truck, and it’s driver, like to drive off road.

I took this picture a few weeks ago, near Quartzsite, on one of our other off road adventures.

So, once we dropped the truck off,, we headed to Iron Gate Mine.  We weren't really sure what they were  mining for, but it was a decent hike to get there, so we enjoyed it. Total hike- about 6 miles with almost 1000 feet of elevation gain.

Once we reached the entrance, Paul walked to the back of the mine- about 600 feet or so, and I waited for him outside, just the way I like it!

That night was the final night of fireworks.  The moon decided to join the competition, and I must say, it was a worthy competitor.

Some of the displays were really unique and different.  The brightness on the ground that looks like a fire- well, it IS a fire, and several times they had to delay the display in order to put out the ground fires.

Sometimes it seemed that the fires were started because  they couldn't quite reach the height they were looking for and the explosion would take place too close to the ground- like in this picture.








It was all great though, and since we had no where to go, we could relax and wait for the show to start back up again:


    
























From Lake Havasu we headed to Mesa Arizona.  We spent 3 days dusting the rig and going to dentist and doctor appointments. We both got a clean bill of health and need no dental work so we get to relax for a while.

A few days after we arrived, my brother Ray and sister-in-law Dawn flew in for a visit.  Dozer wasted no time staking out his spot on Ray’s lap.

More on that some other time…..

Lake Havasu, part 2 (02-16-14)

On the Water

Since most of the fireworks displays take place at night (although you’d be surprised at how many are actually set off during the day), it leaves us with all kinds of time to explore.  All 6 of us are boaters at heart, so we elected to take a jet boat tour of the area. I think we all like to go fast, too!

The tour guide gave us the history of the area, including this part of the Colorado River.  We saw some petroglyphs along the way but as hard as they tried to find some big horn sheep to show us, the best they could come up with was a few wild burros.









The tour included a stop for lunch at a waterfront restaurant, where the guys tried to make off with one of the barrels of rum.









 

The goofing around continued throughout the day.  We sure do have fun with this group!

We’ll take the High Road and you take the Low Road….

The hike of the day was to Lizard Peek.  We started off on the trail with Julie and Mike, but soon split off- they were taking the low road, to SARA’s Crack, and we were taking the high road- to the peak. The trail was about 4 miles long with 600 ft of elevation gain.

Along the way we found a cave, so naturally Paul had to stop and explore:

This trail is also called Picnic Table trail, because at the top of the mountain, there is a picnic table that was carried up the trail by hand, back in the 1980s.

Once again, the views were great- Lake Havasu on one side and the town on the other side. 

When we looked down the other side, we were surprised to see Julie and Mike walking along the lower trail. We whistled to them and took their picture.  They waved up to us and took our picture too.

We were also surprised to look far below and see the lizard that the trail is named for ( you can actually see it in the picture above, too). He’s about 80 feet long and was created in the 1980s.

Once we were back at the rigs, it was time for some relaxing before the fireworks show.

Here are some of the pictures I took that night.  Its very hard to get good pictures because the altitude varies every time they set one off, so I don’t know where to aim the camera.