Friends and Family

It's another long one folks.... On Tuesday, March 20 we were invited to a pot luck for the residents of our street in the park. One couple sponsors and others contribute to corned beef and cabbage for the main course. It was a great meal and a chance to associate more with our near neighbors in the park. This is apparently a tradition as time comes for everyone to return to summer homes. We feel more and more a part as we are invited to events such as this and everyone is so unselfish and friendly.

Warning! A portion of my blog has been commandeered (again). I'll bet you can't guess by whom this time: Thursday morning our beautiful and talented daughter Leslie, and her magnificently handsome husband, Matt, came to visit for a week.

Dad had many fun activities planned for the week and we didn't waste any time getting started. We started by visiting the Goldfield Ghost Town. Matt and Leslie thoroughly enjoyed looking through the gift shops, watching the live shootout, and looking around.

He also took them geocaching and they each found a cache but we won't tell where it was hidden.

Matt and Dad took a bike ride a little later on, and they looked hot in their cool yellow duds.

We went to the pool for a swim. The kids were very impressed by the temperature of the water. They may now understand why we are so content here all winter while everyone else freezes. They were beat by bedtime. Friday morning Gene and Lynn left for home. We hope they enjoyed their stay at Countryside. For us it was another busy schedule. Dad and Matt took another ride on the bikes then they hit a few golf balls. Next we played a little pool (Les lost the first time but later kicked Matt's butt).

We then went to the Mesa Flea Market. It has four half mile rows of vendors with everything you may think you will ever need or don't need. It can be a real work out. That night we went to see the Dutton Family Show again. It was different from the one we saw earlier this year. I think the kids really liked the show.

Saturday we got up early to enjoy the pancake breakfast sponsored by the park.

We then spent most of the day visiting the Renaissance Festival. It is a huge amusement park in the desert East of town that mimics medieval times with era costumes, language, buildings, music, games, demonstrations, food, shows and a live joust. Many of the patrons also dress in attire of the time. We weren't that brave as the weather was hot and we all got a little too much sun.

The place was a mob of people. There were some very good shows. The jousting was my favorite. I guess you might say I'm a little warped.

Our Knight, Maximilian, Won the Joust Competition

The Event Announcer

Action in the Arena

We saw a couple of comedians that were very good. I think Dad liked the birds of prey show.

Comedy and Crackin' the Whip

We finished up the day watching a glass blower.

When we got home we were off to the pool for a dip. I went to bed early that night not feeling very well. Sunday we went to church then left the kids to entertain themselves while we met up with four friends from our cruise to Brazil: Becky, Sharon and Drew and Lorraine Day. Drew is down from Salt Lake for some brain surgery next week. Becky and Sharon live here. We all met at the Day's hotel in downtown Phoenix then ate dinner at the IHOP next door. Becky was the big card player on the ship and we went back to the lobby and played a game of Mexican Rummy (we learned it as Tic) for a couple of hours. We had a very fun night.

Becky, me, Lorraine, Sharon and Drew

Monday we were up again early to go to the Tonto National Monument to see Indian cliff dwelling ruins a couple of hours drive from here. It was a three hour guided tour and 3-mile hike up the canyon and mountainside to the upper dwellings.

We also hiked a mile up to the lower cliff dwellings.

Leslie and Matt were having a little horse play on the way down.

On the return we took the Apache Trail. We passed Roosevelt Lake and dam.

Then we passed through the mountains for 23 miles on a winding washboard dirt road, passing Apache Lake and some beautiful canyon overlooks, until stopping at the tiny town of Tortilla Flat for a prickly pear ice cream.

Apache Lake

Then we continued with a stop to look out on Canyon Lake before we headed home.

The scenery was breathtaking. Before we got home we had dinner at a Elvira's Mexican Restaurant in Apache Junction. We were then ready for the pool for a soak. Dave and Laurene had come in to stay for a couple weeks while we were on our trip. They came to the pool to swim and soak with us. When we got back home the energizer bunny wanted to play Pegs and Jokers (a game like Sorry or Aggravation) before we went to bed. Matt and Dad beat Les and I. Matt said, "I can't keep up with Dad. We're all beat and he just keeps going." I know that one as I've been doing that all winter. We do have a lot of fun and see a heck of a lot of things. Tuesday we had a quieter day. Matt and Leslie wanted to just hang out at the pool. Leslie and I went to watch how they play shuffle board and ended up playing for two hours. Matt came and played also. He played very well even though he had never played before. His team won the game.

Later we played with Dave and Laurene. That evening we went to the park pot luck dinner. The park provided tacos and ham to go with the pot luck and we ate until we were stuffed. While we were having dinner Les and Matt went with Dave and Laurene to the Arizona Opry dinner show that we saw a little earlier. They said the meal was good and the show was awesome!

Wednesday Dad and Matt took another bike ride and we swam in the pool. That afternoon we had dinner at Organ Stop Pizza to enjoy a concert on the "Mighty Wurlitzer" organ.

In the evening we visited the beautiful LDS Mesa Temple grounds. After looking around we stayed for the amazing Easter Pageant presented by the church at no charge by an all volunteer cast and crew. It is a reenactment in word, dance and song of all significant events from the life of Jesus Christ from Old Testament prophecies through his birth, death, resurrection and ascension. The stage and lighting are incredible with a cast of more than 400 and costumes that are as historically accurate as possible. It takes place on the front lawn of the temple grounds for several days prior to Easter each year and is attended by thousands.

Pageant Stage Two Hours Prior to Showtime (Crowd Already Collecting)

Picture From Program Brochure (Too Dark and no Flash Photography)

It made for a short night as we arose before 4:00 AM the next morning to drop Les and Matt off at the airport for their flight home. We hope they had an enjoyable time and a good break from the usual routine. We wish that we could do the same with each of our kids and their spouses. Later Friday we took off for Yuma to "summerize" Dixie (my brother Don's partner's) park model. They were here earlier this winter when she bought it but they could not use it because it was rented through late March and they had returned to Alaska. It takes almost four hours to drive each way and we got home late making for a long day. But I hasten to add that Don and Dixie did so much for us when we were in Alaska two summers ago that we were more than happy to help them. To finish the week on Friday we had a visit from Jim and Beverly Judkins from Pocatello who are in our LDS ward and are looking for a new park to stay in next winter. We also played Pegs and Jokers with Gardners and took a swim both Friday and Saturday as it has been near 90 degrees here the last couple of days. Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly watching the LDS conference on TV, visiting with Dave and Laurene and watching many of our neighbors packing up and heading home. I might add that Dad picked up a couple of good pointers he needs to work on from conference talks.