The plan was to stay put for 3 months.  Denise loved it and spent her days learning to play tennis again.  I played 8 matches at the 1.5 level which is beginner and only lost my first match.  I even bought myself a “real” tennis racket, a fancy skirt, a couple cans of balls and throughly enjoyed my 3 months.  I plan to pick it back up when we return to the same resort in December.  Next year I have a 4 month reservation!  Hopefully Paul is still on board.  Paul played a lot of pickle ball, some tennis and even went Snow skiing.

Check out that serve!

We also enjoyed  serveral shows; magic, illision, rock n roll venues,  show tune venues and even an evening of Lazer Lighting show at the Phoenix Botonical Gardens.  This was simply amazing.  Paul was not on board to go but I think he enjoyed it more than me.  When we first got there it was still daylight so you couldn’t see the lights, but when the sun went down there were lights everywhere,   all lazers, all changing colors!

Bottles contained in a plastic tube. The lights continued to change colors.

PomPoms

Street Lamps

This was my favorite thing I think because it was so functional and what a way to really embrace the evening lighting.

                        Chihuly Glass

Chihuly Glass art is one of my favorites and we have seen much of it.  This was a permanent dis[lay and looked so real.

We didn’t get out too much to hike but we did get to see the desert wake up to spring which was just amazing.  I am always amazed at the cactus that bloom every year and this year because of the rain the desert is really blooming.  Because of the extremely warm February the snakes turned out in March.  I am definitely not a fan so hiking was pretty much out of the question.  We didn’t see any snakes so I was very happy.

                                    Spring has sprung

And,  the sunsets!  AWEEEEE

One of the few sunsets we actually caught

Then of course their is Spring Training.  We didn’t work this year,  mostly because their just wasn’t time.  Paul’s sister, Cindy came with her Daughter Sarah and new husband Grant.  They are from Denver so of course we went to see the Rockies play.  Spring training is so much fun because the stadiums are beautiful and lawn seating is usually less than $20.

Rockies win at home

So,  three months in the desert went very fast and it was time to pack up and move east!

With a lot of instruction and patience I made two rings!

I simple textured band

Kind of looks like a wedding band,  It isn’t perfect and is only a stepping stone to what I will be making this winter!

Setting a stone

Using the skills I learned with the first ring, soldering, buffing, polishing and a couple of new skills, second solder, setting I made a real ring that someone might buy from a street vendor!

Beginnings of a pendant

This will be my 4th and final piece that I make this winter!  It will be a pendant that I will definitely wear once I get it done.  So far I have spent $100 on silver and classes, giving me two rings, a bracelet and a pendant that I made all by myself!  Where else can you have this much fun.  The hardest part of going to class is it is in the morning and I miss tennis and the weather has been spectacular so I really don’t like to be inside.  It is only 3 hours so I have time for a good walk or hanging out at the pool in the afternoon.

The activities are endless in the resort and outside the park there are lots to do also.  We finally got out for a hike!

Saquaro Cactus

We took a short hike on a very warm afternoon up 900 feet elevation over 1.5 miles to Wind Cave in Usery Mountain County Park.  The park is very close to Mesa but definitely in the desert.  The views from the top of the hike are beautiful.

The trail is very rough and my ankles were definitely sore, Duke was extra thirsty and we were running out of water on the way up!  We met a guy on the trail going down who overheard me telling Duke that the water was getting low.  He was on  his way down so he filled our bottle from his and off we went up the trail.  The cave is really only an alcove and for some reason there are lots of bee hives in the walls of the cave!  I saw no flowers anywhere so I wonder where they get their food?  At least they were more interested in their hives and left us alone.

We also have been enjoying some local entertainment.  Paul gets me out at least once a week to square dance and we have noticed the crowd is quite young compared to other activities in Mesa.  I wonder why?  We also have seen a great magician and a George Strait Tribute

This guy was young but definitely had done his homework cause if you watched him you might think it was George!  Most songs were right on, a couple not so much but still good entertainment for  $20.  We have also gone to a couple of concert venues like what you would see in Branson.  Fun entertainment

Friday we played Bingo in the hall.  It’s real Bingo, for real money.  It cost us each $12 for the evening and we took home $369!  First I won the big split pot of $279 and then a couple games later Paul won a Bingo pot of $90!

Then some days we just do ordinary stuff!  Like yesterday I played Tennis for about 1 hour, then went shopping!  I think I spent all my winning on more clothes!  It was a lot of fun knowing it was bonus money.

We have a new addition to our home.

Coffee/ottomans and a new soft rug

It makes our home seem more cozy to me, Paul says “Whatever!”  They work great for somewhere to put my drink and feet when I’m watching tv.

Today was Tennis, tonight is Square Dancing, tomorrow is Silver and Tennis, Thursday is Tennis League play, and Pinocle, Friday is Silver, Golf, and Bingo again!  Never a dull moment!  I have to squeeze in writing my blog cause I would rather be at the pool than infront of the computer..

Thats the best description of what happens in Mesa, AZ in January, February and March.  There is so much going on!  We are staying at Monte Vista Village RV Resort and the activities are endless; Tennis, Pickleball, hiking, biking, shuffleboard, swimming, softball, dancing, silversmithing, bootcamp, arobics, yoga, card making, quilting, jewelry, rock stuff, every card game you can think of, movie nights, shows, dinners, breakfasts, ice cream, happy hours, and so on, and so on!

Paul and I are not new to the resort lifestyle but we are new to this park, having visited it for events in the past we decided to give it a try for three months this winter.  So far we have been to a steak fry, a pancake breakfast, happy hours, a show out in town, a magician, dancing at the Legion Hall,  pinnocle, cribbage, dinner at friends, pickleball, tennis and Denise has been doing bootcamp.  I am not sure why I put myself through bootcamp but it feels good afterwards until the pain sets in!

I took a class in silversmithing and made a really cute bracelet.

All by myself!

I made this from a single strand of some sort of metal!  Lots of bending and I even made the jump rings from scratch!  It took about 2.5 hours and was really interesting how a single strand of wire can actually end up as something I can wear.

Most activities are included in the cost of staying.  The bracelet,  I had to buy the metal, and we do have to pay a nominal fee for the meals!  The pancake breakfast includes eggs cooked to your liking, scrambled eggs, pancakes, almond pancakes, sausage, biscuits, gravy, ham, orange juice and coffee for a whopping $3.00 per person as long as we wear our name tags.  See it is just like summer camp, we have badges that say our names and where we come from that we are encouraged to wear.  I forget mine most of the time!  Thats ok, I am pretty good at introducing myself.

Today I played in my first league games of tennis where our park plays against other parks in the area.  I played pretty well for a beginner but we did lose the match.  I take the good from each situation –  my serves are great and we actually won two games just from my serves, and I can scamper around the court pretty well most of the time getting the ball returned into play.  So, tennis is going to be my passion while we are here;  the weather is wonderful so why not.

Off to another game of tennis!

So far the park is exactly what I was looking for;  lots of activities, great people and better weather!  Well the weather needs to improve but the sun was out this am and I took a short walk before I went to a new activity!  Boot Camp.  I want to get some strength in my arms so this should help!  It looked easy enough as you go through 15 stations in 1 minute intervals.  I was doing great and then at about station 14 I realized we were going to go around again!  Ouch!  But I did it and hopefully on Friday I can do it again.

The end of the year was very busy with our stay in CA.  We had great visits with friends and of course the family.  We celebrated 60 years of marriage with my parents with most of the family coming together.

                                        60 years of Marriage!

Christmas was beautiful. I helped Amy make a Carpenter family recipe of Lasagna for Christmas Eve Dinner with her inlaws!  Everyone approved so its a go again next year!  Stephanie is doing great and soon will be finding a new home to purchase in San Jose!  Damn the price of real estate in the area is going insane again!

With Christmas behind us Paul and I have left the state again for hopefully warmer weather!  We arrived in Mesa, AZ on New Years Eve and it was slightly warmer.  Bringing in the New Year at our new winter address and then on Friday we finally saw some great weather that lasted 2.5 days and now it is cold again with rain for the last 2-3 days!  Yuck!