The storms are over and we are back to blue skies and beautiful sunsets.  Saturday morning we woke to very cloudy skies and the rain had done its damage.  This storm has definitely got people talking; there were tornado warnings and some thought their homes were going to flip.  

Horseshoes anyone!

Across the street from our current home is the horseshoe, tennis, basketball and dog run which also serves as the catchment basin for the park!  It flooded twice this past week.  A little hard to take the dog to the proper area – no problem for Duke but some dogs were really miffed by not being able to get down the ramp.  We made it through with only one small leak and a little claustrophobia!  Three days inside  350 square feet.  Saturday when I saw the sun I was ready to hit the outdoors!  Paul also had a little claustrophobia but his was more the leave me alone in the house type!  And I thought I was so easy to get along with!!  Anyway I took a little trip on my own TaliesinWest, the Frank Lloyd Wright home, school in Scottsdale.  Paul really didn’t want to go there so I saved $32 on his admission.  Everyone got what they wanted!

I have been wanting to see Frank Lloyd Wrights work for a long time and Taliesin West is pretty amazing; an accredited college for only 32 hand picked students who study Wright’s teachings of Organic Architecture for about 30k per year over 3 years!  That sounds cheap to me because they live and work at their school.  I know nothing about architecture but I find this man and his ideas remarkable and so beautiful.  The foundation runs the school and tours today and the guides who are not architects have an amazing amount of information about his life, teachings and career.

Fitting into the landscape

The front - but then it was the back!

View from the pool

Looking back to the house from the valley

A gate?

Sometimes Wright seems a bit eccentric like here when he decided that instead of walking into his wife’s private garden from inside her room they should be able to enter it from the patio off the living room.  He built a gate in the wall that you would have to almost crawl through!

Below the Wright property is the town of Scottsdale which is known as very exclusive, with lots of signature golf courses and estate type homes.  I found something else when I drove through the town – these people like their horses!  One side of the street is for pedestrians and the other has a gravel trail for horses!  And yes, they use it.  This was not out in the country, it is in the middle of million dollar homes.  A few of the homes had property for horses but it is definitely a residential area.

Now that is my kind of town!

I loved my day and so did Paul – I didn’t ask but I could tell cause when I got home he was in his chair, TV on, computer doing something and a bowl of popcorn in hand!  Today we played golf.  Played is the key here!  I think I am going backwards but who cares – next week I think I will practice.

Yesterday we had a few sprinkles and then today was beautiful – so much for the 100 year storm that people were talking about over the weekend!  However,  about 5 pm the skies got really dark and it has been raining (real rain) ever since.  The bummer is Paul pulled our TV out on Sunday to replace it with a new flat screen and the new TV is still sitting in the box!  I have to go to bed to watch TV – very inconvenient. 

Tomorrow I work in the activities office until 1 pm.  I sure hope the rain stops in time for Pickle-Ball!

Super Bumble Bee! One of 25 Balloons

Saturday night we went to the Glendale Glitter & Glow an end of the season celebration with a giant street fair complete with hot air balloons right in the middle of the streets, bands playing all types of music and lots of food, crafts, and  carnival rides throughout the downtown area.  This is a celebration of the end of the season where once this party ends they remove all the lights in the trees and prepare for spring.  The lights in the trees were beautiful and the only thing  missing of the party were women’s restrooms!!!  The fair security guard had to cover the door of the men’s room and let some women use the MENS!  

Our first stop at the festival was to the food vendors.  Mike and Paul chose polish dogs complete with grilled onions and plenty of mustard!

No spills?

Downtown Glendale has many interesting businesses including vintage clothing, antiques and of course a SUBWAY!   We thought the windows in this Methodist Church were amazing.  It isn’t stained glass, it is pieces of glass cemented into the arch. There were several throughout the church. 

Mosiac Glass

Sunday was another golf game with the couples group.  Mike had an excellent game and went home with a prize this week.  I am still playing about the same.  I guess I need to get out and practice so I can improve my game.

Favorite Sunset - So far!

I can’t believe it has been a year since we started out this life journey.  I have been thinking about this day for a while now and what I would write in my blog.  I thought I had great ideas and would write something spectacular but I can’t think of anything to say except WOW!  This journey has been amazing, interesting,  fun, exciting, wonderful,  enlightening,  along with some frustration, tests, screaming matches,  sadness, loneliness and of course laughter!  Without the laughter we would have never made it.  We still actually like each other and it is a good thing cause some days we have only each other to talk to. 

This year I have learned:

1.I can live in 350 sq. feet with Paul – well on most days!

2. Family is extremely important and staying in touch is not as hard as I thought it would be – It helps that I got to come home to California several times and spend a couple of months in the Bay Area this fall.

3. Friends are so COOL!  They will actually visit you in the middle of the country and those that couldn’t, read my blog and make time to see me when I am only in town for a couple of days – Thank you soooooo much!

4. Paul is a pretty special person – don’t tell him I said that but it is true.  I think it would be hard to put up with me 24-7, 365 days of the year and he did it!

5. Everyone should have a DOG!  Duke makes even the rough days better

6. Being far away from my girls is always going to be difficult – I miss them more now than when they ran off to College

7.  America is a great place and people everywhere no matter what race, religion, political party they are they just want to live in peace and take care of their families.

8.  It is going to take a really long time to see all that the USA has to share!

I learned a bunch of stuff about myself but the best thing I learned is after only 1 year on the road Iam sure this was the right choice for us and we are looking forward to this next year!  This next year we will be traveling to North Carolina to see Paul’s dad and most of his family on the East Coast.  Our plan is to spend the summer in the North East and then in the fall travel down to Florida for next winter.  This is our plan as of today but you never know when the wind might shift, or Paul makes a wrong turn and we end up who knows where!  Stay tuned to my blog for future developments.

Today is the kind of day that makes Arizona so popular with the Snowbirds; 70 degrees, blue sky’s, and no wind!  We took advantage of the great weather and hit the hiking trails.  Paul had done a hike earlier in the week and wanted to return to the Lost Dutchman area of the Superstition Mountains and take another trail up to the petroglyphs, so that is what we did.  The hike took about 3 hours on very rugged trails with lots of rocks and not much defined dirt to help you stay on the trail. 

In Arizona it is so cool because on most trails dogs are welcome.  Duke loves the hikes and especially this one because it was pretty steep so we let him run ahead of us without his leash.

I am starting to really appreciate the beauty of the desert; the cactus in this park were pretty awesome.  The blue sky really gives a definite contrast to the rock formations.

Petroglyphs

This is what we hiked straight up 600 feet in elevation for.  The drawings were all over the mountains and quite easy to see and you could hike right up to them if you were a mountain goat!  We did on a few and then decided that neither of us could help the other get off the mountain if we hurt ourselves!!!

Finding a small spot of shade in the Desert

Looking back to the valley floor

And…. that was our Saturday in January!