Exploring Arizona - week 1

My my, life is really tough!

As I posted in my last blog, the condo in Phoenix is pretty nice. We have spent quite a bit of time by the pool this week, the daily temperature was in the mid to high 80's every day although it is not humid and sticky like in Shediac but very dry and the heat even at 90 degrees is bearable.









Full view of the pool area


We spent the first few days catching up after a hectic time in Las Vegas. We explored our neighbourhood one morning. We are in a gated project which is just a stones throw from downtown Phoenix. We found a great park about seven minutes walk away, it is shaded with lots of palm trees. Phoenix is a very clean city.








A typical Scottsdale Gallery on the Art Walk


On Thursday night, we went to weekly Scottsdale Thursday Night Art Walk. Once a week the Studios and Art Galleries along Main St in Scottsdale have an event which usually features the attendance of some of the artists who are there to meet and greet the art walkers as well as showing and demonstrating their art. Many of the galleries offer refreshments as well as things to nibble on and Thursday featured a number of glass artists demonstrating their craft, it was delightful!






Travelling the Apache Trail


Friday, we were up early because we had planned to take a ride around the Apache Trail, a very scenic route through a desert_like terrain. We headed for our journey through the Superstition Mountains in the Tonto National Forest which began at Apache Junction. We travelled a couple of highways to get to Apache Junction and were very impressed with the flowering trees that adorned these roads.


The Apache Trail itself is about 40 miles of steep, winding and mostly unpaved road past magnificent scenery of twisted igneous mountains with dense forests of saguaro cactus and ferocactus trees and several deep blue man made lakes created by building dams along what is called the Salt River with a couple of old mining ghost towns along the way.
As soon as we left Apache Junction, we started seeing the large saguaro cactus trees pictured here. The ferocactus are more like large stumps growing out of the ground with protrusions which are more like lumps. In a very short time we had arrived at Goldfield an abandoned gold mine ghost town and we stopped to spend some interesting time there where most of the buildings are authentic to the 1880_1890 era.


Right after that, we began travelling the real winding, mountainous absolutely stunning trail which was just so full of breathtaking scenery. We stopped at many observation places along the way and just before noon arrived at Canyon Lake where we stoped to have lunch, they were featuring a Friday all you can eat fish fry so we had that. The pollock fish was good but not as good as the light battered fish at Deluxe in Moncton. About two miles down the road at what could be described as a horse stop called Tortilla Flat, we hit the dirt road which went on for over 22 miles through twisting, turning, winding up and down mountains. It was a long ride through to the Theodore Roosevelt dam but so stunningly beautiful, worth all the dust and every bump in the road. At one point, I forgot my clip-on glasses for my prescription glasses on the trunk of the car. I noticed that they were missing about five minutes after were left the last observation point so we were sure they were gone. Lo and behold, at our next stop, the glasses had slipped to the crack between the trunk cover and the car fender and the magnets that keep the clip-ons to the prescription glasses held the clip-ons in place on the trunk of the car. I was very happy to have them back.


We then travelled the 100 or so miles back to Phoenix through a different but longer route on regular USA highways and when we reached the condo in Phoenix, we both agreed that we had a very memorable day!.

Las Vegas .... What a blast !!!

VIVA LAS VEGAS




We arrived in Las Vegas in the evening of Tuesday March 10th after having participated in the taping of The Price is Right with Drew Carey who is really a blast during the breaks from the taping. It took over seven hours from the time we showed up to the end of the taping. With all the others, we stayed in line )sitting down) for almost 5 hours. There is a long process of registration and interviews for the selection of those who will be contestants. There were a lot of students there on March break and many people who were all decked up for the show. All in all it was a lot of fun and a great experience.


View from our balcony at Cancun Resort



Our accommodation was first class, a resort located about 2 miles from the hustle and bustle of Los Vegas Blvd (The Strip). The apartment was well appointed , as you can see there was a series of 5 pools and a bunch of hot tubs scattered around the property. We were also well located for grocery shopping and most important of all, OUTLET SHOPPING. Rosella went a few times while I was out playing cards and she had a great time, and found a few "bargoons" in the process.






The Musical Fountains at Bellagio



There are many free shows in Vegas including the erupting volcanoes of Mirage, the Pirate ship battle at Treasure Island, The Mardi Gras Parade in the Sky at Rio and others but our very best favourite by far were the Musical Fountains at Bellagio. They show every fifteen minutes and are coriagraphed with dozens of pieces of music ranging from big band to classical. We attended the show at least 6 times and saw pieces of it a number of other times as we travelled the Strip from the South where we lived to the North where downtown Las Vegas is located.



Cirque du Soleil LOVE at The Mirage



While we attended most of the free presentations along the Strip which are all spectacular in their own rite, we only went to one headliner Show and that was Cirque du Soleil's dedication to Beatle music "LOVE". Like all the other headliner shows on the Strip, was very expensive, but for Beatle fans like us, worth it. One of the great pastimes for us here was visiting the lobbies of all the big name hotels all of which are spectacular in their decor, especially the floral arrangements. Among others we visited, Encore, Wynn, Polazzo, MGM Grand, Bellagio, Mirage, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, Four Seasons, New York New York, Paris, The Rio, The Luxox, The Golden Nugget and a few that I have missed. Rosella really enjoyed herself, much more that I would have thought. I know some people won't believe this but during the whole week, I only played cards twice. One time when playing at Bellagio some of the headline poker players in the world were playing in a special room where they could be seen. Among them was Mr Poker himself, Doyle Brunson, John Juanda, David Benyamine and David Sklansky. It was kinda of a thrill to see all those big name players in person.

Do you supply Depends she asked?

On our way from Las Vegas to Phoenix, a distance of about 300 miles, we stopped off to visit Hoover Dam. Its a long story but we finally decided to take a helicopter tour over the dam and what a thrill that was! Rosella who is afraid of heights thoroughly enjoyed the experience, the view from up there is awesome. We then proceeded to visit the dam on foot, it was a super day.

Rain rain go away!













When we got up to leave San Francisco en route to Los Angeles it was pouring rain. We had planed to make the 400 mile trip over two days following Route 1, the very picturesque coastal route but alas! The weather just would not cooperate. We could hardly see the road in front of us let alone the beautiful scenery. We checked the weather for the next two days it it wasn't going to get better so we called Frank and Sandy the owners of the apartment we had booked in Los Angeles and they could accommodate us for an extra night so we headed for the Interstate Hwy and scooted our way to LA, missing all the pretty scenery along the coast.






This one is for Jean Loup, a great Marilyn fan!







The first two days in LA we took it easy, we had tickets to attend a taping of The Doctors Show which tapes in a studio adjacent to Dr Phils Show. When we got there, we were advised that it was a "women only" taping and I could not attend. They apparently tried to get a hold of us but didn't manage so to compensate me, they provided us with VIP tickets for Dr Phil on Monday March 9th. We were seated on the first roe for the taping which will air on Thursday of this week. It was very interesting to watch how these things are put together. We also attended a taping of The Tonight Show staring Jay Leno. He is a very nice guy, did his own warm up before the show, it was first class. Monday March 10th the day we drive to Las Vegas, we have tickets for a taping of he Price is Right. That should also be very interesting.













Gail, they even sell "fresh" PEI mussels here at $6.98 per pound






























We got around LA quite a bit. The city is about 25 minutes from Venice Beach where we are staying. Among other things, we took a Hop and Go bus tour which took us to many of the highlight areas in town including The Hollywood Walk of Fame, The Kodak Theatre, Chinatown, The Old Farmers Market where they had the "fresh PEI Mussels at $7.00 per pound, featured on the left, Rodeo Drive, China town, Old El Pueblo District and many such other places.












Among the rich and famous



We had lunch on the first day at a restaurant here in Venice Beach and Rosella spotted Joanna Kerns, the actress who played the wife of Dr Seaver played by Allan Thicke, a canadian actor in the sitcom called Growing Pains. The Maitre D told us that she often eats at that place.



The day after the bus tour, we went back to stroll Rodeo Drive shopping area. The cars that parade up and down and are parked on that street are out of this world. Masoratti, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Alpha Romeo, you name it they were all there. We also spent some time driving around Beverley Hills looking at the really nice homes.




OOPS!! I lost my balance!










We also spent some time exploring and enjoying Venice Beach and surrounding area. We borrowed bicycles from Frank and Sandy, the owners of the apartment we are staying in and went for a ride along the very nice bike way along the beach. As you can see, Rosella who only learned to ride a bike in her late twenties, got off to a pretty rough start. She wasn't hurt and once she got going she was OK. Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10th, we are headed for Las Vegas for a week.

Horrah ...... We made it to the Pacific Coast

A picnic in Palo Duro National Park



The last post took you on our journey up to and including our visit with Rosella's sister who is a nun in Marionville Missouri. That was two weeks ago and since then we have travelled all the way to San Francisco. In this photo, we are having a picnic on a bright and sunny day in Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo Texas. The next day, we travelled to New Mexico

Having a little snooze while Rosella goes window shopping

After visiting Albuquerque New Mexico, we arrived in Santa Fe the state Capital, a very charming city with old western charm. The next stop on our road trip was Denver where we enjoyed exploring the 16th Street mall which was full of historical buildings and interesting shops. After Denver, we spent a full day in Salt Lake city where we spent most of the time visiting Temple Square, the headquarter for the Mormons. It was a very enlightening visit!

Where are our snow tires?

We then proceeded to spend three days in Reno Nevada. We stayed at the Peppermill Resort where I had booked rooms on the Internet for this four star hotel for the price of the taxes you would pay for a four star hotel in a major city. The accommodation was excellent, I of course played a little poker while Rosella took full advantage of the resort facilities, using the pool, the exercise room and other resort amenities.

Twenty minutes outside Reno, on our way to San Francisco, it started snowing in the High Sierras and when we got to Donner's Pass a historic location famous for having taken the lives of many pioneers as a result of the snow. Well before we knew it, there were warning signs all over the highway that snow tires or chains were needed to proceed trough the pass and as we rolled along, the cars and trucks were all stopping along side of the road to install chains on their vehicles. We continued till we got to a barricade and the officials would not allow us through without the required equipment. There were guys there selling cable chains for $30 each with a $25 installation charge. As we stoped this very nice guy who had a shine on for Canadian beer came to talk to us and told us that these kind of squalls usually last for a couple of hours so he suggested we save our $100, turn back and go to Truckee and enjoy the "Old Town" atmosphere for a couple of hours and come back when the squall subsided.

Well on the way back to Truckee, we saw a sign for Lake Tahoe and the Squaw Valley Ski resort so we decided to go there if it wasn’t too far. As it turned, Squaw was only 13 miles so we proceeded and went to see the resort. We took quite a few pictures while we drove around, it was also snowing there a bit. We continued driving towards Lake Tahoe but turned around since we weren’t sure how far it would be and we didn’t want to get too far away from Interstate 80, the main road to San Francisco. We went back towards Donner’s Pass but the trucks and cars were still parked off the side of the Interstate either installing or having chains installed on their vehicles so doubled back and headed for Truckee’s Old Town.

When we got there, we found a very charming little town that was straight out of the 60's. It was very charming so we parked the car, walked around for a while doing a little window shopping, the folks in town were very nice. We then stoped off at the local "Home made" coffee shop and both had chilly.

After that, Rosella went out to investigate the local shops while I headed for the tourist information place where there was a sign announcing that they had Internet access and since I had not been on the Internet for the past few days I decided to try and catch up. While I was enquiring about the Internet I also asked if she knew if the Donner Pass was open for regular traffic, she checked and it was so I went out looking for Rosella and when I found her, we immediately took off for San Fran.

Blossoms, one hour from Donner's Pass!

Well no more than 30 minutes the other side of Donner’s Pass we started to see, green trees and fields, something we had not seen for more than a week because the terrain in recent days had been so arid and before we knew it, we were starting to see blooms in the orchard trees and the temperature went from 28 in the morning to over 65 degrees in the afternoon. It was a beautiful ride the rest of the way to San Francisco.
As usual we relied on our handy dandy GPS to direct us right to the front door of our rented condo for the next four days.

All aboard the San Francisco Cable Cars!

Today is March 1st and we have spent the last three days visiting San Francisco, We went on 3 Walking tours including the Fisherman' Warf, Chinatown and the Haight Asbury neighbourhood where all the hippie cultural revolution started in 1967. All three tours were very interesting and most informative. We also bought a Hop-on Hop-off buss tour which too us on three loops in the city including a tour of the Golden Gate Bridge, a full tour of the San Francisco downtown area and a night tour of the city. We thoroughly enjoyed all the tours. We also spent quite a bit of time at the Organic Farmers Market in the Ferries Terminal Building on Saturday and enjoyed fine Mexican food for lunch. The first two days here it was sunny and in the mid 50'sF. Today, we started the day in the rain but as the day progressed, the rain subsided and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. Tomorrow morning, we are headed for a two day ride to Los Angeles which is only 310 miles away but we are taking the scenic coastal route and plan to stop and go along the way so we will be on Route 1 for two days I will update you on that leg of the road trip.