Packers and Phoenix sojourn

We are starting our Arizona/Packer adventure!  The weather is beautiful, 80's during the day and down to 50 at night.  

We pulled up to our temporary Casa to find a beautiful giant cactus in our yard that is hosting quite a few birds nests, really cool!!

                                         The Cactus

                                                                                

                                            The Casa                                                                        

We are here with Kahla's parents and brother so there are 10 of us sharing the house!  Really great group!!!

We have a fabulous kitchen and a great pool and basketball court in the yard!

                                                                Pool

Basketball Court

We older adults have been enjoying our new space since Tuesday, and all our kids came in Wednesday!  Made a couple of pots of chili, regular and vegan and laughed the evening away!

We are of course missing Dylan's wife Amy and son Malcom and Penelope our dear granddaughter!  This is not a kid vacation but we hope to do some summer lake time with them both!!

We have been exploring our neighborhood and Jean and Jerry walk every day and come back with great information!  They discovered that we have horses directly behind our casa and we stand on the bench and look over the wall!!

Guy and I spying on the horses!

So far I have called the owner every day about random issues, hoping he keeps taking my calls!  He has been really great and I will write a great review when we leave!

Sean, Sam and Kevin (Sean's college friend) are golfing this morning and Guy is along to drive the golf cart!  

The plan is to have a taco buffet and then head to the GLENDALE SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT to soak up the atmosphere and head into State Farm Stadium for the Packers vs Cardinals Game!

I am heading into the pool for a few hours and then it will be time to get motivated!!

More soon...

THURSDAY IS PACKER TIME!

It's another beautiful day and we are all looking forward to the game tonight!  Sean, Sam, Kevin and Guy head to the golf course and the rest of us get ready for the big game!  

The men bring home all the fixings for Tacos and we start the countdown!

                                                        Group pics before the game!

We are blown away by all the PACKER fans we are seeing on our way to the stadium, it is going to be a great game!

                                                            

                                        Grabbing a cocktail before game time!

                                        Glendale Entertainment District outside stadium

                                                                State Farm Stadium

                                        Inside State Farm Stadium

                                                            CRAZY TIME!!

                                                        The Packers WIN!!!!

FRIDAY AND THE HEARD MUSEUM

Most of the Packer gang just wants to veg by the pool today, but Jean, Jerry and I decide to visit the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix.  The Heard has the most extensive collection of Native American artifacts in the world!  

                                                        These are a few displays                                                                  

The museum is beautiful but there is a sadness that surrounds us as we finish in the exhibit chronicling the "Boarding School Movement", hard to believe that children were forcibly taken from their families to assimilate them to white culture.

We stay for lunch and shopping!  The courtyard cafe is beautiful and the food is great!  

The gift shop is really fun and I have some great conversations with the curators there!

                            Jean and I as we depart in front of the Women Sculpture

SATURDAY AND SEDONA

Another beautiful day and most of our party will be heading home today!  Dylan has already left when we awake in the morning and Taylor, Sam, Kahla and Kevin will be leaving in the afternoon. We make breakfast burritos and say goodby to the kids as Guy, Jean, Jerry and I are heading to Sedona for the day!

The ride is easy and we start climbing the mountains to first go to Jerome, a small town filled with artisans!  We try to stop but there is literally NO PARKING.  The town is on the mountain, we are sorry we can't stop but are excited to get to Sedona!

We have arrived!

We visit the "visitors center", and Jean and Jerry get the scoop on the "must see" places in town. After lunch we head to experience some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen!

                                                            Jean and Jerry

                                                                   Guy and I

Would love to visit here again and see dawn and sunset here, it is really magical.

SUNDAY THE LAST HURRAH!

We wake early, straighten up the house and head to the airport.  We drop Jean and Jerry and are so happy we had this time with them.  

Guy, Sean and I are staying in Phoenix one last night at the Sheraton downtown. The hotel is really sublime and we head up to the pool.

                    

                                                           The view from the pool

We get cleaned up and leave for dinner. We are going to try an Italian spot called Forno 301that has homemade pasta and brick oven pizza!

The ambience is great and we are excited to check out the menu!

The food is so good, I tell Sean and Guy I might cry...if you are ever in Phoenix you need to check this out.  

Perfect way to end a fabulous trip!

                                                                Front of Hotel

Crazy Woman, animals and recollections

This will be my last post of this wonderful trip.  We are heading home and there are a few things I want to chronicle.  

Although the weather is warm the trees are changing color amidst the forests of pines, firs and the fragrant balsams.  We can't deny we are headed for winter.  We overhear a park ranger discussing the possibility of snow in a few days.  WOW!  They are correct, Yellowstone has snow on Sunday!  We are thankful we have moved on and are not able to experience it.

The wildlife was abundant and beautiful.  Guy is disappointed we haven't seen a bear or wolf, while I am relieved.  These are the animals we did see, hopefully I haven't forgotten any. We saw antelope, bison, camel (no kidding), cattle, chipmunk (morning visitor in Yellowstone) deer, whitetail and mule, ducks, an eagle, elk, fox, geese, horses, long horn sheep, magpies, osprey (nesting in the cliffs), prairie dogs, ravens (bigger than most of the lap dogs in camp), red tail hawk, sheep, squirrels, swans (on a lake in Yellowstone) and turkeys. Many of these are a regular sighting for us, but this trip made us hyper vigilant to our surroundings and we appreciate them so much as they added great flavor to our days.

As we were getting closer to the Big Horn mountains there were two things that were becoming repetitious, one was the dinosaur digs going on in the park the other was the Crazy Woman. 

Ever so often there would be a sign on the road telling us how old these beautiful mountains were, Cambrian, precambrian, Mississippian, etc. it is astounding and I hope to come back here someday to learn more.  

We begin to see Crazy Woman everywhere. Crazy woman realty, crazy woman boutiques, crazy woman saloons, crazy woman creek, crazy woman mountain, crazy woman campground and crazy woman roads.  We giggle at the repetition and of course the usual jokes, about how most of my sisters and friends would be at home in any of these venues!  The legend however is sad, so we stifle our humor.  

Legend of Crazy Woman; in the midst of the Indian Wars a Native American Woman witnesses her husband and children being scalped.  She refuses to leave her tepee and as her tribe moves on, she stays and soon the isolation and trauma cause her to go insane.  Understandable!

These are a few photos that I want to include:

The approach to Devil's Tower

Redundant messaging! 

The approach to the Tetons

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The transport of a casket!

Outside our lodge in Palmer Gulch 

Strange

        An isolated geyser pool in Yellowstone

The lobby at Palmer Gulch

This trip was fabulous for many reasons, but of course it will be great to be home!

Retirement Adventure Devils' Tower

Day 10 The weather is still holding and it is another gorgeous day!  We have no real plan after we visit Devil's Tower, so we head to our destination with no idea of where we will be at the end of this day.  The ride is beautiful and we notice there is coal mining and oil drilling in this part of Wyoming, exactly like the terrain outside of Casper.  Such a diverse state.  We see Devil's Tower from afar and can understand why the Native Americans considered this such a sacred place.  It is spectacular!

Literally in the middle of nowhere, there is a KOA Campground with all the amenities, and some camping inside the park, but if you wander to far you are in wilderness.  We watch the climbers, from the telescopes at the foothills they look like dolls on this mammoth rock.  I am so glad my children don't have this hobby, I am having anxiety and I don't even know these people!

We hit the gift shop and score a few items and head out with no real destination..we know it is time to head home.  We check out our options and decide to return the way we came, boring but the fastest!  We head to Box Elder South Dakota for the night.  We stop for Mexican Food, first time on this trip and find the hotel.  

Day 11 Our first morning with no agenda, we gas up the truck, get a cup of coffee and hit the road.  It becomes apparent we have to make a decision about our next stop and we need to be settled well before the PACKER GAME!!  We decide to stop in Sioux Falls.  

There is a sports bar/pizzeria across the street from the hotel, and we are glad to check out the locals. We are befriended by another traveler from Flagstaff AZ, in town for business.  He shares his WIFI password and we have some civil conversation.  We watch the first quarter and then had back to the hotel for the remainder of the game.  THE PACKERS WIN!!, I am already asleep.

Retirement Adventure Yellowstone

Day 8 We awake to a 29 degree morning but nothing can deter our enthusiasm, we are heading for Yellowstone this morning.  Just a 10 minute ride from our Teton campsite and we are in the park.  

Our first stop is Grand Junction and we are soon aware that this campground is closed, although we had no intention of staying there, it dampens our mood to learn that the 7 campgrounds in the park that are first come first serve only 3 are still open.  We go to the visitor center, and talk to one of the park attendants.  She is great and calls up to our campground and manages to get us an extra night.  One huge problem solved.  We take a deep breath and head to OLD FAITHFUL, a must see here.  

Another huge crowd, but inside people wear masks with no hesitation and outside the waiting crowd is reminiscent of a carnival.  There is a lot of light banter amongst the throng and I feel happy.  Old Faithful blows right on time and we are suitably impressed!

We travel along to the prismatic geyser, it is a good hike and I am wishing I had grabbed water and possibly oxygen.  We climb higher and higher and it is worth the effort.

We head to our campground, check in and make sandwiches for supper, make a campfire and call it a day.  

Day 9 There is so much beauty here, we can't really get our heads around it, every turn is a new surprise, mountains, animals, geysers, waterfalls, canyons, here are the pics:

The Cascades

 Mammoth Springs

The Elk at Mammoth Springs

Yellowstone Lake

Our last night in the park, we walk down to the river near our campsite.  Suddenly we hear the bugling of the Elk.  We walk toward the sound and there is a huge bull elk.  He is calling his harem.  They come out of the forest with yet another Bull.  We are joined by fellow campers and for an hour we watch the Elk, it is mesmerizing.  Will the Bulls fight?  The Does seem oblivious to the tension and there is a young doe bouncing around the terrain.  We final say adios and head to a campfire and dinner.

Elk near the river

(too far for a good pic)

 

We say goodby to Yellowstone and head to the Big Horn Mountains. I don't know much about them, but people tell us they are called the Twins of the Rockies, we are headed to Sheridan Wyoming for the night.  We are astounded by the beauty of these mountains, maybe the prettiest we have seen on this sojourn.

 

This ride is one corkscrew after another, and we are going up and over these mountains. The view is beautiful and we are exhausted when we finally arrive in Sheridan.  We check into our hotel, order Chinese food for dinner, take much needed showers and turn on TV!! 

 

   

 

 

Retirement Adventure the TETONS

Day 6 We see mountains in the distance and I am getting so excited.  It has been over 37 years since I have seen this part of the country and I remember it being some of the most beautiful vistas I have ever seen.  Guy is a little surprised by the majesty of the mountains.  We come around a corner and see the Oxbow.

We can't get off the road quickly enough and take a much needed deep breath and are awestruck by the view.  

We keep moving and soon we are in Grand Teton National Park.  We are road worn and have another couple of hours drive to our campground.  It is late in the season but this park is still busy.  We head north to Flagg Ranch Campground.

We stop along the road at Colter Bay Village, they have a marina and it is like a small town, with a really fabulous grocery, gift shop and restaurant.  I just want to see the lake! There is no water in the lake.  It is just mud.  I am floored.  What is happening?  The drought is desperate in Idaho and so they open the dam on Jackson Lake to help the farmers. Another sure sign of global warming. The only water in the lake is headed for the dam on the south side.  

Jackson Lake

We continue to our campsite and are happy to stop for the day.  We setup camp, make dinner and giggle when people start to  arrive so we have something to watch.  Really desperate for entertainment!

Day 7  We are astonished by the great weather.  Sunshine everyday and in the 80's during the day, only about 27 degrees in the morning, brrrr.  We sit in the truck and turn on the heat, drink coffee and listen to the news until it starts to get warmer.  We head to Jackson Hole and some much needed grocery shopping.  It is a beautiful drive, but I am amazed by Jackson, it is nothing like the town I so cherished those many years ago.  It is the Wisconsin Dells of the Tetons.  SO DISAPPOINTING.  We head to Jenny Lake, this is the real jewel of the Tetons.  

There are so many cars we can't park, our hopes for a picnic at the lake are dashed.  We keep trying and finally find a place to pull over and take a few pictures.  

For the very first time, we are startled by the large crowds we feel very uncomfortable and find a picnic table along the road, have a picnic and head back to our campsite.