Arizona for My Birthday

"We should take a girl-trip together," my daughters suggested awhile ago.  Since we all like the musical group, "Pink Martini", we decided that attending one of their concerts would be a lovely activity to do together.  The girls found a concert in Scottsdale, Arizona, happily scheduled on my birthday, January 18th.  So we divided the tasks of making it happen into three parts:  Jessica found a place to stay; Audrey got the concert tickets and I scheduled the rental car.

We did all of this several months ahead of time, so we had plenty of time to anticipate.  Finally our time arrived.  All of us joined up at the Phoenix airport where I got the rental car.  Online arrangements indicated that anyone over 70 could not drive.  Humph!  I thought.  But I kept the reservation and made Audrey the designated driver.  When we checked in I made a comment about their too old policy and the agent was surprised.  He said it wasn't so, that anyone with a valid driver's license could drive their cars.  I changed my tune and made myself the driver after all.  Cheers to us older girls!

We headed to Scottsdale, where Jessica arranged for a condo rental for us.  It turned out to be a very cute place.  The girls gave me the master bedroom, since it was my birthday.  So nice!  We grocery shopped for the weekend  and got ready for our concert.  The theatre turned out to be a lovely facility.  We joined the crowd, bought some popcorn, and settled in.  It was a friendly audience!  We visited with a few of the people around us, than all settled down once the concert began.  Pink Martini is an interesting mix of musicians--bass, violin, piano, trumpet, bongos and drums.  And a variety of singers, including "visiting" artists.  Their sound is great!  Their albums contain numbers I don't especially like--sort of filler songs along with the great ones.  But the concert was all about their best pieces.  We loved them all!  It was joyful music that asked us to move.  Too bad there was no dance floor!  It was a bright, happy experience.

Here we are in the theatre.

Pink Martini.  Their lead singer is dressed in red.

Jessica and Audrey, outside the theatre.

Jessica really wanted to tour Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Scottsdale, so that is what we did on Saturday.  It turned out to be the highlight of the day!  His desert compound included homes for his apprentices, which he always had, both in Wisconsin (his original location) and Scottsdale.  It also had work spaces, storage spaces, and a theatre.  All was made of materials found on the land; stones set in concrete.  There was some wood too.  Designs tended toward the geometrical, his preference.
He loved the color red too.  We were enchanted with this place.

I'm sitting inside the Wright's living room, in a chair designed by FL Wright.  Note the geometric shape.  Also the red; gotta love that.

Outside the living room, this shows the use of local rock for the walls.  It is consistent throughout the complex.

Jessica and Audrey standing in front of the Wright home.  Once they put in a well and had water on the property, Wright was able to put in this pond and lawn.

Later we walked through Scottsdale's "Old Town", all lit up in the evening.  We walked through it and window shopped among the crowd.  We had dinner at a place called the Mission, where the prices were high and the food was less plentiful than cheaper places.  It was really good though!  Vacations make this kind of splurge fun.

Here is Scottsdale's Old Town.

Sunday Audrey and I went to a local Sacrament meeting.  It was a friendly, warm ward.  We so enjoyed it.  Then we headed into the desert and a hiking trail that Jessica found.  We hiked the trail for several hours.  I can see why people like the desert.  We found much to admire in the views that presented themselves to us as we walked along.  It was even beautiful.  We took lots of pictures.

Desert view.  Note the glowing cactus.  They look so soft and lovely.  But they almost reach out to us as we pass, to attack us with their needles.

Beautiful sun rises over the hills by our path.

Audrey and I with a giant cactus who's name I can't remember.

Audrey and Jessica along our hiking trail.

My body is used to walking for a certain period of time.  Our desert hike was longer than usual for me.  So I was sore a couple of days later.  But it was fun to be out in the winter warmth.  While we were hiking we saw a far-away fountain and wondered what it was doing there, in the desert.  So we investigated and found that it was located in a desert town called "Fountainville".  We decided to drive there and see the fountain close up.  It was located in the middle of a park and came on for 15 minutes every hour.  We timed our visit for the right 15 minutes and enjoyed it as we walked around the lake that surrounded it.  What fun to explore without worrying about time or place.

Me, at the park surrounding the fountain at Fountainville.

The Fountain, located in the middle of the park lake.  It is one of the tallest fountains in the world, our research said.

 We returned home and watched the moon eclipse.  We could see it cloud over with just a hint of red.
We all took pictures, but photos just could not capture it.  We ate our left-overs and went to bed.  Monday morning was our goodbye as we went our separate ways to fly home.  We've decided that we should make these girl get-aways a regular event.  So we are already discussing our next adventure.
Maybe Mt. Rushmore?

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind.  We've been asked to take over the English program for one of our refugee centers here.  We've been teaching there already so we should be able to pick it up easily.  You would think.  But it takes planning.  I'm on it but I'm still not sure how we should proceed.  We've had company and gone out to eat several times this week.  Wow.  So now I'm 76 and busy as can be.  Its good to be an old lady with a challenge to meet.  But sometimes I'd just like to take a nap.

Welcome 2019

We have had a whirlwind holiday time and it has been great.  We were only home from our California Christmas for a couple of days before New Year's Eve.  I was thinking we would just float through it with our little family circle and go to bed early, but Layne really wanted to have a party.  This is quite unusual for him; he is normally not much of a party guy.  I told him I'd go for it if he made the invites.  So he did.  We had 12 of us for dinner and lingering, until midnight for a toast and general cheer for the New Year.  Some still lingered after that so we didn't get to bed until around 2 am.  But it was so fun!  I'm glad Layne promoted it.

Here's friend Larry Wintersteen toasting and Angelica popping on New Year's Eve, midnight!

Layne is into the toast.

2018 has been a year of losses, as far as friends go.  We have said goodbye to Ernie Trutner, David Thomas, Don Harmon, and Jim Wilkie.  Did you notice that they were all men?  It goes to my theory that men are just not built to last!  It makes me sad as I love the men in our lives.  This is the time of life for losses as we begin to leave this world for the next one.  It is to be expected I suppose, but I don't like it much. 

We drove to Utah on New Year's Day.  I talked Layne and the kids into coming with me since I was afraid of icy roads.  But there were none.  Why knew?  This time we stayed with Layne's twin, Lynn, and his wife, Camille.  It was so fun!  We don't spend much time with them normally, but this time we spent two nights with them.  The kids enjoyed them too, and loved playing with their dog.  We also had a brief visit with Bob and Maryanne.  I was excited to give them our late Christmas gifts and I think they liked them.  I'm hoping that the pjs I made for Maryanne will be useful.  I'm hoping to spend more time with our Utah family this coming year. 

Lynn and Camille's daughter, Kristin Jones, stopped by while we were there.  Here she is, between us.

Here we are, munching at the Black Bear.  Left is Angelica, Lynn and Camille.  Right is me, Layne and Seth.

After we got home from Utah, Allegra, Scott and his Jessica (#3) stopped overnight on their way back to school at BYUI.  It was a short visit but sweet.

We started our new Church schedule today--2 hours of Church instead of 3.  And a whole new study program for the year.  New ideas are usually pretty interesting and I can't help being excited about these.  I'm full of plans for the new year too.  I'm hoping to actually do some of my resolutions this year.  I'm hot for it!

We are home and settling into a regular routine at last.  The kids start back to school tomorrow.  I'm a little tired; I'm an old lady now, you know.  But things are looking good for a calmer week ahead.