Retirement trip Part 1

Our first Retirement trip

We had never been to Texas, and we have family who live there so mid February

 Rick and I had a little midwinter getaway and drove to Texas.

We took 3 days to get there stopping the 1st night in Kansas City and the 2nd night in Oaklahoma City.

Rick's Aunt and Uncle are gracious hosts and alway show us a good time.

We visited them a few years ago when they still lived in Arizona

They recently moved to Texas to be near their two daughters, so now they all live in the same town.

Here we are with Rick's cousin Christy and family

(Low light quality photos')

and now his cousin Cindy and family.

They all exemplify "Southern Hospitality"

We were able to spend the better part of a week with these sweet families.

We did step away for an overnight in Fredericksburg Tx

It was a cute little town with lots of shops

We enjoyed some taste testing in this shop, everything from dips, jams and salsa 

Then we checked out the National Museum of the Pacific War.

Back to Brownwood Texas where the family lives...

We got to visit this awesome book store that used to be 1 of 12 Theaters in Brownwood.

A women met us at the door and gave us a little history on the building, 

At the top of the photo you can see where the stadium seats were taken down and on the wall are shadows of the theater seats, The theater was open 24 hours and the soldiers would come in to rest when the hotels were full. The round dots are said to be where the soldiers rested their heads, 

apparently they wore lots of "brylcreem"in their hair. 

we walked under this arch of old Library books, there is a story about these books too, 

but I can remember it.

I liked this old wheelchair adorned with spooky books

Uncle Wayne, Aunt Jo Anne and I, Rick was golfing with his 2nd cousin Austin.

We had just the best time with Ricks family, after a week we headed to the ocean...

Stay tuned for Part 2

 

Arizona get-away (Part two)

 Mid way through our vacation, 

Rick and I left Mesa and traveled to Tucson for a few days

We had heard about Mount Lemmon and that the beautiful drive to the top was must, so we did it.

The first few thousand feet up was mostly cactus and desert

Then it turned onto rock formations...

We got out of the car for awhile and hike around this area.

At nearly 9000 feet above sea level we met up with snow.

Rick sat at the highest point, it was spectacular, 

so hard to show (in a photo) how far up we were on this mountain

lets just say, it was a little hard to breath at this altitude.

We really enjoyed our trip up the mountain, a sight to behold.

While in Tucson we went out to a fancy Italian restaurant called "North Italia"

It was located in a cul-de-sac of restaurants....all very busy.

We waited an hour to be seated, it was worth it! 

While we waited we were able to browse around a two story open-air mall. 

Our motel was in a great location, notice Mount Lemmon in the background.

Love the palm trees and mountain views.

After two days we headed back to wind down our vacation with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Jo Anne in Mesa.

They were such sweet hosts, and loved on us like their own.

The final night we were able to see the coolest thing on Superstition Mountain.

The mountain is very close to their home, ONLY twice a year a rare shadow forms on the side of the mountain about 1 hour after sunset...so we parked and watched the shadow transform

Do you see it??? (see photo below)

Smack dab in the middle of the mountain appears to be a cougar chasing it's prey, perhaps a rabbit.

It happens for about a week only in March and October. 

We ended our evening at Dairy Queen then back to sit by the outdoor fire pit and talk with our favorite people. Our trip to Arizona was fun and relaxing, we enjoyed our time catching up with family and friends, hiking, eating out, and a few time just sitting by the pool doing nothing at all.

Our trip was only a week long, I think 2 weeks would have been better....maybe next time.

Arizona get-away (part 1)

About every 5 years Rick and I take a trip to mark our Anniversary, this year will be our 40th in April.

We have been wanting to go visit Rick's aunt & uncle for awhile now so we finally made it happen.

Mesa Arizona was our destination.

Flying into Phoenix

Our first day we were already out exploring with Wayne & Jo Anne, 

they are fun and had great places to show us.

Like wild horses in the desert...they were having a rest.

We visited Goldfield, once a bustling gold mining town, it was eventually abandoned

it's an authentic ghost town brought back to life. 

It's located near the foothills of "Superstition Mountain"

The old church

Later that day Rick and I headed to Superstion Mountain for a hike

The Arizona heat was turned up for our trip, but only in the low 80's on this day

The desert is a beautiful place

Love this red color Cactus

We hiked for about an hour, it was an easy trail and fun to get so close to the mountain.

Part of our plan was to visit some other friends/family that we love.

Judy is our dear friend, her and husband John owned a cabin close to ours. John passed away in February, and we miss him so much, it still doesnt seem real! 

It was so good to spend time with Judy a few times during the week. Love you Judy <3

We also got to spend quality time with Rick's Cousin Christy, her husband David and son Austin. Christy is Wayne and JoAnne's daughter. This was at "Top Golf", Some of the guys hit golf balls, the rest of us watched and visited, we even had dinner there.

Christy & David also had us over to there beautiful home for dinner one night.

There's some big Cacti in the Arizona desert

Every corner we turn shows us more beauty.

Rick and I tool another hiking adventure in the Catalina Mountain foothills.

We hiked Bear Canyon which was a more moderate intense hike. 

It was a day later and now in the mid 90's....whew.

I'll have another post soon, be looking for Part 2 of our Arizona trip