Day 45, Sunday February 21
Decided today was a good day to go out for lunch. We drove to Del Webb's Sun City Grand ('cause we hadn't been there before and they have lots of golf courses). We discovered that all the golf course restaurants are all contracted with major local or national restaurant chains. Thus, we had lunch at Coco's at Granite Falls Golf Course. The lunch was very good and the view was beautiful.
Day 46, Monday February 22
We've been making a list of the things we want to do while in the Phoenix area. We've scratched a few of them off the list, but today was the day to spend the whole day at the Musical Instrument Museum. It's a fantastic museum and we spent 6 hours there and didn't see everything. MIM has a collection of about 16,000 musical instruments and associated objects and displays more than 6,500 of these collected from around 200 of the world's countries and territories. The displays are enhanced by video with audio headsets provided at the entrance. You can hear the sounds of the instruments as well as watch them being played in their original contexts. There is an interactive gallery where you can play instruments (we didn't have time for this area) as well an artist gallery that houses instruments from music icons and also shows videos of their performances. There were exhibits from Taylor Swift, Elvis Presley, Carlos Santana, John Lennon, John Denver, Maroon 5 and many more. They had a special exhibit of Stradivarius, but we didn't have enough time to take that in. There are special displays highlighting iconic American manufacturers such as Steinway & Sons (pianos), C.F. Martin & Co. (acoustic guitars) and D’Addario & Co (strings). The Conservation Lab gives an opportunity to see instruments being restored and preserved (we didn't have time to this one either). We had lunch at their restaurant and sat outside in the courtyard that was fabulously landscaped. It was a wonderful day. Another high recommendation for those visiting Phoenix (but do plan to spend a whole day).
We left at 5pm
(closing) and noticed our route home was bumper-to-bumper traffic. We decided to let the traffic die down and
grab some dinner. We went north of the
museum a few blocks and found a local pub called The Sandbar Mexican Restaurant. What a cute place. With the exception of sand, it looked like a
cantina on the beach in Mexico. We
shared a taco plate and cerveza and by the time we were done, the traffic was
manageable going home.
Day 47, Tuesday February 23
Today was a golf day
with Tab Bronson. The temperatures were
down to the upper 70s with a strong breeze, so a much more tolerable golf
day. We golfed at a Phoenix Parks and
Recreation course called Encanto. It is
a very mature course, built in 1935.
Encanto is the 3rd oldest golf course in Arizona. It had wide level fairways and plenty of
bunkers to attract every one of my golf balls.
It was a very challenging day, as the wind played into the golf equation
and it was always a surprise where the ball would go (usually anywhere but the
fairway). We stopped at the casual
course café for a beer afterward and were surprised to also receive a large
bowl of freshly popped popcorn. Tab left
to try to beat the rush hour traffic. As
Dave and I were finishing our beers, in came a fellow who sat down with us and introduced
himself as one of the owners of The Phoenix Ale Brewery (the beer we were
drinking). He lived across the fairway
on the golf course. Soon his wife joined
us…quite a couple of characters (I’m guessing in their 80s). They joked that because they live so close,
when the golf course runs out of beer, they call them to bring another keg (the
beer isn’t actually brewed in their house).
They would have stayed and talked our ears off for hours if we hadn’t
excused ourselves to get in line out on the highway.
Day 48, Wednesday February 24
Dave packed up his bike and drove to a city park to ride on the New River trail (actually, there’s
no river…it’s just a wash). The paved
bike trail parallels the New River through the city of Peoria, east of Phoenix,
and connects lots of communities and small parks along its route. I went for a walk and puttered while he was
gone and then went grocery shopping when he got back. BBQd Tilapia for Fish Tacos for dinner. Found this recipe for a sauce for the tacos
that was great:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fish-tacos-with-lime-cilantro-crema
Day 49, Thursday February 25
We wanted to get out
and enjoy the weather, so headed to The McDowell Sonoran Preserve in
Scottsdale. It’s a 30,000 acre preserve
that is home to 170 miles of fabulous desert trails of varying degrees of
difficulty. We'd read that the plants were all in bloom, but that wasn't the case. Still too early. The first trail we did was
the Bajada Nature Trail. It’s a hard
dirt-packed trail with interpretive signs along the trail describing all
varieties of flora and fauna, as well as how the inhabitants of the desert are
all part of the desert ecosystem. We
then continued on the Gateway Loop Trail.
This trail had lots of loose and jutting rock and one of those hikes
where you couldn’t really enjoy the scenery because you need to keep your eyes
on the trail. By the time we headed up
this trail, it was the heat of the day, so decided to take the shortcut route
back to the trailhead and the air-conditioned car.
http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Assets/ScottsdaleAZ/Preserve/Preserve+South+Area+Trail+Map.pdf
I took the
opportunity to get in some computer time at the clubhouse. If I don’t keep up on my email, I often have
over 300 emails to plough through (did I mentioned that this “not having
internet at our site” is really inconvenient?).
If we use this park again, we’ll have to figure out something different
for internet..maybe a local company. I
spent 2 hours and didn’t even get the blog done.
Wow! Can't believe we're coming up on Day 50!!!
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