Retirement……LOVE IT!

Last Wednesday (Feb. 7) we drove over to the east side of Phoenix and visited Scottsdale, Arizona. It took us about an hour and a half to get there because we had some traffic congestion through downtown Phoenix.

Scottsdale is a lovely city! It is very modern, well groomed with beautiful landscaping and flowers. There’s lots of places to shop, eat, and just sit at tables at outside cafes and relax. However, the best part is “Old Town Scottsdale.”

Old Town Scottsdale is a little tourist-y (aka: tourist trap!) but it is unique and quaint. We enjoy a leisurely day of shopping, browsing, eating tacos for lunch, and a stop for some delicious ice cream.

Quaint shops with unique store fronts.

Lots of parking!

Unusual paper weights.

I thought about buying this for my daughter-in-law, but then I decided I wanted to keep her as my friend! She HATES spiders!!

Speaking of “unusual!” This is an unusual t-shirt.

Taking a little time to rest with Zoey.  OH, look!  Someone photo bombed us!!

More shops….

And MORE shops! There were several more blocks of shops, but after a while they all start looking the same.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Scottsdale.  The only thing I missed seeing was Ari!  You, know, Ari on The Bachelor!  He is from Scottsdale.  Oh, well ……

Southern Arizona is known for it’s mild winters and LOTS of sunshine.  People have told us that it is no big deal when it rains here (unless it is the monsoon season in August!) because it’s usually just a few sprinkles, is over quickly, and dries up almost as fast as it falls.  Well, they are correct!  However, this week yesterday and today (Feb. 12 and 13) we woke up to very dark mornings.  It was cloudy and rainy all day Monday and most of the day today.  That’s pretty unusual for this area, so I thought I’d take a couple of pics to document it.

If you look really closely and zoom in to the left side half way down (the tiny black speck), you will see an Air Force fighter jet. They flew over all day that day!

Oh! I almost forgot!  Our friends, Dennis and Mary Ann, have their bicycles with them.  Dennis has a little basket on the back of his bike and their dog, Charlie, and he rides with them (there are two straps with hooks so the dog cannot jump out).  The other day, they asked if we wanted to take Zoey for a ride.  I said I was afraid I might have a bike wreck and hurt Zoey, so Dennis took her for her first bike ride.  Jack rode the other bike, and he said she seemed to like it!

She REALLY did like it even though she doesn’t look like it in this picture!

Well, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  I’m not sure what we are going to do, but whatever it is, I’m sure it will be fun.  I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

So for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty