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

Leaf Verde RV Resort is great!  They have activities going on ALL the time.  They put out a calendar monthly with all the park activities taking place in the mornings, afternoons, and nights.  Here is the February calendar:

Some of the morning activities are:  beginner and intermediate yoga, water aerobics, walk away the pounds (a walking group), walk to coffee (another walking group that walks about a mile to McDonald’s for coffee and back), a bible study, Pétanque (a game with balls kind of like Bocco), and coffee and donuts every Friday (for a small donation).  At the Friday morning coffee and donuts, the activities director gets up and tells the group about events that are happening around the Buckeye area.  Two Saturday mornings a month they have breakfast at The Barn (a big meeting building for social events) which might be pancakes or biscuits and gravy (for a small donation).  This past Saturday we went to the pancake breakfast.  You got two, huge pancakes, sausage, juice and coffee, and it was DELICIOUS!

The pool and some of the park residents doing water aerobics.

Yep! That’s The Barn.

The Barn has a patio area with picnic tables, outdoor framed swings, outdoor heaters, a pergola, and a cactus garden (zoom in on picture to the back fence).

Afternoon activities are:  beginner yoga (for those of us that do NOT like to get up early), line dancing, water volleyball, Leaf Verde Artist Guild (they do “art-sy” activities), Crafts, Cards & Conversation (you can do crafts, play cards, or just visit), Leaf Verde Quilters, and at the end of this month, a blood drive.

Evening activities include:  Card Bingo, regular Bingo, Bunco, Texas Holdem, DJ Dance (not sure about this because we haven’t gone yet; I think it’s a dancing night), movie night, Dutch’s Music Showcase (not sure what this is; a band, maybe?), Ice Cream Social, Root Beer Float night, several pizza nights, special potlucks, and Cards & Games at least 2-3 times a week.  Put it like this, there is ALWAYS something to do around the park.  Some of these activities require you to sign up so they will know how many to expect and pay a small amount to cover the cost of food, etc.

This RV park has a unique attraction.  There is a man here that loves trains, so he built a rather large model train.  I’m not sure what the scale is, but it is outdoors by the entrance to the park.  It is still a work in progress because he and some other men work on it from time to time.  His grandson was here visiting for a few days and was going home Saturday.  The grandson wanted to see the train run, so after the pancake breakfast this past Saturday, the man “cranked it up” and ran the train.  It was pretty cool to watch.

This is where the trains and engines are stored and locked up at night.

When Jack went to coffee and donuts this past Friday morning, he learned that there was going to be an air show at the Buckeye Airport on Saturday (Feb. 3).  After we ate those delicious pancakes Saturday morning, Dennis, Mary Ann, Jack and I packed up some water and snacks along with the dogs and attended the air show.  There were vendors with all sorts of merchandise, military paraphernalia from different decades and wars, bouncy houses and zip lines for the kids,   It was a small air show, but it was very good.

All the vendors’ tents.

Plenty of things for the kids to play on.

Schedule of events for the air show.

Transport airplane used in Korean and Viet Nam wars.

Inside the transport airplane.

Inside the transport airplane.

“De plane!  De plane!  I see de plane!”

A couple of fighter jets from Luke Air Force Base flew over at the start of the air show.  Then a local lady, Cindy Irish, who is a member of the Misty Blues all female skydiving team, did a parachute jump and brought in the American flag.  Two smaller airplanes went up with the plane she was jumping out of.  These two planes did spiral circles around Cindy as she was coming down and it looked like she was falling through a spiral.  It was pretty cool looking.

The stunt flying airplanes were amazing!  I don’t have any idea how they do what they do (or WHY they do it!).  I do know that it takes hours and hours of practice and A LOT of nerve to do it!

Two planes were flying north and the other two planes were flying south right above the airport runway. They looked as if they were going to crash head-on into each other, but they passed by each other safely and VERY close together!

It was a very good air show, however, we didn’t stay until the very end because the dogs were getting hot.  Ok….WE were getting hot and hungry!  All in all, we had a great time.  The best part about the air show —- IT WAS FREE!!

So for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty