Arizona Trip - Day 24

We left The Lakes RV Park in Chowchilla around 9:00 am and had an uneventful 3 1/2 hour ride back home.  

After arriving in town, we filled-up the RV with propane at the Fair Grounds. had lunch at the new Humpty Dumpty and successfully parked the RV without incident.  After unloading everything we are now faced with putting it all away and getting back to normal, whatever that is.

It was a great trip.  We did a lot and had a lot of fun, but, as always, its good to be home.

Arizona Trip - Day 23

We left Northridge this morning and headed North with "moderate" traffic on "The 405".  We soon encountered the dreaded "Grapevine", the series of steep climbs and descents out of the LA Basin and into the San Joaquin Valley.  The road was filled with a lot of slow-moving trucks and fast moving cars weaving in and out of traffic.  We made it through it all O.K. and were glad we didn't try going that way in the snow and rain on the way down.

The rest of the trip to Chowchilla up Highway 99 for our overnight stop was uneventful and we arrived at The Lakes RV Park and Golf Resort about 3:00 pm.  The park is really nice and appears to be a destination resort with an attached golf course and a small lake in the middle. It looks like many of the RV spots are for sale and/or long-term rental.  For example, a lakeside RV site is advertised in the park brochure for $75,000.   No old hulk RVs and trailers, single-wides, or blue tarps in sight.  There is also a gated housing area adjoining the park that looks like it may be affiliated with the park and resort.  We are not sure how such an oasis like this ended up in Chowchilla, but it is a nice place to stay on the way home. Our guess is that most RVers come here for the golf. We drove about 250 miles today and have decided that  between 200- 300 miles a day is about max for us now.  

We have about a 3 1/2 hour drive home tomorrow and should arrive in the early afternoon.

Day 23 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 22

We traveled down "The 405" today to the Getty Center to see the Vermeer painting, "The Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" and also explore the museum again. 

It is normally a 30 minute trip from where we are staying, but we had a couple of things complicate the experience.  First of all, traffic was heavy and slow moving. We don't believe there is ever a break from "rush hour traffic" in the LA area - it is always heavy and generally slow moving.  We don't know how the locals can put-up with it every day, driving back-and-forth to work and getting around town to do other things.  There is public transit, but there are still a lot of one-person-per-car automobiles on the roads as well as a variety of trucks of different sizes.  On the positive note if you have more than one person in a car, the HOV (carpool) lanes  always seem to be less congested and underutilized.

The second  factor today was a lot of construction around the Getty Center on the highway, complicating exiting and entering the interchanges.  Consequently, we missed our exit on the first pass.  Our GPS quickly recovered however, and routed us through the ritzy neighborhood of Bel Air to the back gate of the Getty which unfortunately was locked.  So, we backtracked and approached the museum from the other direction on  the highway. This time, we got off at the right exit and quickly found our way to the museum parking lot.

Since the Getty sits on a hill overlooking the city, you park down below and ride a tram up to the museum.  It is about a five minute ride in the type of tram you might see in an airport, transporting passengers between terminals.  Admission to the museum is free, but there is a charge for parking.

The Getty Center is a magnificent complex of public and private buildings that house the J. Paul Getty Trust, which includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation.  The museum includes an extensive collection of paintings, decorative art objects, sculptures, and landscaped gardens.  The buildings are built of Travertine Marble imported from Italy.  The emphasis of the museum collections is primarily European, ranging from Antiquity to early 20th Century. 

The primary purpose of our visit was to see the famous Vermeer painting "The Woman in Blue Reading a Letter".  The picture is superb and we were able to get a close-up look at it as the crowds around the picture were not as large as we expected.  We were surprised about the size of the picture however, as we had thought it was much larger.  Nevertheless, it was a great experience to see such a beautiful and famous painting.  We also visited the galleries displaying the works of other 17th Century Dutch and Flemish artists. We had lunch at the museum cafe and then visited the galleries displaying paintings by 18th and 19th Century European artists, including Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, and Renoir.

We had seen about everything we wanted to see this trip by 3:00 pm and headed back up the highway to the RV Park.  We had take-out Indian food for dinner that was very good.  We hope to get on the road by 9:00 am tomorrow and get over the "Grapevine" and into the Valley by noon.

Day 22 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 21

Today we visited the Reagan Museum and Library in Simi Valley,  It is located about 30 minutes West of where we are staying in Northridge. The library and museum sits on top of a mountain peak with a spectacular view of the valley in all directions.  The displays are excellent and the buildings and surrounding grounds are well designed and maintained.

Regardless of whether you liked Reagan or not or if you don't believe in his Conservative philosophy of economic freedom, smaller government, fewer regulations, fewer taxes and a strong national defense, the museum and library is worth visiting.  It is an excellent documentation of a crucial period of American History during his two terms of office as the 40th President of the United States from 1981-1989.

After entering through the Main Entrance, you trace his life and events through a number of galleries displaying pictures, videos, quotes, and objects representing each period of his life.
Displays include a full size furnished replica of the White House Oval Office, the Berlin Wall, and actual footage of the assassination attempt on his life in 1981. A highlight of the tour is the Boeing 707 (Air Force One) used by President Reagan and seven other Presidents.  The plane was disassembled in 2001, brought to the site in pieces and reassembled while the building where it is now located was built around it. After restoration and completion of the building where it is displayed, It was opened to the public in 2005.

We had a a nice lunch at the museum cafe with a spectacular view of the surrounding area.  After lunch, we finished the tour and headed back to the RV at 2;00 pm.  After resting a bit, we went over to our friends' house about a mile from the RV Park to visit and have dinner.  Lorraine, Judy's first college roommate at Penn State is married to Bob Joyce, also a Penn State graduate and a retired engineer from Northrup.  We had a nice visit and a great dinner and were back in the RV by 8:30 pm.

We will visit the Getty Center Museum in Santa Monica tomorrow to see a Vermeer Painting, the Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, on loan from the Rijksmuseum in Holland.  We will then head for home on  Wednesday.

Day 21 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 20

We had a relatively short 3-hour drive today from the RV Park in Indio to the RV Park in Northridge.  There was no wind and the only excitement was maneuvering through the Sunday rush hour traffic in the Northern LA Basin into Northridge.

The park where we are staying is O.K. but nothing spectacular.  It is close to the places we are visiting in the next two days however, and there really isn't anything else near by or more convenient.

The plan tomorrow is to visit the Reagan Presidential Library, then have dinner with Bob and Lorraine Joyce who live in Northridge.  Lorraine and Judy were college roommates for their freshman year at Penn State in 1959-1960.  Tuesday, we visit the Getty Museum nearby in Santa Monica, then head home on Wednesday.

Day 20 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 19

We left Mesa Spirit RV Park about 9:15 am and headed West on I-10 towards California. After a somewhat windy drive into a quartering headwind, we arrived in Indio, CA (near Palm Springs) about 2:30 pm.  We are staying at a nice park (Shadow Hills RV Resort) but are not planning on any sightseeing in the area or participating in any RV Park activities.  Maybe a short walk around the park later, but we will have dinner in the RV and get to bed early.

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning for Northridge, CA (in the LA area) where we will stay for three nights.

Day 19 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 18

We visited the Mesa Market Place late this morning, walked around for awhile and bought a few things.

The Market Place is a vast outdoor market in four large (long) buildings.  There are over 1600 vendors on the 55 acre property and virtually of them have permanent stalls they leave set-up when the Market Place is not open on weekdays and maybe in the Summer.  The place is filled with cheap souvenirs, low-end Southwestern decorative things (e.g. metal wall hangings, pottery, Indian trinkets, Mexican lawn art, etc.) There were also lots of other things typically seen at large outdoor markets such as tools, clothing, food processors, artificial plants, health and beauty aids, etc.  Oh, and there were also a lot of old people moving slowly and getting in the way.  The place had many people shopping and looking around - most appeared to be in the  55+ age range with most much older.  Lunch was at the food court.  The food was mediocre, but cheap, a large glass of beer was only $3.00 (Miller Lite).  There was also live entertainment - a guy in a cowboy hat playing Lawrence Welk type music on an electric keyboard.  We almost made it through two of the four buildings before everything started to look alike and we decided we had seen enough. 

We came back to the RV and began the process of getting ready to leave in the morning.  The weather looks good for the trip to Indio, CA (near Palm Springs), an overnight stop.  We will then drive to Northridge, CA for three nights, a visit with friends and a visit to the Getty Museum in Santa Monica.  We will be home by mid-day Thursday.

Day 18 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 17

Today was "Music Thursday". We went back to the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) that we visited last week. There is so much to see and listen to there that we could not do it all in one day. Actually, we discovered we could not do it all in two days. We started where we left off previously around 12:00 pm and at 6:00 PM we still had not visited several galleries containing exhibits about music in a number of regions including, South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania. To do an in-depth visit to each exhibit we have not seen will take at least another full day, but not on this trip. We will have to come back some other time.

After having a light dinner in the museum snack bar, we listened to a few songs from a group (Wooden Indian) performing a free concert in the museum courtyard . The group had a peculiar music style we don't regularly listen to (amplified psychedelic new age acoustic folk music with lyrics that were hard to understand - or perhaps mumbled). It was a small crowd and appeared to be mostly friends and family of the band. Anyway, we had a little time to kill before the jazz concert we had tickets for that started at 7:30 pm.

The jazz concert was very good. The group, the SFJAZZ Collective was formed in 2004 and is the repertory group of The SFJAZZ Center, a jazz music organization started in 1984 in San Francisco, The Collective performs a new repertoire each year, one that balances the works of a great modern jazz composer from the post-1960 era and eight new compositions (commissioned by SFJAZZ), one from each band member. This year, their theme artist was the keyboard musician and composer, Chick Corea The eight members of the group get together in San Francisco each year for a three week residency, a month-long tour and production of a CD of their tour highlights. Their music style is mostly a mixture of avant-guard jazz/jazz fusion compositions. The group has members from Philadelphia, New York, Miami, Puerto Rico (2), Israel, New Zealand, and Venezuela. They have a few more stops on their tour before finishing-up in San Francisco at their home base, the new SFJAZZ Center, just recently opened.  Here is some more information about the group:

SFJAZZ Collective

We were back in the RV by 10:30 pm. We are going to an outdoor flea market tomorrow morning, then start getting ready to leave on Saturday.

Day 17 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 16

We went into "Old Town" Scottsdale this morning, walked around town a little and had lunch before the spring training baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers.

The immediate center of "Old Town" has some pretty sights, but appears to be oriented towards the tourist trade with a lot of souvenir stores and typical things you might find for sale in such a place.  We did tour a restored Catholic church that was once the site of a mission and the first Catholic Church in the area. We also had a delicious lunch at a Spanish restaurant next door (cleverly named "The Mission").

After lunch we walked about three blocks to Scottsdale Stadium and watched the San Francisco Giants play the Milwalkee Brewers.  There was not much action in the game which ended in a 0-0 tie after 10 innings.

We then headed to a shop up the road that specializes in Saguaro cactus art items.  I wanted  a hiking stick made from the woody inside structure of a Saguaro cactus and quickly discovered this was the place to go.  I found one I liked and Judy found another cute metal Javelina that just had to come to California.

Things are starting to wind down here.  Tomorrow, we go back to the Musical Instrument Museum to see the galleries we missed on our first visit.  We also have tickets for a jazz concert there by a group from the San Francisco Jazz Center tomorrow night.  Friday is essentially a getting ready to break camp day, and we will leave Saturday morning to begin our journey home.

Day 16 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 15

We decided to go to the Heard Indian Museum in Phoenix today.

The museum features both artifacts and contemporary art of Native American cultures with emphasis on the native peoples of the Southwest. The overall mission of the Heard Museum is to educate the public about the heritage and the living cultures and arts of indigenous Native peoples. It started as a small museum in a small southwestern town and has since grown in size and stature to where it is recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, its educational programming and its festivals. The current collection of the Heard Museum consists of over 40,000 items including a library and archives with over 34,000 volumes.

We arrived about 10:00 am and had a mocha in the courtyard of the museum before beginning our visit to the exhibits.  The museum's interior courtyard, landscaping, and sculptures are superb and are designed in the Spanish Colonial Style.  There is also a wonderful Native American Veterans Memorial on the grounds near the entrance to the museum, honoring those of Indian heritage who have fought in all wars, including the Indian Wars.

We began our tour by visiting several changing exhibits currently in the museum.  The first was an excellent exhibition of Hopi Indian pottery, highlighting the works of three prominent Hopi families who created and maintained traditional cultural motifs and techniques by working with clay.  The pottery was beautiful and displayed a high degree of skill that was passed down through many generations. Next, we visited a very interesting exhibit that highlighted how Chocolate, Corn, Chili and Cochineal (red dye), all originating in the Americas, influenced food production and tastes throughout the world. Another very interesting changing exhibit was the "Native Words, Native Warriors and Navajo Code Talkers".  The exhibit recalled the history and accomplishments of Native Americans, especially the Navajo, who served in WW II as "Code Talkers", transmitting and receiving battlefield messages in their native tongue, foiling any attempt to intercept and decode them.

We then visited the on-going "We Are!Arizona's First People" display.  This gallery is designed to educate visitors, especially school children, about the origins, location, and current activities of the 21 recognized Native American tribes and communities in Arizona.  Each display also exhibits representative examples of the tribe's cultural artifacts and particular art forms as well as hands-on interactive displays for children.  Also along the wall were the winning entries from an annual children's art contest, all very well done.  Another gallery, primarily designed for children,highlighted Native cultures around the world through displays of their art and culture.  Again, hands on interaction with the displays is encouraged.

After an excellent lunch at the museum courtyard cafe, we toured the ongoing exhibit of artifacts and cultural examples of Native Americans of the  Southwest.  Again, it was a beautiful and overwhelming display of beautiful art, pottery and textiles representing the various tribes and communities mostly in Arizona and New Mexico.  Another amazing display was a collection of Navajo Pictorial Textiles,  This were highly detailed and skillfully woven textiles, mostly the size of small blankets or wall hangings.  Various sculptures and works of art were also displayed in the hallways and outside courtyards between the galleries

It was then almost time for the museum to close, so on the way out we visited the museum store and gallery.  All the jewelry, baskets, pottery and art was  first class and authentic.  And of course, everything was priced accordingly.  They had a lot of beautiful pieces for sale in the thousands of dollars.  Judy did get another small pig fetish for her collection at a very reasonable price (Pat insisted on this.)

We had dinner in the RV again and are going to a baseball game tomorrow afternoon (SF Giants v. Milwaukee).

Day 15 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 14

Today we traveled to a restored ghost town called Goldfield at the start of the Apache Trail, a historic road over rugged mountain terrain from Apache Junction East of Mesa NE into the Superstition Wilderness.

The Apache Trail, now AZ Highway 88, was a stagecoach trail that ran through the Superstition Mountains. It was named after the Apache Indians who originally used this trail to move through the Superstition Mountains and who later worked on construction of Roosevelt Dam.  In the 1800's, the army also used it to fight the Apaches

The current Apache Trail links Apache Junction at the edge of the Greater Phoenix area with Theodore Roosevelt Lake, through the Superstition Mountains and the Tonto National Forest. The Trail winds steeply through 40 miles of rugged desert mountains, past deep reservoir lakes including Canyon Lake and Apache Lake. The narrow, winding road is unpaved from just east of the small town of Tortilla Flat (6 full time residents) to Roosevelt Dam; there are many steep dropoffs and little in the way of safety barriers. Roosevelt Lake is a large reservoir formed by the Theodore Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River in Arizona as part of the Salt River Hydroelectric Project.  It is the oldest of the six reservoirs constructed and operated by the Project. Both the reservoir and the masonry dam that created it, Roosevelt Dam, were named for U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt who dedicated the dam himself in March 1911. 

We started the tour at 10:00 am and traveled in a modified jeep with two bench seats, each holding four people.  The other passengers were an extended family of six visiting from Kansas. Our driver and tour guide was a local dressed like a cowboy named "Dusty Bottoms".  He was very knowledgeable about the area and kept up a running dialogue through a loudspeaker in the back of the jeep.  We left Goldfield on the trail and traveled through beautiful desert scenery on a narrow paved road past Canyon Lake, a pretty mountain reservoir on the Salt River that is heavily used as a fishing, camping, and recreation destination.  We then passed Tortilla Flat, a small town with typical tourist facilities. The paved road then ended and we continued another 10 miles on a narrow, curved, often one lane, dirt road to the Fish Creek Overlook, the turnaround point for our trip.  We took the 2-hour trip which was just about enough for us.  Other tour options went out to the dam and back, but this tour was long enough.  The thought of another two hour drive on narrow switchback washboard dirt roads with thousand foot drop-offs without guardrails was not particularly appealing to our senior sense of adventure.

On the way back, we stopped at Tortilla Flat, the quintessential tourist attraction.  We had an ice cream cone and enjoyed the scenery on the way back.  We also got a good look at Superstition Mountain, the famous Arizona landmark on the edge of the Superstition Wilderness and the Tonto National Forest.  It is a beautiful Mountain that was held sacred by the original Native Americans who lived in the area.

We had a good lunch at the Mammoth Steakhouse in Goldfield after the tour.  We had sandwiches on the patio and were entertained by a singing cowboy, who was actually pretty good. 

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at a Mexican lawn art place near the park.  We couldn't resist buying some much needed lawn art - a metal Javelina with two babiies. Javelinas look like pigs but are not. They live in the wild down here and can be troubelsome if you get too close to them.

We were back in the RV Park around 3:00 pm and had dinner in.  I think we are going to the Heard Museum in Phoenix tomorrow - a world class museum of Native American culture.  A final decision will be made in the morning.

Day 14 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 13

We  woke up this morning and decided we would rather sleep in than drive an hour and a half to see the Civil War re-enactment.  We were both tired from yesterday and needed a day to rest-up and just relax a little without anything in particular to do.  So, we'll just have to wait for the movie to see who won the Battle of Picacho Pass again, or maybe check it out next year if we are in the area.

Not much else to report today and no pictures.  Tomorrow, is our jeep tour on the "Apache Trail" which should be an interesting trip.

Arizona Trip - Day 12

We took our second trip to Taliesin West today for the third and fourth tours we  had planned.  The weather was a little cooler (in the 80's) with a little breeze and some light cloud cover.

The first tour was the "Desert Walk", a 90 minute walk exploring the desert trails around Taliesin West.  Our guide was "Frank", a 75 year resident of the valley, a former practicing architect, and now a member of the faculty at the school. He was very knowledgeable about the area and explained the history and geology of the site and answered all our questions about the plants, flowers, wildlife and history.  The walk was really special in that we were the only people on the tour and had the guide all to ourselves.  We saw a few birds but didn't see any other indigenous wildlife such as mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, snakes, scorpions or other critters.  Frank said the snakes, primarily the Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes are starting to stir from their winter inactivity and have recently been seen in the area amongst the rocks.  We didn't see any and were not disappointed.

We had originally planned to go into town for lunch between the first walk that started at 10:45 am and the second at 1:15 pm.  The first tour took a little longer than scheduled however, so we just had a light snack in the garden while waiting for the second tour. 

Next was a two hour tour led by two students currently enrolled at the school.  This tour visited the student shelters in the desert surrounding the campus.  Frank Lloyd Wright's teaching philosophy was that his students had to live and experience nature as they learned to integrate it into their designs and creative expressions. Originally, each student lived in a "Shepard's Tent"  on a 8' x 8' concrete pad.  This tradition continues today as each student has to sleep in a shelter in the desert they have either built themselves, modified or improved from a previous occupant, or just live in as it presently exists.  These shelters are mostly open to the the elements and subject to frequent visits from everything that lives out there.  There are no bathroom facilities or electricity in the shelters, although a few shelters have rigged-up limited solar power installations. There is a fireplace in each shelter which is the only source of heat.  Each student has a locker in the main building and their bathroom and shower facilities are there.  They eat all their meals in the dining room in the main building.  For all this, each student pays $30,000 per year for tuition, room and board.  The school offers both undergraduate and masters degrees in Architecture. Undergraduates usually have completed the first two years of their degree program elsewhere and complete the last two years at Taliesin West.  The masters degree program takes three years to complete.  There are presently 16 students currently enrolled, although the school can handle up to about 25 students.  About 1/4 of the students are from other countries. Our tour guide, Conner is a first year student, and Alex is in the second year of her masters program.  Each student has to complete a certain number of tour hours in order to graduate.and all the proceeds from this particular tour go into the Student Fund, used to help pay for field trips as part of their courses.

Both tours were really great and very enjoyable.  After the tours, we picked-up a few grocery items on the way back to the RV and dinner, after which Judy did the laundry.

Tomorrow is a short road trip.  We discovered a Civil War battlefield we never heard about at Picacho Peak State Park, about a one hour drive south of Phoenix..  There is a Civil War Re-enactment of the Battle of Picacho Pass this weekend so we thought it might be interesting to see how the Civil War was fought in Arizona.

Day 12 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 11

Friday, March 15, 2013

We traveled to Taliesin West in Northeast Scottsdale today and did the first two of our four scheduled tours.

Taliesen West (pronounced Tal-ee-s-an) is the western home and architecture school of Frank Lloyd Wright, the noted architect.

Taliesin West was Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The site drew its name from Wright's summer home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The origin of the name is Welsh, meaning “Shining Brow”, a reference to the campus being set in the brow of the adjoining McDowell Mountains. Here is some additional information about the site:

Taliesin West

We arrived at the site around 3:00 pm for our first tour, the "Insights" tour, at 4:00 pm.  This "Insights Tour" was the basic overview tour; we visited most of the buildings in the main campus.  We did not go into some of the buildings that are being used by the active students and associated faculty and staff such as the drafting workshop and dining area.  There are presently 16 architectural students enrolled here, in the country's smallest accredited university which offers undergraduate and masters degrees in architectural design.  Last year the school had 350 applicants and accepted only a very few who were able to meet the high qualifications.  It has a full 12-month-a-year program with time split between the main campus at Taliesin in Wisconsin in the Summer and at Taliesin West in the Winter.  First year students mostly live in "shepherd's tents" on 8' x 8' concrete pads in the desert area surrounding the campus.  Some also live in shelters either designed or modified by themselves as part of their self-paced curriculum.

After the first tour, we had a short break before the "Night Lights Tour" which gave a different perspective to our earlier tour.  Both tours were excellent and are well worth the visit.  We are coming back tomorrow for two more tours.  The first tour is a 90 minute "Desert Walk" which is a guided tour of the trails surrounding the campus.  The second tour is a 2-hour tour of the desert "shelters" built and lived-in by the students.  This tour is led by some of the students and should be very interesting.

Day 11 Pictures 

Arizona Trip - Day 10

We visited the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix today and were not disappointed. The museum lives up to its reviews and then some.  It was founded in 2010 and is the biggest museum in the world of its type. It includes instruments from nearly 200 countries and territories in the world. Some larger countries such as India, China, Russia, the United States and the Congo have multiple displays with subsections for different types of ethnic, folk, and tribal music.  There are five major geographical galleries of musical instruments - Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia/Oceania, Africa/Middle East.  There is also a gallery for traveling exhibitions; the exhibit featured there now is The Golden Age of Jazz.  Here is a little background about the museum: 

"The MIM was founded by Robert J. Ulrich, former CEO and chairman of Target Corporation. An avid collector of African art and museum enthusiast, Ulrich ... originated the idea after a visit to the Instrument Museum in Brussels, Belgium.

The Museum is approximately 200,000-square-foot with two floors of light-filled galleries and a collection of nearly 15,000 instruments and associated objects. Built at a cost of over $250 million, it creates an exciting musical experience for guests, featuring advanced wireless technology and high-resolution video, and the experience offers musical instruments that guests can touch and play. The building that houses the Musical Instrument Museum also contains a 300-seat theater for live performances." 

We arrived about 12:00 pm and had an excellent lunch at the museum cafeteria.  After meeting our friends Rich and Sylvia and Chuck and Carol at 1:00 pm we began touring the museum in the “Travelling Exhibition Gallery” presently exhibiting a marvelous collection of photographs by William Gottlieb of legendary jazz artists.  The photographs were taken in the 1940s into the 1960s and are accompanied by comments by him regarding each photograph and the musician.

Each museum visitor is given a headset with a wireless receiver upon entry.  At each exhibit there is a HD flat screen monitor that shows musicians and/or instruments featured in the display. As you approach each exhibit you automatically hear the music of the current selection being displayed on the screen.  The selections are excerpts, each anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute in length.  A card in the display indicates what the selection is and who is performing it.  There are generally 1- 4 selections at each exhibit.  In the exhibits featuring particular artists, the actual instrument the musician is playing in the video is usually on display in the exhibit – pretty cool. In other exhibits, musicians play the same kind of instruments that are on display.

The museum also has a public Steinway Grand Piano in the lobby that visitors are encouraged to play if they desire to do so.  We heard a young Japanese teenager playing for his father and grandparents.  He was truly outstanding.  An adult we heard later was playing Ragtime and was also very good.

After the jazz exhibit, we visited the Artists Gallery which has a varied collection of musicians and music styles. Some of the selected artists included Taylor Swift, Joshua Bell and Eric Clapton. Musical genres included Country/Western, Classical, Rock Guitar, etc.

Next, came the Mechanical Instrument Display with an excellent collection of mechanical musical instruments, mostly European.

We then started on the geographical exhibits on the second floor but ran out of time halfway through the first one we went to -  the European exhibit.

The museum is so interesting, we decided to come back next Thursday and see what we missed.  We are going to combine the visit with an evening jazz concert (SFJAZZ Collective) in the MIM Music Theater at the museum.

After leaving the museum, we all went to a Southern- style chicken- and- waffles restaurant in Scottsdale Sylvia and Rich recommended.  Everyone had a great meal and a good time. (The chicken was good but not as good as Susan’s.)

Tomorrow, we are going to do the first two of the four tours we have scheduled at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Western home and architectural laboratory, Taliesin West.  The second tour is in the evening, so it could be another late night.

Day 10 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 9

We went to another baseball game today with friends from Grass Valley, Rich and Sylvia Aunger, who own a winter home in Sun City West, a community in the NW suburbs of Phoenix, AZ.  Staying with them for a week are mutual friends Chuck and Carol Elizondo.  Rich and Sylvia made the arrangements to attend the spring training game this afternoon between the LA Angels and the San Diego Padres at the Peoria Sports complex near their house.

The field is not bad and looks to be fairly typical of most of the Arizona spring training parks. One thing that is different is that it is the home field both the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners.  Each team has its own practice fields and coordinates its game schedule to avoid conflicts.  We had good seats under a shade canopy.  The crowd  today perhaps filled two-thirds of the 7,500 seat stadium and was relatively quiet compared to the Giants game last night.  The temperature today was in the high 80's so the sun canopy really came in handy.  We had lunch at a nearby In-N-Out Burger restaurant prior to the game so we really didn't get to sample the ballpark food.  The park did appear however, to have more choices than the typical ballpark food available at the Giants park in Scottsdale - and the beer was cheaper.

It was a good ball game.  The Padres came back to score three runs in the 8th inning to win the game, making the home team fans happy.  There were a lot of exciting plays as well as a lot of Spring Training mistakes by both teams, but it was a very entertaining experience.

After the game, we went over to Rich and Sylvia's house to relax a little before dinner.  We had dinner around 6:00 pm at a very popular and very good Mexican Restaurant close to the ballpark.  There are lots of good restaurants nearby and they all seemed to be thriving.  With an active snowbird population, a large 17,000 house Sun City retirement/winter home community, and two spring training fields in the immediate vicinity, there appears to be a very large market to draw upon.

Tomorrow, we are all going to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.  This might sound a little hokey but it has good reviews and is ranked as one of the top 10 things to do in Phoenix . Rich and Sylvia have been there several times and say they see something new every time they go. It seems to be a favorite spot to bring their visitors.  We'll see, and add our discerning critique after our visit tomorrow. 

Day 9 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 8

Today was our first spring training game at the SF Giants spring training site, Scottsdale Stadium. The game didn't start until 7:05 pm this evening, so we decided to go into Phoenix and visit the state capitol beforehand. We have visited state capitols in New Mexico and Texas on previous trips and found them to be interesting places to visit. Our trip to the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix was no exception.

Construction of the Capitol began in 1898 and it began operation in 1901. It formerly housed the Territorial and State Legislatures as well as various executive offices. These offices have now been relocated to adjacent separate buildings, one housing the Senate and the other, the House of Representatives. The Governor’s office and executive staff are located in a building behind and connected to the original capitol building which is now maintained as the Arizona Capitol Museum.  The old capitol has many interesting displays and recreations of the original legislative chambers and offices.  There are additional information and displays about Arizona History as well as a very interesting exhibit about the USS Arizona, the battleship sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.  There is too much history in and about the museum to recount here, but if you are interested, here is the link to Wikipedia for additional information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_State_Capitol

As we were entering the Museum (Old Capitol Building), we passed Governor Jan Brewer surrounded by a lot of “suits” coming out of the building.  We had noticed a fairly large crowd on the lawn adjacent to the Senate building and discovered the Governor and several others were going to speak to the crowd.  It was essentially a media event explaining the Governor’s change of heart regarding Arizona opting into the Federal Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.  She originally opposed participation by the State and now supports partnering with the Federal Government in this program.  The State Senate and House of Representatives both have Republican majorities and since legislation will be required for State participation, the outcome of Arizona’s role in the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare looks to be uncertain at the moment.  We listened for a few minutes then went on a tour of the museum after lunch in the cafeteria in the office building housing the executive offices.

After our visit, we headed over to Scottsdale for the spring training game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres.  The gates opened at 5:00 pm so we had some time to look around the park and have some overpriced ballpark food for dinner.  We didn’t have great seats (down the right field line), but the people in the adjoining seats were very nice despite my wearing a Phillies hat.  As you might expect, almost everyone there was tricked-out in Giants gear.  Interestingly, the couple next to us, dressed in Giants colors were Giants fans who live near Philadelphia (both PA natives).  Another couple from Mountain View, CA sitting in front of us had a good chuckle about a couple from Philadelphia who are Giants fans sitting next to a couple from California who are Phillies fans.  The game itself was not too exciting (the Giants were losing in the 8^th inning when we left) and the stadium is OK, but nothing like Brighthouse Field in Clearwater.

We are meeting friends from Nevada City tomorrow for another baseball game and dinner afterwards.  This one is between the LA Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.  The game is a day game and the stadium is in Peoria, AZ on the NW side of Phoenix.

Day 8 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 7

We had a nice trip today to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Tempe, about 20 minutes away.

The facility is huge with every kind of cactus and succulent you can imagine. We learned that all cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti - go figure.  The gardens are arranged around several loop trails, each with a particular theme. The main trail is the Desert Discovery Loop Trail.  The other trails: Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Loop Trail, Sonoran Desert Nature Loop Trail, Center for Desert Living Loop Trail, and the Desert Wildflower Loop Trail all branch off of the main trail.  There are also several special exhibits through the gardens focusing on various forms of artistic expression.  Some of the sculptures we saw would take more time and contemplation than we were prepared to give them today.  We believe many of them would not appeal to every artistic taste. There is also a very interesting exhibit of sculptures built with replicas of various kinds of fruits and vegetables representing the four seasons - kind of like Mr. Potato Head with seasonal decorations (check the pictures).

A highlight of the visit was a very interesting butterfly exhibit in an enclosed outdoor setting.  There were lots of different kinds of butterflies flying around and landing on many different kinds of plants and flowers.  They also would land on you and were not easily spooked.  The setting was photographer's dream.  We took a lot of butterfly pictures and viewer discretion is advised.  We asked a volunteer docent where the butterflies came from.  She said some were native and others came from back East. Many of them came from a butterfly farm where they are cooled down in a refrigerator, slowing down their metabolism and compressing their wings.  They are then sent in cool pack containers by overnight Fed Ex to wherever they are going.  Upon arrival, they are thawed out and live for 2-4 weeks.  We are not sure the Butterfly Rights Organizations  would approve of all this, but that's the way of the world for butterflies.  Regardless, it was a beautiful exhibit that has brought a lot of enjoyment to the many visitors who have been there.

We also had a great lunch at the garden's restaurant and later, lemonade at a snack bar near one of the trails.  While relaxing there we saw many quail who were not shy and are apparently used to people leaving scraps on the ground.  We also saw a roadrunner scoot by - too fast to get the camera and take a picture but we think we heard it say "Beep-Beep" as it went by.  Other wildlife sightings included a prairie dog in a tree (a strange sight), a rabbit, and other birds we could not identify.

Tomorrow night, we are going to a spring training baseball game in Scottsdale (Giants v, San Diego).  We will probably visit some other local attractions before the game.  We're not sure what just yet, but will figure it out in the morning.

Day 7 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 6

We slept in this morning and didn't have to move the clocks ahead because we did so when we entered Arizona and crossed into the Mountain Time Zone. Since Arizona doesn't adopt Daylight Saving Time, no additional time changes are required.

We spent most of the day getting set-up and fixing a few little things around the RV.  We also got the VW washed (it was very dirty), had lunch at Carl's Junior, and got a few supplies at Safeway. Judy also did the laundry.  Interestingly, this laundry has a fairly large communal clothesline that appears to be heavily used.  This is the first such thing we have seen on our travels.  I guess the attraction of quick drying in the dry desert air and the ability to save $.25 per dryer load, as well no inhibitions about drying your underwear in public appeals to many of the people staying here.

We also looked around the park to get oriented and met a few of the neighbors.  One lives with his wife in a converted single-wide trailer that is their winter home (November-April).  Their home is in Minnesota and have owned their trailer here for 17 years.  The couple right behind us are from Thunder Bay, Ontario and also just arrived yesterday.  They just spent a month in Tucson and will be staying here for two months. 

There are spaces open in the park and there is no one in the space next to us on one side.  The sites are nice - level gravel to park the RV and a concrete patio and parking space for the VW. So far, we are impressed with the park.  It appears to be well managed and maintained and the management and staff all seem very friendly.  The huge size of the park can be intimidating however.  After doing the laundry, Judy got somewhat disoriented in finding her way back to the RV. (There are no street signs at any of the intersections and it was getting dark..) After asking a couple of people where site B37 might be without results, she called me and a rescue effort was successfully accomplished.

After dinner tonight we are going  to go through all the travel material we have for the area and make plans for our activities while we are here.  Right now, all we have scheduled are 2 baseball games and meeting friends for a 3rd game and dinner afterward.  We have a pretty good list of what we want to do so we should be fairly busy.  So, no firm plans just yet for tomorrow, but we will be doing something interesting (at least to us).

Day 6 Pictures 

Arizona Trip - Day 5

We left San Bernardino about 9:15 am and had an easy drive on I-10 to the Phoenix area  (Mesa) over dry roads and under partly cloudy skies and arrived without incident around 5:00 pm (MST).  There are not a lot of distractions along the route and the traffic was relatively light today, even in the Phoenix metro area.

The park where we are staying is about what we expected.  It is a mega "snowbird" resort with over 500 spaces occupied with permanent park model RV modular homes, seasonal RV spaces, and room for "overnighters" like us. The park has the full range of senior snowbird activities that provide plenty of things to do for people who want to do them.  For example, tomorrow's activities include:

• Jerry Junck Dance with Marshall Flippo - 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm 
• Shuffleboard meeting
• Edmonton (Canada) Potluck
• Pampered Chef Party
• Bocce League Potluck
• Bingo Committee Meeting 

Other upcoming planned activities this week include things like free dental exams, water exercises (the Aquabelles), and a variety of bus trips and tours to baseball games, shows and casinos, etc..There are also lots of things you can do on your own including many arts & crafts, computer access and classes, and a variety of exercise and sports activities.  The promotion of an active senior lifestyle is evident throughout the park and encourages seniors to enjoy their "golden years".

All this is not for everyone as they grow old, but it provides a large comfort zone for a lot of people. We have seen these places are all over Southern Arizona and Florida and we are sure there many others all along the Southern tier.  After all, would you rather spend the  winters during your declining years in Saskatchewan or Arizona?

Our plan for tomorrow is to get settled in, plan our activities for our two weeks here and start relaxing a little.  Who knows, we might even see someone we know at the upcoming North Dakota potluck.

And we promise, the pictures will become more interesting as the time goes on.

Day 5 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 4

Long day today.  When we got up this morning we discovered the storm did turn east into Southern California as predicted and dumped up to 4" of snow on the two passes out of the San Joaquin Valley into the LA Basin and farther East.  Both passes were closed this morning and even when opened were forecast be slick and treacherous with accompanying high winds.  We didn't particularly feel like experiencing winter driving in the RV over icy mountain roads, dodging crazy LA drivers who think chains are something you wear around your neck.  So, we decided to take the coastal route in order to keep moving.

We finally got on the road about 10:00 am after deciding what to do.  It rained all night at Lemoore and was still sprinkling when we left.  We headed SW to Paso Robles on the coast then South and East through Ventura to LA. 

We originally planned to be in Palm Desert tonight, so I called the RV Park to tell them we couldn't make it due to weather and discovered they made a mistake on the reservation and thought we were coming in last night. They were full for tonight anyway so I guess it was best we didn't show-up expecting a reservation that they didn't have and couldn't fill.  We did find an alternate park near San Bernardino however.  This park is about 2 hours west of Palm Desert so we will have a longer trip tomorrow to the Phoenix area, although the drive should be easy, The route is Interstate all the way and mostly open space well within the range of our driving capabilities.

The weather along the route was mostly partly cloudy with little wind and occasional rain showers here-and-there. We stopped for lunch at Pea Soup Anderson's in Buellton, near Santa Barbara. Driving through LA during rush hour on a Friday afternoon is another story.  We were doing pretty good coming into LA from the West.  It was sort of a reverse commute, but after going through the center of town and heading East it slowed to a stop-and-go experience for almost two hours.  As we approached San Bernardino, it was dark and raining again.  We arrived here tired, but glad to be here without incident.  After a quick dinner in the RV, it is early to bed.

Day 4 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 3

We left the Marin RV Park about on schedule at 9:15 am this morning.  The first part of the trip was tedious city driving - over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, through the Oakland/East Bay freeway system and eventually to I-5 and down the San Joaquin Valley.  The traffic actually wasn't too bad, just the usual stop-and-go back-up where I-80 goes over the Bay Bridge and I-580 heads South.

The trip through the Valley was uneventful and almost pretty.  The fruit trees are in bloom which made for a nice visual addition to the generally boring drive on I-5.  The weather was partly cloudy and no wind to speak of.  As we approached Lemoore NAS we started to get a few sprinkles and after we hooked-up, we had a pretty good rain shower.  We made a quick trip the Base Exchange and Commissary for a few supplies, had dinner in the RV, and rested-up for tomorrow.

The forecast tomorrow is not very good. A storm is predicted to move inland over Southern California and maybe bring some snow down to 4,000 ft over the passes.  Our route tomorrow is over the Grapevine (the pass at the end of the Valley into the LA Basin).  Snow in this area can be a real problem due to the volume of traffic, inexperienced winter drivers, and the grade and frequent curves up and down the route.   We'll check the forecast and road conditions in the morning, and act accordingly.  There aren't a lot of alternate route options; they all require going over the mountains to travel East.  Tomorrow is also our longest leg of the trip with 300 miles planned.  It could be a very long day - or maybe a very short day if the weather is bad.

Day 3 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 2

As forecast, a pretty good rainstorm came through the area last night with lots of rain and high winds.  It was virtually clear when we got up this morning however, and remained partly cloudy, but cool (50's) throughout the day.

We had some time before Judy's medical appointments this afternoon so we decided to look around San Rafael for a new hanging lamp for the living room/dining area at home . We found one we both liked at Lamps Plus and ordered it for delivery when we return from the trip.

After lunch at a favorite BBQ restaurant nearby, we headed for UCSF in San Francisco for Judy's monthly blood test and bone strengthener infusion.  All the blood tests were normal and everything looks good.  Judy was also able to confirm her appointments through the end of September which will allow for better scheduling of upcoming Summer activities.

We met Kevin for dinner at another of our favorite restaurants in Sausalito and we returned to the RV and went to bed early.  We are on the road tomorrow, heading for Lemoore Naval Air Station near Fresno on our way to the Phoenix area.  The weather forecast looks pretty good all the way to Phoenix, but we may be dodging scattered showers along the way.

Day 2 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 1

We got underway on schedule at 9:00 am this morning and almost made it out of the driveway without incident.  While going up the driveway I scraped the right rear tire against the edge of the retaining wall.  It punctured the tire causing it to deflate.  It was not really noticeable while driving however since there are two tires on each of the rear wheels.  As we came into Auburn a motorist caught our attention and told us we had a flat tire.  Luckily there was a tire shop right up the road and they were able to quickly replace the tire.  After an hour delay we were on the road again and arrived at the Marin RV Park in Greenbrae about 2:00 pm without further incident.

The weather is cool and overcast and rain is expected tonight.  We were planning to go out to dinner with Kevin tonight, but he is home sick with the flu.  We are still going out to a nearby restaurant then back to the RV before the rain starts.

Judy has two medical appointments in San Francisco tomorrow and we leave on Thursday morning for the Phoenix area.  There will be two stops along the way: Lemoore Naval Air Station near Fresno on Thursday night and Palm Desert on Friday night.

Day 1 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Getting Ready

Well, we are finally ready to get on the road again with the RV.  It has been parked since our trip to the Petaluma KOA with the grand kids last June.  Since things have stabilized somewhat, we are now ready to travel again.

We will be leaving next Tuesday, March 5th for Marin, then after Judy's doctor appointments on Wednesday in San Francisco, we will head for the Phoenix, AZ area (Mesa) where we will stay for two weeks.  After a stop in the LA area on the way back to visit friends, the Getty Museum and the Ronald Reagan Library, we will be back in town on March 28th.

We plan on posting regular updates as we can, so check back now and then to share our latest adventure.