dancing to the birthday song

My day started with pink tulips.....



And ended at Arizona Opry Dinner Theater with some shopping (see cute new top) inbetween...

The show was intersting...a collection of music styles from the last century from cowboy songs like Ghost Riders to classic pop songs like The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

The really intersting part was all the insturnments they had....an impressive collection with unique peices like the itty bitty french horn on the right....

and this double neck guitar...

not to mention the huge Swiss Alpine horn.

dancing with ansel adams

dancing in queen valley: through canine eyes

During the 60 minute dirt road drive to the trail head, as we passed through fields of Saguaro Cacti, I decided this would be the perfect day to do the black and white Saguaro photo shoot I had been wanting to do. As we arrived at our destination I realized the desired photoshoot would have to wait as we had driven high enough that there wasn't a Saguaro in sight. I did, however, decide I would shoot some of the hike in b&w. Here's what happened...

dancing in queen valley through human eyes

Friday we went hiking with our friends Jessie, Renalee, and Rese in Queen Valley. We drove 11 miles into the mountains over dirt road before reaching the trail head. The trail winds 6 miles back to an old orchard. We only made it about 4 miles and then had to turn back in order to make it back before dark. This was a different hike from the others I have experienced in Arizona because there were lots of streams as well as trees. The air was cool in the morning when we started out and it reminded me so much of Michigan. I even found a Michigan map located on one of the Prickly Pear Cactus.


Jay and I at the start of the hike when the feet were still fresh. It had 4 layers to start and slowly shed them until I was down to a single layer.

Lots of interesting nature to explore.


I decided it would be a good idea to take pictures of the pretty rocks instead of trying to carry them all. I did carry back a Geode and a piece of sparking Mica that I found.

Jessie and Renalee bought along their four month old Malmute puppy, Shalom. Shalom got tired and hot and wanted to lay down and rest or play in the water rather than hike.

Lily loves hiking but was not interested in playing in the water.


This cactus bulb apparently was lunch for some hungry javalina.

Jay, Jessie and the dogs explore the path ahead of us.

On the way back my feet were so sore I took my shoes and socks off and put them in the brook. It was kind of like ice water therapy because the water was so cold...but they did feel somewhat better afterward.

Our group photo...

Can you find the Michigan map?

Tired but happy hikers.

eating our way through mexico

You've already had a couple of sneak previews of Mexican foods but here is some more....the food was yummy and no one got sick!

Breakfast:
This was a tortilla bake with tomato sauce....a little spicy.


Hotel breakfast bar...cheese melted in tortilla, fresh pineapple, and cactus salad. Below is a garden crop of the cactus that they use for this salad. (tastes a little like okra)


Lunch:
We went to a family owned fish market to buy fish before heading home. When we got there the daughter was outback cooking their lunch-fish tacos and tomato, cucumber and cilantro salad. They invited us to try some....Yum. The fish tacos (which I hadn't had before) were good but I really liked the salsa salad.




After our morning at the beach we visited our translator, Rubin's, cousin's restaurant (with the beautiful "Trust in God" mural you saw in the color post). The Tacos Brissa was a corner building with two back walls and the front walls open to the street. The grill and cash register made up the outside corner of the building. We had meat, potato, and cheese on tortilla with the fresh condiments. Another yummy meal.





Desert:
Afterward we headed to the ice cream store. They one line of freezers full of scoop ice cream and a second with all types of flavors of ice cream bars. Our friend Maria, whom we stayed with two nights, had vanilla with fruit inside.


Jay chose a coconut bar and then inherited the chocolate covered vanilla bar from Pastor Bill. The one in the middle is my Oreo Cookie bar. Mmmmmm!

On our last day we just happened upon a bakery and stopped for sandwich rolls...of course you can't got to the bakery without sampling some of their sweets.