The Sun keeps shining - AZ

Wednesday -  Today we hiked at Catalina State Park, which is about 10 miles from where we live. This park has numerous hiking trails and a campground.  We picked up Deb and Krista and went to the park.  After paying the day use fee and parking, we started at the trailhead and hiked the Canyon Loop Trail, with a short walk also to the Montrose Pools.  About 2.8 miles total.  It was a beautiful day, Gary had the camera and took a lot of pictures for us.  Afterward, we were all thirsty and hungry, so we stopped at the San Carlos Grill, conveniently located in the shopping area directly across the highway from the park entrance.  Margaritas and lunch were enjoyed before we headed home for naps and showers.  Then we all met at the Saddlebrooke Clubhouse for a wine tasting event.  It was a great time trying the wines and visiting.

Krista, Deb and myself - Hiking friends

Catalina State Park landscape

Yes, there is water in the desert

Thursday - we stayed home all day, catching up on laundry and Gary worked on our income taxes.  I sorted through all my clothes and put together another bag of things to donate to the thrift store. We sat outside on the patio in the afternoon and enjoyed the sun and mountain view.

(Gary here: The weather has been simply fantastic!  Pretty much sunny every day and temps mostly hi-60's, lo-70's......now I sometimes feel guilty for enjoying this so much when our friends in South Dakota are slogging thru a very cold winter.......so I won't say anything more about it, but you are welcome to visit us in Sunny Tucson, AZ anytime this winter!!!! OK, I will have a margarita and not feel SO guilty!!!!  Cheers!)


Friday -  Gary, Dan and Joe golfed today, so I went and had a massage to relieve my very tight back muscles.  Then I returned some items from catalog orders and did some shopping.  I picked up groceries on the way home and went to Deb's house.  We had a great visit before the boys came home from golf.  We stayed for supper, Joe grilled burgers for us and Jeff & Lisa came over for the evening.

Saturday -  we went in to Best Buy and I upgraded my phone.  (We now both have smartphones!! welcome to the new age!!) Then we explored World Market and picked up groceries.  We were cooking supper tonight for the friend group, Gary made a big batch of Peppers and Shells.  We dropped the groceries off at Joe & Deb's, went for a walk with Deb, then went home.  I made the dessert for supper, Death by Chocolate. Yum! We went to Mass at 4:00, then back to Deb & Joe's to prepare supper for the group.  The chef got started browning the Italian sausage and cutting up the peppers.  I helped prepare the vegetables and made sure the garlic bread was ready on time. Connie brought delicious guacamole and salsa for munchies until things were ready.  Peppers & Shells and Death by Chocolate - everyone loved it.

Sunday -  today we went to Nogales, Mexico with Dan & Connie.   They have wanted to get some decorative clay pots for their outside patios, so we drove down in the morning to see what we could find.  We parked in a public lot on the US side in Nogales and walked across the border.  We walked through a number of shops, some are open air stores in alleys, others are in store buildings. There were hardly any other shoppers that morning.  Of course that meant the shop owners were all over us, begging us to buy from them.  Gary and I were looking for a roadrunner for our patio, we saw several but they were not the right size for transporting when we travel. Connie found a shop that had pots that she liked.
We had not been across the border shopping since 2003.  It was interesting to see that many of the shops were closed up, but many of them were now pharmacy stores and dental offices.  We looked in a few more shops, then stopped for lunch.  Afterward, we went to the shop Connie liked and she bought three pots for their home.  We carried the pots back toward the border, then stopped at one of the first shops to look at the roadrunners again.  Gary and I ended up buying, we found a roadrunner we liked and the shop owner painted it while we waited.  Dan & Connie found some metal cactus plants to buy while they were waiting for us.  Connie did very well bargaining with the shop owners.  We carried everything back across the border and loaded it in the car. After getting back to Tucson, Connie directed us to the Old Pueblo Grill, a former hacienda that was turned into a restaurant.  It had outside courtyards for dining, we enjoyed sitting outside for our delicious meal there.  A great day, when we got back to their home, we watched the second half of the playoff game.  The 49'rs lost, unfortunately.
Gary comments: This was a fun and easy trip to make, the border crossing was super simple (need passports, of course to re-enter the USA), and it was not crowded.  We stopped for a light lunch and refreshments.  Highly recommended!)

Our little roadrunner

Monday - we went hiking again today.  Gary decided we would go back to Catalina State Park and hike the longer trail to the Romero Pools.  I should have looked at the website before we left - I would have taken more water along and probably would have protested more.  This trail starts where we had gone the week before, but then goes up and around the sides of many of the Catalina Mountains there.  Very rocky, I certainly got my workout today!  Every time we hiked around one of the hills, we thought we would be there, but no.  At that point, Gary asked someone hiking down how much farther we had to go before the pools and they told us 25 more minutes, but it was worth it.  Wow - that is not what I wanted to hear!  But we kept going and we made it. Once there, we found the pools and the small waterfall.  I took off my shoes and socks and took advantage of the cold water on my feet.  This was Martin Luther King Day, so school was out, there were a lot of students hiking that day.  They, of course, passed us going up and many of them hiked back before we did.  All total we hiked about 5.8 miles that day.

One of many narrow spots on the trail

The trail below us

Saguaro soldiers on the mountains

Hiking leader (boot camp Sarge!)

The high school group is below by the Romero pools

Fantastic views

Watching our steps going down this trail

Tuesday - we were home today.   Cleaned house and laundry.  I had a dentist appointment for my six month cleaning (the one I missed in Sioux Falls in December). A nice place in Saddlebrooke, Dan had recommended it to us.  After my appointment, I stopped by Dan's then went to watch the end of Joe's softball game.  A grocery run and then home.