AZ 2019 Chapter 2

I keep thinking I prefer Sedona to Scottsdale but it’s probably not true and they are impossible to compare. Greater Phoenix is huge and we do a lot of driving when we are in North Scottsdale where the two timeshare properties are that we have access to. Better for me would be central Scottsdale or Arcadia but hey, here we are again and it’s not exactly a hardship posting.

April in Phoenix is spectacularly in bloom. The palo verde trees define April for me and they are in full yellow glory which will fade to nondescript soon while the magenta bougainvillea (with Jim hiding in one) and red ocotillo are the counterpoint.

an ocotillo framing the view from Gateway Loop

a small-ish palo verde

 We’ve been keeping up our walking exercise, sometimes outside and if it is really hot, inside. We are only about 5 minutes from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and took advantage of the proximity yesterday with a moderate trail, the Saguaro and Gateway Loops, about 6.5 miles all told. 

the Arizona Canal

Today took us down to a section of the Arizona Canal which has paths on both sides and runs for miles. The reward was a nutella/banana crepe at Top Marks Cafe, a hole-in-the-wall, in Old Scottsdale. On one of our first visits to PHX we were near the Arizona Biltmore and travelled the canal path regularly. On another trip we backed onto a huge greenbelt, about 20 miles of municipal park, golf courses, lakes, tennis courts etc. I may be making this up but I think this might be the only city to have the 4 major professional sports teams: hockey, basketball, football, and baseball. And golf of course, maybe 250 courses to choose from and the Phoenix Open tournament.

 

Lego art at Arizona Mills

What we always notice is that the streets are wide and clean, the landscaping is spectacular everywhere, and the public amenities, parks, art, recreation, and athletic facilities are endless. Not to mention museums, art galleries, and theatre. Tonight we are going to the Phoenix Theater to see “Sisters In Law” a play about Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, both Supreme Court Judges, one Republican and one Democrat. How can that not be a fascinating story?

Tomorrow we are off to Chandler in search of a Merrell outlet store and maybe a new pair of trail shoes for me and then we are overdue for a sundowner on the patio at The Phoenician. Friday is supposed to be up to 98F so it will be a perfect day to go back the Musical Instruments Museum which, if you are ever in Greater Phoenix, you have to explore. You don’t have to be a musician, neither of us are, to appreciate MIM!

Sedona AZ and repeat

Sedona 2019

We have been in one of our happy places this week, Sedona, AZ where we’ve been coming since 1999 for hiking, relaxing, and beauty. The first time, Jim had contacted our time-share group and asked for “anywhere in the southwest” When they came back with Sedona, I asked some friends who said wow, so we accepted the location. And we’ve been saying wow ever since. You come off I17 from Phoenix and a couple of kms in on 179 you come around the bend and there is Courthouse Butte and it’s wow all over again.

This trip the weather has been whacky, in the 80s for 3 days and then barely making it to mid-50s with even a couple of snow showers on Wednesday, but we are good at layers so no matter. I brought my 4 yr old runners (I’ve got new ones) because I need new trail shoes and intend to ditch these. The soles are still pretty good except on slip rock but I’ve taken in a good bit of sand through the holes! I found a pair of Scarpa hybrids that I really like but I like the CDN price on Amazon.ca better than the USD cost here. So the runners are probably going home again.

We’ve had some great hikes on old and new trails, always with the beautiful red rock scenery around us. Day 2 saw us park on Back O Beyond to access Cathedral Rock but rather than go up the chimneys we took the Templeton trail thinking we could loop back to the parking lot via Baldwin. BUT, the old access through Crescent Moon is closed which meant trekking back up to Templeton (lots of stairs). I flagged down a couple in the parking lot to ask if they knew of an alternative and they offered to drive us back to our car. Magic! Thank you Eric and Sharon who happen to also be staying at The Ridge.

Thursday we took a 12 hour tour to Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River, south of Page and Antelope Canyon, east of Page. It’s easy to do on your own but it’s almost 6 hours of driving which makes for a long day. The roads are pretty rough and the 14 passenger bus was rattling and banging quite a bit. When I managed to separate the noise from the ride comfort I realized it was like a fairly gentle massage rather than a pounding. The tour group Great West has abandoned the lower and upper entrances to Antelope Canyon because they have gotten way too busy so we went in at Canyon X. This access point is operated by a Navajo family and we got elderly Robert as our guide. He whips up and down the 30% grade as though he were a teenager while the rest of us huffed and puffed; hard on the knees going down and the heart coming up and it was so worth the climb!

 Friday, we took our Great West guide’s advice and went to West Fork about half way up Oak Creek Canyon and took the trail along the west fork of Oak Creek, about 4 miles round trip. We made this a stroll because of the altitude; 6000 feet isn't very high unless you were born, bred, and live at sea level in which case you notice the thinner air. It isn’t a strenuous trail but there are some fun creek crossings, 11 in all, teetering on logs or jumping rocks. We have been super happy with our trekking poles, about $20.00 at Capitol Iron a few years ago. We settled on them because they come fully apart and fit into even my small suitcase and they seem sturdy enough to support us on tricky terrain. Having a stick makes a world of difference on stairs, steep slopes, and other oddities by providing an extra point of balance. I can hear Mike FitzGerald trying to teach me to ski years ago, “plant your pole” and it works!

  

Tomorrow we head to Scottsdale for a week for completely different experiences. We are both happy to be back in AZ.

Let's talk about Santa Claus

First time visitors to our house during the Christmas season are usually interested in our decorations but it sometimes takes a while before they realize the extent of the Santa Claus figures theme. We’ve pared back considerably in the last 10 years, from about 250, with Mark and Paul being the recipient of many of the SC figures whether they wanted them or not. In fact, to circumvent Paul’s resistance, Jim gave the Santas to Rachel and Jillian rather than the parents. It’s fun for us to visit the two houses and see some old favourites on display. Even so, the only ornaments on our tree are Clauses and most of our other seasonal decorations are too.

So how did this Santa Claus thing come about? It’s a short/long story and for interest’s sake I am going to say it started in 1988. It might have been 1987, maybe even ’86, but ’88 makes it an even 30 years ago and justifies this post. Nan FitzGerald may remember the year since she started it all; the PEI Home Economics teachers were having a Christmas house tour fund-raiser event in whatever year it was and Nancy was organizing it or maybe president of the association, or both. In idle staff room chat about the event Nancy said they needed a “modest” house for the tour, to counterbalance Government House.

 

Our 1700sf house certainly fit the modest requirement but it was in an interesting waterfront location with an unusual-for-the-day wide open layout. Without any thought, or consulting Jim, I offered it and Nan said yes. We didn’t have a lot of notice or a clue what we were doing but dived in anyway.

We ordered up a 12 foot tree, not that easy to come by, and then I said, “we should have a theme”. We had picked up a couple of Santa Claus figures in our year in South Carolina, so decided that rustic/cottage/SC would be our thing. We were relatively broke but also relatively creative so we made a set of 4 Father Christmas’s out of scrap plywood and lucked into a package of biggish flat wooden ornaments at the old Eaton’s store on Kent Street. Two days before the event I decided we had to have something at the front door, so a purpose-bought piece of plywood turned into a 6’ Father Christmas in a big hurry, such a hurry that a week later we had to sand him down and re-varnish because he had begun to peel.

The house was a front split with a 4 foot drop to the living room from the entry, hence the 12 foot tree located at the bottom of the stairs with 

the upper half decorated from the upper hall. I don’t know if the house tour was a success but several hundred people trekked though our place, such that while we were having our wind-down beverage later, the tree crashed. Who knew that all that jarring as people came down the stairs would destabilize the balance of the not-tied-to-anything tree? We were SOOOO lucky it didn’t happen as ticket holders wandered about!

Naturally we carried on with the Santa theme over the years; we made more than a few for gifts and were given others in return. Santas also became something we looked for as we travelled. Storage of Christmas decorations was an issue as we shopped for houses and decorating became a party event with teams of friend and family assigned to different vignettes in the house and, of course, a competition where a team spokesperson had to sell their effort. In 1990, the first Christmas in our 2^nd house in Victoria, we brought a 9.5 foot tree home from Florida 2 days before the decorating party. The Customs Officer in Vancouver said “you’ve got a what, from where”?

Over the years we've hosted 2 more Christmas house tour fund-raisers and a lot more parties. There are so many stories to tell....!

a tree topper from Shoppers
 in Charlottetown, about 1987

salt-glazed pottery from Maine

Thailand!

front page pic of Jim advertising one of the house tours in Victoria

gift from Linda Bodine

ditzy SC from sister Bets

arts cards from Whitehorse

toy maker from Anne Snowden

a postman to honour Jim's
father and brother
and my grandfather

hand crafted trapper

Ho Ho Ho 2018

St Paul's

the unknown dome

January 4^th, 11 degrees outside and sunny in what, so far, has been a mild winter. At almost latitude 49 the days are short and, with our winter cloud/rain, some days are short and dark like yesterday when it seemed like night by 4:00pm. Instead of long evenings on the balcony or patio, we relish Christmas lights and events and celebrate December 21 when the earth seems to stand still and then move back toward the sun. Our 2018 Christmas “season” started in November with a 3 day jaunt to Vancouver. We had gorgeous weather and the city was well into decorations. I loved the Scandi theme decor at Nordstrom's and St. Paul's Hospital had a huge fund-raising display of stars (that little silhouette against the red is Jim). We weren't sure what the dome was for but it had a red carpet down the middle as though something was going to happen inside.

Then we did a quick flip (2^nd one in 6 weeks) back to the Maritimes for Paul’s 50^th birthday and took in the Father Christmas Festival in Mahone Bay as well as the annual Christmas party to light the Stars of Russell at Chez Griffith. 

birthday boy

 And on the home front there is always so much to do and see! We managed to get to the Santa Claus parade, Butchart Gardens, the tuba Christmas concert, the tree festival, the gingerbread competition, some theatre, went to a few parties, hosted 2 parties for groups we are associated with, and had 20 for Christmas dinner.

Where's Waldo?

Butchart Gardens

Tuba concert with 113 musicians

At almost the last minute I did a couple of shifts for the Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign, a very minor contribution to a worthy cause. Maybe it is different in other places but they were having trouble getting volunteers this year and donations were down. I did the early afternoon shift on December 21, prime time for the campaign, and there was no one on duty before or after me. That means the kettle is idle and no money. Christmas is a hot time for charities, especially food banks, Christmas hampers, refugees, homeless shelters and children’s programs; every one of them supporting vulnerable people. It can result in donor fatigue and with high expectations for a “Merry Christmas” everyone is stretched for cash. Yes, being on The Kettle can be boring and after a couple of hours of bell-ringing I was sore, but the SA is always on the front line in the worst places, no questions asked so it felt good to be there.

Me dressed for the +10 degrees I had to endure on the Kettle!

Regina 2 - the Ledge and Wascana

Well, scratching the surface of those topics.
Wascana is a not very old, large lake and park that also houses the provincial legislature, the museum, the art gallery, etc. "The Big Dig" took place in 2003-4 to dredge the lake down to deep from the hand dug version, employing 2000 men in a make-work project in the 1930s depression/desperation years, that created the lake from a creek. Another bunch of money got thrown at the infrastructure in 2014 when Regina hosted the Canada summer games. Regina is the only provincial capital not built on a water way, rather a railway intersection, but Wascana fills the gap nicely.

yes, it's a pelican!

The Albert Memorial Bridge that spans Wascana Creek was another depression era relief project. King Tut's tomb had recently been discovered and all things Egyptian were in style, explaining the bridge design. The bridge is about 250 meters long to span the 20 meter creek and cost more than double the budget estimate. Hmmmm. Sounds familiar.

Kelly was our guide in the Legislature as visitors are not let loose on their own anymore. It is a gorgeous building with 34 types of marble and the chamber built for twice as many legislators as there are. Premier of the day Walter Scott, seriously, imagined the Regina and Saskatchewan of the future as grand and important and built accordingly.

marble from Cyprus

 

In the basement of the Ledge, there is an art gallery and the current exhibit blew me away. Wow, wow, wow. It is a large body of work with both large and small pieces, some are hands but the majority are Roughrider fans. But the skill.....!

self portrait, Belinda Kriek

And then there was the cafeteria, serving perogies that day. You would die if you ate this whole plate, we shared.

Regina 1

I don't care what the numbers say, Regina is bigger than Saskatoon.The Toon population must include every blade of grass and certainly they have counted the 30,000 U Sask students across the river. Regina feels like a city with the gravitas of the provincial capital and the business hub.
We've been here a week and have been exploring as usual.
Our first stop was the RCMP Heritage Centre adjacent to Depot Division, the training centre for every member of the RCMP. The date was Thursday, September 6, 2018 and at 3:00 on the parade ground we witnessed the installation of the first female commissioner, Brenda Lucki. Lucky were we to be there and we just kind of wandered over to a good spot, surrounded by red serge and invited guests!

bad cropping but you get the gist

We also may have solved the mystery of how Betsy's and my great uncle Jack got from the North West Mounted Police, to the Bloemfontein Constabulary in South Africa, to eventually be killed in WWI. I've always described him as a "rolling stone" but these story boards say, maybe not. It seems the NWMP were in demand as a well trained and disciplined force as are the RCMP now. 

Downtown Regina has a large public gathering space just off Victoria Park, City Square Plaza, with a couple of blocks of pedestrian only traffic radiating from it. It's going to have to be warmer than today's 6 degrees to get me to the farmers' market there tomorrow! Oh yeah, I brought long johns and a down vest!
All over the province we've been seeing laser cut metal art pieces for signs and decorative purposes.

at the RCMP Heritage Centre

a 3 layer one in City Square Plaza, Regina

a more traditional style, a HUGE grasshopper in Ogema