Driving out of the Palm Springs area of California we cross the state line into Arizona and lose an hour on the pretty much boring drive across the desert.
We join our Banff friends Bob & Pat Allen at their lakeside condo in Chandler which is the southernmost city in the huge conurbation of Phoenix. Its a bittersweet time as Pat is in Ottawa for her brother's wedding. The ought after she gets back, he passes away and we are all rather sad.
Bob hosts us for dinner at home first day and he and Ted embark on trying various reds, especially Zinfandels. Then we find a great local restaurant next day: Flos, Asian Thai fusion. The coconut chicken soup is to die for so we take an order home for next day too.
Ted and I hare happy to poke around the area on our own, returning to the Burrowing Owl reserve where I catch a pair outside guarding burrow nest on film.
Pat has a yen to visit Boyce Thomson Arboretum, a lovely day trip out to this lovely canyon nature preserve. We stop in at the funky little old silver mining town of Superior, now the site of the largest copper reserve ever found in the US. Lunch at Porters is an experience and on the way back we stop in to see Susa and Merv, Pat's old Banff neighbors, and are pressured to stay for BBQ chicken dinner. Not a difficult decision to watch the sun go down.
Before I leave Chandler I use Pat's coupon clipped from the local paper to get a $7.99 haircut. I got my money's worth - hardly any hair left. But OK for camping and the pool. I keep another in case Ted fancies a cheap haircut on our travels too.
No comments:
Post a Comment