Arizona in the Winter 2020

A cold Tuesday morning in January we drove to Parking Lot East, using the prepay discount. We had a breakfast of avocado toast before boarding our 10 AM flight. We landed right on time in the rain. Our friends were there to pick us up. We drove by the Arizona Cardinals baseball stadium and took photos. Then we stopped in for lunch at the Kettle Black Kitchen. I had cod sliders and tortilla soup plus a beer that was on tap, Marble Double White. Carol had fish n chips and the same beer. On the way to SMR, we stopped at Fry’s a local grocery to pick up what we needed for the week. We did really well on making this a low cost vacation. 

Traffic was a little crazy but we got to SMR and met our dog sitting charges, LE and Frankie,

two little white dogs with sheep like fur. We were told they were Maltese mixes but looked like

little poodle-bichon mixes. We took them for a walk and then Carolyn served up our dinner

which was stew. 

Wednesday, we had to get up and get the dogs fed and walked so we could make it to an

iPhone photo class. The instructor was someone who has worked as a professional

photographer and the class was excellent. After that, we ate lunch and then went to the

Riparian Center where we saw lots of birds. We saw an Albert’s towhee, a black Phoebe,

a black-chinned Hummer and lots of ducks. We also saw Sonoran mud turtles and many

Desert cottontails. There were snowy Egrets and Great Egrets.

Thursday, we left for Canyon Lake at 11 AM so we had a leisurely morning. We had lunch at

Tortilla Flats and then boarded the Dolly, a tour boat around Canyon Lake. Carol and I both

had the chicken street tacos and I had a prickly pear lemonade. We saw longhorn sheep and a

bald eagle. 

There was a lot going on in the world while we were gone. The impeachment inquiry and all

I can say is that the tweets alone were enough for me, let alone the rest of the crimes. 

Sunday, we left at 10:30 and drove to the Horny Toad to meet our friend's mom and step dad.

We each had a ½ chicken and I had a Horny Toad golden ale. Before lunch, we walked around

a Native American art Fair and met an amazing artist, an Ojibway from Michigan. He has done  many paintings of accomplished Native American women. It was quite inspiring. There was more amazing stuff there including some cool copper

In the middle of lunch, breaking news came on and we found that Kobe Bryant was killed in a

helicopter crash. The whole restaurant gasped. That evening, we watched the Grammy's.

Tuesday at 10 AM, we headed for Tonto National Forest. We stopped at the Salt River basin

and then finally got out into the desert. It was beautiful and at times, just us. We saw wild

horses and horseback riders. It was a great day. We had dinner at the most amazing place

called Organ Stop Pizza. This amazingly elaborate organ is the centerpiece and there is an

organ

player taking requests and playing while you eat your pizza. So unique. 

The last few days of our stay, we started hearing about this virus that seemed to have started in

China. The first case in the Phoenix area was reported. It was a student.