Tuesday, April 11, 2017

After depositing a check, getting a haircut from Ben at his shop in South Pasadena, and having the refrigerator/freezer repairman in to replace our icemaker and a fan bracket as part of our seemingly never-ending effort to quiet our refrigerator/freezer and get it to hold down its temperature, Carla and I left home in our Chrysler a little after 1:30 p.m.

We were using points from our Hilton Grand Vacations Introductory Program to stay a week at the Scottsdale Links Resort, to include the Easter weekend and our desert get together on Saturday with Aunt Norma and her family and posterity.

On the way to Arizona, we listened to an audiobook Joseph had given me: Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles, by Larry Correia. The narration was excellent. We listened to it throughout the week while driving and finished it on our way back to Pasadena. It is a fantasy set in the 1930s—lots of people have magical abilities. We felt the violence overdone, but the premise and plot was interesting.

The drive to Scottsdale was fine; there was more traffic than we had expected until we got past Indio. We never stopped to refuel or eat and just ate what we brought along: apples, dried mangoes, pretzels, and Wheat Thins.

We arrived at the resort at around 7:30. I checked us in and managed to avoid signing up for a 90-minute sales presentation on Diamond Vacations during our stay, despite the offer of a dinner at a local steakhouse and a $500 voucher for a future stay.

Our living quarters were nice; it was a one-bedroom, second-floor flat that included a small living room, the separate bedroom with a walk-in closet and attached to the bathroom, a fully-equipped kitchen, a small dining room, and a balcony that included a patio table and chairs. There were two, good-sized, flat-screen televisions—one in the living room and the other in the bedroom.

I called Aunt Norma to let her know of our arrival, and we relaxed and rested up from our trip.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

We spent the morning shopping at a nearby Safeway market and a Trader Joe’s, and also gassing up the Chrysler at Costco; this Costco also had a drive-through car wash, so we used that to remove the splattered bugs from the outside of the car. We also went to Best Buy, where I bought an HDMI cable to connect my laptop to our television so that we could watch Netflix.

We had a light lunch in our place and then went to the nearby Frank Lloyd Wright house Taliesin West, which is also used as a school for budding designers. We did not take the tour—it was $30 a person and would’ve taken 90 minutes, including some time outside in the sun that Carla was against. So we just visited the bookstore and looked at some sculptures outside the tour area. While I was a law student in Chicago, I had visited the Robie House in Hyde Park, also designed by Wright.

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, we drove into Mesa and visited with Aunt Norma before taking her and cousin Craig and Vicki out to dinner. Craig and Vicki picked the place—Nondo’s—for Mexican fare. I liked it.

After dinner, we all visited awhile at Craig and Vicki’s, and then we took Norma home and enjoyed visiting a bit more with her and her granddaughter’s husband Austin, who lives with his wife in Norma’s basement while he improves his education.

At our place, after successfully hooking my laptop up to the television for Netflix, we watched the first of two episodes of Spies in Warsaw, starring one of the Doctor Whos.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

This morning, we went to Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale; they claim that it is North America’s largest butterfly pavilion. Before you enter the actual pavilion filled with live butterflies, they show you a 3D movie on butterfly migration. In the pavilion, it was fun to see the colorful butterfly varieties and have them land in your hair or, as three at a time did, on Carla’s arm.

 

You can click on these videos:

Butterflies feeding

The Koi pond

We ate lunch in our flat where I finished my leftovers from Nondo’s. I called my friend Rod Tolman who lives in Mesa; and, after some back-and-forth calls, we arranged to have lunch the next day with him and his wife Kathy.

Carla and I drove up to Carefree and visited a local art gallery and the Desert Gardens, where Carla posed on a Gila monster-themed slide. We drove through some residential areas where we saw a lot of big homes built into the desert rocks and hills, and some more conventional neighborhoods of new homes.

 

 

Our modest dinner was at a nearby Scottsdale Wendy’s; I really like Wendy’s chili, and that’s what I had along with a shake. Carla wanted to listen to more of our audiobook, so we did that spending the early evening driving through some residential neighborhoods in Scottsdale. I called Aunt Norma after we returned, and then we finished the last episode of Spies in Warsaw on Netflix.

Friday, April 14, 2017

This morning, Carla and I went to the Musical Instruments Museum in Phoenix and close to Scottsdale. At the museum, we limited our viewing to the Dragons and Vines exhibition, which shows stringed instruments—mostly guitars and banjos—decorated with carefully crafted artwork, often inlaid abalone shell or other materials. It was not crowded when we went in, and a docent gave us a personalized tour. The craftsmanship involved in this work was amazing, and resulting instruments were valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove to Rod and Kathy’s home in Mesa and had lunch with them at the Cracker & Co. Cafe in Mesa. I really like chili; I had that and a half-sandwich. We enjoyed visiting with Rod and Kathy. They have a nice home and more than 20 citrus trees. Kathy kindly invited us to join them with their family for dinner on Easter. But we ended up having our Easter dinner at Craig and Vicki’s with family there.

From the Tolmans’, we drove into Gilbert and did a 2:30 p.m. endowment session at the temple there. It is a lovely building that caused me to think of how the new Paris temple might look if the Paris temple were to have a spire.

We then picked up Norma and had dinner with her at Costa Vida, a place sort of like Chipotle Mexican Grill. To my chagrin, she paid.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Today was our family get together at Usery Mountain Regional Park in Mesa. Some missing family members and conflicting engagements brought attendance down, but we enjoyed the company and the hamburger and hot-dog barbecue. The desert was nice, and the weather was milder than it had been earlier in the week.

 

 

 

Carla and I drove cousin Sandy home and visited briefly with Richard; there were already three of his high school chums there visiting with him during his recovery.

Later that afternoon, we returned to the Costco carwash in Scottsdale and drove through. Unfortunately, the brushes dislodged the Chrysler’s passenger-side rearview-mirror coverplate, sweeping it into the car wash. We did not notice this. Instead, we drove to a nearby Wildflower Bread Company, were I bought a slice of rhubarb pie to take out, and then to El Pollo Loco, where we ordered food to take home. When we want back to the car, Carla noticed the naked mirror; and I figured that the cover had come off in the carwash. We returned to the carwash. There was a line of people waiting to have their cars washed that was longer than the short line we had gone through. Nonetheless, I approached the operator who shut down the wash and walked through, found the cover, and kindly returned it to me. It went back on the mirror easily enough and does not appear to be damaged.

We returned to our place and ate our take-out dinner, and watched Netflix.

Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017

We attended the 9:00 a.m. sacrament meeting at the Palo Verde Ward in Scottsdale. They had a nice choir of mostly women for their Easter sacrament service. The daughter and wife of the conducting bishop’s counselor spoke; their talks were fine. We stayed for the block and then spent the afternoon kicking back at our pad until it was time to leave for dinner at Craig and Vicki’s with Aunt Norma and other family members and friends.

We enjoyed meeting Vicki’s mother. Craig’s son Jason was there with his family. We also met Kurt and Megan; Kurt is the son of one of Craig’s former coworkers when they were firemen, and Megan’s father was a founder of Whole Foods.

We had a delicious dinner of barbecued meats catered from Little Miss BBQ—their beef brisket was fantastic—along with sides and desserts prepared by Vicki and other family members.

Monday, April 17, 2017

During the morning, we watched on television through my laptop’s connection the winners of the Boston Marathon as they crossed the finish line. We were particularly interested this year because Amy Keawekane was running. We didn’t see her on television, but Ginger posted some pictures on Instagram of Amy at about the 18-and-a-half-mile mark, and of Sophie working at the marathon providing drinks for the runners.

Later that morning we met Craig and Vicki, and they drove us to Prescott were we met up with our cousin Warren Smith and his wife Joy. Joy works as a CPA. Warren is a plumber by trade. We really enjoyed getting together with them. Warren showed us the home he is building with Joy atop a hill/mountain. He hopes they can move in in about a month. They will have a great view from their house, and he is doing nice work on the house itself. We all had lunch at Prescott Junction; I had the Cajun Pasta with the Andouille sausage—very good.

After returning from Prescott, Carla and I rested up at our place and then drove to Mesa and picked up Aunt Norma. We then picked up Craig and Vicki and all had a light dinner at a Kneaders in Mesa. While there, Norma related that the home on Horne that she and Uncle Bill had lived in years ago was built on weekends by members of the church in California, including Dad and Orson Curtis. She also talked some about their experience with Bill’s polio that hit him while he was working with Dad here. After eating, we drove everyone home and bid a fond farewell until we can visit again.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

We checked out of the Scottsdale Links Resort about 9:30 a.m. and drove home, stopping to fuel the Chrysler at the cheaper Arizona gas prices at the Flying J in Ehrenberg just before crossing the border into California. Sandy called while we were on the road and said she appreciated our visit. And we finished up our audiobook. During our trip, the weather had been a little warmer than in Pasadena, and was clear for the whole time. Joseph had stayed at our place while we were gone, and so we found everything fine when we got home. We enjoyed our Arizona Easter vacation.