Arizona Revisited

As I uploaded these pictures, one thing came to my mind: I wish I was there. Actually, the weather here has been really nice this week. Spring is definitely here. You can see buds on the trees, flowers are popping up through the soil, weeds are growing in our lawn, and ants are starting to make their way into the house. I'm so glad it's here.

Here are some pictures I took while in Arizona. I told the kids at school that I would take pictures so they could see the landscape, and these are a handful of them:

My Mom and I took a hike at the White Tank mountains near their house. The wildflowers were at their peak the week before I was there, but the hike was still so beautiful. Here is a quintessential picture of a tourist (me) and a saguaro:
The kids specifically asked me to take a picture of a lizard. So here is the token shot:Many plants were still in bloom. This cactus was in front of a house near my Mom and Rich's house:

My Mom and I went over to my Aunt's house one day to go hiking. This is Lost Dutchman, which is really close to my Aunt's house in Mesa. The wildflowers were still in bloom there. You can see all the yellow in this picture:

After we hiked, my Aunt suggested we go to Saguaro Lake for lunch. It was great. After riding through the desert and seeing all the rough and dry terrain, we turned into this spot and saw this:

There is a great restaurant that overlooks the lake. The highlight of lunch was the dessert. My Aunt had heard that they had really good strawberry shortcake, so we ordered one. The waitress told us that it definitely was big enough for three people to share. Yeah, more like three families:

When she set it down on the table, the three of us simultaneously said, "Oh my God." Then, as if on cue, the table next to us said it. Then the table next to theirs, and on and on. People around the restaurant were pointing and talking about us. It was actually a little embarrassing.

Here is one of the the cacti that my Mom and Rich have in their yard:

This is a view from the golf course in their community. It's what I would look at every morning when I took my walk:

Here is the palm tree that is in their backyard. It was unusually windy when I was there, so the palms would sway and flap in the breeze. It made such a loud sound!:

Ah, Arizona. Only a memory now. And what a wonderful one it is.