Non-Stop Party

 What a great week in San Diego. We had plans every night and it was wonderful to spend time with old friends! Heather met Sandy Francour in 1967 while they were both serving in the Peace Corps near each other in the Philippines. She met David Wood in 1969 in Boston and together with Harvey Smith, founded the "Ski House". Brian Armstrong left Ireland to work in General Electric in NY, along with several other Irish recruits, including Declan Murphy who worked for GE in Boston. That's how he became an early member of the "Ski House" tribe. Pat Armstrong was a great friend of Pam Pinsky and that's how we all got to know her - all back in the 1970s. 

David was the first one to move to San Diego, followed by Gail and Harvey Smith, Pat and Brian, and Sandra.  Actually all of them, except Brian and Pat, really live in Chula Vista, just south of San Diego. This is the furthest west we will go on this trip. Our original plans were to continue up to Palo Alto to see our daughter Zoe and her family, but we have had to cancel that visit due to concerns over the COVID virus. 

Our first night Tuesday we had wine and cheese at David's with him and Sandra, followed by dinner at the Galley at the Marina Restaurant. Great meal with such huge portions that Scott and I had enough takeaway to have lunch the next day. On Wednesday we went to Brian and Pat's for a one-night stay that turned into two nights - we were just having too much fun.  We hiked both days and ate some wonderful meals. Scott and I each had our first professional haircut in over a year! Pat actually arranged for her hairdresser to come to the house to cut my hair.

On Friday we hosted a dinner party up at our campsite for everyone. We stayed at the Sweetwater Summit Campground for 5 nights. What a beautiful place - lovely views, a lake, and very attractive campsites. It was a magical night - fun company, good food, and a campfire! Oh and more than a few libations. On Saturday Heather and Sandra went out for lunch right on the beach at Imperial Beach. We reminisced about our time together both in the Philippines and then later when she moved to Boston and lived there for many years. That night David hosted the Armstrongs and ourselves for dinner at the Osteria Romantica in La Jolla. What a lovely place with terrific food and of course, great company.

Heather and Sandra at the Galley Restaurant on
Tuesday night. This was taken at the end of our
dinner outside and as you can see, it turned colder.

Pat, Heather and Brian on our first day's hike

What a lovely trail and not far from their home. The daytime temperatures went up to the lower 70s

Pat and Scott

The lake

The Armstrongs had a feeder they meant for 
orioles but instead, it was taken over by 
hummingbirds!

During the day Scott did a number
of projects, including putting 
together a solar panel.

Brian, Pat, Sandra, David and Scott at our campsite

Enjoying dinner together.

David

Sitting around the campfire

Heather joins in on the photos

Dinner at Osteria Romantica

Sandra at our Saturday lunch

Painted Rock Petroglyphs Site and Dateland

Our next stop was the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site Campground, a collection of hundreds of ancient petroglyphs made by the Hohokum people who lived here from AD 350 to 1400. This is the largest of over 40 sites scattered around this area. Juan Batista de Anza's Second Expedition passed through here along with the Mormon Battalion and the Butterfield Overland Mail. General Patton's headquarter for tank training was here too. The area is mostly flat and sandy with distant hills. There are a lot of campsites, about 1/3 filled. We settled into one with hardly any neighbors. The sunset was beautiful and the night cold. 

The light is so beautiful just before sunset and in this picture, just after sunrise. This is the view
from our trailer of the Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground. You can see how well-spaced the
campsites were.

Our next stop was Dateland, AZ. Reading reviews of various campgrounds has really helped us. They steered us to this great place, the Oasis Campground at Aztec Hills, and we spent two nights there. The facilities were spotless with lots of extras like a fully stocked library of books and DVDs in the common recreation room. They even offered to take the cover off the pool - but the daytime high of 68 deterred us! We did laundry, toured the local highlight, the Dateland Travel Center (gas station, souvenir shop, convenience store, and the Date Shakes Cafe). You could buy dates in any size from 50 lbs to 1 lb and at least 6 different varieties. 

And this is our campsite at The Oasis RV in Dateland set up for dinner our first night there. Again,
it was relatively private with our own terrace and table. 

On our full day, we did laundry and projects around the trailer. In the afternoon we hiked up to the top of a pass between two of the Aztec Hills and then followed occasional trails with a fair amount of just following the compass to circle the range of hills and return to the campground. It was a clear cool day: perfect for hiking. The next morning we left early for the long drive to Chula Vista.

The pile of petroglyph covered rocks

A close up of the rocks

Sunset from our trailer at Painted Rock

The start of our hike across the desert to the pass
through the Aztec hills

The view down from the trail towards the RV Park

A close up of The Oasis RV Park from high up
on the hill

That's Scott climbing in front of me - you can
see if was fairly steep here.

And now looking down from our trail, that's the Oasis in the right corner

The date forest, planted in the 1930's

And the Date Shake Cafe. Unfortunately, the ice
cream machine had broken so we didn't get to 
try the homemade date ice cream. The date shake
was good, however.

There was still snow at the top of the pass into
California. We stopped at the Golden Acorn
Casino to get gas. It was $.70 a gallon cheaper there but
we almost didn't make it. We had thought we had
lots of gas left but it disappeared fast on the long,
long uphill. We're only averaging about 9 miles
to the gallon towing the trailer, but even less on
the uphills.

More Time with Friends in Arizona

 Not surprisingly considering how many retired folks there are in Arizona, we have a number of friends who now spend some or all of the year there. Marsha Stone and Rick Green live in Prescott when they aren't on their boat. And our neighbors in Shrewsbury Dick and Donna Swartz spend the winters in Marana, just southwest of Tucson. Bob and Lesa DeFeyter used to divide their time between North Conway, NH, and Green Valley but recently sold the former. After this year living full-time here, they are looking for a second home to avoid the too hot summers. 

Dick, Scott, and Donna enjoy Cocktail Hour on the back porch

We spent a few days first with Dick and Donna. Their home is a little compound with a guest house and several useful outbuildings.  I particularly loved that they have two porches, front, and back.  I enjoyed sitting with them in the mornings in the early sunshine in front with our coffee and we all settled in the back for cocktails and the sunset. Donna designed a wonderful full day of sightseeing. They drove us first to Saguaro National Park where we saw our second crested saguaro (very rare) and found the beautiful Visitor's Center closed but worth seeing for itself. Then we drove over the Gates Pass, a twisty narrow road but really gorgeous. There is a big parking area at the crest with a number of trails leading off on both sides. We didn't have time then for more than a short but very steep hike up to take some photos. I'd love to come back sometime for a longer hike. The Pass was begun by Thomas Gates in 1883 in search of a shortcut through the Tucson Mountains. It was considered highly dangerous with 58 wrecks between 1996 and 2001, but has since been improved. 

Lesa, Bob, and Scott dig into the Margaritas and Guacamole at Tumacacori

Next, we visited San Xavior Mission (covered in another blog entry) followed by a lunch outside at the Karichimaka Mexican Restaurant. On the drive back we went through another pass - Rattlesnake Pass! They are common around this area and Dick showed us the skin of one he shot in the backyard (only because it was hissing at some guests). That evening Donna made a wonderful steak dinner. It was hard for us to leave the next day! We'll be back there for sure.

But we had made plans with old friends Bob & Lesa. Bob reserved a campsite at Madera Canyon State Park, just south of Green Valley. What a beautiful place! We went out that evening for more Mexican food, this time inside, imagine! All four of us have had our shots and feel more comfortable now. Arizona allows inside dining now, although at a little less than full capacity. The next morning Bob joined us for a great hike near our campsite. He is a volunteer at the Park and very knowledgeable. 

That afternoon all four of us drove down to Tubac. The Tubac Presidio State Historic Park. Juan Batista de Anza was its most famous resident. What a guy he was! He set forth from here in 1774 with 3 padres, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses. They made it all the way to San Francisco. On his second expedition in 1775, he led a much larger group, including many colonists. He is considered one of the founding fathers of Spanish California and was Governor of the Province of New Mexico. The small church of St. Ann was very charming and sits on top of the ruins of the first church built there in 1767. It is fairly modern, built-in 1929. The rest of the small town is a mixture of residences and tons of shops. It's considered an artists colony and there are many galleries, gift shops, and lots of jewelry. I'm not much of a shopper but ended up making several purchases. 

We moved on next down to the Mission Church at Tumacacori, but that is covered in a separate post. Bob expressed his concern about our spending another night up at Madera Canyon as the weather report indicated possible snow or rain. But we intrepid travelers were too lazy to relocate.  Well, we woke up to several inches of snow and more falling! It was very beautiful but a little frightening to contemplate the trip down the winding steep road. But we had places to go and reservations to keep - so after cleaning off our truck, we made our way very slowly down without problems. Our next stop - Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Campground.

The visitor's center at Saguaro National Park was
very modern and quite beautiful.

We never seem to get tired of Saguaros!

That's Heather scrambling up the steep
slope at Gates Pass

The view down from the Pass

And of the trails on the far side

And down to the parking area

Dick and Donna, our neighbors and friends in
Shrewsbury, Vermont

Sunset from their back porch

Donna's beautifully set table for dinner

Our campsite at Madera Canyon State Park on
our first day there.

The famous crested Saguaro

Bob & Scott on the trail at Madera Canyon. There
were a series of bridges as we climbed up into the 
canyon crisscrossing the sometimes present
stream.

Looking up into the hills

The elegant trogon loves these berries and bird
watchers come here to see them.

The trail was paved in the very beginning to allow people in wheelchairs access to the views. 

The trail started at the bottom of the canyon and
most of our views were of the lower hills. I 
didn't get any of the higher peaks, the highest
of which is over 9,000 feet!

Bob and Lesa have a lovely home in Green
Valley. This is a view of their backyard
from the covered porch. You can see the
mountains in the distance.

The charming interior of St. Ann's Church in 
Tubac

The many shops and galleries were often
tucked into older buildings.

Lesa and Bob DeFeyter

The view from our campsite the last morning.

Just after I took these photos it started to snow
again.

At the bottom of the canyon road, we took this photo of the Santa Catalina Mountains that are
just north of Tucson, covered in snow.