An American man said to us early on in our time here.

 “Every day is a good day and the ones that aren’t are great”

Well today was a great day and we still have more to do! 

We got up early and went to the desert botanical garden as it opened at 7am. The light and the shadows were so much better for taking photos and we took hundreds…. I was inspired by Vinces  black and white ones last Sunday. 

     After 3 hours it began to really hot up. We headed out of Phoenix enjoying our cars air conditioning . We followed the Apache Trail.

First it led us to the lost Dutchmans gold field. The Dutchman found loads of gold in the Superstition mountains but kept the location secret to his death. No one has managed to find it yet. We had a lovely lunch ( got the terminology right Oxford) in a cool wooden restaurant. 

 We went to a ghost town where you can go down the mines, but it was 106 degrees by then and I was melting so we just wandered around the town keeping in the shade.  

   Next the road took us up into the mountains up to the lakes. The colours were amazing, lime greens and whites. We saw 6 condors swooping over our heads as we ate an ice cream. The lake was deep blue. There were many huge cacti everywhere on the hillsides. 

   Now we are back in our hotel for a rest before we go back to the botanical gardens to see the “desert at night time”. More later.

Again the plants looked so different in the twilight and we got some good sunset pictures.

   
 Lilyana we saw tarantulas and snakes, lizards and geckos. Anona we had a tour of the night sky which was interesting. We saw Venus and Jupiter clearly. Louis we saw a frog and bugs and scorpions and Otis we were in the night garden!

Will post the photos later, love you all. We are in the hot hot desert heat from now on till we fly to Vancouver on June 13th

we travelled through a section of the Sonaran Desert today. It was very a different landscape, full of gravel and large cacti Eagles and other birds like road runners. We also saw acres of irrigated land growing corn and maize. At one ranch there were (no exaggeration ) thousands of Frisian cows all standing in dirt in the blazing sunshine with hay to eat.There were cows as far as your eyes could see and all close together. It looked so cruel.

Here are some of the pictures I took, the black and white ones are Vinces. 

          

I hope your revision is going ok Anona and we’re both thinking of you xxxx 

We travelled to Phoenix this morning. we have a lovely room in the shade at the back of the hotel away from the noisy traffic.

This morning we visited the Phoenix Art Gallery, the temperature is 104*fahrenheit and we were pleased to be in there with their air conditioning. Hope the children like my photo of the dinosaur in a cage ( and Grandad too).  

  

 The photographic exhibition was not as good as we expected but nevertheless, we looked around the other art exhibits, mainly Andy Warhole and 2 picassos and 1 Monet but again not too impressed , seen much better modern art galleries in Paris and Houston. we have free drinks between 5 and 6.30 pm here in their social hour in the bar. Can’t be bad 😝🍺🍻

We stayed in Prescott today and explored the granite dells and the lakes. To go on the trails around the granite dells, you have to rock climb at times and so I had to give that idea up! Still we got nice photos.

We went down to Watson Lake and sat on the granite rocks in the warm air. People were rock climbing and in the reservoir there were kayakers….lots to see. I saw eagles and a heron. 

   We had our lunch in the oldest hotel in town. It was like a saloon and very traditional cowboy type. We did the shops not buying anything lol.

In the afternoon we went to Lynx Lake and had such a good time. We spotted a bald headed eagle! We watched it for ages and showed other people who passed by where to look. 

Vince got perfect pictures of a heron eating a lizard we think. We saw 12 maybe more humming bee birds on feeders outside of a RTV and a large goose looking after a duck with 3 ducklings. he kept with her wherever she swam. A fisherman told us the goose always does that protecting the ducklings he thought. 

               We leave Prescott for Phoenix tomorrow.We’re in Phoenix for 4 nights.

we travelled up the black mountains over Cleopatra mountain and down through Jerome to Cottonwood. 

The old town has interesting shops and we wandered around the Main Street. We stopped off for coffee in a small courtyard, protected from the sun. Yes the weather is now much hotter.🌞🌞🌞 There was a very large jet black bee flying around and then it disappeared into a small hole in the woodwork,very scary.

We explored the beautiful red rocks again and visited the church of the cross again to take more photos, then we made our way back to Prescott on a quick lower level road. It’s a shame I’ll never see Sedona again but I have all those beautiful pics and memories too. There is so much more of Arizona California and Nevada to discover. 

Looking down the black mountains to Jerome on Cleopatra mountain

   Sedona red hills in the distance on a beautiful hot day 

     

prescott was raining this morning, so we headed for Phoenix and it was very hot. We spent most of the day looking at fabulous cacti in the desert botanical garden. 

   We saw many different kinds of cacti and lizards quails humming birds, beautiful butterflies,desert squirrels and many flowers on different cactus types. 

I love cacti 🌵🌵🌵

These are all Vinces photos, we have hundreds more in our cameras. The temperature. Was 95 degrees I think that’s about 30*c or higher?

Back in cooler Prescott now and doing our washing😀☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ 

                       

The weather was sunny and warm when we left Prescott this am great we thought what a lovely day to visit the Grand Canyon. Welllllll….. On the way the clouds built up and it was raining hard when we got to the Grand Canyon Village. Determined we soldiered on, we’d come this far…. we got on the free buses which take you to various points of the Canyon. Gradually the rain stopped and the visibility got better. By late afternoon it was really pleasant there. Loads of lovely photos and we walked along the South rim trail for a while. 

       Back in Prescott now and here is dry sunny weather and much warmer.

We are so happy, our foul mouthed drunken neighbours have gone, life is good 😀😀😀  

 

We went to the Smoki Museum in Prescott this morning. It is all about the native indian tribes in this region. It is a brilliant exhibition. We were very lucky because as it is Memorial Weekend in USA there was traditional food and an Indian dance group performing. We ate fried bread burritos with chilli beans tomatoes lettuce onions and minced beef. It tasted yummy. We photographed the buffalo dancers in their costumes and the 2 drummers who did all the chanting. We hadn’t realised all this was happening. 

       In the afternoon we went for a long walk about 5 miles around Lynx Lake. We saw blue herons, cormorants , a quail, an eagle and lizards. I was hoping to see a turtle but no😏

We stopped off at CrackerBarrel for our tea. It was identical to the one we visited with Matthew and Blandine in Houston.

I need to upload all my pictures for the last 3 days, I’ll do this tomorrow.

We are going back to the Grand Canyon for the day tomorrow as the weather is so much better now.

Hi today we took the quick way and reached Sedona in just over an hour. We went to the tourist centre and picked up a map of the sights to see. In the forest rangers station we took in all the info of the walks and wildlife to look out for. We photographed the bell the ship the cathedral etc all named rock formations. We went along a few trails in the sunshine and really enjoyed all the views.  

   Today we saw lizards, hawks and many different flowers and birds. The cacti were all in flower and amazing!

We climbed up to the church of the cross, high up in the valley. It was designed for building in Budapest but was stopped by the war starting. Then in 1953 it was built here in America. It is stunning and a real tear jerker we both found the simple church very moving, can’t explain why I was in tears.

On the way back we stopped in Jerome and got back to our hotel by 6pm.

We didn’t sleep much because we have new neighbours,3 men who got drunk and were shouting about money until 2am.

From Flagstaff we had a lovely drive through the forest roads and down Oak Tree Canyons hairpin bends to Sedona where we stopped off for a coffee in the lovely sunshine. There were loads of shops all selling the the usual touristy stuff. We will come back here to explore the red hills another day. 

This is the hottest day so far. We continued to Cottonwood where we looked round  a 2 acre antique store, what a shame  we are travelling on an aeroplane there were lots of things in there I would have liked!. We had a lovely salad Lunch in a courtyard in the shade . Then strolled around the town. There was an interesting rock shop with rock samples from Arizona and fossils again too heavy to buy.

We ascended up the steep road to Jerome which is an old copper mining town and is called a ghost town. It is full of artists shops and saloons and masses of history. We again visited the largest kaleidoscope shop in the world and bought kaleidoscopes for 2 little boys!

The road continues rising steeply up to the top of the mountain. I think this is more impressive than oak tree canyon. At the top there is a summit picnic area, then begins the decline down to Prescott valley where everything is flat again. Prescott is a large town and was once the capital city of Arizona. We are here for 7 nights.