This past May we visited with our very good friends,
Marge and John Graham who had just moved to Gold Canyon, AZ in October, 2003. 

Arizona has always been our favorite place on earth.  We had always intended to retire there, but then we had grandchildren and the choice  became a little tougher.  We almost purchased land there in 1983, but we chickened out.  The lot had a view of Four
Peaks in the Superstition Mountains.  Now Marge and John live in that vicinity.  Isn't that funny that they would end up in our favorite spot.  We are so happy for them to have this opportunity.  The only
thing that would make it better would be if we were  there with them. 

After seeing their lovely home nestled in the Foothills of the Superstition Mountains, we decided we had to look at some homes nearby.  We fell in love with the mountain view and we picked
out a small Mission style home.    Then it was my job to make it happen.  So we came home and I got to work.  So far so good.  The section of the gated community where we would like to be won't open until the Fall.  That gives us some time to get the dream going.  We are both very excited with our new plan and  hope that we will be able to actually do it this time.   Keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

The Graham's desert abode.  Their home is
nestled into the foothills of Superstition Mountain. 
What a view from their back yard!

Marge and John poolside.  The mountain view
is to the left.  I missed it in this shot to get the pool.
Keep your eye on the shadow of the lounge chair
for the next photo.

While visiting with Marge and John we watched the
Kentucky Derby and I made Mint Juleps. 
SMARTY JONES was our hero, of course. 
What a thrill to pick a horse and actually see him win! 
Only wish we had bet!

Dick and me with our Mint Juleps.
Go, Smarty!  A Triple Crown Champion in the making. 
You heard it here first!

Marge's back porch has additional patio space out from under the room.  It's really, really nice.  One afternoon we watched a plane do loop de loops and barrel turns and stalls and everything.  We had our own little air show.  We had dinner out here most nights and there wasn't a bug.  One night we even heard a coyote howling in the distance.

Just too cool!

John took Dick out for a hike through the high desert. 
Dick is holding a walking stick made by John from a
Saguaro Cactus rib.  They are endangered, but when
they fall over dead they end up in anyone's yard.

Across the street from Marge's house there is
"Open Range" which means it's state owned land
that is leased out to ranchers to graze their cattle.
There is no fencing. 

It was May and the Cacti were blooming.

John and Dick find a dead Saguaro, but decide to
let it rest in peace....for now.

Superstition Mountain and a mesquite tree.

Superstition Mountains
Four Peaks is in the distance. 

Canyon Lake and the winding Apache Trail. 
It's similar to the Pacific Coastal Highway in that
you can drop right off into the water.

Saguaro at night

My Mountain

Superstition Mountain

I'd like to thank Marge and John for opening up their
home to Dick and me.  We had just the best time. 
It was so good to see Marge again.  I really miss
her being here.  It's not so easy to "do lunch" as it
once was.  So thanks for everything, Marge and
John.  You get the Academy Award for hosting for
2004.  We had a blast.

October, 2004

Well, it's almost 6 months later and we found a home.  Dick's only criteria was that it have a view of the mountain.  We fell in love with Peralta Trails, a Pulte/Del Webb gated community.  The homes are so different from any on the East coast.  I wanted a Mission façade or a Territorial façade.  It was so hard to find a place to build a home.  None of the available lots had the mountain view from the back yard, and they were awfully small with the prices increasing daily.  So, we decided to look at homes in the development that were for sale.  We looked at every home and none of them were what we wanted. 

Then out of the blue, the Del Webb realtor said they had just handed over the keys of the original Pulte model homes.  We saw all three and fell in love with the views from the last one.  It's much larger than we wanted, but I think it's still doable.     

Since it was a model, it has mature landscaping and the whole side of the house faces the mountain.  Mountain views from the whole house.

Here are some pictures of our little hacienda.

Reminds me of the Alamo

7 Palo Verde Trees, 3 Mesquite Trees, 12 Bougainvilleas,
Mexican Bird of Paradise, and even our own Saguaro!!

Here's Dick peeking around the corner near our Saguaro cactus.  With all the wildlife, he's in heaven. 

The side will be common ground open desert. 
They won't be building on it.

Saguaro and Bougainvillea

Our Thinking Rock

Backyard Views

Backyard View - Each plant is on it's own drip system. 
When we move here permanently, we'll put in a pool.

Jody, our realtor, standing in the foyer

Dining Room taken from the Living Room

Living Room and Dining Room Windows
with beautiful mountain views

The Kitchen
Notice the niche on top of the pantry. 
All of the closets in every bedroom have that niche.

Master Bedroom Suite windows view backyard.

Back yard Flowers - Purple Sage, Red Fairy Brush
Bougainvillea  and some kind or Petunia
Because this was a model home, it has a lot of nice
landscaping, some of which will be removed when
we put our pool in.

My Mountain - Superstition Mountain

This is the view from the living room, dining room,
kitchen, family room and back yard.

Front yard - No leaves, no grass, no worries! 
Plus behind the tree is our Saguaro cactus. 
It's just starting to get arms.

March 2004

Well, here it is March and we're getting ready for another visit to Arizona.  We spent two weeks there at Christmas time working on furnishing it.  We shopped every day except for Christmas and the day after.  Dick was a real trooper, shopping not being his thing, and we did manage to get a great deal finished.  Here are some pictures of the results.

We decorated for the holidays with lumenarias. 
They looked so cool.

The Family Room

The Dining Room

The mirror  was purchased in Sedona
and schlepped home.  Here is a close up of the detail work on it.

This mirror is so Southwestie.  I just love it.

The Master Bedroom. 

I haven't found a comforter I liked yet,
but I'm shopping for one now. 
 

A typical day's shopping haul.

July 2005

We saw some wild fires on our July trip.  What a shame.
So many acres burned.  It's good to see that Gold Canyon
does attack them very aggressively.  We saw the planes
flying over the house and we saw the smoke from a small Apache Trail fire.  You just have to keep your fingers crossed and keep repeating "It's only a house".  The fire season is short, but
can be devastating if you're on the receiving end.

 

Here's some pictures from our July trip.

Bedroom II
Furnished, but needs wall decoration and curtains.

Bedroom III
Getting there!

Kitchen

There's still lots to do and I hope to accomplish
some of it in April.  We're very pleased with what
we have been able to get finished so far. 

The Patio

We're making progress, slowly but surely. 
It's hard when you're not there all the time,
But we've done tons and we're really pleased
with how it's coming along.
In our October trip we'll get something for the walls.
 

Here's our cactus in bloom last Spring.

October 2005

In October 2005, we went to the Grand Canyon for the first time.
We stayed at El Tovar and had dinner there.  I missed the sunset, but we got up early the next morning to catch the sunrise.  Here are some of the pictures from our trip.

Dick at El Tovar, Grand Canyon, October 2005. 

Me at dinner at El Tovar.

The Canyon at sunrise -  October, 2005.

Grand Canyon at sunrise. 

My very best picture of sunrise at Grand Canyon.

Silly Mountain near Gold Canyon, Arizona.  I always wanted to climb Silly and in October, very early in the morning Dick and I climbed it.  It looks like a little clump of dirt, but it's over 2,000 feet high and it takes awhile to climb.  The path below is all loose gravel and rock.  It's described as being on a stair stepper for a half hour.  It took us about an hour because of my knee - we had to keep stopping and resting. And coming down was harder than going up.  But I did it!  Now I can cross one of the "Things I want to do before I die" off my list.

The steep climb to the top of Silly.

December 2005

Our Christmas trip this year (2005) was a really sad one.  We lost our friend John Graham, Marge's husband.  John's funeral was the Friday after we arrived in AZ, but it was in NJ so we weren't able to attend.  John will be missed by the many friends he has made in his new state.  Arizona will not be the same for us without John.  His wonderful sense of humor will be missed, as will his willingness to share his Arizona with us.

While there was a damper on our celebration, we were able to get together with some of our neighbors and new friends there to celebrate the New Year.  We also made a trip to Las Vegas.  We only stayed overnight for 2 nights, so we were really rushed.  But we managed to get in lots of wonderful things.  We drove across the Hoover Dam (traffic backed up for 5 miles due to construction - the 6.5 hour trip took 8 hours) at night.  Then we approached a hillside and as we crested the hill the whole lighted city of Las Vegas was spread out before us.  I'm glad the traffic held us up.  We stayed at the Mirage Hotel and we managed to get in a Cirque du Soleil show, Mustique, and a visit to the Liberace Museum, another thing on my list of "Things to do before I die."  It took 7.5 hours to drive home.  Here are some pics from our Christmas trip.

The Mirage Hotel

Inside the Venetian. 
We had dinner from the windows above at  Zefferini's.  It was a horrible meal.  Very disappointing.

The majestic Hoover Dam

One of Siegfried and Roy's white tigers is kept at the Mirage behind thick glass.

Dick and his dome.  It's a long story.

Sunset pictures we took our our walks.

We were treated to marvelous sunsets every night right outside our door. 
We walked every evening with my camera in my hand.  Just too good to miss.

This evening, the whole street was glowing pink. 
There's Superstition Mountain in the background.

Magnificent!

MAY 2006

In May we brought our good friends Vito and Barbara to Arizona with us.  Vito had an Army buddy in Mesa he wanted to visit with and they were also going on to visit his brother in San Francisco.

We had a great time showing them our Gold Canyon and taking them to Sedona, a must see for all visitors.  We did the Apache Trail and the Swap Meet in Mesa ( a little local culture).  And of course, while in Sedona, a trip to Tlaquepaque, a quaint little artsy shopping gallery. 

Except for a lizard and some quail, the wildlife was conspicuous by their absence.  Here are some pictures of our trip. 

Barbara and Vito DiCamillo in our back yard.

Dick and Vito in Sedona at the Church of the Holy Cross

Me and Dick in Sedona at Bell Rock

Big Chief Vito

Gates to Tlaquepaque

Dick and Vito at the Fountain in Tlaquepaque

Me and Dick in Tlaquepaque

September 2006 Trip

We worked hard all week shopping and fixing the
house for renters. 

Our House

Family Room - new mirror and console table

Dining Room - new Carol Grigg print - "Blue Silk"

We are staying home this winter hoping for rentors.  Our next trip is planned for May.  I'm bringing my cousins out along with some friends.  I can't wait for this trip.  We'll have a ball.
Stop by again to see our latest adventures.