Iowa for Father's Day (June 16-20)

Another overdue visit - getting out to St. Joe.  Father's Day weekend seemed like a perfect time for PJ and me to make the trip.

New plantings etc "looking good" at Mark & Therese estate.

Weather was great - especially on travel day (Thursday).  Made a v. pleasant drive-by at Mark and Therese's house - which really is looking quite sharp (including various new plantings).  We also think the overall neighborhood is neat.  Then up to New Brighton where Cecilia and Steve hosted a dinner gathering.  Couldn't have been nicer.  Angie came by with Liam, Josh and Tillie; Margaret and Jeremy; Nick, Maeve and Beau; Therese and Mark.  Good food, some nice beers (including Nick homebrews among others), lovely evening on the patio, chatted until fairly late.  (The only thing missing:  photographic evidence.)

I much liked this view toward St. Joe and the hill farm - don't get to this area of the farm very often.

 On Friday - we have breakfast, pleasant!, at Caribou with Steve and Cecilia; then drop her off at work before heading south to Iowa.  PJ does grocery shopping and eventually makes a fine dinner for us; EMG and I head up to the hill farm and poke around on F-20 carburetor; then take tractor and mower down to St. Joe bottom lands where clean up a track around the government acres.  Lovely afternoon, great views down there, I much enjoyed being out with my dad.

Selfie on 4020 headed west.

Saturday morning - EMG and I go up to the hill farm again - looking for just the right piece of post to support our fence-mending operation.  It's a nice morning and this gave an occasion to wander around the grove, behind the corn crib; look at the foundation from the cattle shed and discuss the work involved during his cattle-tending days - wow.  PJ and I go to Algona in the afternoon and have a lovely visit with Caroline.  Dinner in St. Joe; EMG and I watch some video from their 1999 European trip - stuff I hadn't seen much of before - found it interesting - this was enjoyable.

Kind of amazing how well this old tractor functions.

Sunday Mass in St. Joe; talk to various after; Steve and Liz come by; also Dolores - great to see so many folks over the weekend.  PJ puts together noon meal.  Relaxing afternoon; we watch a little golf-on-TV, also sit on front porch a bit - much hotter weather.  Watched Cleveland beat Golden State in game 7 of NBA finals (Lebron chase-down block).

Some minor fence repair . . .

Monday - got a pretty early start - I rode with EMG up to Rochester, PJ followed along in our rental car.  He had some tests scheduled (which turned out pretty much fine).  He seems to do fine with the long-ish drive.  I don't recall being in Rochester before, so it was nice to finally see the place.  Cecilia met us for the appointments, and stayed 'til the end - we had to depart for airport prior to the last phase.  The four of us had lunch at Mayo cafeteria, which worked really well.

Photo inspection during happy hour at Caroline's place.

We really enjoyed our visit . . .

It's sounded to us like EMG is doing pretty well, but we hadn't seen him in person since Mom's funeral - hard to believe it's been that long, the time has flown by.  Now we can report as eyewitnesses - if there are 87-year-olds doing better physically then him, I'd think it's a pretty small group!  Fingers crossed that this continues.  Will look forward to the next trip.

Just before heading to Sunday Mass.

Our lector . . . 

tribal caps, and more

As D'back promotions go - this one caught our attention.  (Especially CPG's attention, though his rigorous travel schedule prevented his attendance).  D'backs offered a "tribal cap" to the first 20,000 customers - a fine-looking piece of head-wear.  Still - that wasn't really enough - POC's influence is vast, but not vast enough to get hats for all, unless we actually went early and stood in line.  Not an attractive prospect in mid-June.

Then the deal was sweetened - POC comes through with discounted tickets for the first-ever "Burgers & Beers" event that same evening - as you might speculate, this features burgers and beers - and a tribal hat!  So PJ, NOC, PJr and I scurry down for the (Alison-driven) event - at the restaurant just west of the stadium.

OK, we don't really know these folks (save one) . . . but I rather adore the trophy they won.

The "burgers" portion of the evening was much better than expected - five respectable local restaurants competing for a trophy based on customer votes - and they did a great job.  As for the beers, we approached this Bud-sponsored event with understandable trepidation - but with the recent acquisition of Four Peaks, that aspect also turned out well.  PJ was a great sport throughout, and we thriftily rescued her beer-tickets from wastage.  Oddly enough, a restaurant that doesn't even include a burger on the menu - The Mission - won.  

And we also had a baseball game to attend.  A fun evening, to say the least.  

36th wedding anniversary (Winslow/Flagstaff)

PJ and I repeated one of our favorite trips in observance of our 36th wedding anniversary - probably the third time we've done pretty much this exact loop?  It will be repeated.  Here's what we did:

"waterfall" atop Tonto Natural Bridge

Hit the road after breakfast on Saturday, May 28; quite a bit of traffic in and around Payson as it is Memorial Day weekend.  We proceed up to the Tonto Natural Bridge state park - lovely weather - we wander beneath the waterfall, scramble over all the slippery rocks, hike all the way through the creek area per usual (my ageless wife doing fine throughout) - a unique spot.  We drive onto That Brewery up in Pine - the place is packed but we end up with very fine outdoor seating and enjoy the food and beverages.

Where else would one wander in Winslow?  (Saturday afternoon)

Onto Winslow and we check into Mary Colter's marvelous La Posada Hotel.  Got our same room looking over the railroad tracks to the south.  We are rather obsessed with this hotel, and if anything we liked it more than previously.  We wander around town a bit but mostly relax; loved our dinner at the Turquoise Room.

Pretty sure we won't find "Piki Bread" elsewhere.

Endless whimsical touches; these two brayers are among my favorites.

Sunday, May 29 - three amazing meals at the Turquoise Room - not to be missed, they do a great job with all three menus.  After late/leisurely breakfast we drive up to the Hopi Reservation - we love the look of this countryside - ran into a guy in a shop that we think will be a useful contact point for future trips there.  Made it back for late lunch - one of our favorite meals of all.  Again did quite a bit of walking around the area before dinner.

One of the lovely common areas at La Posada.

Meteor Crater is a big hole in the ground.

Monday, May 30 - breakfast at the Turquoise Room, we were sorry it was our last meal there for this trip.  Eventually we check out.  Weather continuing favorable - not all that hot and not windy at all - so we take a flyer on "Meteor Crater" - which we've managed to drive past dozens of times without any strong inkling of stopping.  But it's right off I-40.  Interesting enough, but I'd say one visit will be plenty.  On into Flagstaff; early check-in; lunch at McMillan.  We wander around town per usual; stop at Historic; back to hotel eventually.  Dinner at Tinderbox.

This shot gives a little better perspective on the hole. [Meteor Crater postscript below.]

Tuesday, May 31 - breakfast - amazing - at Martanne's.  Perfect weather.  Which we take advantage of via a quite-nice hike south of town - nice, and overdue, to get out of town a bit.  Back for lunch at Criollo; then return to Phoenix where we have dinner later on.

Flagstaff-area hiking speaks for itself.

Hard to beat this stuff, another excellent anniversary observance with my pal.

Breakfast at Martanne's ( as always)

Flying Phoenix - Minneapolis 17 days after visiting Meteor Crater
(first time seeing it from ground level, now from the air).