K's August visit

this guy seemed happy to see K

K visited us here in AZ between 9 and 14 August!  We visited a few restaurants; had a meal at each of the Phoenix-resident-family homes; celebrated Paul Jr's #31 on Friday 10 August; mostly enjoyed being together.  Spontaneous road trip to Tucson on Saturday 11 August - it was a bit of a nostalgia tour for K; visited U of A campus and the Pi Phi house; also wandered around the downtown area and enjoyed pretty amazing weather (dinner at Penca).  Played 5 Crowns and sampled some of the local breweries as we roamed.  Overnight at the local Best Western.  Fun and highly random trip!  We of course were sorry to see K leave on Tuesday 14 August.

sampling of our restaurant/brewery gatherings in Phoenix, Gilbert, Tucson (Borderlands my Tucson favorite)

Nice experience at Pi Phi - the girl on duty took the time to show K around - including seeing
her old room (upper R); K stands in just about the same spot in lower R when moving into that same room
15 years plus one day earlier (with orange doggie guarding her goods).  

one of K's Pi Phi pals designed the street-facing sign here . . . 

yes it was fun wandering around Tucson with this group (plus photographer-NOC)

Sabino Canyon (Tucson)

PJ and I had a shorter-than-expected stay in Tucson at the new Marriott Hotel (15-16 February).  Much enjoyed meals at Penca; also enjoyed our usual Tubac wanderings (including quite a fine lunch at Elvira's).

Also had a chance to explore Sabino Canyon a bit - clearly it deserves more of our attention.  But a challenge on this trip:  lots of rain limited our range.  Here's my little friend undeterred by a rather damp bridge:

via GIPHY

Farther into the canyon it looked like this:

via GIPHY

Penca was pretty wonderful.

Tucson trip

Many years since PJ and I have been Tucson tourists (last overnight discussed here).  We keep hearing that development efforts in the past few years (subsequent to EPG's fine graduation ceremony) have resulted in a very nice downtown.  So we gave it a try - the idea being that we could do our usual park-the-car-and-walk (more attractive to us than just hanging out at the big resorts up in the hills, such as this).

Tumacacori

And it turned out great.  Another first for us:  downtown development activities not having included much in the way of hotel-building, we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast (for three nights).  Very fine, old-school building; within walking distance of everything downtown.  I wouldn't normally expect to feel like chatting with strangers at breakfast time, but even that aspect was enjoyable.

My fine traveling companion, alongside what remains of the church at Tumacacori.

We made the rounds:

• Drove down to Tubac as our first stop - enjoyed wandering the town; really enjoyed our lunch at Elvira's.  Highly recommended.  One of the first times I wasn't disappointed in a mole'.
• A couple dinners at Janos Wilder's downtown kitchen.  A couple lunches at Proper (affiliated with the Flagstaff restaurants we like so well).  Delightful. (Somewhat less happy with a dinner we were really anticipating - Cafe Poca Cosa).
• Visited one of my favorite places:  San Xavier del Bac.
• Visited one of my even-more-favorite places:  Tumacacori.  Even took the walking path down to the San Pedro River.
• Did plenty of wandering around downtown Tucson.
• Did a return visit to Tubac on a glorious Sunday morning.

We shall happily go back, sooner than later.

Wandered down to the San Pedro River . . . 

Bell tower on the church just looks great.

 

At Downtown Kitchen.

Ornate breakfast set-up.

It's fun to wander around Tubac.

Inside San Xavier del Bac.

Road Trip! (Southeast AZ)

Patricia and I snuck away a few days to SE Arizona (April 18-21). We could hardly believe we hadn't been back to Bisbee since 2002. Here's what happened:

1. Drove to Tucson on Saturday and stopped first for lunch at Cafe Poca Cosa; first time we were at its new location. Sat at the bar and had a wonderful lunch and conversation with the owner, she is quite a success story, regularly appearing in the national foodie magazines. Mole sauce is quite something. Stayed at The Lodge on the Desert; dinner at Barrio. The hotel was in the final stages of a remodel, they are doing a great job.

2. Sunday - had a cup of coffee at the Starbucks on University, just west of campus. This is a beautiful shaded area right by U of A. Then packed and hit the road for SE AZ "wine country." Started with lunch at Canela's in Sonoita, which we had just been reading about in Arizona Highways. Sat outdoors. Just a gorgeous day. The light is different in this part of the state, very beautiful.

3. Then drove to five or six wineries; the industry is making progress since our last visit, though it sounds like they are finding conditions (soil and weather) perhaps a bit less promising than they were hoping in the early days. But who knows. We did a tasting at Callaghan, and also at Sonoita Vineyards (Gordon Dutt). We liked the first one, the second had an entertaining pour-meister. It was just a beautiful day, and the red soil, mountain backdrops, rarified light, etc., is compelling. A couple photos above.

4. Then drove to Bisbee, where I took the top Bisbee photo (looking up the main drag toward sundown). Stayed at the Copper Queen - had a really neat corner room with only one downside (featured cold and luke-cold water in the shower). And they said they had permission to name it the "Lee Marvin" room, I guess he stayed at the hotel (not necessarily this room) a number of times. Whoopee.

5. Weather was sensational. We enjoyed the coffee shop; nice dinners at the Bisbee Grille (Cafe Roka wasn't open the days we were in town); walked the shops and galleries; took a long walk up and around the hills; eventually found a nice bracelet for PJ. Most enjoyable were two lunches on the patio at the Copper Queen restaurant - sensational setting, nice local IPA, good food, outstanding company.

6. On our last day, we looked at a couple bed & breakfast places, a couple of which look quite promising for future trips. Then started our drive back to Phoenix (hadn't moved the car once while in Bisbee). Easy, pleasant return trip.

7. Stopped for happy hour at La Boca in Tempe, then met the rest of the choir folks for one of our final choir practices (working on Mendelssohn's Elijah).

Such a nice trip . . .

BTW, bottom photo is late 19th century bar artwork - Lily Langtry, a period actress (also associated, let's say, with the future Edward VII).

Spring training 2008 . . .

Here was a fun little visit/trip. Nicole arrived from Chicago Wednesday evening (February 27) and hung around with us on Thursday (including a hike in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve (40th street trailhead) and attendance at the ASU basketball game with Chris, Paul, etc.)

On Friday, we drove down to Tucson to see Patrick, go to a spring training game, etc. The game featured the White Sox and Diamondbacks at Tucson Electric Park; great seats courtesy of Nicole's pal from Chicago (also a Patrick). We were positioned just to the left of the Sox dugout and spread out in rows 1 and 2. Gorgeous weather; high of 81 in Tucson that day. So it was perfect for watching a game. Very different perspective from that close. Among other things we noticed: it's amazing how muscled up the players are (presumably without the benefit of PEDs).

Patricia and I stayed at the Best Western Royal Sun (again), notwithstanding that we seem to have issues there every now and then. We hosted a fun reception there between the game and going to dinner at the Guadalajara Grill. Overnight there was no heat in the room and it was 60 degrees when we awoke. That felt cold.

A nice breakfast with Nicole, Patrick and Nedda; then we wandered through some of the shops in the "Lost Barrio" area (including the large carving of St. Michael the Archangel shown here).

Patricia and I made our way back to Phoenix later in the afternoon, it was a very fun trip. We saw Nicole (with Chris) a few hours Sunday afternoon before taking her to the airport.

Weekend away (but not far)

Patricia and I have not had much success organizing little getaway weekends. But we finally made it last weekend. Drove down to Tucson on Friday morning and stayed two nights at the JW Marriott Starr Pass resort. This is a large place, just finished in 2004. We hadn't seen the property before and were pleasantly surprised with pretty much everything.

We had no activities planned, which was the point. Friday was rainy, Saturday - Sunday were spectacular. We watched some NCAA tournament games, and visited the "presidio" and "lost barrio" areas of Tucson. Those places are always fun to wander through.

We also ate a remarkable amount of really excellent food. The restaurants at the resort were delightful. Saturday dinner was at Primo, which you can read about here. The chef won some James Beard award and definitely can cook. Here's the description of my entree: sturgeon with carmelized cauliflower and eggplant with golden raisins, currants and capers in a white balsamic vinagraiette with crisp panelle, arugula and basil. How do you even dream up that combination? And what is panelle? The meal was wonderful. We sat on the patio looking at the moon and Orion, with the chef's herb garden right in front of us. Friday dinner at Signature was also excellent.

Patrick paid us a courtesy visit on Saturday, then we went to lunch on Sunday with he and pals at Rosa's, a Mexican restaurant a bit northwest of U of A (described here). He recommended the enchiladas, which was a fine recommendation indeed. It was a fun lunch. (If you think I'm fixated on the food, you're right. Haven't even talked about our Friday lunch at Barrio, one of Tucson's best downtown restaurants.)

One of many nice things about this resort is that you could sit outside for meals, and we did for breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast. With great views of downtown Tucson.

The place also had hiking trails right off property. This is in the immediate area of the Saguaro National Monument (you can see the effect in the photo). We hiked Saturday afternoon. The turn-around point was some stone house in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Fun.

Back

OK, in the next week or so I'm going to catch up on recent (and less recent) events after finishing a couple major work projects and extra rehearsals etc. for our Choral Union concert.

I am a fan of webcams. And of the look of the Tucson area. This photo is from a webcam on the University of Arizona campus. You can check out the webcam here. The view is to the northeast, and the Catalina Mountains look great.

I also like the Northern Arizona University webcam looking out over the San Francisco Peaks, viewable here. I can check out the snow pack plus get some (slight) idea of color change in the aspens in autumn.

U of A Homecoming

Here’s something fun: Kerry showed up in Arizona for the first time in several months. Last we saw her (back in June), she had just purchased a hot black Honda Civic, loaded it up, and headed off on a cross-country tour to her new job location in Virginia (all this while overcoming a mysterious ankle injury). We’re still waiting to see photos from that adventure, but I hear Graceland was a major highlight. (She also left behind lots of stuff in our house, most of which now has been rearranged or properly disposed of.)

Anyway, she made it to Arizona for U of A’s homecoming weekend in Tucson. We didn’t attend this year, but reports are that she spent quality time with (1) Patrick, and (2) many of her U of A pals. There was a shocking development that evening in Tucson: U of A’s traditionally lousy football team beat a Top 10 team – heretofore undefeated UCLA – by the score of 52 to 14. Everyone thought the score was a misprint. If you’re interested, there’s a story at http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=253090012&confId=null.

We did see Kerry on Sunday (November 5) for a couple hours before taking her to the airport. That was fun. And it’s good that it’s just a short time until she returns for Thanksgiving. From Kelly's response, we are convinced that the dog actually remembers her.

Disclaimer: U of A photo is from last year’s U of A Homecoming, which we did attend.