Bisbee and Douglas, AZ

January, 28, 2012

We visited Bisbee 2 years ago, but forgot my camera. We set off Saturday morning. It is an old copper mining town, built on the side of a steep hill, about 20 miles from the Mexican Border.  Now, it is a funky little  tourist  town with lots of  artists, shops and restaurants. A  fun place to spend a beautiful Saturday. It reminds  us of Jermone, located in Northern AZ. It is also an old mining town built on  a hill.  Same kind of funky little town with lots of local artists.

A " small world" experience happened to us. We stopped at a local brewery, The Old Bisbee Brewery Company. They make 7 micro brews.  I don't like beer so I asked for some wine. They only sell Washington wines, not Arizona.  I asked why and she said the owners are from Washington.   Small World.

If anyone of you are mystery readers, you might have heard of Bisbee.  J.A. Jance, a local Seattle writer, has a series of novels with the main character, Joanna Brady, a county sheriff of  Cochise County. She lives and has her office in Bisbee. Even tho I haven't read her books for several years, I still wanted to see Bisbee.  Felt like I knew the place. Her other main character is a Seattle detective.

After we left Bisbee, we went over to Douglas. It is about 20 miles away, right on the Mexican border. Even tho it was built about the same time, it has a completely different look.   Because it wasn't built on a hill,  the  streets are very wide compared to Bisbee, which has very narrow streets.  Doesn't have the same feel as Bisbee. Reminds me of an old town in Midwest.

Couldn't resist taking pictures of this car. Never seen eyelashes on  headlights. Very cute

One of many stairways. Once a year they have a stair climbing contest with proceeds going for charity.

Can't imagine climbing these stairs. WHEW!

Pictures of houses on the steep slopes

Hotel in Douglas, built in 1907

Main staircase going to the 2nd floor.. The panel on the wall looks like windows, but it is  Tiffany glass.  Also the top panel.

 View of 2nd floor from lobby.  Such quality workmanship

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Isn't this the cutest couple, of course I'm prejudice

My folks have 2 big celebrations going on this week.

Their 69th wedding anniversary was January 23rd.  Amazing, that doesn't happen very often. The wonderful thing about it is that they still hold hands, hug and kiss. They have had a wonderful, exciting life together. Plus, they raised 2 GREAT kids. Mom and Dad were the best parents that anyone would wish for.  No matter what happened, they were very supportive of me. They showed us by example on how to live, love and be the best we could be.

On February 1st, my Mom is 90 years old.  She doesn't look or act like it. She is an amazing woman. When I grow up, if I am half the woman she is, I'd be happy.  She was always there for me, thru bad and good.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY and HAPPY BIRTHDAY  to  two of our most favorite people in the world.

We love and miss you both

Back to Bryce National Park

Sept 20, 2011

Since I'm on a roll with uploading pictures, thought I go back to Bryce Canyon. This was our favorite of all the National Parks we went to. The red rock formations are amazing. Of course, my camera doesn't do them justice. It is a place you need to see for yourself. Be sure and put it on your list of must see places.

I keep seeing this guy. Must be following me. As you can see, there are few guardrails. Can go as close as you want. I never got as close as Denny did. I'm too clumsy.

Our campground. Had lots of trees, felt like we were back in Washington. The round hole in the middle of the concrete was the fire pit. We had to buy firewood, because most places we go to you can't build a fire.

See the people on the bottom left. You can hike down from most spots. Denny's hips were hurting so we didn't. Would have been beautiful.

Notice the people at the bottom

I took almost 100 pictures. I thought every view I saw was better than the one before. It was very hard to choose which ones to show.  Tried to give you an overview, without showing you 100.

Back to East Zion, 2011

Oct. 4, 2011

My connection is so good here that I'm trying to go back and upload pictures that I was never able to do before. Sometimes it would take hours get get any picture or sometimes none. Very frustrating.

East Zion is part of Zion National Park, but it looks entirely different. You go thru a tunnel and the rocks are so different. This part you can drive thru yourself. Again, the camera doesn't do it justice.

This isn't the main tunnel that takes you from Zion to East Zion, but one of many small ones. The main tunnel is a mile long and has no inside lights. It is narrow, so they only let one lane of traffic thru at a time. Kind of spooky to go thru.

Alot of the rock formations looked like soft butter sliding down and then stopping midway

Back to Zion

Going to try and download some pictures from Zion. Couldn't do any before when we were there.  It is so   beautiful, words can't really describe it. My camera doesn't do it justice. It's one of those places you have to see to really appreciate it.  You have to take the bus thru most of the park. Cars not allowed.

Sept 27th and 29th, 2011

Notice the rain on the right. It wasn't raining that day. The moisture, in the form of rain, drips down from the outside wall.

I picked him up along the trail. Think I'll keep him.

Back to the Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Oct. 4, 2011

If you have been following my blog, you all know I have been having alot of trouble downloading pictures to my blog. The connection is strong here, so I thought I would back track a little to show you some places we saw a few months ago  that we thought were interesting.

When we were at Hurricane, Utah there were many places to see besides Zion. We were there from Sept. 25th to Oct 8th.  One of the unique places we saw was the Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Northern AZ. It is only 40 miles into AZ. from Utah. Never expected to see Pink Sand Dunes in AZ.

This is a close up of footprints in the sand. We tried to take a walk among the dunes, but it was too hard

The Dunes go forever, as far as the eye could see

The  grasses  made me think we were on the beach

Still see flowers blooming

 It was quite a pretty  contrast between sand dunes and the flowers

Snow, Ice Storm, Snow, Wind--WHAT A MESS

I read the Seattle Times on the computer. I get to see all the pictures that people have sent about the storm. YIKES!  Unbelieveable.  I will have to say that I'm glad we are here, 60 to 70 degrees, no wind, ckear skies.

Kevin, our housesitter, called and said there was no power. Denny talked him thu on how to connect the generator. Sucess!  He was without power for about 12 hours. Last time that happened, in 2008, we lost it for 8 days.

Darin has his trailer and boat stored at our place.  The canopy over the boat was destroyed, but no damage to the boat itself.  The canopy over the trailer fell onto the top of the trailer. No damage to the trailer, but the canopy is toast.  Our next door neighbor, Nichole and her daughter, were out during  the snowfall trying to get alot of the snow on top of the trailer off. It was snowing so fast and heavy that it was a loosing battle. Thanks Nicole for the effort. You went beyond the call of  neighbor duty.

I heard it is raining now, so the worst is over.  Hopefully it doesn't happen again this winter.