Casa Malpais Ruins

Outing to Springerville, Az where we found the local Heritage Foundation and took a guided tour of a prehistoric ceremonial/living site that was occupied in the 13th century by Mogollon peoples. Our tour guide was amazing and he was able to bring the ruins to life in our imagination.

This is the ancient Kiva. The area was thoroughly excavated by several archeologists up until the 1960's and some restoration, but very little. It's mostly in its natural state but lots of clues to try to imagine what went on.

The dwellings were up on the cliffs and rock crags while they farmed and hunted in the valley below. Quite a vista.

Met up with the Oxnam's

Met up with some Tucson friends, Kevin and Susie who bought a house up here and did a total makeover. Their "cabin in the Woods" turned out fabulous and was fun to see all their work.

Another great day for hiking the Thompson Trail

Outing to Snowflake

Drove to Snowflake, Arizona for an ice cream cone.  Stopped at a local museum to learn more about the town that was founded by Mormon pioneers in 1878. Established when William Flake purchased a ranch and with directive from Brigham Young moved 5 families to the Silver Creek Valley. Town name became the combination of Flake and and Apostle Erastus Snow.

Museum and artifacts of original Flake family was carefully explained by a tour guide who's ancestory dates back to original Flake family which made it really interesting.  Btw, he had two wives and a total of 25 children!!

the Church of Latter-day Saints opened the Snowflake Arizona Temple in 2002 cementing it's legacy as a regional religious hub 

Governor Springs Trail

Found this Osprey nest on a trail near town of Greer. Think there is chick on there too.

Trail followed a stream. Decided to rest and stick my feet in the water to cool off. Thats my foot in the mountain stream and it was ice cold so didn't take long to get refreshed!!

 

purfect camafloge --orange butterflies on orange flowers!

Father's Day

Started the day with a short hike down a new part of a familiar trail. We found a spring bubbling out of the ground producing a sizable pool! Interesting phenomenon.

Then on to a local favorite restaurant for a great Father's Day breakfast at Darby's.  Long line of people waiting to treat Dads but worth the wait. Will had a traditional breakfast and I had a Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon! Yum. 

 Messages from the kids to wish Will a Happy Father's Day and a big hug from me!

Took in a movie and saw "Toy Story 5" which was a great, feel good, fun movie!!  All the regulars back although Woody has gotten a little paunch and a bit balled! Lots of laughs.

Oh and spied a "Horny Toad.". (Guess the right name is Horned Lizard)

Woods Canyon Lake

That's a Bald Eagle in the nest. Bad picture but we saw both Mom and Dad flying around and think there just might be a chick in the nest!!

Day at Woods Canyon Lake. Beautiful fishing lake but after an hour so so we decided to hike instead.

Stop on the way back for some killer views off the Mollogon Rim looking west and south!

Petrified Forest National Park

Made a day of it and drove to Petrified Forest National Park. We hiked around the "badlands" landscape, marveled at the flora and fauna, found some native American petroglyphs, checked out dinosaur fossils in visitors centers and were duly impressed by the Petrified logs piled up just everywhere. Just can't get our heads around the millions of years it took for the earth processes to produce what we see today. This barren landscape was once a lush tropical forest with gigantic trees.

called "newspaper rock" because of the hundreds of petroglyphs in this area that capture thousands of years of the human story.

The colors in the Petrified wood as silica rich waters seeped into the cell structure and turned the wood to stone over eons of time.  Was really a fun adventure.

Rainy morning in Show Low

Saturday morning in Show Low. Outside, under the awning with a cup of coffee and watching a gentle, most welcome summer rain tapping on the awning! Maybe this is first of Arizona "monsoon" as is badly needed all over the area. 

  We did a two day run back to Tucson this past week. Couple of Opthomology appts for check up and monitoring for Will. All stable and holding. Ordered stronger prescription glasses that will have to run back to Tucson when ready to pick up next week.

Back in our neighborhood in Tucson we saw something that we have never actually witnessed before. We have never spent a summer in Tucson for all the years we have lived there so we have never seen the Saguaro cactus fruit. Always catch the blossom before we typically leave town but never the bright red, sweet, sticky fruit! Well, I thought it interesting!!

Natures sculpture--spied on the Buena Vista trail out of Show Low, Az.  A very old burnt tree trunk.

Kinishba Ruins and Fort Apache National Historic Site

Kinishba Ruins is a 600-room Mogollon great house archaeological site dating back to 1200 to 1400AD and is administered by the White Mountain Apache Tribe. It is located on the present-day Fort Apache Indian Reservation, near the Apache community of Canyon Day. As it demonstrates a combination of both Mogollon and Ancestral Puebloan cultural traits, archaeologists consider it part of the historical lineage of both the Hopi and Zuni cultures. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Ragtime and the Tony Awards

We watched the Tony Awards last night on TV. Doug, Tammy and the girls actually attended the event live in New York. Big interest of course, is this is the Broadway play that Aeri has been an understudy for the part of the immigrant child and has actually been on stage in the part a handful of times. Tammy got tickets to the event and they got all dressed up and enjoyed the gala event live!!

Ragtime,” a sweeping historical epic, was honored for best musical revival as well as lead actress for Caissie Levy and lead actor for Joshua Henry. This victory was especially meaningful because, although the original 1998 production won two Tonys (for book and score), “Ragtime” never won the top prize until now.

Dont they look stunning!!

Now the best news is that beginning soon, Aeri will no longer be an understudy but will share the role with another young actress-- she will be "top billing" for the part for 4 of the 8 performances every week until run ends at the end of August.

Wild Horses in northeast Arizona

Wild horses very close to our RV Park on the White Mountain Apache Tribal Lands. Pretty cool to see them up close. The white mare with the coal black foal was interesting!