May has been a very quiet month for us. Don's surgery went very well and after 10 days he returned to normal activities and diet. They have an extensively-equipped gym here at Palm Creek and we've made good use of it working out at least 5 days/week. Our goal this summer will be to include a lot of hiking and more challenging geo-caches as we make our way to the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington. We were eagerly anticipating our first trip up to Alaska, but, thats on hold again due to rising diesel prices. We're talking over 10,000 miles round trip. Our new plan is to return to New England the
summer of 2009 and make the Alaskan trip during the summer of 2010. We'll see.
Gay (Di's sister from Big Sandy, Texas) visited during the first week of May in order to visit our sister Angie in Phoenix who has advanced Alzheimer's. The visits are getting
more difficult as the the disease progresses. She still has good days and her personality still
shines through, so the visits mean a lot to her and to us.
Jennifer and Brandon (now 3yrs, 4mos) also flew into Phoenix for a week's visit with Popeye and Mimi. (those are the names Brandon has chosen to call us) He's growing like a weed and he's getting smarter every time we see him. (Hey, we have bragging rights!) He really enjoyed the swimming pool here at the park and the squirting frogs at Casa Grande's new mall. We all tried to keep him busy so he could work off his unlimited energy.
Don and I visited the Tuscon Botanical Gardens on May 15th. This was
our second visit, the first being in 2006. It's one of my favorite spots for the enjoyment of native flora and fauna. We also visited
Sabino Canyon in Tuscon where we located a geo-cache while hiking.
We're "on the road again." We spent four nights in Cottonwood, Arizona doing some geo-caching in the Sedona area. That was followed by four nights in St. George, Utah where the temps tipped the high 90's. (Our air-conditioner was running constantly.) We did get in two days of hiking at Zion N.P. Our first was a hike up Watchman's Trail at the Visitor's Center. (approx. 3 miles)
On Saturday we attempted a strenuous hike up Angel's Landing where the elevation reached 1500 feet. (4 miles roundtrip) As the photo indicates, the last 1/4 mile was beyond our capabilities, but we were content with what we did accomplish.
