Valley of The Sun 2015: On the move, but I digress......

Today we said good-bye to our family and friends at the resort. 2 1/2 months has flown by and it was time for us to leave for greener pastures, so to speak. Yes, today we departed Mesa, Az., and drove south to Green Valley, Az., our home for the next 7 days. Green Valley is a town located 40k south of Tucson on Highway 19. It is from here that we will launch daily on birding trips throughout the southeastern part of Arizona. But I digress....

The past week has been a whirlwind of fun times. Yikes! Where to start? That's actually a very good question. When telling a story does one start at the beginning? Does one ramble and cover highlights? Or, is it preferable to just cover what one feels is interesting? Then again what is interesting to the writer might not be interesting to the reader. Me? I think rambling is best, but then if you read my blog you likely already know that about me.

Okay, where was I? Right, fun times were had last week. Holy smokes I don't even know where to start. Dana had a birthday. Let's start there...... Dana's birthday was Friday the 13th. Pause..... It was a blast. We rose early and had a big breakfast. Whoa.... What is a big breakfast? These days some think that a big breakfast is having toast with your coffee. Some think a big breakfast is cereal, toast and coffee. Our pre-ride breakfast is BIG! We start with a glass of freshly squeezed OJ. Add vitamin D drops although they add nothing to the breakfast. Pan fry left over baked potato for hash browns. 2 fried eggs for Barry, one for Dana. 2 slices of toast each, one with Dana's homemade jam or jelly. 2 cups of coffee for Barry. 1 or 2 cups of tea for Dana. Eat. Wait 45 minutes then ride hard for 1 hour 50 minutes (50km).

After our big ride we enjoyed some Gatorade then lunch, then coffee and tea. We rested for a couple of hours then hit the showers. After that we headed for Vito's Italian Restaurant for dinner. I could write a separate post on the delightful dinner we had. The menu was:

Appy: Vito's Bruschetta paired with a scrumptious California Cabernet-Savignon.
Salads: Garden Salad for Dana. Caesar Salad for Barry
Entree: (Shared) Seafood Risotto paired with a refreshing Italian Pino Grigio.
Desert: Tillamook Mudslide at home....

The rest of the week was about golf, birding, bike riding, block party that included a bean bag tournament (Barry and Dean won the "A" draw; Dana and Darlene won the Consolation draw.), and more than a few tears and laughs with family and friends at the resort.

I finished my winter golfing on Thursday morning at our weekly 9 and breakfast at Superstition Springs. I had my best 9 holes on this course. I started par, par, bogey, par, bogey, par. I slipped on 7 and 8 but finished strong on #9. I golfed well but the best part was that I got to golf with brother Mike and friends Tony and Bob. It was a great way to finish the season.

I added 2 birds to my life list last week. They were a Juniper Titmouse at Sycamore Creek and a Williamson's Sapsucker at Bushnell Tanks, both locations near Sunflower, Az. I also managed a few decent photos of birds this week, but neither of my new birds are included.

We did a lot of "lasts" this past week. Golf, cycling our favourite route with friend Steve, dinner with friends Lila and Leroy, visit with friends Keith and Nancy at their new home at Goldfield, birding at Gilbert Riparian Preserve, the last monthly Block Party, the list goes on.

This morning we packed the 4Runner and finished clearing out and cleaning (mostly done by Dana) the aluminum chalet, said good-bye to friends on the street and to Kelly and Donna who dropped by just before we departed. We drove down I-10 east to Tucson, which is actually more south than east. We stopped in Tucson to bird at Sweetwater Wetlands then before driving further south to Green Valley we.......drum roll please......Jo, are you paying attention??!!.....We stopped to attend a concert by the Civic Orchestra of Tucson at the Proscenium Theatre at the Pima Community College. The symphony played pieces by Suk, Dvorak and Smetana. Some of my favs. You don't know who they are do you? Huh.

And now for a few photos. The week was more than just birds as you will soon see. I look forward to posting a new blog in a few days to tell you about our birding adventures in the southeast. Until then, keep living your dream.....