Downtown Fun!

 

Listening to the crashing ocean waves all night long was pretty neat!  Some of them were extremely loud and I would have to stop and think where I was actually at!!

 

Glenn and I slipped over to the Royal Beach Club for a quick breakfast on their beautiful patio before taking a walk on the beach - unlike a lot of beaches we've been to, this beach was nice and long and we walked over a mile before it was time to change into swimsuits and enjoy the sunny weather and the pools!!

 

Because Carol and Vern were only staying 3 nights, we decided to journey into town to hit a few places - we all piled into a large van and headed into Cabo where the guys met their fishing captain for the next day and the girls went shopping!!  The anchor made for a great photo op!

 

Drinks at the Oyster Bar next to the marina was not only fun but quite entertaining as we people watched - quite the characters in this town!!

And the girls just had to sit by this old hombre sitting outside a store!

We me the guys at the Gigging Marlin for drinks and chips - lots of cute stuff to look at on the walls!

And we ended up at Cabo Wabo - a must place to visit if you're in Cabo!!

Al and Kris - Jim and Brenda

Vern and Carol - Sandy and Tom

Glenn, Patty and Leonard

Our van driver picked us up at 8:30 and we were whisked back to the resort where we ate a late dinner and headed to our rooms since all the guys had a 5:30 wake up call for fishing the next day!!

Oh, did I forget to mention that the "Grans" had their farm meeting in the morning??  We couldn't have picked a better spot to hold it - right by the beach!!

If It's Warm & Sunny, We Must Be In Mexico!!!

 

Cabo - the perfect place to spend our February vacation with family!!  And this year was just a little different as friends from the Soldier area joined us - Carol and Vern, Sandy and Tom, and Al and Kris!!  We were a total of 12 as the 5 couples from Iowa joined Glenn and I at the Denver airport and all flew to Cabo together!  Sunny beautiful weather when we landed, a quick trip through customs and we were off in the vans to our destination, the Westin!

 

Check out the view from our balcony!!  One of the BEST views we have ever had of the ocean and the white sand!!!

 

 

 The grounds were immaculate, the pools were gorgeous and the architecture is out of this world!!

 Yes, you SHOULD be here!!!!

 Our room is on the 7th floor which is the bottom floor of this arch, about 3 windows in!!

 Very nice rooms, wonderful balconies and all the little perks of being "preferred" guests!!  It was pretty confusing on the first day, trying to figure out the elevators and where to go but I think we finally have it down!  The Royal Beach Club was once again ours to use with special food and drinks at different times of the day!!  It DID take us a while to find the place and just today we found a quicker way to get there!  You can't believe all the steps in this resort!!

That's it for today - time to dress for dinner and a photo shoot!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Flowers from my wonderful hubby!!!  They were waiting for me Tuesday when I returned from lunch with friends - that way I could enjoy them for an extra couple of days since we're heading out on vacation early Saturday morning!!!

I really feel SPECIAL!!!!

Suite Retreat 2013

Hard to imagine it's been a year since I blogged about the last Suite Retreat!!  But the time had come again to head to Co. Springs with all 3 girls to scrapbook the weekend away!  To prepare myself for all that sitting, I decided to have a massage before heading over - since my massage gal has now moved to the Springs, I booked an appt with her and it was fun to see her new location!

The highlights of Suite Retreat:

1)  The girls having the entire room all set up so when I arrived after my massage, all I had to do was to unload and unpack my things!

2)  Jessi and I running out to get a GOOD cup of coffee and after consulting her IPhone for the place, discovering it wasn't there any more!! (so we settled for Starbucks - as you know, not my favorite!)

3)  Drinking Woo Woo's at Happy Hour with guacamole and chips and the next night laughing our heads off as the girls tried Dirty Shirley's and poor substitutes for Sex on the Beach - I had wine!

4)  Eating catered Texas Roadhouse (with LOTS of yummy rolls) and Q'doba!!

5)  Texting and phoning the guys - and in between playing scrabble on our IPhones.

6)  Jill getting super excited about switching to "digital" scrapbooking and me using up ALL the pictures I had brought to scrapbook 4 vacations!

7)  Coordinating:  Gary working, Glenn and Brad going to a meeting in Denver, getting Rayna to a basketball game as she was filling in, a sitter for Kylan, sitters for Evan and Kenzie and Gary's folks coming in unexpectedly!!!

8)  Heating up food in a microwave that smelled like burnt popcorn!!!

All in all, one great weekend and lots of pages scrapped!!!

Glenn spent Saturday night in Denver and then headed to Co. Springs early Sunday to watch Rayna play in her tournament - I headed over as soon as I checked out of Embassy Suites and got to see her play 4 games!!!  She's one awesome player!!!

Hiking Camelback Mountain

The 3 friends I went to Phoenix with are all hikers!  So it was decided to hike this small mountain which I didn't think would be any problem since the TOP of the mountain was 2700 ft elevation and I live at 9500 ft!!!  But I wasn't quite prepared for the rockiness of it and the high stepping involved!!

 

Amy's daughter lives in Phoenix and Marilyn's daughter in law lives in Flagstaff so both of them joined us!  It was cloudy and overcast which made it a perfect day for hiking!!

Check out the view!!  Although Karen and I didn't go to the very top, we still had some awesome views!!  Check down further for more pics of hiking - darn Blogger - what am I going to do with them when they can't download my pictures properly!!!!

The hike was fun and we relaxed again in the hot tub when we got back - took some nice pictures before Amy left to spend the night with her daughter and then the 3 of us hung out awhile, watched a few Super Bowl commercials and then had the shuttle take us to our evening meal destination - Mexican food at The Tepee!!

It was by far the best meal we all had on the trip and probably some of the best Mexican I have ever tasted!!  The margaritas were excellent and the food was even better!!!

Marilyn said goodbye Sunday night as her flight left quite early on Monday!!  And after packing up and having another wonderful breakfast, Karen's sister came to fetch her for the day and my friend Jo came to get me!!

I haven't seen Jo in probably 3 years, although we do phone each other once in a while!!  We stopped and had coffee in their home town of Gilbert and then headed to her house!!  They have an orange tree AND a lemon tree in their backyard, full of fruit!!  I was impressed!!

Jo and I hardly stopped to take a breath in the 5 hours we were together - it was SO GOOD to see her and visit - but the time was just TOO short so we must plan on getting together again soon!!

And by late afternoon it was time to take the shuttle to the airport to catch our flight home - no drama this time - and we landed in Denver to quite a little colder weather than where we had been!!!  By the way, did I mention the cost of this flight???  $44.00 round trip - you just can't beat that!! 

Thanks Karen, Marilyn and Amy for a wonderful time - I love the decision we made to do a trip every 2 years so let the planning begin!!!

Desert Botanical Gardens

I love cactus - if I ever had a 2nd home in the southwest, the landscaping would be cactus!!

 

The shuttle dropped us off at the gardens after we had a delicious breakfast at the Hilton, and this time I lathered up with sunscreen!!  The day was gorgeous - bright and sunny!!

 

The first thing we saw was this glass cactus, made by Chihuly - I would have loved to have that in my backyard but at $750,000 for the 3 of them, I don't think so.............

 

The gardens were divided into different sections and most of the cactus were marked - I couldn't stop snapping pictures as they were all so intriguing!!

Also along the different paths were sculptures - quite unique - quite different - pretty exotic looking for our taste!!!  Here's Amy and Marilyn with me!

I love this picture with the mountain in the backdrop which I'm assuming is Camelback!

And once again Blogger has mixed up the pictures so the one below is a neat sculpture that we saw as we got off the light rail on our way to eat that evening.

Back to the gardens, this is a sundial - love it!!!

And here are the tall tall cactus that are so fun to look at!!

We had an enjoyable lunch at the gardens and after walking around for about 3 hours or more, I believe we saw it all!!

Back at the hotel, we kept seeing lots and lots of parents with older children so I checked out the sign where they all were - it was auditions for the youngster Hispanic version of The Voice!!!  It sure would have been fun to sit in on them!

After relaxing in the hot tub for awhile, we all headed to the light rail to find this fantastic place to eat that was recommended - it was a cute place called 4 Peaks Brewery and we did get to sit outside which was a plus but the food wasn't great and the music was loud - more for the college crowd I guess!!  So we hopped back on the light rail and headed to Mill Street where I decided I was in the mood for cheesecake - but do you think I could find ANY PLACE that served it - NOT!!!  2nd best was a brownie sundae at none other than the Mellow Mushroom Pizza place!!  It was excellent and a perfect dessert for a perfect day!!

Phoenix Bound

4 friends bound for Arizona - meeting in the warm city of Phoenix for some fun and relaxation - once all Woodland Park residents but now only 2 flying in from Colorado - Kansas and North Carolina are now the homes of the other 2 and it's been 5 years since we've all been together!!  We're all ready for a great 4 day weekend!!

 

3:00am came early and I headed into W. Pk to meet Karen so we could head to the Denver airport!  Gosh, it's dark at that time of the morning but we made it safe and sound!!  A cup of Caribou Coffee woke me up and soon we were Phoenix bound!!

 

The beverage cart had just went past us when an elderly man in front of us stood up - he was all bent over standing in the aisle and he looked really sick - he couldn't get through of course because the beverage cart was in the aisle and a few seconds later he pitched forward and was on the floor!!  There was a doctor on board so he jumped up to help and they immediately got him hooked up to some oxygen - he laid on the floor for a long, long time before they got him up and took him to the back of the plane - when we landed the paramedics came on and took him off in a wheelchair - drama on the flight - I sure hope he was OK!

 

The shuttle transported us to the Hilton - beautiful grounds, nice swimming pool and hot tub but severely outdated rooms!!  We were all 4 sharing a room to save on costs and the suite part was nice having an extra room to hang out in!!  But the couch and chair needed some TLC and by that evening, we had negotiated a lower rate due to the condition of the furniture!

 

Marilyn soon arrived and the 3 of us headed to the light rail to ride it into Tempe for some lunch!  We had a great afternoon together and walked around the Mill Street area and to the Tempe Beach Park!  It was so nice out that I actually got sunburned!

 

Amy met us late afternoon and we headed to Old Scottsdale to eat at the "Italian Grotto" - we had some excellent wine and food before we spent some time just walking around and enjoying the area!

It was hard to get to bed at a decent hour because we all had so much to talk about!!  But fatigue soon won out and SOME of us slept pretty good!!!

The Hilton served an excellent breakfast (which was included in our room rate) and soon we were all set to head to the Botanical Gardens!

To be cont'd...............