The Spirit of Adventure 2.0

We had a quick trip back to Florida flying out of Phoenix on 1/23 to Tampa and returning on 1/25. We spent 9 hours in the air flying and less that 36 hours on the ground in Florida It definitely wasn't a pleasure trip,... more like taking care of business  For all our friends and family who haven't heard yet, Debbie had another fantastic checkup and Dr. Fernandez feels very confident that this is all behind her. He was very happy about the adventure she is now living and the way she is making the most it. He encouraged her to let her memories of Moffit fade from her daily life . Now it's back to living the good life  Making it a Great Day!!!

After spending the month of December in Tucson as the New Year approached we moved 2 hours north to Mesa & Scottsdale area of Arizona With all the cold weather up north during January we are staying at the Val Vista Village Resort in Mesa for the month of January Although it is a mostly .....older crowd here, they are very active and like to have fun. Happy Hour is from 3:00 to 5:00 Mon. - Sat. at the pool side cabana bar. There is a different live band every day playing different types of music from Country to Rock to Zydeco.  Lots of dancing These folks will line dance to anything... from Alan Jackson to ZZ Top and everything in between. Of course if you had too happy a happy hour you don't have to worry about driving your car home You can always catch a ride in someone's golf cart. People drive their golf carts everywhere. Of course there is the usual tennis, pickle ball and shuffle board 16 shuffle board courts with bleachers for all...

Kitt Peak National Observatory sits on a mountain top 6877 feet above sea level in the Sonoran Desert on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation   They offer a night time star gazing program however all of the moonless nights were sold out so we opted for a daytime tour of the observatory   There are 24 optical telescopes on this mountain top of varying sizes and two radio telescopes   Kitt Peak is a very active observatory The two smaller telescopes pictured above on the left, (white and silver) are tracking and studying Near Earth Objects helping to identify asteroids and larger objects out there that may impact earth Still other telescopes are studying our own solar system and the eight planets and sun that comprise it (remember Pluto is no longer considered a planet)  The monster solar telescope pictured below is used to study the sun and the solar winds and radiation that it emits into space and how it affects earth...

 All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and remember to sign up for automatic notification of blog updates Across the valley Northeast of Tucson in the Santa Catalina Mountains lies Mount Lemon and the southernmost ski resort in the US We took the drive up the 27 mile winding road on Mt Lemon out of the desert and up into the evergreens and cooler temps Debbie kept looking for Big Horn Sheep but found none The many rock formations and rocky cliffs were perfect for rock climbing South of Mt Lemon is Sabino Canyon During the Great Depressio n , the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) built Sabino Dam and nine bridges over Sabino Creek in an attempt to build a road to the top of Mount Lemmon. The road travels about 4.5 miles into the canyon, but was not completed due to the steep terrain at the end of the canyon. Today there is a tram that will take you 4.5 miles into the cany...