There's Gold in Them Thar Hills (Tuesday, April 25th, 2017)

The weather has been so beautiful here, 85 to 95, although it has been bit windy the last few days.We picked our friends Alan and Linda up at 9:30 this morning to go for a desert ride.  They are much more "boating" people than "RZR" people, so it was fun to have the chance to take them out.  They live on the north side of town, so we decided to start there, heading into the desert on the far north side.  We then made our way east, heading up around the top of the city.  There are trails everywhere!

We love riding along the crests of the hills because there's always great views.

Part way into our journey, we came across the foundation of an old cabin.  It's now full of trash that people have collected from the desert, but we thought it was interesting that it was just out there all alone in the middle of the desert.



As we went a little farther along the trail, we came across an old abandoned mine.  We're sure it's left over from the gold rush days.

We explored it for a few minutes, but the shaft going down has been filled in with debris, so there wasn't too much to see, so we continue on our way.

  

It wasn't long before we came across another area that looked interesting.  It was a small area marked with rocks and fenced in.  So we turned around to go see what it was.



It was another mine shaft, only this time fenced in.  We threw a couple of rocks into it to see how deep it was, and there was quite a delay before they hit bottom.  We're guessing it is about 35-40 feet deep.

I'm sure at some point in time there were some beams or something that allowed them to get in and out of this very deep shaft, but there was no sign of anything any more.

We made our way up around the Foothills Estates that lies up above the city, with a plan of re-entering the city on the south side, but every time we found a trail leading back into the city, it was blocked at the road.  

We finally found our way out of the desert and headed into town for some lunch at In-N-Out Burger.  It was fun exploring the abandoned gold mines that we found along the way.

Friends Come to Visit (Thursday, April 20th, 2017)

One of the great things about living in a vacation town is that people love to come visit.  Our friends John and Myrna came in for a few days and we did our best to show them the highlights of the town.  Of course, the London Bridge and the channel are the biggest attractions.

Steve made fun of me for the next picture.  He said "With all of the beautiful boats that are on the channel this time of year, you had to take their picture in front of the aluminum fishing boat?".  Quite honestly, I was looking further down the channel and saw lots of pretty boats!  I just managed to miss the one that was right under my nose.

We also took them for several RZR rides around town and out in the desert.  I think John enjoyed that the most!

The weather was perfect the entire time they were here, and we spent most of our evenings just hanging out on our back porch.  We would sit outside from around 5:00 to 11:00 each evening and just enjoy how perfect it was.  Although they ended up working a lot while they were here, we hope they had as much fun as we did.

Now that it is warming up, we are starting to see more gnats and flies in the evenings, but they aren't bad, and of course, still no mosquitoes so being outside was really pleasant!

We have been down here for two months now.  February 15th through April 20th, and we haven't had to run heat or air conditioning yet.......not even once! That's pretty perfect weather!

Another Beautiful Sunset (Monday, April 17th, 2017)

There was another gorgeous sunset tonight, but instead of going out in the desert, I just took pictures from the hill in our back yard. I'm not sure the desert pictures from last night are any better, but they were definitely more of an adventure to take. 

  

Now that the sun has set, we are just sitting out on our back porch enjoying the evening.  It is 9:00 and 82 degrees with a very slight breeze.  This place is amazing!

We don't miss shoveling snow.  We don't miss the crazy yard work that we had in Colorado, and we don't miss the big house.  The only thing we miss from Colorado is the people we left behind!

Easter in Havasu (Saturday and Sunday, April 15th and 16th, 2017)

It's Easter weekend, and we're in Lake Havasu City, away from family for the first holiday ever.  It's a weird feeling!  

We decided to go boating with a bunch of friends on Saturday.  A total of six couples on four boats.  We headed out to a quiet cove on the California side about 1/2 way down the lake, and tied  all of the boats together for a relaxing day on the water. 

Steve and I hitched a ride with our friends Tim and Cheryl, and we brought lunch for everyone as our repayment for the day.  Tim has a small propane grill that he set up to grill the burgers and dogs for everyone.

Girl Time!  It was an unplanned turquoise day!  Don't we look cute!

The weather was perfect, and we really enjoyed the day with all of these great people!  The longer we stay here, the more people we are getting to know, and the more fun we are having, but we know that tomorrow will be hard to be away from home.

Sunday morning we decided that the best way to make Easter feel like Easter would be to make an Easter brunch for two.  So we put together a nice healthy vegetarian quiche.

While it was baking, we received a facetime call from our youngest daughter and Steve's parents, who are all spending the day together. It was the great to talk to them and "see" them.  It almost made it feel like we were there!  Oh man is this hard!  

But once our quiche was done, we sat on our back porch in the perfect Arizona weather and had our Easter brunch, just the two of us.

But the day was still feeling empty.  We are so family oriented, and have had family at every holiday since we were married 31 years ago, so if this post sounds like I'm a little home sick today, it's probably because I am!  But I am also so thankful for the time we spent with all of our family so recently!

After doing a little bit of cross stitching, and Steve playing with his guitar, we decided it was time to get out of the house for awhile. So we jumped in the Polaris RZR and headed to the desert.  We rode the hills for awhile, then decided to head back into town and out onto the island.  The day was beautiful, and being out of the house seemed to help lift my sadness a bit.

I even drove a little bit, although I prefer to just ride.

We have decided that we love having the RZR registered as street legal.  We enjoy driving around town just about as much as we enjoy riding in the desert or the dunes.  It is just a great way to get outside and see what's going on around town.

We finally headed back to the house where we enjoyed a yummy steak salad for dinner, complete with sprouts that I have been growing in my jar.  

After dinner it looked like we might have a nice sunset, so we jumped back in the RZR and headed back up to the desert to see how it looked.  Since the desert is only about 5 minutes from our house, it's so easy to do.



The bugs were out thick but there were no mosquitoes, so it wasn't a big deal.  We don't have mosquitoes here, ever, and that makes me very happy!

The sunset did end up being really good, so we just kept moving around and taking pictures from different angels.  It was a lot of fun watching darkness fall from the desert.

As we started heading back to town, the lights were coming on in the city.  I love seeing the city lights.

We also enjoyed seeing a few ocotillos in the dark of Easter night. We can't grow Easter lilies here, so the ocotillo will just have to do.

Today we realized that we can't have our cake and eat it too.  In order to enjoy the simple life and the beautiful weather that we love about Lake Havasu, we will have to miss out on a few holidays with our family.  We also realize that even if we were in Colorado full time, the kids will probably eventually leave, and we will still be longing for them during the holidays. It's definitely a point of transition for us, and hopefully it will get easier as time goes on.

Vietnamese Coffee (Thursday, April 13th, 2017)

Why is it that every country in the world makes great coffee, except for the U.S.  (We have finally caught on with our fancy coffee shops).

When we were in Vietnam, we loved the coffee enough that we bought ourselves two Vietnamese coffee makers.  However, we have been so busy with the move and getting settled in that we haven't had time to use them yet. So we finally pulled them out and made some Vietnamese coffee.  

It is a very slow process, so once you make the coffee, you have to take the time to really enjoy it.

Place the metal container on top of your cup. Put about two tablespoons of coffee grounds go into the small metal containers, and tamp them down lightly with a small disk with a light twisting motion, leaving the disk on top of the grounds. Then you add enough water to moisten the grounds.  Once the grounds have absorbed the water, you add more water, to about 1/4 inch below the top of the metal canister.  If you've done it correctly, the water will drip through the grates on the bottom of the metal container at a rate of about 1 drop per second.  

This is where the anticipation comes in.  It takes awhile for the coffee to brew in this slow, torturous manner.

When it's finally done, you add a little sweetened condensed milk, and you have what I fondly refer to as heaven in a cup!

It is definitely worth the wait!

We must have liked it!  

So good!