About Lake Havasu City (July 25, 2015)

Lake Havasu City is a town in northwest Arizona, located right on the Colorado River, which makes it a huge vacation destination. Lake Havasu City was founded in the early 1960's by Robert McCulloch. He had a dream of turning this area into a resort town. He purchased the London Bridge, which as we all know, was falling down and moved it to Lake Havasu City, where he had it put back together piece by piece. He bought seven or eight arches of the bridge, and was able to reassemble five arches between Lake Havasu City and (what is now) the island. The island used to be a peninsula, but after reassembling the bridge in Lake Havasu City (with mounds of dirt under each arch of the bridge to hold them up while they did the reassembly), McCulloch had a trench dug under the bridge between the city and the end of the peninsula creating what is now known as the channel. The London Bridge connects the town to the new island after the channel was dug. The London Bridge opened for the first time in Lake Havasu City on October 10, 1971, and has been a great attraction for the city ever since.

A view of the bridge from Bridge Water Channel

 Across the lake from Lake Havasu City is the Havasupai Indian Reservation in south eastern California. It has housing and a Casino/restaurant, and I think that's about it.

According to the 2010 census, Lake Havasu City is a town of about 52,500 residents. The annual mean temperature is 75.6 degrees F, but Lake Havasu City holds the all-time record high temperature in Arizona history of 128 degrees F.  We have been there when it was 123 degrees F which is really hot, but luckily it's a dry heat. The humidity can be well below 10% during the heat of the day in the summer months. 

It has just about everything you could need for a fun vacation, or even to live. It has a mall on the north side of town, with a huge array of shops, but it really doesn't have a lot of high end shopping. For high end shopping you would need to go to Las Vegas (about 2 hours north), Phoenix (about 4 hours east) or Los Angeles (about 4 1/2 hours west). It also has a lot of fun restaurants to choose from including fast food, and many sit down restaurants.

There are very few subdivisions in town. Older homes and newer homes of all sizes are interspersed throughout the town. Many of the houses in the town are owned by part-time residents who come into town for vacations or long weekends. Most houses, whether owned by full or part time residence have lots of toys in the garage; boats, sand rails, ATVs, jet skis, paddle boards, kayaks, etc. It is definitely a town where people come to play. And you never know what you might see.

An old military plane flying over the lake

A rowing team practicing

A float plane practicing it's take-offs and landings

An ultralight flying over the lake

Many of the full-time residents make their living based on tourism or boating related activities.  And everyone enjoys the gorgeous sunsets!

I think this speaks for itself!

Boating at Last! (July 24th, 2015)

Yesterday was a lazy day, combined with boat and house maintenance. When you have been away for almost a year you can expect to have a few maintenance issues when you return. Some are planned maintenance and others a little more unexpected. When we took our first showers in the house, we realized that one of the shower heads was almost completely plugged. This is quite common in Lake Havasu City because there are so many minerals in the water. So a trip to Lowes was in order to find a new shower head. The more expected maintenance was changing out the impeller on the boat, which needs to be done about once a year. No big deal to do either of them, but just takes a little time. 

So today now that all of the maintenance is behind us, we finally get to have some fun. We took our time getting around this morning, and then went down by the highway to a Thai restaurant. We were so impressed to find a Thai restaurant in Havasu, and it was pretty darn good, and we were so happy to have found it. We will definitely go back. 

Then after lunch, a mad dash to the lake. It was our first time out in the boat this trip! Everything went smoothly at the boat ramp, and after not having used the boat for almost a year, that's more than you can wish for.

Lake Havasu is an outdoor lovers paradise. In the summer it is the home to all water activities, from boating, to paddle boarding, kayaking, jet skiing and even jet boarding. 

Boats mooring and a paddle boarder on the Channel

In the winter it is known more for it's desert activities like ATV'ing, sand rails and hiking. There are several boat ramps on the lake which all cost a fee. We usually use the boat ramp at Windsor Beach State Park. The fee to load there is $15 per day on Friday and the weekends and $10 on the other days, or you can also buy several different types of annual passes if you are around a lot. Lake Havasu is about 35 miles long and about 5 miles wide on average. One of the things we really like about the lake is that it really doesn't have a speed limit so you get to see some really incredible boats hitting some really crazy speeds.  It is a very busy lake in the summer with visitors coming in from all over the U.S. 

By the time we put the boat in the water the main parking lot at Windsor Beach State Park was full, so I had to park in the overflow parking, but it is very close and easy to get in and out of. The main parking lot has all pull through spaces, and the overflow parking has only back-in spaces.

Today when we left the boat ramp, we headed straight for the channel, where the London Bridge resides. Boats park all along the channel in the summer, and enjoy just hanging out and swimming. Alcohol is allowed on most of the channel, but there is a designated area toward the south end of the channel that is family friendly and alcohol is not allowed.

Moving Around, Mesa to Havasu (July 22nd, 2015)

We got up this morning and started packing up and cleaning up. We are heading to Lake Havasu City today. Lake Havasu City is about 3 hours, 45 minutes north west of the Phoenix area. The drive isn't much to write home about, but as you get into the town of Parker, the lower section of Lake Havasu appears, and the drive becomes much more interesting. I don't know about you, but water always looks pretty and inviting to me. Once you see the lake in Parker, Arizona, it is about another 30 minutes into Lake Havasu City.

When we got into town, we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch. It is definitely a favorite of ours. Since our daughter can't eat the buns because of the gluten, she ordered hers "animal style" which means that the burger contents are wrapped in lettuce instead of served on a bun. It was a fabulous lunch. We haven't had In-N-Out burger in a long time so again we really enjoyed it! 

We took a little time to get unpacked and settled in, and realized that one of the faucets in the house was broken, so we ran to the hardware store to get the necessary part. Lowes didn't have it, nor did Ace Hardware, but they recommended Shoreline Plumbing, and sure enough, they had the part we needed, and didn't even charge us for it. So we gave Lisa $5 and told her to enjoy a coffee or something. The part would have probably only cost us 50 cents, but the fact that she had the part, and took the time to find it for us was worth every penny.

Once we got the faucet fixed, we went to visit some friends of ours that recently moved back to Lake Havasu City. Alan and Linda bought a beautiful house with great garages. Since Lake Havasu City is a tourist town, supported mostly by the Lake, the houses are built with huge garages that can hold lots of toys, including RV's. Alan and Linda's new house has a two car garage, plus an RV garage that is about 18' by 65' with two air conditioners to keep it cool in the summer. It is a beautiful house, and we are so happy for them.

We came home and made chicken parmesan, roasted potatoes and butternut squash for dinner. If you use chex cereal for the coating on the chicken, it is gluten free and still has the crunch that you would expect with chicken parmesan. After dinner we watched the wedding crashers and then turned in for the evening.

Mesa, Arizona (July 21st, 2015)

We had coffee on the porch as usual, and then headed out to explore a little bit. Steve has a friend that bought a house in a new community in Florence, Arizona called Anthem at Merrill Ranch. And has spoken very highly of it, so off we went to see what all the ruckus was about. The town of Florence is about 45 miles southeast of Mesa, and is really out by itself. You drive through a lot of desert and then finally come upon this huge housing development in the middle of nowhere. We went to the clubhouse first to check it out, and it is beautiful! It has all of the amenities that any nice club house would have including an indoor lap pool and a very nice outdoor leisure pool a nice gym and rooms for all kinds of activities.

Next we went to find the model homes. There were a total of 8 model homes, four of more modest quality, and four of higher quality, ranging in size from about 1650 sf to about 2500 sf. All of the houses are ranch style houses, and all are very nice. We found a few that we really liked, but we just can't get over how far out this community is. It is about an hour plus to Sky Harbor International Airport, which isn't bad, but there is absolutely nothing between here and there.

Right outside the community there is a Safeway store, McDonalds, Chinese Restaurant, Italian Restaurant, Hair Salon and Bank, so as long as you are the kind of person that enjoys your community with just what is available right around you, this would be the perfect community for you. Although the club house has a lot to offer, Steve and I feel like we would get bored in this type of community fairly quickly. We need to be able to venture out to more restaurants, stores and activities.

We love the Phoenix area, but what we feel it is lacking are new communities that offer lots of amenities. We love the newer houses because of the high ceilings and open floor plans. A house doesn't have to be very big to be comfortable if it is the right layout. And if the community has enough included, it can keep you busy for a long time. Anthem at Merrill Ranch is this type of community, but it is so far out from town that it looses the appeal of living in the Phoenix suburbs for us.

All in all, it was a fun day exploring another housing option in Phoenix.

Let's Play Ball, Phoenix (July 20, 2015)

It's our 30th anniversary today and Steve's official first day of no work. We got up early and went to the admin building here at Leisure world to try and take care of an insurance issue. We couldn't do anything until the computer lab opens at 10:00, so we went back and had a little coffee and gluten free banana bread for breakfast and waited for our youngest daughter to wake up then went to Recreation Center 2 for some swimming exercise and hot tub. 

Leisure World has two recreation facilities with swimming pools, so you always have a choice.  When the computer lab opened up we went back to Recreation Center 1 (where the computer lab is) to use their printer. We sat by the pool and filled out our paperwork (rough life) then went back to the admin building to fax it over. We had our leftover Thai food for lunch and still have more leftovers. 

Tonight we are going to go to a Diamondbacks baseball game in downtown Phoenix so we left after lunch so we would have time to explore downtown Phoenix before the game. As we got off the highway and approached downtown Phoenix, we were surprised at how small the downtown area was. We started looking around for an area with shops, little restaurants, etc. There are a lot of hotels, and some university buildings, as well as Chase Field and US Airways field but not much else. It appears they are trying to revitalize the downtown Phoenix area by making it a college town. There are a lot of Arizona State University (ASU) buildings going into the downtown area and they are currently building a new ASU law school there. But since it is summer, there are no students and the streets are deserted. There are a few small restaurants in the area, but not much else. So our idea of walking around the downtown area didn't work out very well.

It is mid day in downtown Phoenix and not a sole in sight.  People must hibernate during the heat of the day.

Chase field is a stadium with a retracting roof, and when we first came into downtown it was open. The stadium has real grass, so they have to leave it open to give the grass sunlight. But by the time we entered the stadium at 5:00, the roof was closed, and the stadium was nice and cool. 

You can see that the stadium roof is open as we approach

But closer to game time, they closed it and cooled it off inside.

The temperature outside today is about 108, so the air conditioning is a huge relief. At Coors Field in Colorado, there is always that chance that we will be either baking in the sun, or sitting in rain, but here at Chase Field, it is incredibly pleasant. We walked around the main floor concourse, to see what kinds of food they had for dinner. We had done our research ahead of time, and knew that they had a gluten free stand that sold GF hot dogs and nachos as well as snacks. We really enjoyed just walking around and talking to all of the nice people on the concourse. The most interesting thing we saw in the stadium was a Mountain Side fitness facility. You could look in through the windows and see people working out as we were walking around the stadium. They also have a beautiful pool and hot tub that you can reserve to watch the game if you want. 

Hot tub and swimming pool overlooking the field inside Chase Stadium

We finally decided on some yummy looking hamburgers, and our daughter had loaded nachos for dinner. We found our seats and enjoyed our dinner. 

During the 4th inning, our row of seats all won lottery tickets from the Arizona lottery, so that was a really fun bonus, and we had our moment of fame on the mega-tron. 

Sorry it's blurry, but our moment of fame on the Mega-Tron.

We ended the evening with the Diamondbacks beating the Miami Marlins 3-1. What a great way to end our night!

Mesa Arizona and Joe's Farm Grill (July 19th, 2015)

We got in to Mesa, Arizona late last night after a 13 hour  drive, and went out for some great thai food at Thai House.  We had a quiet afternoon at the house today, and enjoyed some swimming at one of the pools in Leisure World.

The pool at Recreation Center One in Leisure World

We went to Joes farm Grill in Gilbert, Arizona for dinner. It was a nice cool evening so we sat at their outside tables. 

Joes farm grill is one of those restaurants with a great story.  It was originally built in 1966 as a family home, out in the country.  Then, as the family grew up, they decided to turn their home and farm into "Agritopia", which they envisioned as a restaurant coupled to the urban farm, keeping the homestead buildings and preserving the mature trees on the property.  They preserved the 60's era look, while updating it into a modern, mid-century "burger stand", lending the indoor and outdoor spaces, while taking advantage of the peaceful setting created by the large trees on the farm.  

The grounds at Joe's farm grill are beautiful!

Pomegranates

The restaurant to the left, and outside dining

We discovered Joe's Farm Grill on the show "Diner's Drive-in's and Dives" several years ago, and have been coming here ever since.  They offer great healthy and gluten free options in a really fun environment, and when you are finished eating, you can go walk around the farm.  By summer, most of the farm is gone since it is so hot, but they also rent out garden plots to families in the area, so they can grow their own gardens.

One of the family gardens was growing artichokes.

The farm and grape vines.  Not much is growing right now.

We had two salmon platters with grilled asparagus and one ahi tuna sandwich with Asian slaw. These meals came with three sides. Two fries, regular cole slaw and a beet salad. $40 total for all three dinners. 

If you are ever in Gilbert, Arizona, we highly recommend you stop and check this place out.  It's amazing!  

We stopped at Walmart on the way home to pick up more snacks and sunscreen. Watched a little tv before heading to bed.

Gymnastics (July 6th, 2015)

Our youngest daughter was a gymnast when she was young, and always really enjoyed every aspect of the sport. Unfortunately, she wasn’t built to be a gymnast, and eventually had to quit due to injuries. She has recently been commenting on how she missed her flexibility and six-pack from when she used to do gymnastics, and how fun it was to stay fit in that way, so she got on-line and looked for some adult gymnastics classes, and behold, she found one fairly close to our house. She came into my office today, and told me that she was going to try this adult gymnastics class tonight, and asked if I would go with her. When I finally caught my breath, after laughing until I cried, I told her she was crazy and said that she would have to ask her sister to go with her. Of course, sister already had plans, so back in my office she came pleading for me to go with her. I work out five days a week, so I am in fair shape, but I have never in my life done gymnastics, and let’s face it, I am no spring chicken. But after a lot of contemplation, and stressing, I finally told her that I would go and support her, and would hopefully even be able to do some of the stretching, although the gymnastics would be out of the question.

So off we went together to our adult gymnastics class. We got checked in, and I looked around to see me, my daughter and a lot of 20-somethings waiting for our class to begin. Talk about intimidation. Yikes! Was I really going to do this? But again, I told myself that stretching would be good for me.

We started out by jogging lightly around the spring-floor, and then stretched out all of our tight muscles. Ok, this isn’t so bad. So far I am looking like a pro! And then the coach immediately started us on some basic gymnastics moves; forward rolls, cartwheels, handstand to a forward roll (what?) (really?). OK, I was allowed to do donkey kicks across the floor instead of the obligatory handstand to a forward roll. This was a little humiliating, but doable. The coach (Webster) was watching everyone closely to see what their gymnastics levels truly were, so he could gear the class to work for everyone.

He eventually moved us to an area where he set up stations so that we could practice our handstands, cartwheels, round-offs, handstand to forward rolls, etc. When I attempted my round-off, he suggested that I might want to just stick with cartwheels for now. I agreed that he was probably right, since I was only here for the stretching. I did kind of master the handstand to forward roll as long as the big cushy mat was there to catch me. I’m not sure that I’m ready to do this on the spring floor yet though. All of these skills came very naturally for our daughter. It has been about 5 years since she has done anything with gymnastics, but she looked really good; beautiful cartwheels, handstands, back rolls, etc. She was totally in her element.

He then moved us to this waist-high mat, and had us practice jumping backward onto it. The goal was to hurl ourselves backward and get our bodies as far onto the mat as we could. I wasn’t doing real well at this, but again, it was doable, so I was enjoying it. Then he moved us to this funny looking squished circle mat that was about the same height as the mat we had just been using. Again the goal was to hurl our bodies backward as hard as we could onto this circle. If we threw ourselves hard enough, it would roll over, and we would land on our hands and then we could flip our feet over. If we were too delicate, the circle would force us back to standing position where we started. It soon became clear that this circle mat is a self-spotter for learning our back-hand-springs.

The first time I used the circle mat, I threw myself hard enough to make the mat roll over, but I wasn’t ready for that, so he pulled me back to standing position. But I kept trying, and eventually was going clear over, landing on my hands, and then flipping my feet over. Most of my attempts were not even close to graceful, but it was really fun. My last few attempts, I actually landed on my feet. Yay for me!

Our daughter's first attempt on the circle mat was completely different. The coach took one look at her, pulled her off of the circle mat and spotted her in a standing back-hand-spring. She was really nervous, but tried it and did great. A few more tries with Webster spotting her, and then she did one on her own.

Finally it was time for conditioning. Webster told us all to head for the ropes. We were going to climb the ropes. And of course, there were about 10 people sitting around by the ropes just watching us. No, that’s not intimidating. Especially because I couldn’t even climb a rope when I was little, so this certainly wasn’t going to be pretty. Our daughter made it to the ceiling with ease, and came back down. I made one and a half hand pulls, and that was it for me. Oh well, at least I tried. And being the great coach that he is, Webster said that next time we would try for two hand pulls. I love realistic goal setting! We finished off with 60 jack-knife crunches (I think I only did about 50, I was pooped), and then collapsed ourselves in a heap on the floor.

I made it through an entire gymnastics class, still in one piece, although I don’t think I have ever been this tired. I used muscles tonight that I didn’t even know existed. And even though I was the unintentional class clown, I am very proud of myself for trying. I told our daughter that if I can get out of bed tomorrow I might consider coming back with her sometime.