Peoria, Arizona

Days 44, 45, Saturday, Sunday, March 2 – 4, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, Peoria, AZ

The flowers are blooming in the desert!  We hiked around the park and on the trails along the lake, up to the Visitor Center, and reviewed the exhibits up there. Saturday night we went down to Ellie and Dave’s place, and they treated us all to a pizza dinner.  I had brought coleslaw and blueberry cake, and Ellie also had prepared a big green salad and dessert, so we had plenty to eat!  Sunday was too windy to kayak, but Monday morning before we left we kayaked up to the head of the lake from the kayak launch, a pretty morning!  Herons and cormorants!

View from the Lake Pleasant Visitor Center

Jim paddling up a side channel

Beautiful calm water!

Jan, reflecting.

Jan and Dwayne

Can you see the Great Blue Heron?

Can you see the Great Blue Heron?

Quartzsite, Arizona

Days 41 – 43, Wednesday – Saturday, February 27 – March 2, Rainbow Acres, Quartzsite, AZ

Finally heading to Arizona, stopping in Blythe to update our larder.  (An unpleasant word, since we have been eating quite well on this trip!)  We have stayed at Debi and Larry’s place every year we have traveled!  This year Debi’s Mom Joann is also staying with them. Thursday Jim played desert golf with the guys, and I rode my bike around the neighborhood.  Thursday night we had a barbecue with Debi and Larry, Jan and Dwayne, and Kate and Bib Weigant, who were staying nearby, with everybody contributing food.   

Friday, we drove down to the 665,400 acre Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and drove up Queen Canyon, a rough ride definitely requiring a four-wheel-drive vehicle.  After all the rain this winter, the wildflowers are everywhere, and beautiful, including scorpion flower.  We parked and walked a way up the road, after help from other folks who were up there, and were able to see Bighorn Sheep through the binoculars!  We had great pizza at Silly Al’s in town.

Jan and Dwayne photographing wildflowers in the canyon

Mistletoe in the Palo Verde, and big rocks at Kofa Wildlife Refuge!

Tidy Tips

Our Intrepid Driver

More poppies, growing in the middle of the rocks!

Scorpion Flower!

Poppy, up close and personal!

Ocotillo, green stems and orange blooms!

Bighorn Sheep!  See them?  Hee Hee!  Need binoculars!

Scorpion Weed and a cheerful Cholla!

Wonder what is in those caves?

Two Handsome Old Things, with their arms in the air.

Historic sign on the wall at Silly Al's Pizza Place.

Anaheim, California

Days 38 - 40, Sunday - Wednesday, February  24 - 27, Canyon RV Park, Anaheim Hills, CA

After a drive north through the California hills, with lots of blooming poppies, we arrived at this pretty, green, bird sanctuary in the midst of the highly populated LA basin!  We stocked up on groceries and walked around the campground a bit.  Kids’ parties were using the complicated rope system set up behind our RV.

Wildflower watchers along the freeway!

Adventure Rope System behind our campsite.

So many wildflowers, after all the rain.

Jim and Dwayne have been building this plane on the trip!  Original design!

On Monday, Jim and I rode our bikes down the Santa Ana River Bike Path 12 miles, to the Anaheim Ducks Hockey Stadium.  There is lots of water in the river this year.  We saw ducks and water birds, but not nearly as many as we saw the last time we rode this trail!  Monday evening we went up to see my sister Jean and her friend Dick, had a great meal and a wonderful visit. 

This Santa Ana Bike Trail goes all the way to the ocean!

More flowers, and lots of water this year.  Not as many birds.

On Tuesday I used my new AllTrails app to find a beautiful hike called the Weir Canyon Trail.  Lots of wildflowers on this 3.4 mile loop, not too many people.  Using the app to figure out my way back through various trail intersections, my phone battery went down more precipitously than the trail.  I turned the phone off and back on as I needed it.  When I got back, Jim and I rode east on the trail, up along the freeway, tried to find our way to the other side of the river through a golf course.  Google Maps shows bike cart paths that look like bike paths, dark green!  We went with Jan and Duane to meet Dick and Jean for dinner at a local restaurant.  Tasty!

Scorpion Weed

Poppies

Weir Canyon, wilderness in the heart of the LA Basin!

Phlox

Oceanside, California

Days 32 - 35, Wednesday – Sunday, February 19 - 24, Lake Guajome Regional Park, Oceanside, CA

Down the hill we went, along the coast on 101, beautiful ocean views, then into the San Fernando Valley and south on 405, the San Diego Freeway.  Jim does such a great job driving this big motor home towing the Suzuki behind, up and down hills, on curvy narrow roads, and on freeways through LA traffic!  It is raining in San Diego county, which has an average annual rainfall of 11 inches!  We tried walking on the trails, but the mud cakes on your shoes, making a ring of mud around the shoe.  I missed taking that picture!  We put up our bird feeder, have Golden and White-Crowned sparrows, California Towhees, and Scrub Jays happy to join us. 

Guajome Lake

Thursday, I went for a walk from the campground down the San Luis Rey River Trail, saw a Yellow-Rumped Warbler.  Jim’s feet have been bothering him since running up and down the hill with the hand glider.  We went with J & D down to Joe’s Crab Shack at the harbor In Oceanside, had a great meal.  I had Red Rockfish with Lobster sauce!  Yum!

San Luis Rey River Trail

A great dinner out!

Friday Jim and I went to San Diego Zoo Animal Safari, great landscaping, wonderful to see people working on maintaining populations of animals threatened with extinction.  Jim is interested in condors after watching a nest from the Cornell Ornithological Society website, and we had an interesting chat with a volunteer in that part of the zoo.  We saw a giraffe in the process of giving birth, walking around with the calf’s legs hanging out, and also a kangaroo with a Joey, with the Joey’s legs and head hanging over the edge of her pouch!

Animal Safari Balloon Rides

Beginning of the Tiger Trail

Much-petted Wart Hog.

A new bay elephant at the zoo!

Giraffes down in the plains

Mama Kangaroo with Joey in her pouch, head and legs sticking out!

Lorakeets enjoying honey water.

Oryx, the animal with a crossword puzzle name!

Saturday, once it warmed up a bit, we drove down the Coast Highway, checking out a couple of state park campgrounds on the way, enjoying the ocean views, and headed to the Hang Glider park north of La Jolla, where we watched paragliders for a while.  The wind was not strong enough for hang gliders.  We found an In n Out Burger for lunch.  When we got back, Jim and I rode our bikes about 6 miles down the San Luis Rey River Bike Path, with what seemed like a headwind both ways!  

Looking south toward La Jolla from the Hang Glider Bluff.

Lots of Gliders waiting for wind!

Paraglider hanging in the air!

Sunday morning Jim and Dwayne went to the Antique Tractor and Equipment Museum, a huge place with lots of old equipment. Then we headed up to Anaheim, seeing beautiful California poppies on the hillsides on the way, and lots of cars as people had come out to look at them.

Antiques

Wildflowers and Wildflower Watchers!