We head out this morning for our week in Arizona, first visiting our friends Tom Nielsen and Kevin Rose in Tucson, and then midweek, headed toward Phoenix to spent the balance of our week with our friends Karen and George (Dell) Sennentz. Abigail picked us up from home at 7:30 A.M.; she is always on time! She inherited that trait from one of her parents. We arrived at Eppley Airfield by 7:50 and were masked up and checked in moments later. This is our first trip together under COVID rules, although Deb and Abigail did take a flight to up-state New York last fall for a wool, sheep and knitting festival. The prospect of wearing a mask for 6-8 hours was not something we were looking forward to.
Our route from Omaha to Denver, a short layover, and then on to Tucson was uneventful. No one was thrown off the plane for rowdy behavior; it wouldn’t have been too bad as both flights were 100% full. The only respite was a cup of coffee and soda on the second leg which allowed for momentary mask removal. Both flights arrived early, and we set foot in Tucson at 1:30 in the afternoon. Tom and Kevin arrived to pick us up in the baggage area and we headed to their home in Oro Valley, some 50 minutes drive away. They have now been in Tucson for three years and have created quite a life for themselves. Their home is beautifully decorated, the pool and spa very inviting and their “son” Liam the Scotty well behaved.
We settled in, headed straight for the patio, and found cocktails to our liking. As we had not eaten all day, Kevin broke out some cheese, crackers, red pepper jelly, nuts and sausage rounds. We sated our appetite and then continued our cocktail hour and caught up on life in general. At dinner hour, Kevin produced a salad, au gratin potatoes, asparagus spears, stuffed mushroom caps and marinated filet steaks. Mark performed the grilling duties. It was a late meal for all involved. Kevin retired first, having spent a lot of effort on the meal. Tom, Deb and Mark stayed up chatting for a while and then as the traveling pair retired for the night, Tom handled kitchen clean-up duties.
We are happy to have arrived; we are looking forward to our week’s vacation in the warmth of Arizona. However, when we left on Saturday, the temps in Omaha were headed towards the 60’s. But snow is also
in the forecast so wed won’t miss that.
