Arizona 2020, Saturday, March 7, 2020

Morning in North Hollywood is like morning in Tucson or morning in Anthem; mild and sunshine.  We lazed in a for a while, recovering from the night before, but were up and drinking coffee by 8:00. As today is our final travel day, Deb and I showered and packed our bags. Meg took Addison the dog for her morning walk and Ed showered and cleaned up.  By 10:30, we loaded up the car and headed out for our day’s adventures.

We started at Porto’s Cafe and Pastry, a legendary shop in Burbank.  Nothing like this exists in our fair city.  Bread, pastries and cakes as far as the eye can see. Queue tapes set up and people standing in line to order their coffee, pastry and sandwiches then to a table for delivery. Separate lines for whole cakes only!  Our wait to order at the counter was only 15-20 minutes.  By the time we left around noon, the lines were out the door and down the block.  We are told it is like this all day on the weekends, and similar in the mornings during the week. The baked goods on offer were amazing.  We had some danish, a Cubano Sandwich (as the founder/ownership family emigrated from Cuba,) an egg omelette and cheese sandwich on a croissant, and seven of their famous “potato balls,” these being a spiced ground beef center with some veggies, surrounded by a layer of mashed potato, then breaded, and deep fried. An amazing and tasty two inch diameter treat.

We then journeyed next door to the Rocket Fizz store, filled with unusual bottled soda pop and all the candies and sundry sweets from our youth - Beecham’s and Black Jack chewing gum, circus peanuts, BB Bats candies, wax lips, etc.  Purchases were made.

From there we headed to Descanso Botanical Gardens, a 126acre site in the Pasadena area that was crafted from a former estate.A pleasure to find that our Nebraska Arboretum Membership was reciprocal, so no entry charge for Deb and I.  Ed and Meg enjoyed themselves so much that they bought a membership for future trips, thereby recovering their entry fee.  We wandered the gardens for two hours, enjoying especially the camellia gardens started by original owner E.M. Boddy and enlarged significantly by the purchase in 1942 of two large Japanese American nursery stocks form citizens forced to “relocation camps.” Boddy paid for the nursery stock, and enlarged his own collection, serving as the base for the current collection.  In addition there are areas of California native plants, a grove of Coastal Live Oak trees, hundreds of years old, and a sprinkling of youngish redwoods.  We saw nowhere near all of the gardens and look forward to a future visit.

Leaving the Descanso, we then headed to the Glendale-Pasadena-Burbank Airport for our final flights home.  Bidding a hug filled goodbye to Ed and Meg, we passed quickly through TSA, spent an hour nursing a glass of red wine, and then boarded our Southwest flight to Las Vegas, and eventually home to Omaha.  Darcy and Maria had dropped off our car at the airport earlier in the evening and sent us a photo of its location; we picked it up and got to parking lot check out at 12:06, and arrived att home by 12:25.  We stumbled in, bid goodnight to Harry and Sushi, and tumbled into bed.  Our trip over, we were tired, but had great memories of the friends and family we spent time with, the wonderful conversations, and all the new sights we enjoyed.  We will definitely make the Southwest a standing

destination in our future travels.

Arizona 2020, Friday, March 6, 2020

I will say, there is something rather seductive about this southwest American weather.  I’m sure after time it could become monotonous, as I love the change of season in the Midwest, but I can take a few weeks of this.  Sunny and 72F in North Hollywood this morning.  Meg is up and out for a long, full day of work, but Ed has taken the day off to be our tour guide / escort for today.

We leave a little after ten for the drive towards downtown Los Angeles and the museum district.  Ed has obtained tickets to the Broad Museum for a 12:30 entry. Eli Broad, pronounced b-r-long O-d, a mega real estate developer, together with his wife Edythe, has amassed one of the largest collections of modern art, emphasizing American artists.  They then donated this museum, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, to the City of Los Angeles.  It is located across from the LA Museum of contemporary Art and next door to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Frank Gehry designed home of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra among other groups.

The Broad building alone is an architectural masterpiece  designed by the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and, as we will soon learn the collection is astounding.  We arrive downtown around 11:00 and secure parking.  We then find a lovely restaurant Vespaio next door to the Broad and order lunch consisting of an arugula-roast beet-goat cheese salad topped with some slices of chicken breast, a roast beef panini on a baguette and a pastrami-cheese-coleslaw panini, also on a baguette.  All accompanied by a glass of Tuscany red wine.  Most satisfying. Then on to the Broad.

There is no way to satisfyingly describe this collection, only about a third of it currently on display.   Artists include Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Basquiat, Mark Bradford, Ellen Gallagher, Mark Tansey, and many, many others. We spent over two hours here and could have spent more time.  A mandatory stop at the gift shop completed, we recovered the car from the car park and headed to our next stop.  We drove to the Hollywood Street of Stars to find the newly installed star of our favorite - Susan Stamberg of NPR fame,

then on to an afternoon cocktail at the world famous Chateau Marmont, high in the hills. We alighted at the Chateau and the valet whisked away the mud encrusted Honda Accord (Ed’s current vehicle, recently returned from their trip to Mexico - hence the dirt and mud.) We secured a spot in the lounge, not the patio as we probably were not famous enough. Ed had a concoction called “The Good, the Bad and the Hombre,” Deb had what she described as the best dirty martini in Hollywood, and I had a decent California Pinot Noir.

Our brush with the stars over, we then went out to recover the Honda.  As I looked in the garage noting all the Porches, BMWs and an antique Morgan right by the entry, I wondered out loud how they could allow a dirty Honda in the garage.  Well the answer is they didn’t.  It was parked out on the drive next to a service truck! No discount from the valet charge, though.

Next we headed on an amazing 45 minute drive up Laurel Canyon, through the Mt. Olympus subdivision, seeing these wonderful hillside homes and mansions tucked along the winding roads.  We arrive back in North Hollywood and rest up for the evenings activities.  Meg returned at 6:55 and we changed and hopped into our Lyft ride share for the trip back up into the hills to the famous Castaway-Burbank Restaurant, dubbed the best date night restaurant in the world.  The venue sits atop a mountain in Burbank, overlooking the entire San Fernando valley.

Absolutely stunning view.  We dined on wedge salads, braised short ribs, wagyu beef tenders, and wild mushroom pappardelle pasta.  The food was excellent, the cocktails generous and the wine very tasty. But the real attraction was the San Fernando Valley, laid out like shining stars thrown down to cover the valley floor. Unforgettable.

We secured another Uber ride back to North Hollywood, and tumbled into bed around 11:30, totally immersed as we were in the Southern California mystique for the day.

Arizona 2020, Thursday, March 5, 2020

This morning in Anthem breaks warm, partly cloudy and gorgeous, although the high today is expected to climb to 83F.  Today is another travel day for us so we arise, perform all the standard ablutions and pack our bags.  Breakfast is another newly uncovered Danish Kringle from the ever thinning freezer section (the theme continues) and coffee.

This morning we spend time on the patio, admiring the flora and watching the hummingbirds feed.  At some point, Dell breaks out two hummingbird feeder rings for us to try.  The idea is to fill the small red flower thimbles with sugar water and then sit very quietly with your arm outstretched.  The manufacturer claims that the hummingbirds will come right up and feed off the ring on your finger.  We believe they will work, as the tiny little fluttering jewels have been buzzing all about us the entire time we have been here.  Deb, Dell and Karen try their luck as I sit quietly in the corner, camera ready.  Unfortunately, no takers this session, although they are still flying near and drinking at the feeders directly overhead.  Maybe some time in the future, but today is not the day.

We lunch on sandwiches, hard boiled eggs and fresh strawberries, then hop in the red Taurus for the hourlong drive to Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.  We bid adieu to our dear friends, planning to see them again in April when they travel north to visit their daughters and family in Kearney, Nebraska.  We breeze through TSA security and encounter no lines,  although the buzzer sounds after I pass through the metal detector. They pull me aside and ask for my cellphone after it passes through the x-ray machine.  They take it over to some other machine for a moment and then hand it back to me and send us on our way.  I later learn that it was a random check and they pushed my phone under a sniffer for explosive detection.  Not sure why this happened, but I was assured it was totally random and not to worry.  I, of course, was sure that it was probably something I had written regarding you-know-who and I was being persecuted.  Deb assured me I was being paranoid, and calmed my jitters by dragging me into the bar nearest our gate and calming me with a healthy pour of Pinot Noir. Sensible girl, that one.

Our flight was on time and 90 minutes later we were on the tarmac at Glenwood-Burbank-Pasadena Airport.  This small, two terminal airport is a throwback to another era.  I can’t remember when I have alighted from a flight in a normal sized jet to walk down a set of steps to the tarmac and walked in ground level to the gate. We stepped outside and crossed to the baggage claim, also outside but covered and collected our bags.  Our original plan as to order an Uber for the drive to Ed’s apartment in North Hollywood, but he called to say his conference was over and he would collect us.  We basked in the Southern California sunshine for 15 minutes or so and then here comes Ed, zooming up in his Honda to collect us for the 15 minute drive to his apartment.

Meg had left us a bottle of wine, some cheeses, crackers and salami along with a lovely note.  Ed changed and we spent the next few hours catching up, polishing off the wine and cheese and just gabbing.  At 7:00 we walked around the North Hollywood Arts & Entertainment district and ended up at our destination of St. Anne’s restaurant, where Meg met us.  A lovely restaurant serving “American classics with a Latin touch” and craft cocktails, with a lively action going on.  Noisy for a boomer like me to hear with all the ambient noice, but eventually it cleared a little as the bar and snack crowd dispersed.  We enjoyed a cocktail or wine and dined on some excellent food: a scratch made mac and cheese, some caci et peppe pasta, and an entree of mac and cheese wrapped in a flat waffle cake like roll topped with deep fried chicken, and, for me,  a special blend hamburger, which, topped only with aioli and a slice of tomato on a pretzel style bun, was amazingly delicious - umami filled  and succulent.

We caught an Uber the six blocks home, and then sat around talking and reminiscing.  Our time clocks are suitably messed up with the change in time zones but we tumbled into bed around 10:00 PST.  A nice quiet introduction to the Hollywood / LA area.

Arizona 2020, Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Another clear sunny day in Anthem. This could almost become monotonous if it wasn’t so comfortable.  A morning temperature of upper 40’s or low 50’s and a high of 70. Today we sat around the outside table, sipping our coffee and rehashing the Super Tuesday results.  None of us are yet ready to pick Joe, Bernie, or necessarily give up on Elizabeth, but we are united in our overriding goal concerning “he who shall not be named.”

Dell and I went to the grocery store this morning to replenish the larder; it is senior day on the first Wednesday of the month at the local Kroger outlet with an extra 10% discount for those who qualify, the place was packed with old, slow people pushing their walker/shopping carts around, clogging the aisles. Some people never learn to drive on the right side of the lane, leaving room for others to pass - they believe it their deity given right to stop in the middle of the aisle while they search for whatever they think they need, or until they remember what it was they were looking for! We returned $130.00 poorer, but will be stocked for most of the next few weeks.

Upon return, we loaded the shelves while Karen finished her ablutions and Deb hassled with an airline regarding the weather related delays around Houston stranding a few clients headed for cruises - brave clients still not afraid to travel in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic are few and far between, they need to be served!

We then headed out in the red Taurus for Cave Creek Arizona, a quick 17 miles away.  Because Dell and Karen volunteer at the local Democratic Party offices, our goal was to perhaps find a ceramic pottery donkey to grace the Dem office front entry and also to dine at our favorite local restaurant, The Horny Toad.  We sat on their patio along with all the other aging hippies on winter vacation and dined on patty melts, tuna melts and taco salad, washed down with soda or Dos Equis Lager. An enjoyable afternoon meal in the cool sunshine (actually cool enough that we were forced to purchase a souvenir hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with the Horny Toad logo.  We then stumbled around the rock shops and pottery junk stores looking for the ephemeral donkey; never did find it but did successfully ward off all the junk on offer.

We returned to sit in the sunshine reading our Kindles, napping in front of the TV, or sneaking into the bedroom for a post-prandial snooze.  Cocktail hour finds us out on the patio, sitting in front of a freshly laid fire in the kiva, talking about kids and grandkids.  During our grocery shopping escapade earlier in the day, Dell and I had picked out a two pound slab of salmon which he laid on the grill wrapped in foil. Perfectly cooked, we accompanied this with a glass of wine, salad and cooked spinach - for us a really healthy dinner.  One would think that we were all well rested, but by 9:30 the crew began stumbling into their bedrooms, one by one, signalling an end to another “exhausting” day.

Arizona 2020, Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Tuesday in Anthem starts sunny and stays that way.  Another beautiful day in Paradise; actually, Paradise AZ is some 25 miles from here, but you get the idea.  This morning Dell and Karen break out the Danish Kringle they have frozen since Christmas for our breakfast (I see a theme of freezer clean out here,) and it was very tasty.  No eggs today as we are going to a breakfast place to meet friends for lunch.

We lazed around, drinking coffee, showering, catching up and talking about kids and grandkids.  Promptly at 11:00 (Dell is in charge of scheduling, so there is a certain punctuality) we loaded up the red Ford Taurus and headed for Scottsdale.  We met our friends from Omaha, Jan and Frank Hrasky who spend the first three months of the year in Fountain Hills, AZ, at the First Watch Restaurant.  This is a chain operation out of Sarasota Florida, of which there is one in Omaha.  Great breakfast/lunch food, including today’s eggs, potatoes and toast, sausage biscuit and gravy, waffles and eggs, and a special sandwich, the BLT&E, which is a BLT with an over-hard cooked egg on each half.  I think I have now found my new go-to sandwich!

We really enjoyed catching up with Frank and Jan, as we rarely see them in Omaha - but always see them when we visit Dell and Karen.  After lunch we bid farewell and head to our favorite store in Scottsdale, Copenhagen Furniture.  This store is huge, chock full of Modern and Scandinavian design furniture.  We spend over an hour wandering, daydreaming, and getting ideas for stuff we probably never will buy or make but giving us great dreams.

Then back to Anthem in time for a nap, some reading and afternoon cocktails of Aberfeldy Scotch Whisky and Dirty Vodka Martinis.  Promptly at 6:00 (Dell again) he puts the hamburgers on the grill and we enjoy the burgers and a salad.  Then Dell and I climb into the hot tub spa for a wonderful warm float - kind of looks like a couple of onions pickling in sauce.

We then spend the rest of the evening watching the Democratic returns on this Super Tuesday, retiring at our normal 9:30.  We are an unexciting and predictable bunch, but the weather was perfect all day and we had a very restful time.

Arizona 2020, Monday, March 2, 2020

Another cool Tucson morning that turns into sunshine before we even have breakfast of toast, cereal, and the obligatory coffee. We packed up and finished laundry duty as today is a travel day.  Kevin is trying to flex his Master Gardener muscles here in the desert and so is trying to learn about the plantings in their yard.  To this end, he contacted the local Extension office and made arrangements for a visit this afternoon from a local Master Gardener to help identify what they have.  So, Kevin made a diagram of the house and yard and this morning, he and I went out to locate all the various plants around the property for the visitor to help identify.  By the time we were done, we had logged 55 separate plants in the front and rear yard.  After this afternoon, Kevin has promised to sent me a copy of the list so I can learn what all is there.

We are urging him to sign up for the local Extension Master Gardener classes so he can become a desert expert.  Sounds like a lot of fun.

After Liam took Tom for his morning walk, we traveled to lunch at Carlotta’s Mexican restaurant, a referral from Ann Hosford. Happy to report that the food was excellent and very affordable, although adding the beers and margaritas did run the tab up a bit. Good recommendation Ann - thanks.

At 1:15 we loaded our bags into the rental for the drive back up to Phoenix for the next phase of our winter vacation.  Rather than battle with the Airport Car Rental terminal again, we located a Hertz Rental location north off the Interstate and drive there to drop the car.  This saves Dell over an hour of drive by avoiding a pick up at the airport.  Something else this elder couple learned - we wasted $425 on a car rental, which we will never do again when we next visit.  All of our friends have a vehicle, and there is a Phoenix airport to Tucson shuttle at $45 per person.  Since all we did was drive 110 miles to Tucson, park the car in the driveway, and then drive it back, it was a waste of money.  Oh well, spend and learn.

We arrived at the car rental agency at 3:15, just as a rain shower was starting, so watches the desert green up.  Dell arrived about 20 minutes later to pick us up and deliver to their lovely home in Anthem.  Karen stayed at home to tend to the feast of turkey, whipped potatoes, dressing and salad. We were honoured, even though they were just trying to get rid of some stuff in the freezer.  Still quite a spread.

We visited for a few hours, lamented the political situation (as usual) and then fell into bed around 9:30, not quite sure why we were so tired, but glad to be on the next leg.

Arizona 2020, Sunday, March 1, 2020

Sunday morning in Tucson is cool and cloudy, but no rain.  Happy Birthday today to the State of Nebraska and that other ancient being, George Sennentz! This morning we lounged around, drinking coffee and planning our day.  Around 11:00 we piled into Kevin’s Avalon and headed out to the Views Cafe at a Dell Webb property on a golf course for our breakfast/lunch.

The restaurant was busy with a lot of old folks and duffers pulling up in their golf carts after their rounds. Two stalwarts of our crew opted for Bloody Mary cocktails and two slackers picked coffee.
Three picked the breakfast quesadilla with scrambled eggs and three kinds of cheeses, one unimaginative fellow decided on the hamburger and fries. The fries were great, but the quesadillas were by far the better choice. Following our lunch, we loaded back into the Avalon and headed for Sabino Canyon National Forest.  Naturally, we neglected to grab our Forever Senior Park Pass, tucked at home next to our passports in our travel drawer, so again had to pay to enter the park.  We even talked about grabbing the pass last week before we left.  Must have been one of those ever present Senior Moments that keeps sneaking up on us.

In 1978, due to the narrow road and small, frequently overtopped bridges, private vehicle traffic was banned and so it is either bike, hike or ride the shuttle busses.We purchased the shuttle tickets and boarded up for the hour long tour up the canyon headed towards the top of Mount Lemmon.  The narrow road winds back and forth across the WPA era bridges constructed over Sabino Creek as we climbed to about the 3,320 foot elevation end of the road, approximately 4.5 miles.  Due to the steepness of the canyon, the road was never completed to the top.  The topography is steep, flooding frequently scrubs the creek bottom, and earthquakes in the region have tumbled house size boulders down, creating pools and natural dams along the creek.  Saguaro cactus stand straight up on the steep hillsides of the canyon, together with Palo Verde shrubs, mesquite trees, century plants, Cholla cactus, barrel cactus, and other desert plant life.

We then left the national forest and headed to Target for a stop for some supplies and club soda water. We returned about 5:00, just in time for naps and cocktail hour. This evening, as the sun set, the mountains behind us turned pink, this signalling that it was time to drink.  We sat out under the heater and enjoyed the changing sky and mountains.

Kevin prepared skillet lasagna in his Ninja 3-in-1 pot and we dined on good food, salad and homemade brownies.  By 10:00 we were cleaned up and ready for bed.  The chance to spend a few hours in the natural surrroundings of Tucson gave us a much better feel for this high desert area.

Arizona 2020 Saturday, February 29, 2020

Saturday morning in Tucson broke cool and clear.  As the sun rose over the mountains, the desert yard of Kevin, Tom and Liam showed its beauty.  Today, I counted nine different species of Cactus in the back yard alone, not to mention the potentilla and the the potted snap dragons.  The pool and spa-tub surrounded by the rocks, cacti, chairs and umbrellas with the backdrop of the mountains makes for a wonderful setting, almost resort like.  We drank cup after cup of coffee, munched on coffee cake, and just vegged out for the morning.

Kevin took Liam for his morning constitutional walk to harass the neighbor dogs and leave his markings to drive the coyotes nuts. We then loaded into the car for a tour of Tucson.  There is no crosstown freeway as there is in most larger cities in Tucson; hence getting around takes some time.  Although the city population is only 200,000 greater than Omaha, the area is much more spread out.  The apparent reason is the ridges and mountains around which the city grew - much of the land is unbuildable so spread is the solution.

Tucson was founded as a military fort by the Spanish in 1775 eventually became a part of the Sonoran state of Mexico. In 1853, the United States acquired a portion of southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico from the Mexican government under the Gadsden Purchase.  Tucson was the territorial capital of Arizona Territory until 1877 and was the largest city in Arizona until Phoenix surpassed it in 1920. We parked in the downtown Old Presidio area and walked to El Charro Cafe, established in 1922. They claim to be the oldest in the area and we found the food great.  Three margaritas and one Negra Modela beer later, we all opted to eat the “original el charro” taco plate.  This is a taco, but not with loose meat but rather a hamburger patty in the center.  We also had an hord‘oeuvres of table made guacamole. The waitress brought all the ingredients, and stood mashing the avocado, tossing in the chillis, cilantro, tomatoes, onions, queso cheeses salt and pepper.  A normal sounding guacamole but so much better for its freshness.

After lunch, we wandered the area a bit and found the Old Town Artisans building, a maze-like series of rooms in an old building where artisans, artists and other purveyors all had rooms filled with local and not so local merchandise.  Customers found what they wanted and then carried it to a central cashier.  In the central open courtyard of the structure, food and drink were available along with the sounds of a single guitarist/ singer on a small stage.  An intriguing set up custom made for tourists, and there were plenty of these (ourselves included) on this mild Saturday afternoon. We made our purchases and then loaded up for the drive back to home base.

Upon return, we napped, read, walked the dog, and then repaired to the deck to discuss our plans for the evening.  Although we originally were going to dine att an upscale Italian restaurant, we made a group decision, following our late lunch, to just sit in the cooling evening, drink our wine, nibble on nuts and “goldfish” and just talk.. An enjoyable evening, and we were in bed at a reasonable hour without that stuffed feeling if we had again dined out.  A laid back and enjoyable day in Tucson.

Arizona 2020 Friday, 2/28/20

Friday dawned with much promise here in Omaha.  High today expected to be 48F and sunny.  Much to be done at the humble abode in preparation for our day of travel.  Laundry needs to get done, sheets changed, birds fed, bird bath cleaned, cat pan cleaned, trips to the bank for traveling cash, paper still to be read.  How do we ever get out of town?

Darcy arrives at 1:00 to ferry us to the airport for our 2:25 flight on Southwest, our favorite airline.  As we stand waiting to board, we remember the only thing we forgot - free drink chits for our flight.  Oh well, we do have cash and credit cards.  An uneventful flight to Phoenix, arriving with a thud at the huge Sky Harbor Airport.  A walk to claim our checked bags then drag them out to the rental car shuttle station.  The busses to the rental car are huge and packed.  We soon found out why.  It is a 25 minute trip to the rental car terminal - basically the old airport.  This old structure has now been turned over to all the car rental companies.  Where, before, you stepped up to the airline ticket counters, you now step up to your chosen car rental company. In our case today, Hertz. We take the escalator down to the former parking garage, now given over to rental vehicles.  We pick out a small white Buick SUV as our chosen chariot and fight our way out to I-10 East for the 100 mile trek south east to Tucson.

Traffic at 5:30 on a Friday evening is almost a gridlock.  We finally clear the heaviest and join the flow south, eventually hopping off the three lane rush onto Tangerine Way. This quiet, two lane road leads us another 20 some miles to our final destination, the new home of Tom Nielsen and Kevin Rose, recently transplanted Omaha natives. Oh, yeah, also their master, Liam the black Scotty.

Sunset along the highway, courtesy of Deb Covert’s ever present eye on the sky.

Although it is 7:45 by the time we arrive, the wine is open and breathing, Kevin has plated up two salads and prepped some wonderful Omaha Steaks for the grill, and we sit around chatting, lamenting the fool in Washington, and generally trying to set the world right.  Needless to say, this  discussion will continue for quite some time.

We finish up our repast and then step outside into the cool evening to admire the encircling mountains, admiring the huge cacti in their rear yard, surrounding the pool and the hot tub of which we expect to partake in the coming days.  Tucson is a designated “dark city.” This means very few street lights, all evening lights must be down-pointing and very little light pollution. This makes for gorgeous nighttime skies with stars the likes of which we have not seen in years.  The weather this time of year is cool in the evenings and 70F in the day.  We are looking forward to our time in this high elevation city.