Author: Rudy

I woke up just before six. I hadn’t finished my blog post for yesterday so I did that before I got out of bed. Showered. Decided to WALK down to Bashas’ to have my breakfast and to pick up a bun and sandwich meat for lunch later. Dabbed a bit of sunscreen on my nose and sprayed a little of that new foot creme I got for my birthday from Alex on my feet. Because I’d just written a blog post with a reference to an Eagles song, I quickly downloaded the first and last Eagle albums to my phone. I stepped into my rubber sandals (hmm.. I’d regret that later) and started up my “MapMyRide” app on my phone. Queued up the Eagles albums, stuck the earbuds into my ears and started off on this morning’s ‘fitness’ walk.

The temperature was just right for the walk. Since I’m up on the side of Dinosaur Mountain the walk starts off with more downhill than up. I’m not in the habit of wearing my earphones or listening to music while I ‘exercise’ — mostly I hum all the time. It’s a bit tricky to keep pace with the rhythms of the songs and it’s hard for me to NOT walk in rhythm. Some folks are probably itching to know how many steps I walked (approx 13,600) — but for my own reference, here’s how long the trip was (5.8kms each way) as well as the elevation change for my return trip.

When I got to the Bashas’ corner I stopped in at the Gecko’s coffee shop and had a large coffee and an apple danish at an outside table where I read the USA Today newspaper. Then I went to Bashas’ to pick up a bun and a package of sandwich meat to take back for lunch. And then back home. Uphill most of the way now, and the bottoms of my feet were getting little blisters. Next time I’ll wear socks and runners. 

Many of you will know that I am a big Eagles fan. I love the first 4 or 5 albums, right up to Hotel California. Not so much The Long Run. But I have to say, after today’s “close” listen, that last double album of theirs, Long Road Out of Eden, actually stands up pretty well right next to the early albums. And why not? The album starts with a great acapella tune, No More Walks in the Wood, with those trademark Eagles harmonies. Then comes How Long, an old J.D. Souther song that could easily have been included in one of the first albums. And now, listening to the songs and paying close attention to the lyrics, I really appreciated Don Henley’s “political” songs, like Frail Grasp On The Big Picture and Business As Usual. And then, when I was almost home, here comes the final song on the album. It’s not the best song on the album, by far. It’s a bit cheesy, with mariachi horns and pizzicato strings and an accordion accompanying Glenn Frey’s vocals. But it IS poignant because Frey passed away quite suddenly a couple of years ago. But this morning it was like that song was written for me and I had a hard time holding back the tears as I walked the last half mile back to the house. 

If you don’t have the album you can listen to the song here. 

When the song ended I stopped to take a picture of a blooming desert plant growing beside me on the road. Sue would have liked that, too. Wherever we travelled, if there was a flowering tree or bush that she could pose next to, I had to take a photo. And I usually did, as you can see below:

Well, that got me all ‘verklempt‘, but the fact is that in the past seven years Sue and I spent more than a year in total here in Gold Canyon, and pretty much everything I see and do here reminds me of Sue. How can it not? This is where we walked and talked, hiked and biked, learned to golf, shopped for groceries, entertained and hosted friends and family, fell in love with the desert, watched the sunrises and sunsets…

When I got home I sat down and opened my laptop to find the lyrics to the song. Then I browsed through some of my photos to find some ‘Sue with flower’ pictures. I started writing this blog post. Then I made myself a terrific sandwich for lunch — and replaced all those calories I’d lost on my walk.

I decided to go golf at the Mountain Brook course later in the afternoon. I registered at the pro shop at around 3:30. There was a couple who teed off just ahead of me. I waited a while, and then decided to play two balls. That way I wouldn’t put too much pressure on the golfers ahead of me. I still had to wait for them at a few of the tee boxes, but they quit after nine holes and after that I was on my own. I also returned my cart after nine holes and walked the back nine. Around the 13th hole I lost one of my golf balls. So now I was playing one ball. A couple of holes later the course crew came by; they were collecting the flags from all the greens so I had to ‘guess’ where the hole was on the remaining holes. Oh well, I was enjoying the walk in the evening cool(er)ness — just the right temperature for carrying my golf bag around the course. And the last gloaming of the sun reflecting on Superstition was much more stunning than any painting of it you might be tempted to buy at the Mesa market.

By now my ‘step count’ was getting close to 20,000. My feet were tired and I was hungry and thirsty. I drove to Bashas’ and picked up a little tub of some kind of Chinese salad to go with the wieners and hotdog buns I’d bought. I barbecued a couple of the hotdogs and loaded the buns up with the usual condiments plus avocado and cheese slices. Hmm… I’m turning into quite the cook, if I do say so myself!

I poured a second beer and sat down to watch American Experience on PBS — a documentary about Martin Luther King. At 10:30 I shut ‘er down and went upstairs to watch Jimmy Kimmel on the bedroom TV.

I got up early again — sixish. The sunrise from my upstairs bedroom windows and patio doors is amazing. Reminds me of the first Eagles album cover — pink sunrise tinting a clear blue sky, with dark silhouette cactus in the foreground.

It’s another tequila sunrise
Staring slowly ‘cross the sky

The nights here are dark and quiet. There are no streetlights in Gold Canyon — there are some small lights lighting up the desert plants along the sidewalks, but folks here prefer starlight to streetlights. My house is far away from the busy highway and everyone around here goes to bed by 8pm so the only sound I hear at night is an occasional chorus of coyotes howling at that full moon over Superstition Mountain.

Now, at 6:30 in the morning, there is the hum of the Mexican crew zipping back and forth on their mowers and their gators, making art on the golf course, raking the big sand traps around the greens so there’s no sign of the agony they inflicted on yesterday’s golfers. Sunrise and sunsets here are as short as they are beautiful–quite a bit shorter than they are at home. It gets dark quickly and it gets bright quickly. When the sun bursts over the top of Superstition and blazes onto the walls of my bedroom it’s time to get out of bed and go get the water boiling for my morning coffee.

I worked my way through some of the things on my ‘to-do’ list this morning. Made an appointment for an oil change for Wednesday. Made a few phone calls. Swept out the garage. Cleaned the windows. Finished another crossword puzzle. Cycled down to Bashas’ to pick up buns and avocados so I could make my favorite meal.

At 2:00 I drove to Apache Creek golf course. It’s not as nice as the golf courses here but it was crazy cheap online and had lots of open tee times. I thought I might as well try it — I’ve golfed there previous winters but not this year. I used to hate it because it has a lot of desert scrub if you miss the fairways, and I usually missed the fairways. It’s not easy hitting the ball off of the hard gravel and even harder if the ball is stuck in a prickly plant or has rolled down into one of the many gopher holes. On the plus side, unlike so many courses here, there are no houses or families enjoying happy hour in their backyard patios to hit with an errant shot.

I was paired up with Tim, a security system sales rep who had just moved to Mesa from Indiana. He hit the ball a long way, and mostly straight. It was fun golfing with him — he seemed like a very nice man. We were joined by Chris on about the 12th hole — he was a transplanted Minnesotan who was walking the course and taking his game a little more seriously than Tim and I were. Tim was keeping score for the two of us — I noticed he would mark down my score sort of like you would guess a woman’s age — that helped ease the pain of a couple of sevens and eights for me. I’m not exactly sure what is going on with my short irons — just when my putting improves some of my wedge shots are taking off at right angles…

I got into the van at around 6:15 and was about to drive west to the cheap theatre at Superstition Springs for a 6:40 movie when I got a text from Alex. It’s two hours later at home and Max wants to have a quick FaceTime. Hey, I can go see that movie tomorrow. I hurry back home and have a nice chat with Max and Alex. Max had indoor recess this morning because it was too cold outside! I guess it’s not time to go home yet!

I warmed up my leftover Chinese food from yesterday and sat down to watch some TV. Mixed results. Either the shows are getting less interesting or I am just getting too much exercise to keep from dozing off. I had to have a dish of ice cream and a cookie just for something to do so I could stay awake long enough to get the Trumpy news from Jimmy Kimmel at 10:34. And then BOOM! — sleep overwhelms me and I’m off to bed.

Alarm went off at 4:30 am. I quickly got dressed and went downstairs. I woke Max up — he was in a deep sleep, but even before he opened his eyes a big smile came over his face. “I think I will sleep on the plane,” he says as he sits up. I helped him out of his PJs and into his ‘winter going-home’ clothes. Soon his parents were downstairs with their suitcases. We backed out of the garage at around 4:50. It was still warm outside. The moon was still up there, although it was veiled by a thin ‘fog’ of clouds.

I dropped the family off at the sidewalk in front of the terminal and headed back home. There were tears in my eyes, but man, this last week has worked out SO well — we’ve all had a WONDERFUL holiday!

I got home and decided to clean up instead of going back to bed. I did three loads of laundry and moved all my stuff from the west bedroom to the east bedroom, where I have a second-story patio that overlooks the 5th green on Sidewinder. I folded the sofa-bed in Max’s room back into a sofa. I made a delicious large coffee and ate the last yogurt in the fridge. I made a new grocery list. I swept and cleaned the kitchen and dining room. I rearranged all the stuff in the garage, putting the kids’ golf equipment and Max’s bike off to one side and my stuff on the other. I finally programmed the buttons in my van’s console to open the garage door so I could put away the garage door remote control. I made lists of ‘to-do’ items for the week ahead. I watched a few of the Sunday morning talk shows. I made a huge sandwich for lunch. I finally updated my blog which I hadn’t had time to do for the past two days. I watched Ian Poulter win the Houston Open golf tournament on TV. I heard from Alex — they got home without incident, landing in Fargo and then driving home from there.

Later in the afternoon I finally took my van to the car wash — I’d wanted to do that when I first got here, especially to get all the salt off the undercarriage — but it looked okay after I rinsed it off on the trip down here and so I left it until now.  I also need to get it serviced — that dashboard reminder light has been bugging me now for almost a week.

I went to the Chinese restaurant and brought home a big order of king pao chicken and fried rice — I ate half of it for supper and have another time as much left for tomorrow’s supper. 

I watched a bit of ’60 Minutes’ and then all of ‘Jesus Christ, Superstar’ on TV. It was a big NBC ‘live’ special — I thought is was okay, but not nearly as good as the original. I recorded the original 2-record set (which I borrowed from Eric Froese sometime in the early ’70s) and listened to it so much that I had it memorized. I remember singing it from beginning to end every morning before coffee break when I worked behind the cross-cut saw at Loewen Windows the summer after grade ten. I can still sing most of it today.

I was in bed by 11:00. Didn’t do much today. No photos. But I’ve got a long list of things to do tomorrow, and I’ll probably start with a early morning bike ride.

Saturday. Might be our warmest day here yet! Alex and I took our last bike ride down to Bashas’ to pick up fresh buns and pastry. It’s been fun cycling together for some of our mornings here. A good workout and a good way to start the day. It’s also been interesting to see how many people are out there, going for a morning walk, or jogging, cycling, or walking their dogs. It’s “busier” here than what I remember from previous visits. 

It’s also been good to spend time with Alex. She is a great mom and a great daughter. Alex is a kind, caring, positive, strong, honest, beautiful woman. She and I share many warm memories of things we did together with Sue here in Gold Canyon.

When we returned from our cycling/shopping trip it was time for breakfast. Saturday breakfast means bacon and eggs, although today Max opted for a fresh chocolate donut with sprinkles on it instead. Tim served up delicious scrambled eggs and bacon. He was feeling MUCH better than he did yesterday and was looking forward to our afternoon golf game at Sidewinder.

After breakfast Max and I had one last cycle to the playground park near our house. It was quite hot already and Max sat in the shade under the slides and buried treasure (rocks) in the sand there. His bike will sit in my garage here until I leave for home in a couple of weeks, so it will be a few weeks before he gets to ride it again. He has certainly improved his riding (and braking) skills here on the up-and-down streets!

When we got back from the playground it was soon time for lunch. Sandwiches and chips and a St. Pauli Girl pilsner. Then, at about 1:30, Max and Alex dropped Tim and me off at the golf course.

While Tim and I golfed our last game at Sidewinder, Alex and Max drove out to the Goldfield Ghost Town. Over the course of the week here, Max has developed quite an interest in the ‘legends’ of Superstition Mountain. He and Alex spent a couple of hours at the Goldfield tourist attraction, visiting the shacks and shops, going down a mine shaft to see what it might have been like to work underground in the ‘olden days’, and witnessing a ‘high noon’ gun fight on Main Street.

When they’d had their fill of old-fashioned entertainment and were ready to cool off a bit, they came back to the house and jumped into the pool for one last swim.

Meanwhile, Tim and I were making good time on the golf course. We started a little ahead of time and only caught up with golfers ahead of us on the last 3 holes. Tim was in fine form again, obviously feeling better than he had for a couple of days, and striking the ball well.

We sent a text message to Alex when we got to the 18th tee. She and Max were just back from the pool and would meet us at the Kokopelli restaurant patio at the golf course for sundowners and dinner. Which they did. The heat of the day was giving way to a warm and pleasant evening as we sat out their watching the sunset. Green fairways below us, golden sunset to the west, a guitarist entertaining the guests, and delicious plates of food in front of us. Marvellous! What a fine end to a fantastic week of family holiday time!

It was dark by the time we got home. The kids went upstairs and packed their suitcases while Max and I played with some “glo-sticks” out on the patio. He and I are each other’s biggest fans. He is the best combination of his parents — smart, funny, always positive, gentle and kind, sensitive, and loving. I already miss him. What a treat it has been for me to have had the opportunity to spend so much ‘quality time’ with Max and his parents these past eight days!

The temperature was still comfortably warm. A full moon was rising above the mountain to the east. Even though we needed to get up ‘super-early’ tomorrow morning, no one wanted to cut short this final evening!

I woke up on the last day of my 61st year. So far so good!

Alex and I cycled down to Bashas’ and picked up pastries for breakfast. 

After breakfast Max and Alex went upstairs for a few minutes — and when they came down they had a gift bag for Opa. New golfing shorts! Just what I wanted! 

Max and I went for another bike ride — he’d getting more confident every day. Things are a bit more undulating here than they are in Steinbach, and it takes a bit of practice to pedal HARD up an incline, and to use the brakes to slow down on a downhill. But Max is doing great.

When we got back Alex took Max to the pool. Max just LOVES the pool. And the hot temperatures we’ve had here this week suit that just fine.

Back from the pool, Tim and Alex made sandwiches and we had lunch. Tim was feeling “about 90%” after his miserable day yesterday. It was all systems go for our 2 o’clock tee time at Dinosaur Mountain. 

I checked with the desk at the course to see if it would be okay for Alex and Max to ‘ride’ the course, just for the view. It was supposed to be an extra $25 per person, but I think the guy gave us a pass. 

The Dinosaur Golf Course is a tough course. It’s also a spectacular course. Almost every hole presents a dramatic view. The ‘humps’ of Dinosaur Mountain and the valley below. Manicured fairways and undulating greens protected by deep bunkers. The greens are lightning fast. After Tim and I both hit reasonably good (safe!) drives on hole number one, Tim proceeded to roll his putts back and forth across the crowned green. We would be golfing today for the ‘experience’ and the view rather than for a great or even not-so-great score.

Tim seemed to be feeling quite a bit better than he was yesterday. But as the game went on his symptoms returned. He skipped a few holes on the back nine. We had planned to go out for supper after the game but when we finished the 18th he asked if I could take him home. So we went home. Alex and I were discussing supper options when Tim came back down the stairs and asked about the Urgent Care clinic hours. It was around 6:30 and the clinic was open till 7. Tim had been ‘googling’ his symptoms and it seemed to indicate appendicitis. We all piled back into the van and drove to the Urgent Care clinic down the road.

The doctor who looked at Tim suggested we head straight over to the Emergency entrance at the nearest hospital in Apache Junction. If this really was appendicitis (and he believed that’s what it was)  golfing or doing other strenuous activity could end up aggravating the situation and possibly triggering serious issues for Tim. So we immediately took him to the emergency entrance at the hospital in Apache Junction. 

I left Alex and Tim there while Max and I went looking for supper. We ended up at a Burger King a few miles from the hospital. We ordered and ate our supper and took a burger and drink back to the hospital for Alex. Tim was waiting for a CT scan.

After waiting for some time, I took Alex and Max back to the house. It was bedtime for Max — the heat of the day had taken its toll on all of us. Alex thought she would go back to the hospital to stay with Tim through his surgery. She had already checked out flight options for later next week; the doctor had told Tim he would not be able to fly for a couple of days after the operation.

We were barely back at the house when Tim sent a text: he’d been given the ‘all clear’; come pick him up. The diagnosis revealed that it was NOT appendicitis. Although the symptoms were identical to appendicitis (the doctor was so confident in his initial diagnosis they had Tim change into a hospital gown and all prepped for surgery), the CT scan showed no problems with internal organs. Tim had a virus (mesenteric lymphadenitis) whose symptoms were exactly the same as appendicitis but which could be relieved with rest, fluids, and a pain medication like Aleve. I had just made a couple of gin and tonics for Alex and me. I put my drink in the fridge and drove back to the hospital (15 minutes each way) to pick up Tim. He already felt a whole lot better — in part due to the pain medication he’d received, but almost more significantly, because he now had a diagnosis, a name for what was bothering him, and a plan for what to do about it. Relief.

Back home we sat down and took a deep breath. After the hub-bub of the last 3 hours, it was good to sit down and relax. All-in-all it had been a very good day. A very good BIRTHDAY! And really, we had done nearly ALL the things that were on our list for the day, other than missing our evening dinner at the golf course restaurant. Alex said that Burger King burger had never tasted better! Tim was visibly relieved. After a bit of decompression we headed off to bed — a good night’s rest would prepare us for tomorrow, the last day of March, the last day of this family holiday in Gold Canyon.

Or maybe I should say an “off” day. I woke up and went downstairs. Alex came down a short while later. We were going to cycle to Basha’s this morning and have a coffee and pick up pastries for breakfast. But not today. Alex hadn’t slept more than an hour — Tim was sick and spent much of the night vomiting and retching in the bathroom. Max had a bad dream about mountain lions (thanks to that Grand Canyon IMAX film) and had come upstairs and slept with the parents. And Alex was carrying the weight of those worries and feeling terrible. 

I took Max down to Basha’s and we got the pastries and a couple of coffees from Starbucks. After breakfast Max and I went for a bike ride, back to the park. Tim would spend the day in bed. Alex would finish reading her book. 

Tim and I had a tee time booked at Sidewinder but it didn’t look like Tim would be in any shape to golf. His body was aching. He got up for a few minutes and thought that maybe he was okay, but we sent him back to bed. I called the course and cancelled the tee time.

After lunch Alex and Max went to the pool. I stayed back and did a couple of ‘projects’ on the computer before joining them. The pool was BUSY! Lots of people there. It appeared that some families were joining their retired parents for the Easter holiday weekend here. So there were families at the pool, kids playing in the pool and the older folks sitting around and watching or reading or visiting. It was a warm day, maybe the warmest day this week, and a perfect day for the pool. Max barely came out of the water at all. He had his goggles on and was paddling from side to side and across the pool, dodging the ‘football’ that some older kids were throwing at each other. Max has turned into a little fish — a happy little fish.

Back at the house it was happy hour. Well, not so happy. Alex was worried about Tim who wasn’t feeling any better. I went down to Walgreens to talk to the pharmacist. She suggested that it might be a 24- or 48-hour bug, but that it was important for Tim to re-hydrate. I bought a bottle of Gatorade and another of ginger ale to take back. I also stopped at the ‘Urgent Care’ clinic across the road and checked on their hours for tomorrow (Good Friday). Open as usual, from 8am to 7pm. Okay. If there’s no improvement by tomorrow we have some options. 

Back at the house we had our G&Ts and then left Tim at home while the three of us went out for supper. We drove to the shops at Signal Butte and ended up at a Chili’s restaurant. After about a half hour wait we got a table. Today is Major League Baseball’s Opening Day — so there was baseball on all the TVs in the restaurant. We had a nice supper. Max was entertaining us with his ‘jokes’ again. We got back home at around 8pm. PJ time. Bedtime story. Good-night.

Alex and I sat in the living room watching TV. Not much on. Well, how about some ‘runway’ reality TV show about guys sewing dresses for some models. Hmmm… Alex sure knows how to pick TV shows! I think it was barely nine o’clock when Alex disturbed my dozing in the chair and sent me off to bed, too. 

After breakfast Tim and Alex went into Apache Junction to the big Farmer’s Fruit Market while Max and I went to the pool. Max and I had a great time at the pool — Max can swim across the pool without help and is happy to spend a whole morning in the water. The pool is heated and there is a hot tub next to it in case we needed to ‘warm up’ a bit. Max is also very much into telling jokes. He’s memorized most of one of his joke books, and when we’ve heard all of those jokes we start making up jokes of our own. Max loves love to laugh.

We went back to the house and Tim and Alex returned with a pile of fresh fruit ($7 worth!) about the same time. Sandwiches and chips for lunch. After we read and did some computer work and built a helicopter with Lego. Soon it was time to get dressed and ready for another family golf game at Mountain Brook. 

It took a while for us to get going — the guy at the clubhouse was so busy ‘visiting’ with two guys at the counter and didn’t have time to take our money! But eventually we drove our carts through the tunnel under the road to the first tee and started our game. It was busier today than the other day — we had to wait for players ahead at every hole and there were golfers behind us too. So that meant we couldn’t “waste” too much time putting on the green with Max. But he was happy and we had a good time. We “finished” a little early, heading back to the clubhouse after fifteen holes because Max needed a bathroom break. It was just after six o’clock and the course really wanted the carts in by 6:15 anyway. It was a little too bad because both Tim and Alex were playing a pretty good game, but in the end we’d probably had our quota of golfing fun and it was time for supper!

Back at the house Tim barbecued hotdogs and Alex made a salad. Then we continued our ‘activities’ from after lunch, reading and visiting and playing with Lego. Max had a shower and went to bed a little after eight. The rest of us watched at least the beginning of the latest “The Trip” movie before we too went to bed.

More golf tomorrow!

We woke up early. I made a couple of coffees to go and we were off the driveway at 7:04. We’d had a Facetime call with Ed and Val yesterday and Ed had warned me about rush hour traffic going through Phoenix so we were happy that we could zip by the stalled freeways by taking the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane. Once we were past all the congested traffic we pulled into a roadside McDonald’s and got some McMuffins and cinnamon rolls.

We got off the main route north and took a little ‘detour’ drive through Sedona. The drive was lovely and the red cliffs were spectacular. Unfortunately we were not the only tourists who thought today would be a good day to do this! All the roadside parking lots were more than full. So the great sights are mostly in our memories; the only photos I have to show for it were these two which Tim took from inside the van.

The detour probably added an extra hour to our 4-hour ride up to the Grand Canyon, but it was worth it. We stopped again in Flagstaff to fill up the van and pick up some sandwiches to eat once we got to the Grand Canyon. Then we took the eastern route up through Cameron. From there we headed up to the east entrance to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Again, we found that this was not an ‘original’ idea. The line-up of vehicles waiting to pay the $30 park entrance fee was half a mile long! We had hoped to eat our sandwiches in the National Park but it was 12:30 and the line was moving pretty slow so we had lunch in the van.

Once through the gate we stopped at the first stop, the Watchtower, from where we got our first view of the impressive canyon. We took a few photos and then climbed the 85 steps up to the top of the tower to get a 360 degree view. Tim and Max had not been to the Grand Canyon before, and although Alex and I had seen it on previous visits, the sheer vastness of this wonder of the world still amazes.

We continued on our drive westward, stopping at some of the lookout points along the way. Tim was very much hoping to take a helicopter tour of the canyon, so we took a turn south once we got to the midway point in order to get to the small canyon airport where several helicopter tour companies are based. Unfortunately that meant we had to leave the park, and although our park pass permitted re-entry, the miles (I mean MILES!) of cars and motorhomes we saw ‘parked’ on the highway into the park entrance as we drove out ruled out a return visit for us.

We pulled into the airport and Tim was happy to learn that he had arrived just in time for a three o’clock flight. He watched a short safety video and soon joined a family of four for a 45-minute flight. Alex, Max, and I watched (and recorded a video) of the take-off. Then, while Tim was having his tour, we drove back into the town of Tusayan, just south of the park’s south entrance, and went to the National Geographic IMAX theatre to check on showtimes for the Grand Canyon movie. We were just a few minutes too late for the 3:30 show. We went back to wait for Tim. When he landed we hurried him into the van and were back at the theatre just in time for the next showing.

After the movie it was time for the long drive back home. It had already been a LONG day in the van, and we still had 4 hours of driving left. Max was holding up surprisingly well, listening to his iPod and telling jokes.

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Flagstaff. The temperature now that the sun was down was 1 degree. Brrrr. On our drive back to Phoenix I watched as it climbed back up to 20. About half an hour before we got home Max fell asleep with his headphones on. Tim carried him into the house and put him to bed. It had been a long but fun day. Max was curled up with a big smile on his face. It was just after ten o’clock.

We poured ourselves a little glass of port and sat down to watch Colbert. Didn’t see much of it — the kids had gone to bed when I woke up at around 11:30. I turned out the lights and headed upstairs to bed.

Quiet morning again. I was down by 6:15 and sat in the living room. Max woke up shortly after 7 and once again claimed that he’d only slept a “wee little bit” in the middle of the night. I made coffee and we had breakfast. Then Alex and I went for a bike ride ‘around the loop’. I stopped in to say hello to the rental agent for the house and got permission to reset the garage door opener so we can use the keypad outside instead of always taking the garage door opener or front door key when we go for a bike ride or go to the pool.

Our goal was to go out to the In-n-Out burger place on Signal Butte at noon. We got there a little after 12 and had cheeseburgers and fries. After lunch we continued on to the San Tan Village shopping centre. I bought some port. Then the kids went shopping while Max and I looked for kids’ stores and entertainment. At 3 o’clock we were done shopping and we headed back home.

Happy hour. A FaceTime call with Ed and Val who are leaving for Mexico tomorrow morning. At around 5pm Tim and Alex took off in the van for a ‘date night’ (i.e. shopping and dinner out). Max was very excited about having some ‘only Opa’ time. He and I made a list of things that we wanted to do tonight and then began checking them off the list as we did them.

We took our bikes out of the subdivision and drove the long way around to the little playground not far from our house. Max made friends with the 2 kids who were already playing on the structure. We were back home by 7pm. I warmed up the leftover Chinese and we had supper. We did a bit of sketching and we built some lego and we read some stories and we watched a bit of Mary Poppins. And just as I was tucking him into bed his parents came home from their date.

We sat around and visited and tried some of that new port that I’d bought at Total Wine this afternoon. We talked a bit about the plans for tomorrow: the plan is to leave here at around 7am and be at the Grand Canyon before lunch. Tim is hoping to take a helicopter ride. And we’ll probably be home late. So we have a long day ahead. Time to go to bed.

Sunday in Gold Canyon. I was up at around 6:30. Alex not far behind. We sat quietly in the living room so as not to disturb Max. He joined us at around 7. Alex and I took a bike ride down to Basha’s to pick up some fresh pastries and the New York Times. When we got back we had breakfast.

Then we put on our hiking shoes, found some walking sticks, and drove down to the parking lot at Silly Mountain. It was a pleasant day for a hike. We took a couple of paths around the hill and ‘the boys’ even climbed up to the top of the tallest one. Quite a view of the Mesa valley below. When we got back down we took a quick tour of the little Botanical Garden with it’s various desert plants and learned the names of some of the cacti.

Back home we had sandwiches and chips and rested up a bit. Then Alex and Max dropped Tim and me off at the Gold Canyon golf course for our 2 o’clock tee time. They went off to check out the Mesa Market while Tim and I teed off on Sidewinder. What a great day! Hardly anyone else on the course. The couple ahead of us quit after 9 holes and there wasn’t anyone behind us for the entire game. We even stopped to pose for a ‘selfie’ on the fifth fairway, in front of our townhouse. I started the game playing quite well, but that didn’t last forever. Tim played very well. We both had a lot of fun. And we played so quickly that when we were finished and sent Alex a text to come pick us up, she and Max were just at the swimming pool, expecting to have a leisurely time there, and not expecting to hear from us for at least another hour.

When she DID come to pick us up we threw our clubs into the van and made a quick stop at “The Great Wall” to pick up Chinese food for supper. Delicious. 

Not much happened after supper. I read a few stories to Max. We plotted out a bit of a plan for the next few days. We had a little ice cream for night snack. And that was the end of another perfect day.