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| View from our room of Montecatini Alto |
The big news this month is that Molly has returned to Mesa from Italy. I missed her so much! We did correspond via SKYPE with video, so kept in touch that way, except the time difference here (-9 hrs) made it a little difficult, and she was kept pretty busy. With sister Jo Ann, they had a 10 hour plane trip over and back. The travel guides I made for them and a few others in their group apparently went over pretty well. Molly finally gave hers to the the trip tour guide.
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| Florence |
During the 10 day trip to Tuscany they toured Lucca, San Gimignano and the San Donato Winery there, the towns of Riomaggoiore, Vernazza, Monterrosso and La Spezia of Cinque Terre, the IL Poggio Winery, Vinci, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, while coming back to their Tuscany Inn hotel in Monecatini Terme every night.
Although I've included a couple of her photos here, you can view some of Molly's selected shots (85 or 416) in a slide show below:
She spent most of the next week adjusting to the time difference again and just recovering from all the touring and shopping. Of course we kept busy the rest of the month by going to several Arts and Craft Festivals (Litchfield Park and Fountain Hills), two Broadway Palm Theatre performances (Sugar--adaptation of the movie Some Like It Hot, and Annie), and this season's premiere of the Arizona Opry.
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| Mogollon Rim |
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| Driving the Rim |
We also did an overnight mini-trip to Payson, AZ for a quilt show and a long-anticipated drive of the Mogollon (MOE-gee-on) Rim drive . It is a spectacular 45 mile section along a 200 mile abrupt 2000 ft up-lift stretching from Ft. Apache near the New Mexico border to Ft. Whipple in Prescott. It is also called the General Crook Trail because it follows the original military supply route between these forts constructed in 1872 by Crook during the Apache wars. This up-lift, most of which is over 7000 ft. elevation, is the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau and affords many spectacular views. On a clear day, they say you can see the Catalina Mountains near Tucson 150 miles away.
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| 1st Day Finish |
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| 2nd Day Deluge |
The other major activity this month was a 4-day, 3-night trip to San Diego to cheer-on and support daughter Carrie and her Mark in their 60 mile, 3-day Susan B. Komen Cancer walk. This is Carrie's 4th year walking and Mark's 8th year. Molly and I got to meet Marks family (Mom, Dad, Sisters and nieces and nephew), most of whom also walked in the walk and have been for many years. The weather was not the best this year with rain all three days, and the second day was a deluge. They were soaked. Most of the participants had to sleep in provided tents, but Carrie and Mark lucked out this year by staying in his sister's 5th wheel. Of course Molly and I got to sit in the car and wait at certain designated areas along the way to cheer them on when they passed. The closing ceremony was something with the 4,000+ participants and survivors gathering in an arena listening to the final comments and cheering. It was just great fun that raised over $10.6 million!
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| Final Ceremony |
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| Walkers and Support Group |
And then a major accomplishment! I finished the back patio. I started it when Molly was in Italy and gradually leveled, laid down a sand base, place blocks, and cut some into smaller spaces to fit. To take the patio to the raised street, I made a step with building blocks and put the square concrete slab blocks on top of them. It seems to work ok and it is much nicer now to go out back without getting your feet all dirty. Then, feeling energetic, I put new shelves in the storage shed. I now have much more room and it's all organized. I can now find things I want. It was usually easier to go buy what I needed rather than go out in the shed and dig through the stuff to find it!
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