San Tan Flats

The end of their stay was at hand.  Tomorrow morning I was to take them to the airport for their flight home.  The week went all too fast.  So, to end the stay I took them out to dinner at San Tan Flats, one of my favorite places.  Max and his son, Mike and his wife Chris and their kids joined us.

The large pile of wood for the pit fires.  You get your own wood and the staff will light the fire for you.  They have the empty sysco boxes for you to fill up.  The kids enjoyed filling up the boxes and they were even charging a quarter before the staff stopped them.  

Carter and his girlfriend.

Mike, Cris and some of the kids

Gavin

Max

Holly and Gavin

Aaron and Gavin

Carter and Cheyenne playing pool with Aaron and Sam looking on.

Grandma and Gavin, but Gavin had decided he didn't want to dance anymore.

Aaron and Holly

Max and Chris

A wonderful way to end a great week, the evening spent with loving friends and family.

The Renaissance Festival

We spent the entire day at the Renaissance Fair.  Needless to say, when we left we were all tired.  But we had a great time.  I won't put a caption on all the pictures since most speak for themselves.

I thought it interesting how many people attending the fair were in costume, too.

I have a hard time standing on my own two legs.  I don't know how she does it.

The hawkers make it look soooooo easy.

The Celtic Band, Tartanic.  

Gavin showed us his Celtic Dance moves.

The Jousting Arena.

Aaron and Adrion thought they would try their hand at knife throwing.

Aaron never got his to stick, and Adrion could barely lift his, so his didn't quite make it to the boards at all.

The grandsons are preparing to be knighted by the King and Queen.

Giving the history of the sword. Not just a symbol of liberty and honor, but during the Middle Ages, also a symbol of Christianity when held as the knight above is holding his sword.

Sir Gavin

Adam Crack, the Whipmaster, hold 9 Guinness World Records.

He holds the 2010 World Record for the most two-handed whipcracks in a minute (513).  I was so fascinated, I forgot to keep count.  

Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa and the Dragon Boat Festival on Tempe Town Lake

Having just a few hours to kill one afternoon, we headed for the small Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Museum at Falcon Field in Mesa.  Although this museum is small, having probably no more than 50 planes on display, if even that many, it was a nice museum.  What was really impressive though, the CAF Museum is run by volunteers, and volunteers do all the restoration work.  We got to see several planes they are in the middle of restoring now.

Of course, Gavin spotted this little plane right off.

He even had to try this one, too.

The largest plane at this museum was the B-17.  It still flys and they fly it on special occasions.  When it is not in the air, it is available and on display to walk through.  I had a backpack on and I had a hard time getting through because it was so tight. 

Max and I went to a Dragon Boat Festival in Burlington, VT, and really enjoyed it.  So, when we heard there was going to be a Dragon Boat Festival on Tempe Town Lake, we headed over to see what was happening.  Well, it was very different.  The one in Burlington was local and most of the teams were various companies in the area.  It was all for fun and charity, even giving out prizes for the best costumes.  This Dragon Boat Race was much more serious.  Teams from not only the US, but as far away as China, were here to compete.  Some were recreational teams, but many were college teams.  It was still great to watch and we all had a fun time.

They also had entertainment.  Here are some ladies doing a traditional hula.

The race itself lasted for three days, Sunday, the day we were there, being the final.  It was held in a round robin style, so we got to see the semi finals and finals, or in other words, the best of the best.

Here are some of my favorite guys, L to R:  Aaron, Carter (Max's grandson), Max, Cooper (Max's grandson, sitting), Adrion (standing), Gavin (with his back to us) and Sam.

This was a recreational team from Los Angeles I believe.  They were all breast cancer survivors, and most of them were over 50.  And yes, they won their heat.  U go girls!

This is a hand carved dragon boat from China.

Goldfield and Sonoran Desert Museum with the grandkids

Holly, my daughter-in-law, didn't fly out with the boys, but came out a few days later.  She actually had a medical conference to attend, so only had 1 1/2 days to sightsee.  

For our 1/2 day, I decided to take them to Goldfield.  Neither Holly, nor Aaron, (or the grandkids) had ever been to the desert before.  So all of this was a totally new experience.

I thought the train ride might give them a panoramic view of the area and get a little history of the area at the same time.

Viewing the reconstructed town of Goldfield.  Although the entire town has been reconstructed, their actually was a gold mine and the town of Goldfield located here back during the gold boom days of the late 1800s.

Adrion likes to geocache, so I found there was one located at Goldfield, and he found it.

No pictures, but we did take the mine tour.  I found out the entire mine was dug just for the reconstruction.  Made to recreate the feel of what it was like to be underground, they have constructed it in the same manner a real mine would have been constructed and filled it with authentic mining artifacts.  Even though this mine was only about 10 feet deep, instead of 1,000, I learned more on this mine trip than most of the others I have been on, and they were real mines.  If you like trivia and history, I recommend the mine tour at Goldfield. 

I had some additional geocaches to look for on our way home.  The first 2 we couldn't find the roads to get there, but we did find two more.  I was trying to use my Garmin auto GPS and my phone and that wasn't working very well.

I just thought this was a great picture of all of us with the Superstition Mountains in the background.  Adrion is holding up a cactus needle from a Saquaro.

He couldn't get over how big they were.

The next day we headed south to Tucson and Sonoran Desert Museum.  We made it just in time for the indoor Ranger talk about the local animals.

I thought this porcupine was cute.  Wouldn't want to pet him, but he was cute.  They had a stage and the animals evidently were trained to walk across the stage, entering on one side and walking across an area which was made to look like the outdoors, with some rocks and limbs in their way.  We watched this porcupine enter and exit, but they also showed us a skunk, a parrot, a ring tailed cat, even a turtle.  Each came out, wandered around the stage and eventually wandered back off again.  

Showing off the size of a Desert Tortoise, Adrion crawls into the shell.

My favorite exhibit is the Raptor Free Flight.  Lasting about 30 minutes, you get to see three different types of raptors and get to watch them flying and seeing a demonstration.  The first was this Barn Owl.

The second was the Peregrine Falcon, but they fly so fast and don't land, so didn't get any pictures.

My favorite though, is the Harris Hawk.  Such a beautiful bird.