Phoenix with Debbie!

I had an amazing time visiting Debbie and Leonard Sutton in their new hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. I had never been to the desert before. It isn't like here in the Piedmont. I didn't really know we had this stuff on our planet. I told Debs that I have a whole new chapter in my book of God. I've seen a new side of Him.

We began our whirlwind 3 day tour going from the airport in Deb's convertible to lunch, catching up all the while. Tuckered out from the traveling and 3 hour difference, I voted for going to the hacienda for rest and more catching up in Deb and Len's luxury 3 bedroom condo. Y'all, that thing is nice. Very roomy and nice with a pool and hot tub which we never got around to visiting.

After resting awhile, we commenced to prepare a dinner in celebration of the season with a medley of root vegetables roasted with pork tenderloin marinated in a mustard wine sauce. Very autumnal. And very delicious. Debs roasted turnips, carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes, both red and white. I didn't know I liked parsnips, they are like white carrots but they have a gingery flavor. Who knew? Debbie, that's who.


Thursday morning was lazy until we headed out to Pueblo Grande to visit the local Hohokam Indian ruins. The Salt River runs through Phoenix which is in the Sonoran Desert. This is the only place on Earth where the Saguaro "sah-wah-roh" cactus grows.



Isn't he cute?! He's like 100 years old.

We proceeded to tour around the Pueblo and see how the Indians did life. Here we are in front of a Joshua Tree.
Here Debbie gestures toward an Indian ball court. There are "goals" at each end. These are found all over the place, there is even one near Big Canoe.


The Suttons attend First Christian Church in Phoenix. The building was designed by Frank Loyd Wright and it is very interesting.

Yes, I was lying on the ground to capture this shot. It lacks context, but I'm rarely compensated for my photography. My gifts lie elsewhere.

One of Deb's gifts is asking people for help. She says that "Can you help me" are some seriously magic words. For example, when we walked into a high rise building in downtown Phoenix and found the elevator and pushed the highest number and walked out onto the 11th floor into a swanky office at 5pm and asked the receptionist if they had a window with a view of Camelback Mountain so we could take our own picture in front of it and the lady said, "Just a moment, they are having a party in there. Just wait here... okay, you may come in." At which point she begins to raise the light filtering shades in the windows that span one entire side of the building. That, my friends, is a gift.
One of my gifts is getting Debbie to stand on top of a privacy wall outside some condos where I am almost positive I can get us both in the picture with Camelback if we can just keep our balance.

Safely back in the convertible, here we are as I sort of lose it over the last few antics.

Listen, uploading these photos is taking a long time and I want to get this post up for you. I will continue in a day or two. Just know that we had lots of fun. And barely got hurt. I miss you Debbie! And, 'm coming again with reinforcements!