Lot's of animals, plants & Chihuli

The Desert Botanical Gardens has a huge Chihuli instalation and it was pretty cool. Got lots of pictures and just wanted to share one here. I spent about 5 hours walking around the gardens and it was awesome.



Linda was working the butterfly house at the gardens so needless to say, I got lots of great pics of them sitting on flowers.



I could have spent hours hanging out with the baby goats and animals at the zoo, they were so cute and ready for their close up.





Oh, and this little lady had attitude and was so much fun to photgraph, it was hard to pick just one (and I don't know, maybe it's a boy, but look at those eylashes.

Just amazing

Headed back to the Cave Creek area again yesteray and found a couple parks and ranches. Just a couple pics to share.

If only my Magnolia Ave partner in crime was here...

Yes, what I wouldn't do for a Macro lens... and my partner in crime would have had a field day today :-) But keep on keeping Eddy warm for me and I'll be home soon.

We spend an awesome day in Cave Creek AZ today. It is a wickedly cool little south western town. We started at the nature center checking out rescued raptors like owls and hawks. Got some great shots and enjoyed watching them.



We then went into town to a little art festival and checked out some of the most chaotic but cool stores filled with rusted sculpture, wagon wheels and all sorts of crazyness. Erin would have gone crazy over the detail in these places, I couldn't stop shooting. Ended up taking over 300 pics today and that was with some level of personal control.



So it was a windy cool beautiful day in the desert filled with dust, cactus, flowers, rusty stuff, and close up birds.



And this guy was a great poser. Will do a little cropping and editing later, but he wanted to be seen.

Sunny Days in Scottsdale

We have spent a couple sunny days close to home in Scottsdale. We spent most of Friday at the Scottsdale Festival of the Arts, which was pretty fabulous. Couldn't afford a thing, but great artists from all over the west coast.

We then ate at one of the top ten Sushi restaurants in the country, Roka Akor. Some of the best flavors I have ever had. I tried butterfish and toro for the first time and so very much worth the money..... loved it so much. Definitely not something I can afford every night, but worth the splurge. And the blood orange margarita's were repeat worthy...



See the bottom of page for a few pics Linda took on a train trip she took in Sedona for her birthday.

Red rocks = Red shoes

We got up and Linda realized it was going to be another hot day, so we headed north to the red rocks of Sedona. We had a nice lunch on a outdoor patio overlooking the massive red rock formations, and then headed out for a hike. We went up a beautiful walk up to a vista overlooking a valley and I was just amazed at the beauty of Sedona.When done and covered in the red dust, we headed back down to town to my favorite shopping area, Tlaquepaque. It's full of really awesome sculpture and beautiful views, and the shopping is pretty nice too.



I have to say a huge thank you to Linda, as such a wonderful host!!! I have been here for 2 days and see so much already and just had a fantastic time. I drove us back the 100 miles in the dark, and what about an adrenaline rush, driving through the mountains and valleys of the desert... anyone who knows me well, knows I'm a bit of a wuss about driving places I have never been, but it was fun.If you have not been here yet in your life, you must come and visit, what a wonderful mix of amazing nature, cool shopping, and beautiful art. Just remember when going to Sedona, you will get red dust on your shoes...and your pants...and pretty much everywhere...BUT IT'S WORTH IT.

Hey Lizard Lizard

After realizing that I am actually 3 hours behind and going to bed too late and getting up way to early, I decided to not whine and just enjoy my first day in Scottsdale.

We got up and went for a pho-hike (hiking while taking lots of photos) at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and I got to try out my new fabulous camera. The wildflowers and cactus are just starting to bloom and we took tons of shots. The temp was climbing pretty fast and there were some lizards sunning themselves and posing for some great pics.

We headed home, ate and played with our pictures, then decided to get lost going to buy me a UV lens and polarizing lens (sun is pretty strong here) and then had Mexican and a ice cold margarita...my fave.

Had a fantastic first day on vacations.... much more to come so keep watching.