March 2025

We landed at the home of some good friends who graciously let us park the rolling storage container in front of their house for way too long. Evonne and Akacia wound up in two different Air B&Bs until they could move in. Here's the timeline: Sunday night, arrive in Denver. Monday, hope to move them into an apartment. But alas, there was a problem with the application. Tuesday, look at another apartment complex and apply. Wednesday, we fly home leaving Evonne and Akacia with no place to live and no job other than being the Nanny for that cute little guy we visited in February. By Friday the first apartment complex came through and they moved in on Saturday. We saw very little of Mango, our grandson, as this was not  that sort of trip.

Evonne will begin her new job on April 7th. We will all miss her daily Nanny Von pictures and videos.

We came home March 5th, just in time for winter to arrive. We dug the snowshoes out and enjoyed our one day of winter. Last month we were mountain biking IN TOWN on dry trails. Last year in February we were snowshoeing. Our ski area got over 100 inches of snow in March alone. 

On March 8th we drove an hour and 15 minutes to Prescott, where my Dad used to live, to participate in the nationwide Women's March at the Prescott Courthouse. They counted nearly 1,000 people there. And we found an old friend, Barb Stuckey, who we used to teach with in Flagstaff. It was heartening to see so many people in protest in such a red area of our beautiful state. There were maybe a dozen anti-protest/pro-Trump folks holding signs out on the sidewalk. 

My friends Stephanos and Sandy and I took advantage of the new snow and hit the slopes. 

March 14, 15 and 16th found us in Sedona for the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival. We learned a lot about the festival and what it does during a late spring snow storm that had roads closed in and out of Flagstaff for two days. Luckily, on Friday, I-17 South was open so we could get TO Sedona. We just couldn't get home. Luckily we had already planned on a hotel. 

The first day of the Festival was cold and rainy and had very few people in attendance. We checked in and wandered around trying to get the lay of the land. We had a three-day pass. The bikes and people coming off the trails were pretty muddy.

On Saturday we woke up to four inches of snow. The Festival sent out an email that would delay opening by three hours to get the snow cleared. The trails were closed on Saturday but the roads opened up so we could get home.  

We did a beach walk each of the three mornings. I brought my long lens on the first one and found some great birds! Mescal, the dog, loved the walks. 

I think I'm getting the beach walks mixed up but one of them we were graced by the presence of Matt, what a great guy. He took us on a field trip to a local resort with infinity pools, cool art and beautiful buildings. Mescal kept watch over our day camp while Matt and Gretchen changed a flat tire... :0

Our final beach walk was on Playa Bonita, a local public beach. It was more popular than any of the others. 

Our final day found us downtown on the Malecon, or boardwalk, for the afternoon. We wandered through shops, had a drink overlooking the water and generally enjoyed the architecture of Sonora. 

But, let's talk about THIS shop. It. Was. Crazy. It was three floors of inventory, most of it dusty, much of it broken, none of it marked with a price. Walking around it was done at your own risk. I could have spend ALL day there taking photographs. It's the kind of store that if you walked through it five times you would always see something new, even though nothing had changed. 

One of our dinners out was at this crazy place, Jesse's Carreta. The food was good but literally behind chain linked fences across the room from where we sat were dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks. And you can see how very decorated the restaurant is. It was a great experience. 

The wall art in Puerto Penasco was exceptional. Here are a few examples.