Last Tues., March 2nd, Bill & I attended the New York State Party here at Superstition Sunrise. There seemed to be fewer of us this year, but we had great snacks & a good time.
Notice some shorts on this day!
Families were visiting parents & grandparents. Here Dona S. from Syracuse, NY is talking with a family.
The gentleman on the right front is actually from the town of Fredonia, NY, not far from where we live. That was a real surprise to meet him & his wife.
Our friend Jerry M. from Hannawa Falls, NY & his sister-in-law, Nancy M. from Ogdensburg, NY.
Lois & Jim from Williamsville, NY
Yup, that's my hubby Bill with his tongue sticking out.
Also on Tuesday, the Spring Mixed Doubles Shuffleboard Tournament started. I didn't get pictures in the morning when the boards were full, but I did get the last heat in the afternoon.Look at the beautiful Usery Mountains we have to gaze at every day! Eat your hearts out back in the snow!
Stella K., one of our neighbors, is the hostess with the mostest! She does a great job in the concession stand. I helped her on Tues. morning after exercise class until noon. Those donuts looked & SMELLED soooo good, but I didn't eat one. This was the day after our last weigh in for the Biggest Loser Contest too. Just to brag a little, I won 2nd place - $32.00 richer.
Spectators & players sitting on the bleachers & chairs watching. It is a very intense game during tournaments. I could never play in a tournament. I'm not serious enough. I'd rather laugh, carry on & play for a nickel. Maybe in another 10 years.John, Francis & Trudy
Butch has his sun glasses on watching. He said he's not good enough to play, but I think he was pulling my leg. He's good enough, just doesn't like the stress!
Our friend, Frank C., from Georgia, decided he & his wife should play a day or two before the tournament. He found out it was a tough game - a lot different than our morning Nickel Jackpot days.
Frank's wife, Mary Jo saying, "how did I ever get into this mess"!!! Her opponent next to her in the hat was a real stickler!
While we were watching the tournament, the Met Life blimp flew close to the park.
Wednesday, March 3rd, had us up bright & early, 4:30AM to be exact. We were headed to Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco), Mexico. The bus picked us up at the park at 6AM. It was a beautiful day for a trip. We were gone for 2 nights & 3 days. Our first trip to Mexico.Now you may say, what's with this picture? The traffic was thicker right before I took this picture, but I wanted people back home & in Virginia Beach to see that they have it right here in Arizona! See those stop lights on each side of the on ramp? During heavy traffic times, they work by letting one car out at a time, first one lane, then the other, into the line of traffic according to the flow of traffic. Works like a charm. Those people in Virginia could learn a thing or two from these guys out here!
One of the many buildings of the University of Arizona
Sky Harbor Airport.
Just a beautiful sight on our way outside of Phoenix
This is a fertilizer plant next to the railroad.
This is a nuclear power plant
A quick picture out the window as we entered into Gila Bend, AZ where we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast & potty break.
Beautiful church in Gila Bend.
Coming into Why, AZ. Can you imagine carrying on a conversation with someone who wanted to know where you lived & you had to answer "Why"?
Here you can see the border fence between US & Mexico. The fence goes for about 7 miles, then has a 3 mile break, then begins again.
Closer picture. This was the only pictures we could take of it. Once we got to the border crossing you were not allowed to have cell phones in use or take pictures. The fence really is quite high with barbed wire on the top.
Our first view of a Third World Country - Mexico. I thank God for the life we have here in the USA. We saw so many sites that were unbelievable. Some modest homes & some beautiful ones. Quite like here in our country where we don't see the bad as much as the good. It is a very different life for these people. I didn't feel unsafe anywhere we went, but then we were always traveling on the tour bus except at stops. 
It was not unusual to see cement block or stone fencing around residences with a doorway similar to this one.
This was a familiar sight by the time we left.
Again, there is good with the bad. A modern looking grocery store on the right and a pharmacy next to it.
A modest home.
along side a "not quite so modest" home.
Sand dunes
Several places had thatch roofs. I'm not sure what this was.
Now I would call this a pretty classy home.
Cement block business
Bus stop
The sign speaks for itself. Al Capone has a history in Rocky Point.
The guys on the bus all stretched their necks to look at these two places!!
This is a typical shop in the area. This was within walking distance of our hotel. I bought a jacket & a cowboy hat here. We "wheeled & dealed" until we got a pretty good price.
This was the sign for our hotel
Bill & I and one other couple were on the ground floor. This was looking out our sliding glass door. A beautiful sight with the Sea of Cortez in the background.
We were definitely pool side. But needless to say, it was not heated & the hot tub & bar pool were not "hot" either. I did put my feet in the hot tub.
The weather looks terrific, but it was a little cool. I'd like to lay around here in 80 deg. weather for about 3 days though.
Joyce, Keith (I think his name was) & Bob in the hot tub.
Nothing like swimming up to the bar & sitting in the pool with the water running down your back! Like I said, maybe if it was 80-85 degrees.
This was the beach area on the west side of our hotel. Now if you know me very well, you know what I would have loved to do. Yup, gone for a horseback ride. But I didn't.
Joyce & Janelle walking the beach. We walked quite a ways looking for shells. It looks sandy, but because of so many shells that wash up in the tide, it really was hard walking in your bare feet. The water actually wasn't as cold as the pool.
See, I could have rode that riderless horse!
Looking back towards the hotels.
Shrimp boats
I don't know if these motor homes stayed here all night, or if they were just parked for the day. What a way to spend a day at the beach - right on the beach.
This is looking into the dining area of our hotel. The reflection is of the hotel itself back over the pool area. The glass was curved all around the side of the dining room. We had a breakfast buffet every day there.
My hubby just relaxing outside our room on the patio. If you look close, I think he was eating cookies! He's the "Cookie Monster".
During our trip down to Rocky Point, we were given several options on things to do & places to eat. One of the side trips was a sailboat (catamaran) ride. It sounded like fun so the 10 of us from our park decided to take the 2 hour sunset cruise. They told us they had Margaritas for $1.00 & beer for $2.00, but when we got on the boat & they gave us our drinks they were all we wanted for a tip. Couldn't beat that & the price of the ride was only $15.00 each. We had a blast. Here we are getting on.
Now this guy was just standing over on another boat with LOUD music. I could have sworn he was our friend Chuck L. from back home! Chuck you have a twin in Mexico!!! He even stood like he does!
Here we are the six of us who were the wind blockers. Bill, Peggy, Elaine, Clem, Joyce & Keith.
This was the Naval yard
Buildings along the coast
Tammy, the activities person from the hotel, one of the crew members, Bill & Janelle.
Judy, our tour guide, Jim, Clem, Joyce & Keith
That's me out on the net trying to be a sailor. If my son can do it, so can I! As you can see we didn't have the sails up as there wasn't any wind. It wasn't warm or really cold, we just didn't have wind for the sails.
A beautiful sunset
Almost gone
The rays were gorgeous. The land you see is Baja California.
2 crew members, Janelle & Bob, Lois & Jim
This is the inside of the hotel entrance looking up at the ceiling.
The round bar & lounge area.
Bill, you need a toupe, your bald spot is showing!
Most of the side roads are dirt or sand.
A very common site.
This is in the shopping area we went to. Many of the families live in the back of their stores. This little guy was watching us unload from the bus. There were about 4 or 5 children asking for money as we got off the bus.
This is the shopping "mall" area. Store after store with pretty much the same things. Everyone had the "best price for your dollar".
Maybe this store makes more money????
I learned that ALTO means stop. It wasn't that I learned Spanish, it's just the shape of the sign! A lot of the words you could pretty much make out & some were even in English (Electric & Plumber).
This was a school yard.
After shopping, we went to an Art Gallery of Julio. He does the most beautiful pictures & crafts all out of shells. He used to do all of the shell gathering himself, but now he has 8 boats & families to help him. The shells all come from the Sea of Cortez. He has pictures in several prominent places, one being the Vatican & another in the Smithsonian Institute. The one at the Smithsonian is huge. I asked him how long it took him to do it & he said 3 years. He said they paid him $65,000 to do it & it is now worth $250,000. Sorry the light shines on some of the pictures because of the glass.These were Mother of Pearl shells.
This is the little humble shop he works out of.
Next we took a tour around Old Port. This is a metal sculpture of 2 eagles. I took more pictures here on Friday.
Thursday night we went to Restaurant La Curva. Our meal, one Margarita & entertainment was included in our tour. We had a delicious meal & great entertainment here.
This is Ed our bus driver & Judy our tour guide from World Span Tours.
The Mariachi Band. They were really good!
Renee, this will bring back memories for you! We each got at least one balloon animal, flower, sword or whatever from him.
Clem & Elaine. They weren't married, just had met up at their park this year. They are both from New York State. Clem is from Bath, NY area & Elaine was familiar with the area around Candor, NY. I believe she lived somewhere south of the Finger Lakes.
Our bus driver Ed was great! A gentleman everytime you got off the bus he'd give you his arm so you wouldn't fall & always in good humor!
Part of the Party
Me dancing with Bob, Janelle's hubby.
A new building going up on the Old Port side. I've never seen so many construction workers working at one site before. I tried to get more pictures, but on the bus it's hard to get them while you are moving.
You folks back home in the cold & snow............eat your heart out! Isn't this just the most beautiful blue site you've ever seen?
A band playing on the deck of a cantina on the Old Port side.
This was the church next to where the bus was parked. Judy told us sometimes it isn't open but this day it was so we all took advantage to walk through. It was beautiful.
Another picture of the sculptured eagles. At the base of each column there is a plaque of different states bordering Mexico & Mexico's areas (I don't know what they are called). This was built in 2007 when the efforts to control the borders between the two countries was established. They have concerts, plays, etc. here. We were standing up on the top of the cement bleachers which is across the road from the stage area.
Now that's a very familiar sign. 
I'm glad I was on a bus, as I don't know if I could have pronounced where I was headed.
We had a wonderful time & now we are headed back to Arizona. This is taken in the Organ Pipe National Forest.
Back in the town of Ajo, you can see the copper mines. Notice the different colors the copper makes in the gravel.
Copper Mine
Ajo is pronounced ah ho
We arrived back at the park around 7:40pm on Friday night. Bill got up to go play pool & eat breakfast at the club house, but I stayed in bed a little longer than my normal. I knew it was going to be a laundry day & it was going to be nice so I took my time in the morning getting ready for the day so I could enjoy sitting poolside while doing laundry.
I'll end this LONG post here & get the rest of the weekend & pictures caught up on the next one.
Until next time..............The Traveling Cardinal's
