An afternoon in Carefree

Bird nest in the thistles of the cactus.

After golf today we drove to Carefree,Arizona.  It's a small town located north of where we are staying.  We went for a walk and browsed the shops.  We hiked by the library and sat and enjoyed some quiet time admiring the beauty that was surrounding us.

Troon North - Pinnacle .... dancing amongst the boulders

Today we went golfing at Troon North - the Pinnacle Course.  It was much warmer this morning when we left. .By the time we started golfing - it was quite nice.  We were removing our sweaters by the 2nd hole.

This course was breathtaking in it's beauty.  The scenery was stunning. This was a very unforgiving course as well as there was so much rock along the sides of the fairways.  You couldn't afford to be errant in your shots.  We all lost a fair number of balls today and as a result we bought another dozen to help us through the rest of the week.

He shoots..... he scores

Last night we went to see the Toronto Maple Leafs play against the Arizona Coyotes.  It was an interesting game to watch.  The leafs didn't seem to be on their game and lost 3-2.  It got really exciting during the last few minutes of the game when it seemed like they might catch up.  It was a fun evening.

Golfing at The Legends

Such a beautiful course.  These were the first words uttered by all of us.  This course was very well manicured and there was plenty of cacti to see throughout the course.  It was fun to watch the quail run in and around the vegetation on the course. 

This was a challenging course for both the men and women.  I think it was harder for the guys though as for many of the holes they had a significant amount of rough to clear. 

Ralph wasn't feeling well today as he may have gotten a bit of food poisening or just possibly reacted to having some gluten as he ate some of the nacho chips the night before and they may not have agreed with him.

The prize for this round of golf was for having the best score on three holes in the back 9.  It was a tie between Ralph, Teresa and I.  As a tie breaker, Lawerence selected 3 other holes and I came up as the winner.

It was a great morning at the golf course.  This is sure to be a favourite of ours and we would certainly come back.

Papago Park - our climb up to hole in the rock

We finished off our day by taking a hike in Papago Park where we climbed up to the Hole in the Rock.  This was an easy hike but still it was fun to do it and enjoy looking out over Arizona.

The weather was really nice this afternoon and it was great for walking.  We finished our day by enjoying dinner at Cantina Loretto - Gourmet Mexican food.  We had some amazing guacomole made for us at the table and enjoyed a relaxing evening together.  We're all pretty tired so I think it will be another early night.

She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes....

We went horseback riding today at McDonalds Ranch in Scottsdale.  We road from Scottsdale to Phoenix.  For most of us, it meant riding a horse for the first time in probably 35-40 years.  We can all feel the muscles in our legs and bottom ends.  It was really fun to ride around the ranch.  We had a great leader.  His name was cowboy George. We had quite an interesting conversation with George. He told us all about his where he got his spur's and chaps.  I didn't realize that they are usually custome made to  your size.    Ralph loved his chaps, The chaps are used to help protect them from the needles off the cactus.  These needles are so strong that they penetrate the leather on the cowboy boots. 

There was a total of 6 of us riding with George.  He kept us amused with jokes along the ride.  It was really interesting to see all the cacti in the the desert and also to spot wildlife as it skirted the various bushes.

Our horses were pretty gentle.  Teresa was riding Zorro - we laughed when she got that horse as she asked for the tamest one that they had.  My horse was called Hobo - he was a nice gentle horse who listened very well.  Lawrence was riding Cisco. Cisco was a tailgating nibbler.  It was interesting as George was telling us that they picked the horse around the person riding it.  Lawrence likes to drive close to others and he admits to being a nibbler as well.  Ralph was riding  horse named Static.  This was a really nice horse as well.  At the end of the ride Ralph was asking if we could have a nice trot back to the ranch.  I hoped that George would say no as the ground was not very level and every muscle in my body was screaming out in pain.  I was ready to get off that saddle and have a nice hot tub.  Lucky for me - George said, not this time.

It was a great ride and we had a lot of fun.  We saw alot and learned alot.