March 2010

Rex is still going to physical therapy for his finger. It is getting better but is still somewhat crooked. He has been really busy working on the Dolly – if you can call cruising on a lake work!

Our park hiking group hiked the Peralta Trail to Freemont Pass which overlooks the Weaver’s Needle formation. We saw lots of interesting rock formations.


We hiked past Geronimo’s cave which is a cave that Geronimo was supposed to have used as a hideout.



At Fremont Pass we had a great view of Weaver’s Needle, which is thought to be a landmark for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.


A beautiful view of the valley as we were working our way back down the trail.


Nancy went on the park bus tour to Wrigley Mansion (the chewing gum people). This mansion was built between 1929 and 1932 by William Wrigley, Jr. as a 50th wedding anniversary present for his wife Ada. The 16,850 sq ft 24 room mansion was the smallest of the Wrigley’s 5 homes. The mansion sits on a hill overlooking Phoenix and Camelback Mountain and has wonderful views. George Hormel, one of the heirs to the Hormel meat packing family, purchased the mansion in 1992 to keep it from being torn down to make room for condos. It is now a private club and used for corporate meetings, weddings and other events. It is a beautiful house, but the tour was disappointing because very little of the original furniture is being displayed - the bedrooms all had conference tables in them. They have enclosed the balconies for a bar and seating for the restaurant.

We also went on the park trip to ride the Desert Belle, a cruise boat on Saguaro Lake. Rex was very interested in the Desert Belle as it is the Dolly’s competition. Saguaro Lake is different from Canyon Lake in that the surrounding area is much flatter; consequently it is a different kind of cruise than the Dolly. We enjoyed the scenery and seeing many different kinds of birds. We got a great view of Four Peaks.



March brought much warmer weather and after all the rains we have had the desert is really green and the wild flowers are beautiful. The cacti are starting to bloom and the desert is full of color.

These are some prickly pear cactus blooming in our park.



and hedgehog cactus also blooming in our park.








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