Having Favorites

During the summer our time is spent in the northern part of the country escaping the heat.  During the winter our time is spent in the southern part of the country escaping the cold.  Not only is our location different but so are our companions and our activities.  It seems we’re busy no matter what location and no matter what time of year. 

Not only do locations and weather change but also people change.  We all have favorites.  That’s just the way it is.  We have favorite people to be around.  We have favorite books to read.  We have favorite places to be.  We even have our favorite blogs to read.  Our favorite place to be during the summer is right here -- our current location.  Our favorite place to be during the winter not only is where the nice weather can be found but also where folks we enjoy being with are. 

Now that’s not saying we are always in our favorite places but right now … we definitely are.   Favorites do change for one reason or another.  However, where we’re at now doesn’t change.  After all, we’re with family and we just spent Father’s Day with our favorite fathers   -- the fathers of our grandchildren.  How much better can it get?

Instead of Father’s Day being at one person’s place or another we went on a picnic.  Can you remember the last time you did that?  We went to the Kalama Marine Park which is very close to kids' home.  It was a beautiful place to spend the day.  We visited, we ate, walked the beach and even got to see two salmon caught and brought in.  It can’t get much better than that.  Well, it could if they would have invited us over to eat the salmon with them.

This is also the location of the best fireworks display anywhere and it’s put on by many individuals who buy thousands and thousands of dollars of fireworks for their own personal enjoyment (and ours).  The muscles in our neck get quite a workout from looking right. left, up and down while trying to view them all.  Another bonus is that a traffic jam doesn't follow the event. 

Father’s Day wasn’t the only busy day of this last weekend.  We also had our Papa Bear Theater event which meant the Activities Committee set up their trailer and out came snacks for sale.  Normally candy, popcorn and soda are the hot selling items.  This time we had a new cotton candy machine to try out.  Believe me there is a little learning curve.  Eventually, I got the hang of it.  Thank goodness for that because the cotton candy was extremely popular.

Once the weekend was behind, Terry had to get ready for his trip to Arizona.  Monday morning he was off to the airport.  Summer isn’t really the best time to visit in the Phoenix area with temperatures soaring into the 100’s but remember it is a dry heat.  When temperatures around here soar to 100 it’s not a dry heat and much more miserable.  

The above shows our expected temperatures for this week and we have no place to hide from the heat.  It's unusual to see temperatures around here in the mid-90’s until late July or August.  I hope this isn’t a sign of even more hot days to come.

Terry will only be in Arizona for a couple of days.  On Wednesday he’s flying to Dallas to meet up with Tammi and Sandi.  They’re going to party at Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor and also visit the Fort Worth Stockyards for the cattle run.  Of course, we’ve all been there. done that when we lived in the area but this was a special treat for Sandi before she heads out to boot camp next week.

So, what am I up to?  Sometimes having a “ME” day really is fun.  My sister-in-law and I checked out the swimming area of the lake on Monday.  We knew the water level was low making it difficult for some boats to be launched but it really, really is low. Normally the water hugs the shore at the swimming area and the swimming dock is out far enough that it takes a pretty good swimmer to reach it.  However, now you can almost walk out to that dock and that’s not a good thing.  Some of the rivers around here are so low it’s hurting the salmon going upstream.  I don’t like wishing for rain but I’m sure a good rainfall or two would help a bit.

Tuesday morning meant a facial for me and I’m guessing the rest of the week I’ll wing it by doing just what I want.  Not bad, huh?

Inside the cute day spa ---    

“Tis an ever changing life on the road.