March 14, 2022 - March 17, 2022 Scottsdale, AZ to Yuma to Quartzsite, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

On the road again – even though the original plans changed. Tobey was planning a bike ride from Scottsdale to Death Valley with his friend, Phil, but we extended our stay to help Tobey’s mom during her recovery from a fall. Phil and Marcia came to Arizona anyway, and the guys were able to get several rides in while I stayed close to his mom. In the afternoons, Marcia and I hiked to Hole in the Rock, sightseeing, and to the Heard Museum.

It was great to see them and we enjoyed spending time with them.

Tobey’s sister arrived late last week and will stay with his mom so we knew we could leave with her in good hands.

On Monday, we took off for Los Algodones, Mexico where I had a dental appointment. The line to walk back across the border was several bocks long and it took over TWO hours so we ended up spending the night on the US side of the border in the parking lot!

On Tuesday, we were on to Quartzsite. We hoped to look at some RVs here, but the “season” is about over and all of the RV dealers here have moved back to the Phoenix area. We are camping at the Hi Jolly BLM land area north of Quartzsite. The weather is hot – in the 80s! We took a long walk before dinner and were treated to a beautiful evening sky.

We enjoyed the cool evening and sleeping with the vents open.

Wednesday morning we put our awning out to keep the sun off the rig and took a walk but it was so windy that we had to retract the awning when we got back! It was flapping and we were afraid it would snap. Reading and relaxing are the order of the day. We played several games of Gin Rummy and Tobey was the victor – 5 games to 1. Lucky guy.

Thursday morning we started our trek to Las Vegas but stopped to see El Garces Hotel in Needles, California.
 

After the original station was destroyed by fire in 1906, the Atlantic Pacific Railroad built El Garces – a large neoclassical structure containing a Harvey House hotel, restaurant, and train station in 1908. It was the "crown jewel" of the Harvey House network, and among the first train stations made of concrete. The hotel and restaurant closed in 1949 as passenger traffic declined. Today, the building houses offices and is the AMTRAK station. It wasn’t open so we didn’t get to go inside.

Just across the street from the station was a Route 66 Museum so we checked it out. They had wonderful displays with railroad memorabilia, and a statue of Spike, Snoopy’s brother! Apparently, Charles Schutz lived in Needles when he was a child and they had a section dedicated to him, as well. The volunteer docent was very informative and we enjoyed our visit there.

We arrived in Las Vegas mid-afternoon and found our way to the Circus Circus RV Park and got settled. It isn’t much to look at, but each site does have electric, water, and a dump station, so that is great. AND, you don’t come to Vegas to sit in your RV! 😉

We had dinner at Greenberg’s Deli in New York New York – Reuben sandwiches for St. Patrick’s Day! We split one and were both stuffed, it was good.

We rode the bus to Fremont Street and it was packed with lots of “Irish” folks enjoying the festivities and music.


We enjoyed listening to two of the bands – one of them even played rock music with bagpipes!

It was after midnight by the time we got the bus back to the RV so we slept in this morning. We are planning to check out some of the casinos today and maybe try our luck. We will keep you posted!

February 22, 2022 - Honolulu, Hawaii to Scottsdale, Arizona

We had an early morning checkout and on to the bus by 7:20 this morning for our journey back to Arizona. It was a great week spending time with my sister and enjoying the sun and beach.

I will leave you with a few more pictures from the week and wish you all the best!






A hui hou! (Until we meet again.)

February 21, 2022 - Honolulu, Hawaii

Today was our last day in Hawaii and we were busy – relaxing!

I walked to the International Market Place this morning to do the rental car return. We dropped it off last night, but the Budget kiosk is only open 8-3:30 so I had to return the keys. No worries, a little walk this morning was no problem. It rained overnight and was still sprinkling a little when I set off so I was treated to a beautiful double rainbow. Our week here started with rain and are ending it the same way.

After doing our airline check-in we headed to the beach. We had some serious relaxing to do!

Bette has never snorkeled, but she wanted to give it a try. She wasn’t 100% comfortable once in the water so she opted to do beach time while I went out. Snorkeling definitely takes practice before hitting the ocean.

I went out on my own, although there were plenty of other folks in the water either snorkeling, paddle boarding or kayaking so I wasn’t alone. There was a small reef area and rocks and I was surprised at how many fish I was able to see. Angel fish, convict tangs, threadfin butterfly fish, black trigger fish, and even a few of Hawaii’s state fish, the humuhumunukunukuapuaa. Say that three times, will ya? There were several sea urchins and some sea slugs, too. A couple people said they saw sea turtles, but I didn’t. After about 45 minutes, I was back on shore, relaxing, too!

We decided to eat at the Steak Shack for lunch today since the wait last night was so long. It’s a tiny place with long lines and delicious food! We split the 10 ounce steak plate which came with rice and salad.

It was served with a teriyaki sauce for dipping and to put over the rice. The smell coming from this little place was like a little slice of Heaven! SOOO GOOD!! We were both stuffed!

We needed more beach time so we found a shady spot for Bette to relax while I snorkeled again. This tree gave off some serious shade!

After snorkeling, I had so much fun watching these little house finches in the sand. Only a few feet away from me, they were busy digging little holes in the sand then fluffing their wings in the sand. Tobey will appreciate this – I must be a cheap date because I am so easily entertained!

Around 4:00 we enjoyed our last views of the ocean and started our walk back to the condo.

Showers, packing, and dinner in were on the agenda since we leave tomorrow morning. This has been a great sisters’ week! Mahalo, Tobey.

February 20, 2022 - Driving tour

We picked up a rental car this morning for a driving tour to the North Shore and beyond. Our first stop was Leonard’s Bakery for malasadas. A malasada, sometimes called "Portuguese fried dough," is a fried type of doughnut, made of flattened rounds of yeast dough, flavored with lemon zest and coated with granulated sugar and cinnamon. Leonard’s also has malasada puffs which are filled with custard or coconut cream. We lucked into a parking space in the lot and made our way to the end of the line which wraps around the building! The wait was worth it, they were amazing!

Leonard’s has been around since 1952 and is a favorite with locals and tourists.

We made our way north and turned onto Highway 83 and pulled over to get our first views of the North Shore beaches.

Next stop,Waimea Falls. In addition to the waterfalls, the Waimea Valley has beautiful botanical gardens to enjoy on the way, as well as a living archeological site built in the traditional methods of native Hawaiians.



It was interesting to see as we made our way to the waterfalls.

We didn’t swim in the pool, but there were lots of folks who did! We saw lots of red-crested cardinals in the park today, also.

Alae Ula

The 'Alae 'Ula is an endemic water bird (found naturally only in Hawaii) that is an endangered species with a total population perhaps in the hundreds.

Next to the Waimea Waterfalls parking lot is Hale O Lono. This site is dedicated to the Hawaiian god, Lono. This heiau (religious place of worship) is believed to have been originally constructed around 1470 AD.

We continued on to the North Shore Fish Taco food truck for lunch. The shrimp taco was much better than the fish, but our tummies were happier so we could continue our journey!

We stopped several times as we made our way across the North Shore. It was fun watching the waves coming in and seeing surfers trying their luck.

Other areas the rocks provided breaks which allowed families to be in the water and not be knocked over!

We headed back south along the windward side of Oahu. I stopped to get a picture of some plumeria.

Our next stop was Mokolii, which means “little lizard” in Hawaiian. It's also called Chinaman's Hat because of its cone shape, which resembles the peasant's hat worn in rural China. The basalt island is part of Kualoa Regional Park.

Besides a few lonely palm trees and two small beaches, there isn’t anything else there! Looking back to the west from the shore, you can see the clouds hanging over the mountains.

We made several more stops on our way back to Waikiki.

We spotted hang gliders at this beach. This guy actually came down and landed above the parking lot, regrouped and took off again!

Near Diamond Head Monument (which was already closed by the time we got there) was a nice view back to the northeast.
 

Our “circle” took us about 110 miles today – not bad for 10 hours!

We got our rental car back to the parking garage around 7:00 and headed to the little beach restaurant where we hoped to have dinner. No luck – 1-1/2 hour wait!

It was a long day, so we decided to head back to the condo and regroup. After deciding on pizza, we headed out. Our first choice was closed (A Slice of Waikiki) even though their sign said 10pm, so on to Giovanni’s. We opted for take-out and brought it back to the condo, finally getting dinner about 8:30!

It was a fun day and while there was a lot of traffic, the driving wasn’t really that bad. I enjoyed just spotting beaches and pulling over for a while to watch the waves.

Tomorrow is a “relax and hang out at the beach” day, and unfortunately, our last day here. A hui hou aloha and mana'o nahenahe. (goodnight and sweet dreams)