Monday, 4 October 2010
Hello to David & Gill & boys in Scottsdale
Despite David's very fine directions to his home in Scottsdale, nr Phoenix, we manage to get lost. Time out in Oak Creek and Jerome has cost us and we arrive as dusk approaches. But dusk here is a fleeting thing. Day turns to night at drop of a hat. No matter, a quick call to David on our new American cell phone and we are quickly reunited with our friends.
David, who hails from Mumbles (and let me tell you, he was no mean rugby player in his younger day) and Gill, originally from Cumbria, have moved out West after spending several happy years living on the East Coast in New Jersey.
Two weary travellers receive a great welcome from D & G and their boys Jamie and Alex at their lovely home. A superb meal (spectacular shrimps on the barbie), on their spacious patio overlooking swimming pool, washed down with a few cold ones for the boys and a couple of glasses of white wine for girls, enjoyed by all as well as catching up with the gossip.
Early start next day sees four of us - Jamie and Alex are sensibly having a lie-in - head for walk towards McDowell Mountain. It's blistering hot - it will top 105F - but we cool off with refreshing swim in fabulous outdoor community pool that David uses as part of his new keep fit regime. (Gotta say it fella, you are looking good after heart bypass surgery - and picture above not really representative of it!!). Lots of news to catch up on and it's lazy afternoon back on the patio and in and out of D & G's pool before an evening in downtown Scottsdale.
It's a lovely quaint tree-lined town - the architect Frank Lloyd Wright established Taliesin West here in the 30s - and the area boasts 175 golf courses (David is now very proficient and will be fancying his chances at taking over from Monty as next Ryder Cup captain for sure). Spend great night at Thai restaurant (and thanks Alex for being the cabbie for evening).
Another chill out day - what else can you do in this heat. It is now 107F, a record for September here. (A second record for the Walters - rainiest day in Vancouver for 100 years and now hottest Sept day in Phoenix area). Not another day around David's pool? Life getting tough!
Local chef and friend Dylan, supported by Jamie (the next Jamie Oliver we think) and Alex, prepare steak supper for our last night all together. David and I go out first for pre-dinner drinks (where was that Strongbow you promised me! Never mind, the Stella was top-notch). Gill and Chris happy to drink a mean G&T watching the sun going down on patio. Boys (J & D, the old ones, not the young 'uns) very good and come home on time.
More fabulous food, another fabulous night, fabulous stay, lots of laughs (try keeping that towel in place, David) and a fond farewell next day to our hosts. See you in Swansea next summer. Can't rain anymore than it did in Newport on first day of Ryder Cup, can it?
David, who hails from Mumbles (and let me tell you, he was no mean rugby player in his younger day) and Gill, originally from Cumbria, have moved out West after spending several happy years living on the East Coast in New Jersey.
Two weary travellers receive a great welcome from D & G and their boys Jamie and Alex at their lovely home. A superb meal (spectacular shrimps on the barbie), on their spacious patio overlooking swimming pool, washed down with a few cold ones for the boys and a couple of glasses of white wine for girls, enjoyed by all as well as catching up with the gossip.
Early start next day sees four of us - Jamie and Alex are sensibly having a lie-in - head for walk towards McDowell Mountain. It's blistering hot - it will top 105F - but we cool off with refreshing swim in fabulous outdoor community pool that David uses as part of his new keep fit regime. (Gotta say it fella, you are looking good after heart bypass surgery - and picture above not really representative of it!!). Lots of news to catch up on and it's lazy afternoon back on the patio and in and out of D & G's pool before an evening in downtown Scottsdale.
It's a lovely quaint tree-lined town - the architect Frank Lloyd Wright established Taliesin West here in the 30s - and the area boasts 175 golf courses (David is now very proficient and will be fancying his chances at taking over from Monty as next Ryder Cup captain for sure). Spend great night at Thai restaurant (and thanks Alex for being the cabbie for evening).
Another chill out day - what else can you do in this heat. It is now 107F, a record for September here. (A second record for the Walters - rainiest day in Vancouver for 100 years and now hottest Sept day in Phoenix area). Not another day around David's pool? Life getting tough!
Local chef and friend Dylan, supported by Jamie (the next Jamie Oliver we think) and Alex, prepare steak supper for our last night all together. David and I go out first for pre-dinner drinks (where was that Strongbow you promised me! Never mind, the Stella was top-notch). Gill and Chris happy to drink a mean G&T watching the sun going down on patio. Boys (J & D, the old ones, not the young 'uns) very good and come home on time.
More fabulous food, another fabulous night, fabulous stay, lots of laughs (try keeping that towel in place, David) and a fond farewell next day to our hosts. See you in Swansea next summer. Can't rain anymore than it did in Newport on first day of Ryder Cup, can it?
Sedona and Jerome
Time to head towards Phoenix (not By The Time We Get To Phoenix) to see our great friends David & Gill and their boys Jamie & Alex - they actually live in Scottsdale outside the huge metropolis - and we break the journey with overnight stop at Sedona, a lovely little town set among green forests and red rock canyons.
Next day take a trip out into surrounding countryside to area known as Crescent Moon Ranch where there is a picturesque ford across Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing. Enjoy a picnic here under the shade of overhanging tree.
It's very different to Grand Canyon - softer, gentler, more wooded, but it's name is apt - the rock here is a remarkable deep red. Like Monument Valley, many westerns have been shot at Oak Creek, but area is not as well-known perhaps (we virtually have the place to ourselves) and take a cooling paddle in the river.
Refreshed, we head to Jerome, a former silver mining town perched high up on a bluff overlooking the valley back out towards Sedona and Oak Creek. Spectacular setting, it reminds us of parts of the Rhondda, but, of course, much drier and dustier. Silver mining began here in 1870s and discovery of copper made it boom time there during First World War. However by early 60s Jerome was virtually a ghost town, though today it is enjoying a revival thanks to art galleries, native jewellery stores and, subsequently, tourism.
We pop into one store and talk to Elin, whose family we discover hails from Cross Hands and Pontarddulais. She is Welsh-speaking and a member of the Welsh Historical Society here in this corner of US. America seems so huge to us, but this is a 'world's a small place' experience.
Jerome to us becomes a little corner of Wales in Arizona.
Next day take a trip out into surrounding countryside to area known as Crescent Moon Ranch where there is a picturesque ford across Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing. Enjoy a picnic here under the shade of overhanging tree.
It's very different to Grand Canyon - softer, gentler, more wooded, but it's name is apt - the rock here is a remarkable deep red. Like Monument Valley, many westerns have been shot at Oak Creek, but area is not as well-known perhaps (we virtually have the place to ourselves) and take a cooling paddle in the river.
Refreshed, we head to Jerome, a former silver mining town perched high up on a bluff overlooking the valley back out towards Sedona and Oak Creek. Spectacular setting, it reminds us of parts of the Rhondda, but, of course, much drier and dustier. Silver mining began here in 1870s and discovery of copper made it boom time there during First World War. However by early 60s Jerome was virtually a ghost town, though today it is enjoying a revival thanks to art galleries, native jewellery stores and, subsequently, tourism.
We pop into one store and talk to Elin, whose family we discover hails from Cross Hands and Pontarddulais. She is Welsh-speaking and a member of the Welsh Historical Society here in this corner of US. America seems so huge to us, but this is a 'world's a small place' experience.
Jerome to us becomes a little corner of Wales in Arizona.
Grand Canyon
Here at last to see a big hole in the ground called the Grand Canyon. Seriously, nothing you read or hear about it from others can quite prepare you for the first time you clap your eyes on one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Aaaaaawesome sums it up - 277 miles long, some 10 miles wide on average and reaching depths of up to 8,000ft at some points, and the Colorado River, which has some of the greatest rapids of any river in the world, just a snaking greeny-brown speck below.
One of Chris's lifelong ambitions has been to see the sun rise and set over GC (who am I to deny her?). Never mind being up at tbe crack of dawn, she gets herself and a bleary-eyed moi semi-awake at 4.15am to see not only the sun rise, but dawn break - and even I (not one of the world's greatest early-risers, as many who know me would agree) admit to being knocked out by the incredible canvas laid out in front of me.
Some 12 hours later we are back at the same spot - Yavapi Point - for a breathtaking view of the sun going down and the ever-shifting patterns and colours of the canyon - from brilliant white to green and orange, crimson red and deep purple.
We stay on the South Rim in timber lodge for a couple of days and do a fair bit of walking, trying to do justice to this remarkable landscape - one of the Southwest's - and the world's -most instantly recognisable and iconic places. This is beauty on the grandest scale imaginable - standing you feel at the very edge of the world, particulary so as you gaze down on eagles and condors flying below, as well as above, you. Truly magical and life-enriching.
Aaaaaawesome sums it up - 277 miles long, some 10 miles wide on average and reaching depths of up to 8,000ft at some points, and the Colorado River, which has some of the greatest rapids of any river in the world, just a snaking greeny-brown speck below.
One of Chris's lifelong ambitions has been to see the sun rise and set over GC (who am I to deny her?). Never mind being up at tbe crack of dawn, she gets herself and a bleary-eyed moi semi-awake at 4.15am to see not only the sun rise, but dawn break - and even I (not one of the world's greatest early-risers, as many who know me would agree) admit to being knocked out by the incredible canvas laid out in front of me.
Some 12 hours later we are back at the same spot - Yavapi Point - for a breathtaking view of the sun going down and the ever-shifting patterns and colours of the canyon - from brilliant white to green and orange, crimson red and deep purple.
We stay on the South Rim in timber lodge for a couple of days and do a fair bit of walking, trying to do justice to this remarkable landscape - one of the Southwest's - and the world's -most instantly recognisable and iconic places. This is beauty on the grandest scale imaginable - standing you feel at the very edge of the world, particulary so as you gaze down on eagles and condors flying below, as well as above, you. Truly magical and life-enriching.
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