bobanddenisewanderlust

In this weeks blog, if you see underlines I did not put there there! They appeared in blue and I can’t get rid of them. 

Saturday- We went over to the ballroom. They were having a vendor fair today. Nothing special. We returned and went to MedQuip. It is a local medical supply store. I asked permission and took pictures of the wheelchair, walkers, canes, and transfer board for the article I have been writing. I put them into the article and emailed the article to my editor. Whew, I was glad to get that out of my hair!

We returned, ate lunch, and I took another nap. Bob was on the internet for awhile. Then we watched some Hallmark Christmas movie. We ate dinner and had a quiet evening.

Sunday- We were late getting up. Bob took the sheets and towels to the laundry here in the park while I did some laundry in the rig. We did our usual Sunday tasks. We had a quiet day.

Monday-  We drove to Scottsdale for my neck Ultrasound. The Doc wanted the Ultrasound done at a specific place, as she likes the reports that she gets for the neck mapping. I am 20 years out from my thyroid cancer, so this is just a formality.

We arrived to find that we were at the wrong facility, as that was where the GPS took us! So we had to hustle to get to the right place. We arrived at about 10:05, a little bit late. We had just enough time to go to the bathroom and I was called up to show my insurance cards. I sat down and the gal called me back for the Ultrasound.

It took about 30 minutes and we were out the door. We drove back the 6 miles  to Mimi’s Café for lunch. I had an omelet and Bob had the pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage.

We had to hustle, as we had a 12:30 reservation at Taliesin West the famous Frank Lloyd Wright facility in Scottsdale. It was at a different exit, and was about 7 miles away.

We arrived, parked and hustled to the gift shop where the tour was starting. We had about 5 minutes to spare. Our tour guide was Jim, who had been doing tours for 10 years. He tended to repeat himself and he spoke very fast.

The tour was 90 minutes and very interesting. There were a number of Petroglyphs which had been moved into the facility, from the FLW land.

Today, that would be illegal, but back then, it was not against the law. This Petroglyph was near the entrance.

Our first stop was the “office”.

This room was used as an office. There was a canvas top, now a plexiglass, to let in the light. Note the fireplace in the corner. All of the rooms have fireplaces, and the fires are started in the corner, to provide more heat.

This room had a large drafting table.

In the entire facility, the walls are made of concrete and rock. FLW went to college, for a few semesters, as a Civil Engineer, and he learned a lot about concrete. Note the small rocks, they are to keep the concrete in place.

We moved on to walk outside. Below is a courtyard, outside the office. Note the steps. All the steps are about 6 ft. wide, and 4” deep. He maintains this symmetry throughout the facility.

We walked along the outside of the main building, facing the city of Phoenix.

The building below is the main building. The left side is the ‘studio’ where the students work. We were not allowed to take pictures inside this building and no talking, although when we entered, later in the tour, all the students had earbuds in and would not have been able to hear us anyway! The students are master level, and pay $42K per year to attend.

Note the pond. This water was in place to not only look nice, but to provide a supply of water to the kitchen, which is on the right. Since the facility is 25 miles ( at that point) from Phoenix, FLW wanted a water source in case of a fire. The students were required to practice a “bucket brigade”.

Below is the view facing the city of Phoenix. In the picture you can see a path. This is a fire break that FLW put in. Taliesin East had burned down, and he wanted to prevent that happening here. Below is the entire front of this building.

Next we moved inside to the Garden Room  At every entrance or exit, there is a Japanese statue(?) like this below. FLW had a very famous hotel in Japan that he had designed and built. It survived a major earthquake. The hotel is no longer there, but the lobby is still standing. While in Japan, he fell in love with the Japanese culture.

Note the furniture. It was designed by FLW. It is very uncomfortable and very low. It is hard to get out of, as you can see, the guy in this picture struggling to stand up! This is a famous room, where lots of famous people visited. It is still used, and each Friday night, there is a formal get together that takes place. Formal as in long gowns and tuxedos.

Below is the garden area, just outside this room.

Next we moved to FLW’s sleeping area. I hesitate to call it a room…it is open on one side.

The closet.

We moved outside, to the back of the sleeping room, and there was this lovely fountain.

With many warnings for tall people, we entered the room that was used a lot by FLW for teaching, movies( he was a movie fanatic) and other social events. The door was very short.  This room was also used for storage in the summer, to keep items from getting too hot in the Arizona summers.

Outside the room was this dragon statue.

Below is looking through the back, to the front, to see Phoenix in the distance.

Behind the building is an orange orchard, which was planted the year that FLW died, so while it was in his plan, it was not there during his life.

Here is another one of the the Japanese statues.

We next walked pass the side of the office and into the Theater. This theater is in use frequently.

The theater is built into the side of the hill.

Finally, we went to another theater.

This smaller theater is 95% acoustically perfect. The walls are not square, they are curved and a person can stand in the front and whisper, and a person in the back of the room can hear perfectly. Movies are shown here.

The students do not have dorm rooms in the facility, they have built the outside on the land. On Saturdays, there are tours out to the student dorms. There were several tours, we just took the general tour. There are also night tours.

We left and returned home to the rig. We had  quiet afternoon and evening at home.

Tuesday-Bob was sick all night. We think that there was bell pepper in the sausage. This is not the first time he has been sick after eating at Mimi’s Café. We have been there other times and he has not had an issue. So I left him with his coffee and two dogs in his lap, napping in the recliner.  I was off to Maj at 10. Bob napped off and on.  I returned for lunch.

Bob went to bed for a nap. I went to the Chiropractor and stopped at Walmart for some Almond Milk, which we had forgotten to purchase.

I returned home and took a nap also, as I had not slept well, due to Bob being up all night. Bob felt better, we ate dinner, and he left to go to the Astronomy Club meeting. Meanwhile, MaryAnne, who is the President of the club, did not attend as she is still so sick….

He won the Christmas Party door prize, which is an astronomy theme Christmas  ornament.

Wednesday- We started the morning off watching the President HW Bush funeral. Bob dropped me off at the card room on his way to the hardware store. I had the Stamp n Up card making class this morning. I had to take my Maj set along with the stuff for the class, so I had my hands full. Bob helped me carry the stuff into the room. He stopped to check the mail and found that we have been approved for the storage unit.

Leslie, who is the Stamp n Up demonstrator, wanted to change the date of the January class. It looked good to me, so I went over to the office after class was finished. I wanted to drop off the table cloths. Rita,the gal in the activity office, said that they do not have room for the table clothes right now. She said that they did find that they have two Maj sets! She showed them to me. Some lady had donated them! Wahoo, if they are complete set, I will not have to drag my set back and forth. We are waiting for a new cabinet to be approved by the Encore Corp. office and we will have space in the card room to keep the sets and our table covers.

I returned and we had a quiet afternoon. We went to dinner with the Alfa group, Mike, Linda, Allen, Donna, Karen and John, at Black Angus. MaryAnne is too ill so she and Ray did not attend.  We all had the Campfire coupons, which include an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Their molasses bread is really good!

We returned to the rig and watched TV and went to bed.

Thursday- It was cold and rainy. This is so unusual for Arizona! Bob has been wearing his flannel shirts and I am wearing long sleeve shirts since it has turned so chilly!  I drove the car over to the Activities building and we had 3 tables playing Maj. Wow, all that teaching last year has paid off!

I returned and we went to go to lunch at Burger King. There is a 1 cent special. You pull up close to a McDonalds, and check the app. We had both downloaded the Burger King app yesterday. So we clicked on the app and received the coupon. Unfortunately none of the three Burger Kings in the area are participating. Hmmm, thanks a lot Burger King! So we stopped at GoodCents for subs. Their bread is always to fresh!

Then we went to Costco for gas, $2.44 gal, then to pick up a few items. Finding parking was an issue, but we finally did. There is a binder on a shelf right outside the door, where you can make comments. I had about 2 weeks ago, asked for the terrific wine, Tropical Mango Moscato, which I purchased in California and Oregon at Costco. The Manager had replied that they had no plans to stock it but that I should try Mamas Moscato. So I went looking for a bottle, $6.99.

We returned home and watched a Hallmark movie, ate leftovers for dinner, and I tried the wine. I dumped it down the sink! It was awful!

Friday-  MaryAnne and Ray picked me up at 8:30, as it was still raining. We traveled to her Surgeon’s office for another drainage from her breast. She is feeling very anxious, as this has been such an ordeal. Many women have lymph fluid collect after surgery, but MaryAnne’s immune disorder makes her body over react to everything. I was there to be an advocate. I watched the Doc remove 9 ml of fluid. That is down  from 13 ml last Tuesday and it had been 3 days. She is going for 4 days the next time.

We returned and they dropped me off. We went grocery shopping. We returned and had a quiet afternoon, reading and watching another Hallmark movie. We decided to go to Rosie’s Italian Café for dinner. This is the first time we have been there this year. It was good as always. We picked up Ravioli with meat for MaryAnne. Ray was at a pool tournament. He is a ranked player.

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