Anniversary Day exploring...

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

We walk around our neighborhood pretty much every day and we discovered this sign a few days ago --- (we were driving at the time of the photo) -- today as we strolled by we discovered that to the right of the sign is this beautiful garden with water-pond feature, a small bridge and very possibly Koi, when the owners are in residence...hence the sign now makes sense.

We went to Quartzsite yesterday, about 65 miles north of Yuma. Having heard about it from our snow-bird friends, what better way to spend our wedding anniversary than strolling through a gigantic flea-market. But first we had to stop at The Farm, a unique store out on the edges of Yuma on Hwy 95. This is a seasonal store with "Date" Shakes, a diverse variety of dried fruits and vegetables, seasonal crafts for sale and washing machine tubs turned into fire-pots (see photo below)...those round white objects on the right are washing machine tubs....yours for a mere $75.00 ea.

But we did order our first "date" shake, which was delicious. The taste was reminiscent of home-made ice cream, the dates had been ground up for a smoother texture and I let Mike enjoy the bulk of it given my lactose intolerant body.

 

We had no idea how big the whole flea-market area at Quartzsite was/is - so we only saw a very small section of it - the important section - PIE! WE had a lovely chat with the new owner of Gran'ma's Apple Pie cart...laid off 18 months ago from a university in So Cal, she took a leap and purchased this cart. November was her first month of making pies, 6 days a week. Now, making pies may appear as fun and I thought so for the first few moments...then I discovered that she only makes APPLE pies, just apple pies for now. However, with the hot caramel sauce - DELICIOUS! Stop by and sample...she also sells the whole pie.

We are going to go back, probably next week...I'll take my camera and provide an update on Quartzsite's unusual mix of shops under tents.

There is more than just sagebrush and sand out here in the desert...the occasional old sagaro stands guard on the highway like a sentinel. An arm like this = 50 years of weathering the elements. Isn't it grand?

Hummingbird outside our RV

Praying Mantis on the screen door. (Magnified as he was very, very small).

I love that nature loves us enough to visit. Ciao!