Phoenix, AZ - Fall of 2017

We arrived into Paradise RV Resort on October 10 and will be staying until Jan. 1.  This is the first time we have sat in one place for over two months, but of course we like the park and people we've met there, as well as, there is so much to do in the Phoenix area.

While here, we will take three trips; Cape Cod for 9 days (in a separate blog), 14 days on a Caribbean/Panama Canal Cruise (in a separate blog and a short 4 day trip to Vegas for Christmas.

We had some beautiful sunsets while there, and here are two we captured.

We met with some friends and went to the Horse Races in Phoenix called Turf Paradise.  We all bet on the horses, $2 to place (big betters!) and had a great time.
































We saw a lot of friends in the area outside of the park and I attended a retirement party at the State Farm Marina Heights location.  We also got out kayaking a couple of times at Lake Pleasant.  We always choose the cloudy days and during the week so the traffic on the lake is pretty quiet.

We attended our first NASCAR race in Phoenix on November 12.  This was Dale Earnhart's last year, so they were doing a tribute to him.  We bought the pit pass and really enjoyed the on site experience, but traffic getting out was crazy and watching it in person was very, very hot and hard to keep track of where all the cars were.  Craig's driver is Martin Truex and my driver is Kyle Larson.

We attended a concert with friends at the Celebrity Theatre - Tribute group of the Beatles; 1964 the Tribute.  They were really good and the venue was great.  

We again went to the Dream City Church for their Christmas performance and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's so nice to go to Christmas performances when it's in the 70s and no rain, not like Washington.

Another performance we attended was the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas performance at the Mesa Arts Center.  Again, excellent performance and great venue.  We had not attended one of their concerts since the early 2000s in Tacoma.  

One of the highlights of our trip was attending the Elks Shopping Spree/Children's Christmas Party.  Some people in the park sponsored Craig and he joined the Elks so the first thing we did was sign up to volunteer for the Children's Christmas party.  50 kids are selected from two different schools and we met them at JC Penney and had about $185 to spend on clothes, shoes, etc. in 45 minutes. He was so excited at the store that he wanted to carry his bag up to the register himself. Then the school busses took the kids to the Sun City Elks lodge where we had dinner and then Santa Claus came and presented each of the kids with two toy gifts.  It was so much fun and our 8 year old boy was soooo excited and fun to spend the time with.  

We again went to Las Vegas to spend Christmas with my niece, Tiffany and her family and had a great time.  We again, went to the newest Star Wars movie and then on Tuesday morning as we were heading out of town we went to the Conservatory at Bellagio.  Nibbles the rabbit was a gift last Christmas, so he has grown up, but it's amazing how well he gets along with their other animals.

So as we wrapped up our time in Sun City, we spent New Years Eve at a Jim Brickman concert at the Musical Instrument Museum and then attended a New Years Eve party at the park that was hosted by some of our friends we've met and they invited many of the close neighbors where we park.  Fun, fun group of about 45 people, and this year they stayed up til midnight!

We then moved on New Years Day to Tucson.