Prescott and Willow Lake

On Thursday, we met Linda and Larry Fuegen at Origin Restaurant and did the two year catch up.  They were neighbors in Wiscasset while our children were going through the schools system before moving out to Prescott. AZ.  Larry is a custom knife maker creating works of art.

Gold and Ivory Forged Scroll Folder

From Larry's website http://www.larryfuegen.com/  

This folder is inspired by Hernan Cortes who sailed to the Mexican mainland in 1519 to conquer the Aztec empire in less than 3 years. He proved himself a cool headed and fearless fighter, a brilliant tactician and a master of diplomacy.
The blade is handcarved ladder pattern Damascus steel with 18k heavy gold plate finish. The handle is composed of handcarved mammoth ivory with walrus ivory inlay. All the fittings are handformed from solid 18k gold (yellow, pink, green, royal yellow and palladium white).

Sheila got a new pair of hiking shoes at the Hike Shop and we had lunch at Prescott Brewing Company,  Later, we met Linda and Larry at Black Hole Beer Company for happy hour and a meal.  Another great evening.

Saturday, we met Glenn, Diane plus two more of their friends, Christina and Mary for breakfast at the Golden Corral.  Another scrumptious omlet made to order.  Laura, the manager, is a wildlife park friend of Glenn's.  Glenn and Diane were off to CA for a 9 day free lodging excursion they received.

Sheila and I loaded the kayaks and drove to nearby Heritage Park to launch into Willow Lake.  The lake is in an area of rock formations called the Dells making for interesting paddling.  The water was in the upper 40s to low 50s and lots of sunshine.

My 220cm Paddle is 7' - 2" Long

The Spillway Controlling the High Water Mark.

We were out for over two hours, lots of shoreline to see, and good to get the paddles wet.

Prescott, Arizona and Out of Africa

November 18, 2014

Ted woke up to nineteen degrees temperature outside this morning. I stayed in bed until it warmed up just a bit more. My cousin, Glenn and his wife of forty years who I had only met once before they were even married, Diane, came and took us out for breakfast at Golden Corral. They have an enormous buffet and we all had omelets made to order. It was delicious and after the omelet and fruit, I wandered the line to see what else they had picking up a few other items along the way. I can't believe how much we ate but it is late afternoon as I am writing this section and I am still not hungry. We had a nice long visit and then drove around awhile to look at the view. Glenn stopped at a mall so I could get my annual supply of hand soap at Bath and Body Works and they brought us back. I worked to catch up on the blog and Ted went to check out Willow Lake which we are parked near.

Willow Lake

Glenn and Diane came to dinner with chicken enchilada casserole, corn muffins and pumpkin pie while I furnished the salad and beverages. We had a great meal and sat at the table chatting for quite awhile. Diane brought me a tote with fabric squares from her aunt that has just been put in a nursing home with dementia. Oh boy, more fabric! Temperatures started dropping with the darkness outside. We will be glad to get back to warmer climes.

November 19, 2014

We picked Glenn up this morning at eight-thirty for the hour long trip to Out of Africa. Glenn has a season pass and I have been seeing his amazing photos on Facebook for some time now. One of the first things we did was walk toward the giraffe enclosure where we found celery on the ground and I fed the giraffe. They have a sixteen inch prehensile tongue which is dark on the front of it to prevent it getting sunburn and no upper teeth so they don't bite. What beautiful, graceful animals they are.

Sheila Feeding the Giraffe

Prehensile Tongue

They Kill Lions With Those Horns

Often Mistaken for Unicorns

Yipes, Stripes!

???

Striped Feet

Brave Little Girl

Hundreds of Pounds of Horns

He Was Roaring

Baby Grizzly

Serval - Second Fastest Animal in the World

We Think She Could Have Reached Us

I Wouldn't Get That Close

Tigers Love to Swim

Soul Mates

Lioness and Black Leopard

Seldom Seen Black Leopard

He Wasn't Happy to Be Disturbed

Look at Those Teeth

Vicious, Hungry Hyena

Running For Feeding Time

Rhinoceros

One section of the park, called the Serengeti, you ride through in an open-air bus and the animals are all just wandering free and come up to the bus for their "cookies". It was neat to be so close to them and we got some fairly good photos. I don't remember most of their names.

The rest of the day we wandered through the large park on foot. Most of the animal shared enclosures with other animals of the same species often depending on how well they got along and who would eat the others food or not. In one enclosure was a white tiger and a female lioness. They were born on the same day and have been together since they were two weeks old. The lioness cries if the white tiger is taken out for any reason and they are unaware that there is any difference between them. If only the rest of the world could be like that. Beside the big cats, there were bears, wolves, hyenas, a rhinoceros and a variety of other smaller animals. The park is really well done and the animals well cared for and loved. In the afternoon we saw the Tiger Splash Show where the tigers are in with people and jump into the pool to play with toys that are waved in front of them. We also got to watch them feeding the animals. They were throwing huge turkeys over the fences for the lions and tigers and the big male lion got a huge hunk of beef. The bears they fed smaller pieces of meat through the fence. The hyenas were the scariest to watch.