Quick San Antonio Trip

We left Tucson on Tuesday after lunch to drive to San Antonio.  We arrived by early afternoon on Wednesday.  Lynne asked us to come to help her with decisions she had to make about moving to assisted living.  We stopped by her apartment when we arrived at her retirement community, picked her up, and went right away to look at the new assisted living apartment.  It was beautiful!  I spent some time measuring, to help us decide what furniture she can take.

We spent the next two days going through closets and drawers, making “keep” and “give away” piles.  We enjoyed lunches and dinners with Lynne, took her to a doctor’s appointment on Friday afternoon, and we all talked and talked.  Papa called her insurance company and got copies of the documents that need to be signed.  We had a productive trip and Lynne is feeling less anxious about her move.  We left San Antonio after breakfast Saturday morning.

Photo taken in the new apartment, decorated as a facility model.

Hacienda Corona de Guevavi

Papa and I drove to the Guevavi Ranch just north of Nogales yesterday afternoon.  We checked in to Hacienda Corona, the only guests for the evening.  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool, and went in to the house bar for sparkling water and appetizers around 5:30.  We talked to the owners for a couple of hours about the property.  Papa and I looked at the Guevavi Ranch a couple of times in 1999 and 2000, when it was for sale.  There was a lot of work to do!  We didn't buy it, but the current owner's parents did.  They renovated the house and casitas and opened as a bed and breakfast in 2003.  You can read about the history of Hacienda Corona de Guevavi here.

From Hacienda Corona's website, "Its interior courtyard walls feature the priceless murals of the famous Mexican muralist and bullfighter Salvador Corona, painted in 1942 and 1955. Its sparkling 1950's swimming pool is covered in beautiful blue mosaic tile. It's no wonder that John Wayne and other Hollywood luminaries were attracted to this cool, high desert location where they could hide from the world, rest, relax and have a little fun."

We hiked before breakfast, going to the Guevavi Mission ruins.  We passed through another ranch along the way, with horses having their morning hay.  It was a beautiful morning!

Activity Update

Papa is now making a leather passport/wallet for Audrey.  It is similar to one he made for me a couple of years ago and Audrey saw it and asked for one when we were in Mallorca in June.  Papa has biked a couple of times over the past ten days.  Most mornings have been too warm to bike comfortably, with temperatures many mornings not below 80 at 6 a.m.  Papa is a "Goldilocks" biker. 

After our Brunch at First Watch on Saturday, August 10, with our long time "kids," we had a couple of lunches and a breakfast the following week with three that couldn't come to the brunch.  We met Jose at Five Points Market.  He will begin his freshman year at UA this week, majoring in engineering.  He got scholarships that will cover his tuition all four years.  We had lunch with Tatiana and she caught us up on her summer, when she spent time in NYC with her sister, who is the Director of Invest Africa.  Tatiana works and recently moved into her own apartment on University Avenue, close to her pre-med classes at UA.  We met Yadi for breakfast and she surprised us with a bouquet of flowers and bringing her boyfriend to meet us.  Yadi will be a sophomore at UA and she plans to continue working part time at El Rio Health Center during the school year.   Her tuition for all four years is also covered and she recently received an additional scholarship for fees and books.

We had our annual physicals and blood work done this week.  Our doctor called me late Friday after getting my blood results, to tell me, "they were perfect!"  We hope to get Papa's results back in the next few days.

I have made two photo books in the past ten days, of our six week UK trip in 2015 and our week on Eleuthera in March 2019.  I have now embarked on the tedious project of editing  Winchesterranch.blogspot.com, with all 1837 posts, so that I can have it made into a book.  I'm plugging away at this project, and now have 1350 blog posts leftt to edit!  I'm making slow progress.

Life is good!

Leather Backpack

Over the weekend, Papa finished making a leather backpack for Whitney.  Lots of hours of labor went into cutting the leather, tooling the trim, and sewing it together.  Papa enjoyed the time on the phone with Whitney along the way, as they made design choices for the backpack.  It’s all done and needs to spend a bit more time in the sun to take on a deeper patina.

Flowers after Rain

These flowers are blooming all over our yard and in our neighborhood.  They bloom a few days after a good rain.  Our best rain of the summer was about 10 days ago, and only the second rain over this summer.  The reward of a good rain is quite pretty!

Barrel Cactus

If it’s August, then barrel cactus are blooming in the Sonoran Desert.  This barrel cactus has a full bouquet.  It is in our back garden.

Brunch at First Watch

We invited “our kids” for brunch this morning.  Our usual table conversation includes time for everyone at the table to tell what they’ve been doing recently and plans for the coming months.  The conversations that follow can go on for hours.  We were at First Watch over three hours today and enjoyed every moment, filled with ideas, tips for parking at UA, getting discounts on tuition, and everything else from trips taken to a new baby born.  Meybelyn brought little Jaciel and he was perfect the whole time.  A terrific brunch!

Etherton Gallery

Etherton Gallery is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park with an exhibition of images by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Jack Dykinga.  We went to Etherton Gallery in downtown Tucson this morning, and enjoyed the exhibit to ourselves.  Each photograph was exquisite!  We had lunch at Senae Thai Bistro on Congress Street, about two blocks away.  It was delicious!  We had a fun midday date!

We’ve been back two weeks, from our trip to Europe.  It’s taken a bit of time for us to get back into our normal routine, catch up on mail and bills, and get back to our normal.