Friday, January 27, 2012

Arrived in Arizona

St. Xavier Mission
Mom and I arrived in Phoenix/Mesa last night and then drove to Green Valley for about two hours and made it to Aunt Ruth’s and Uncle Bernie’s at about 1:00 a.m. (AZ time). It was a good flight and a very dark drive (there are no lights along the highways in AZ), and we were tired but Ruth and Bernie were up waiting for us!

This morning mom and Aunt Ruth already had their walk in by the time I got up out of bed. After breakfast we got in the car and headed out to do some sightseeing. First on the list was the St. Xavier Mission, outside of Green Valley. It was a beautiful, old church that was overseen by the Franciscan order and is the oldest European structure in Arizona. The sanctuary is gorgeous - very Baroque - and gilded with gold. Gabby Giffords mother, who is a local artist, reconstructed a set of lions by the pulpit.

Cactus every where!
Next we visited a copper mine, didn’t take the tour but walked around and stopped at the gift shop. Then we stopped at the Green Valley Pecan Shop (there are hundreds of pecan trees along the side of the highway) and bought some pecan hot sauce, pecan toffee, caramel & pecan popcorn… I’m hoping that I don’t eat it all in the next week ☺

Tomorrow we are heading up to Casa Grande to have lunch with my Aunt Cheryl (Dad’s sister) and hopefully see my cousins DeeDee and Darcy. We haven’t seen them much since they moved to AZ and it will be nice to reconnect. Uncle Bernie has a car show – I would like to get to that too but we’ll see how the day goes.

Friday, January 20, 2012

January lunch at Good's

Monday mom and I headed to Good's in Kewanee for lunch with Carol, Peggy, Rosemary, Steve, Laurie and Virgil. It was a good day to travel and the waitstaff there at the Good's restaurant is getting pretty used to seeing the group each month.

Mom had (or tried) a port flush Tuesday morning. The nurses didn't have much success in getting it to work as there is some fiberous material still clogging the area. So they put some chemicals in there to break it up or keep it from getting worse. Not a big concern right now as she isn't in any chemo treatment but eventually they will have to clear it out somehow.

We are leaving for AZ next Thursday, LATE, flying out on Allegiant from the Moline airport. The snow forecast looks ok so hopefully the weather will be nice and clear. Looking forward to some warmer weather!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Arizona bound

Mom and I are shedding our winter gear and going to take a trip to Arizona to stay with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bernie for a week at the end of the month. Mom has been wanting to go and visit them for a long time - so, since she is taking a break from chemo, now is the time!

My dad's sister, Cheryl, and her husband Paul live outside of Phoenix, and my cousins DeAnna and Darcy live around that area as well, so we are going to try and make a date and time to meet up with them. It will be nice to see them again.

We are flying out on January 26 and returning on February 2 on Allegiant, which has a direct flight from Moline to the Phoenix/Mesa airport.