St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Phoenix, AZ

St. Francis Xavier Cathedral is on Central Avenue in Phoenix, AZ.  http://www.sfxphx.org  My brother Mark and I met there at noon today for a 20 minute mass and a tour of the cathedral and the school grounds.  He has been a member of the congregation there in the past and he made an excellent tour guide.  Besides the gorgeous cathedral, this compound has a Jesuit elementary school, two Jesuit high schools (one girls' and one boys'), a library, (not open to the public, I asked), a gym, and several sport fields and playgrounds.

It is a lovely example of the traditional Roman Catholic cathedral, with the vaulted ceilings, statuary, ornate altar, and gorgeous stained glass windows.

Mary has her own niche to the left of the altar.

 Below are views of the courtyard and colonnade outside the Jesuit boys' high school in the compound.  The girls' high school is across the soccer field and beyond the gym, of course.

I found another horse sculpture, in a fountain!!

This poor guy has his heart in his hand and a big heart-shaped hole through his body.

This is another chapel on the campus.

St. Ignatius of Loyola.  I think he's important to the Jesuits.

The colonnade is beautifully tiled and breezy, with small niches for  many statues of saints and benches to sit on.

The ceiling of the colonnade.

This is a lovely walkway between buildings.  I love the vines on the wall after a rain shower.

The cathedral from the back.

Then, when I arrived back to our AirBnb, our host, her son, Steve and I, and a former client all went out to In and Out Burger for grub.  It was a magical day and evening.

The burger was better than I expected. 😜

Tomorrow, we go to Mom and Dad's for dinner.  So, you may not hear from me until the day after.  The adventure continues.

South Mountain Park, Phoenix, AZ and family reunion

South Mountain Park is a city park on the south side of Phoenix.  It was cooler yesterday, only 99 degrees, so we ventured out to see it.  This is the view from South Mountain Park - downtown Phoenix in the distance.

Magnified view of Phoenix

In order to get these photos and a few more, I had to climb a fairly small hill from the parking lot.  Steve waited in the air conditioned car while I did that.  I have to say that 99 degrees is pretty close to the same as 106 to my body.  As I climbed, I met a young woman coming down and asked her if the view was worth the climb.  She said it was great, but that she had to go back because the heat was making her feel like passing out.  The woman was at least 50 years younger than I.  Just saying'...

This park has the most saguaro cacti that I have seen together anywhere in the region.  

There are little yellow "hair-topped" looking cacti often seen next to the saguaros.  I think these may be "baby" saguaros. They remind me of Meghan when she was under 1 year old and had blonde hair that stuck straight up off her head. (I mean hair that was more than 3 inches long; it didn't start falling over until then.  We called her Beaker - sorry, Meghan, I couldn't help it.)

Several other high points:

This looked like a ruin, but could have been built for tourists.

The park ranger station, at the gate, with drinking water and restrooms.

Exhausted, we came home and discovered that we didn't need a full day to recover as usual.  Because today we were able to get up early (unusual for us) and we visited my parents again to have a partial family reunion.  

My brother Gary, sister-in-law Natalie, and niece Lilia and, of course, my brother Mark who lives in Phoenix, my husband Steve, and I were here to celebrate Dad's 91st birthday and our parents' anniversary.  It was wonderful to have all of us in the same room again.  

Mom and Dad were thrilled.  They will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary in February and it was so nice to be able to celebrate that with them now, since it won't be possible for us all to be here in February.  Mom said she has loved Dad for 71 years and  I know the feeling is definitely mutual.  They are an inspiration to all of us.  We love you, Mom and Dad.  Happy Anniversary! 💋

Tomorrow, Steve and I plan our next moves.  Gary and family are on their way back to Las Vegas and their flight back home.  Steve and I may be headed for Los Alamos, New Mexico soon.  We'll see.

Monsoon season in Phoenix

After a lazy morning at the BnB, we visited with my parents in Sun City West again had a delicious dinner, prepared by my Dad.  He is really an excellent chef and has many recipes that he prepares for the two of them.  He plans, shops, and prepares such tasty, nutritious meals.  Leave it to an engineer to get all that down to a smooth running machine.  He's an inspiration.

While there was still some daylight, Steve and I drove around Sun City West and Surprise, AZ to see what kind of possibilities there are for renting.  We are considering settling here for a couple years after returning from Europe.  There are quite a few condos (so there must be a few for rent) and some apartments.  Rent price will probably determine how close we can be to Sun City West and my folks. We'll be talking with a realtor to get a better idea of what can be done.

We already know that, if we have decent air conditioning, Steve and I can handle the Arizona summers.  This is monsoon season.  There are very hot days; mingled with windy days that include some rain and lightening.  The rain cools the day off and makes it more bearable.  Today, on the way to the folks house it was 105 degrees, but it cooled down to 98 degrees with the rain that seems to come and go.  It's 9:30pm now and the temp is down to 92 degrees.  All of this makes from some pretty sunsets.

Can you see the rain coming down?  We drove down a dry corridor between showers.

Sunset from Surprise, AZ.

The thing is that during this monsoon season people (mainly tourists) need to be very aware of their surrounds.  There are flash floods during this time and in a split second you can be facing a wall of water and debris when you though you were just walking in a dry river bed or, as in a recent incident, paddling around in a small swimming hole.  An extended family went to their favorite swimming hole on a hot day the day before we arrived here.  They were celebrating a young woman's 26th birthday.  They were hit by a flash flood and 9 members of their family died: the young woman having a birthday, her husband, and their 3 children were all among the dead.  This is not a rare occurrence and we are being extremely careful.

We drove through a pelting rainstorm yesterday to get to Sedona and passed flashing "Watch for flooding" signs several times.  Because the road pavement gets so dry here, when the rain comes down especially that quickly, the water just beads up and creates puddles and runoff.  It was alarming to see some drivers not seem to take that into consideration and still drive 75 mph, as the law allows under normal circumstances.  With a few sharp curves, it was a pretty hair raising leg of the journey.

Of course, I didn't take a pic while we were trying not to skid on the curves, but this is how it looked.

Tomorrow, we hope to arrive early in the Peoria, Surprise, Sun City West area and do some more exploring.  Then, it off to the Gestson's house for my Dad's super specialty - Spaghetti and meatballs.  I craved this meal for much of my childhood.  It took a very long time for him to make, so it only happened on special occasions.  This spaghetti is like nothing I've tasted anywhere else.  It has such delicious, tender meatballs; mushrooms, bay leave, and cloves.  It is a secret recipe, known only to the men in my family, so I couldn't make it for myself.  And... tomorrow I get to taste it again.  I just can't wait!  I promise spaghetti pictures in tomorrow's post, but don't ask me for the recipe.  It is guarded by Gestsons and cannot be revealed.