Jerome, Arizona

Jerome is a fun town. After it's time as a mining town, Jerome was repopulated in the 60's and 70's and, in many ways, time has stood still since then. A quaint mixture of tie-dyed articles, brothel souveniers and eateries make it a fun place to visit--best summed up by the bumper sticker reading "We're all here because we're not all there, Jerome Arizona, population: strange".

One of the highlights is The House of Joy, which originally provided joy as a brothel in the 20's. Later it was purchased by John and Mary Dempsey who converted it into a restaurant. John had been a chef in San Francisco and his cullinary skills earned his new establishment a Conde Naste rating as one of the 10 best restaurants in the U.S. Several years later, John was injured in a bicycle accident and could no longer spend the time on his feet that the restaurant required so John and Mary closed the restaurant and converted it to it's current shop of Brothel novelties. Definitely worth a visit. Betty and I had a nice visit with Mary as she happily shared the history of their home/art studio/shop. Mary and John personally make many of the articles for sale in their establishment.

The alley next to their store is a mini muesum in the eclectic.

Lunch Time! A quick quick check with Yelp (iPhone app) led us to Quince restaurant. Excellent food and a great atmosphere. Another spot worth visiting when in town.

Spots of the old mining town still remain on the main street.

I love the local art and artists.

Tuzigoot National Monument, Arizona

Tuzigoot is the remnant of a Southern Sinagua village build between 1125 and 1400. The original pueblo was 2 stories tall in places, with 77 ground floor rooms. The structures have been partially restored to show the layout of the basic wall structure. The two story portion of the pueblo has been rebuilt to show roughly how it looked and afford a view of the surrounding area.

Sedona, Arizona

We just love the red rocks of Sedona and decided to stay in the area for 3 days on our round-about way to Scottsdale and the Giants spring training.
The small cluster of rocks to the right of the bigger mountain is affectionately known as Snoopy rock. With some imagination, you can make out Snoopy laying on this back with his head toward the mountain... For dinner we went to the Cowboy Club and tried their cactus fries which gave Betty weird dreams - maybe the indians were onto something.On our second day we went on a jeep ride through the Coconino National Forest, down dirt roads and through washes with views of the mountains and desert flora.Our guide looked remarkably like Betty.

As the evening sun went down, the mountains came alive with color and we stopped to enjoy the view and quiet from our spot on the isolated road.

Biosphere 2

For those of you who don't remember the Biosphere 2 experiment in the early 90's - it was a completey sealed and self contained habitat created in the Arizona desert outside the town of Oracle. Four men and four women were sealed in the complex for 2 years to basically test the feasibility of creating self-contained earth environments in outer space. Over 3 acres are sealed under glass with 5 bioms - rainforest, ocean, desert, mangroves, and an agriculture area. Although considered by many to be a failure because of problems encountered - oxygen was absorbed by concrete structures causing the scientists to run low on oxygen (which was fixed with a one-time infusion into the sealed system); low food production which was an inconvenience but never created a serious health threat; and personnel squabbles the eventually seperated the group of 8 into 2 4-person rival teams.

I arrived expecting to see run-down remnants of a poorly conceived and failed project. But wow, it was much more than I expected! The engineering is amazing and the unit is both well thought out and impressive. I feel the minor problems encountered could be easily addressed in minor changes to the design and the project could be labeled a prototype and significant success. After the experiment, which concluded in 1994, the property was sold and managed by Columbia University from 1996-2003 who made a $10 million investment into the property to turn it into a remote campus studying environmental issues. The propery was resold in 2007 to private investors and management turned over to the University of Arizona, who still manage the project and conduct ongoing environmental experiments in this unique, self-contained environment. This is the building that houses the 5 biomes.

Connected to the biome structure is this building which served as living quarters and labratories for the scientists during their 2 year, 20 minute stay.

Because of varying air pressure caused by temperature fluctuations within the sealed unit, two "lungs" were built into the initial design to absorb the temporary increases in air pressure and then return the air to the biomes when the temperature cooled.

This is the ocean habitat - almost 1 million gallons of saltwater creating a living ocean complete with fish and coral.

The rainforest, complete with 80+% humidity houses approximately 100 varieties of rain forest plants.

Below the structure, but still within the sealed environment, is an impressive infrastructure that regulates the temperature, rainfall and humidity for each seperate biome. Everything is recyled within the environment - inclding all water and oxygen.

If you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend a visit!

Landers, CA to Coolidge, AZ

Monday and Tuesday were both driving days with only one sightseeing stop per day. Although the scenery along the way was pretty spectacular (in parts) - there was lots of desert too.
OK, who can resist stopping at the Integratron in Landers, CA? Imagine our disappointment when, upon arriving, we found out it was closed on Mondays! What is the Integratron you ask - well it is a rejuvenation sound chamber, of course. It's got to be cool because it was built by a guy who says he got the instructions from space people from Venus in 1953. This unique structure was funded largely by Howard Hughes and built on a vortex of energy. Some state that it is the most unusual sound phenomenon they have ever heard. We were actually disappointed that we arrived on the wrong day. Oh well, next trip...More driving took us to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge, Arizona. It is estimated that this great house was built by the Hohokam Indians around 1350. The Hohokams are highly respected for the irrigation system they created pulling water from the Gila River. The site is historically interesting and it is amazing that the Great House has survived to this day. Long ago vandals looted the area, but active archeological study still goes on nearby. It was very windy the day we were there so we did not do a lot of exploring, but the visitor's center had a nice overview video and museum with artifacts from the area.

Lancaster and Palmdale

The next stop on our journey southward was Lancaster, CA where we detoured off the freeway long enough to find the Musical Road, a section of roadway that was grooved to play the William Tell Overture when driven at 50 mph. This ad stunt was done by Honda to promote their Honda Civic in 2008. After the commercial was filmed, the roadway was left for the community to enjoy. However, the surrounding residents soon complained of the noise and erratic behavior of those driving the section of roadway. Consquently the city paved over the grooves, but luckily for us, it was "re-created" on a remote section of Avenue G between 30th and 40 West. Find it and drive it! It's worth the detour.
Palmdale is the home of Blackbird Park where stealth spy planes are now on exhibit. The office/gift shop is manned by knowledgeable volunteers who love to tell you all about these birds. Because of limited funding, the park is only open Friday through Sunday. The picture below is of the SR-71A, at the time the fastest plane on earth, affectionately known as Blackbird. It had a maximum speed of 2,112 miles per hour and could fly 3250 miles without refueling. All of the SR-71s were retired by 1995. Who know what replaced them...

Below is the A-12, a prototype for both the SR-71 and YF-12 Blackbirds. The YF-12 was originally developed for the USAF as a long-range interceptor. The Air Force dropped the project when it was realized that it would not make a good interceptor, but the CIA picked it up when they realized it would be an awesome spy plane. This is only one of two places in the world where you can see both planes side by side.

And here is the famous F-117 Stealth attack aircraft, with a shape and special skin to minimize radar reflections. It is pretty cool being able to see these once top secret planes so close-up. Once a year, pilots who flew these aircraft host a special event where the planes are opened up and you can actually sit in the cockpit in addition to hearing real war stories.

This is a close up of the outside of one of the engines used in the SR-71 -- it doesn't look that complicated.

Bakersfield and Tehachapi

We're off to Scottsdale to cheer on the Giants at spring training where we'll be joined by Allison, Steve, Natalie and Steve's parents, Donna and Mike. We left a week early to do a little sightseeing along the way - and no trip through Bakersfield would be complete without a stop at the Big Shoe Repair Shop. Ahh, new architecture can be so boring compared with the great buildings of the past. We also visited the Cancer Survivors Gauntlet, a sculpture and garden dedicated to those who have fought, or are battling, cancer. The artwork shows eight individuals at various stages of their fight, negotiating the various treatments depicted by a series of portals through which they must pass. Not your typical picnic-type destination, but we found the time well spent. Leading up to the sculpture is a "positive mental attitude walk" with 14 placques suggesting lifestyle and mental approaches for battling the disease. Very inspirational.

Next stop, Tehachapi where we wanted to see the Avenue of Faces - spirit faces carved into trees over the last 20 years by local artist Kent Holmgren. Unfortunately we could only find these four. There were several stumps so we assumed that the trees either died or the carvings had been borrowed...

Hawaii Cruise

On January 4th, we set sail for Hawaii on the Golden Princess. We cruised round trip from Los Angeles which gave us a leisurely 4 days at sea before arriving at Hilo on the big island of Hawaii, followed by visits to Oahu, Kauai and Maui. Then another 4 wonderful days at sea to Ensenada, Mexico and then back to Los Angeles. We love the sea days where we sat on our balcony, drank our beverages and read (in between the all-too-frequent meals.)

That's our little boat off in the distance...

These are the grounds and beach of the Marriot on Kauai where Steve and Allison spent their honeymoon.

On Maui, we were greeted by Neil, Betty's cousin, who spent the day giving us a personal tour of his home island.

Then, all too soon, it was time to head back to Los Angeles. A wonderful trip which we will certainly repeat.