Sandhill Cranes near Willcox

I had heard that there were up to 30,000 Sandhill Cranes that winter near Willcox, AZ. I also heard that at sunrise, they leave the playa to go feed in mass. That sounded like something I had to see. I didn't really want to go spend the night in Willcox and so that left getting up at 3am in order to get to Willcox in time for sunrise.

It rained a lot on the way there, but wasn't raining when I got there, thank goodness. This is what it looked like when the sun was just starting to come up. I could hear lots of them out there in the dark. They were very vocal.

I think I got better pics on my phone than my camera. I posted the videos and other pics on facebook. They didn't leave in one large group, but lots of smaller groups. But it was still cool to see them. They were vocalizing the whole time. And they are so big! They stand 3.5 to 5 feet tall and have a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet. That's a big bird.

This was maybe starlings? It's not a good photo, but they were doing that "thing" called murmuration where they morph into different shapes as a flock. It was cool to see in person.

The playa.

I saw lots of other birds, but didn't get pics and I am not sure what they all were. After sunrise I drove in the larger circle around the playa. I stopped at one other viewing place. As I was driving out, I drove through what I thought was a puddle. It turned out to be a big hole and I was stuck! My brain was frozen temporarily. I couldn't quite process what had happened and what I needed to do to solve it. I called a tow truck, but luckily a good Samaritan stopped and pulled me out. I cancelled the truck. They were going to charge me 125$ to pull me out and he did it in just a few minutes. I was so unbelievably grateful to him!

Glad I got to see the cranes though.

Loop of Lights

I haven't updated my blog in ages. I have had computer issues and so I have had more on Facebook than I usually do. I wanted to get this post up before Christmas was too long gone.

Lynnora took Derikca and I to the Loop of Lights in San Tan Valley before Christmas. It's a neighborhood, where everyone decorates. I thought this little cactus was cute.

This Santa and snowman were very energetically exercising. It was kind of funny.

A traditional nativity.

This robot was fun with his meter of Christmas spirit.

Mater

There were two neighbors with all the characters from Rudolph. Traditional painted cut outs. Kind of fun.

 Another nativity.

This was all candy land themed, with the cover to the candyland game projected on the wall.

Santa was in the window of this house, walking back and forth, very busy.

The lights in this blow up tree moved and changed color.

 I thought these were hysterical.

Santa with the whole stable of reindeer.

 Minions

At the second to last house, you could have your picture taken with Santa, Olaf or the Grinch.

 Lynnora, Olaf and Dericka

This house had an amazing amount of lights and songs that went with them. It was very LOUD!

Dinner in the Park 2015

Tonight I had my "dinner in the park". Last year I decided to try and make it "fancy" with real dishes, etc. Since I had everything, and everyone seemed to enjoy it last year, we did it that way again this year. There was a bit of a scare that it would rain. So I moved it to the back lawn of the church. Then if it rained, we could go inside. It didn't rain, but the sprinklers did go on briefly! That was a scare. Some of the guys covered the sprinklers up for us and they turned off pretty quickly, so all was well in the end.

 
The tables turned out nice. I had a lot of help from Cindy and Penny with setting up, so lots of thanks to them.

And of course everyone brought yummy food and seemed to mix with everyone really well.

Thank you everyone for all your help and a great evening!

After 20 years: Disneyland

I had not been to Disneyland in over 20 years. There were always so many other things to do in California. I had been thinking about going for a while though and it finally came together. Dave and Cindy Hale, Penny Karr and I, went on a 3 day park hopper trip. Penny hadn't been to Disneyland in more than 40 years. California Adventure hadn't been built last time we were there. The Hales had been more recently, but still not ridden on everything and had never done the park hopper thing.

I did some homework before we went and we had a plan. Hopefully it would save us some time waiting in line. Lots of people gave us advice.

It was fun to see the park decorated for Halloween. Disneyland closed at 6pm a couple of nights we were there for their Halloween party. It was another 80$ on top of the tickets we bought, so we didn't go.

We went mid week to minimize crowds, but there were still a lot of people in Disneyland. California Adventure wasn't too crowded. One of the Disneyland Workers (cast members) told us there really wasn't an uncrowded time at Disneyland anymore. He said Christmas Day is  often the busiest day. Crazy.

 

An attempt at a selfie with all four of us.

You can't see them very well, but there were "gems" all over the castle to celebrate the 60th anniversary.

Mr. Toad's Wild ride was our first ride.

Star Tours

Jungle cruise

The Haunted mansion was especially decorated for Halloween.

Peter Pan's Flight. We probably waited the longest for this ride.

Rode the paddle wheeler for the first time. It was a nice break and you could see some things you couldn't see from anywhere else.

There were people in costume all over the park. I am not sure if this girl is in a costume or not.

The parades were high energy and fun. But you need to plan early to get a spot for a parade or you are out of luck. Penny and I got separated from Dave and Cindy for the night parade, and were stuck in a loop of people with no where to go.

The princesses had their princess moves down to the T.

Tigger tails! I ate one because I read they were supposed to be good. I didn't care for them. I wished I had gotten one of the candy apples instead.

We had a nice dinner in the Blue Bayou restaurant the first night. Pricey, but a bucket list activity for an adult trip to Disneyland. And it was really nice ambiance. Reservations in advance required!

Photos are out of order....

We loved the Radiator Springs Racers. We rode them 3 times all together.

The ferris wheel in California Adventure was nice. Pretty views.

The World of Color show was awesome in California adventure.

We saw a lot of the characters, but didn't want to wait in lines to have photos taken.

Buzz light year ride.

Blue Bayou from Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Hales at Thunder Mountain Railroad. One of my favorites.

End of the night, after parade and fireworks. They make it beautiful, for sure.

Beginning of first day, fresh and ready to go.

 Tiki Room

Winnie the Pooh Ride.

 Flo's Café in Radiator Springs.

 Space Mountain. I am not a roller coaster girl, but I rode them all except Splash Mountain. I had ridden that one before.

 Dave's lemonade had a glowing cube in it.

 After the Grizzly Water run. We rode it twice in a row. It was fun and we were wet in spite of our ponchos.

 Mater's tractor ride.

 The most frustrating line we waited in was for ice cream cones in Cone town.

 Mr. Lincoln was fun, a classic and hardly anyone there.

 They did an amazing job making radiator springs look real.

And the Grizzly ride is a pretty area too.

Minnie's house in toon town.

 We finally tried Dole Whips. they were good.

 Toy Story Mania was more fun than you think it will be.

 Radiator Springs Racers again.

 Scenery on the Radiator Springs ride.

 The Train around Disneyland was another break for us.

 Photo of the photo they took on California Screaming. My eyes were shut most of the time.

 Blurry, but hilarious photo of us on tower of terror. My hair is straight up and I am hanging on to the only handle with both hands. Cindy is trying to hold on to Penny.

 The Capitol in the Lincoln area.

 Inside Radiator Springs Racers, right before the race begins.

 The Golden Zephyr was pleasant.

 It's a small world was longer than I remembered and blessedly cool.

 Indiana Jones Ride. We did it twice!

I had never been to Disneyland for more than a day before. We figured we paid 276 for our park hopper tickets and were in the parks for 36 hours. We spent  7.60 an hour. We felt like we got a pretty good value for our money.