From Glendale To Tucson

Steve and I had a rather busy week with most nights filled with non-normal activities. It started on Tuesday.  As already reported, I have a lot of extended family living here in the Phoenix valley.  One cousin on my dad's side has proven to be extremely elusive.  I have emailed him more than once to try to get together and he has not shown an interest.  Which is too bad because we share common interests - he is a retired band teacher and his hobby is pottery!   I knew he played in the Glendale Community Band so I figured the only way I was going to see this cousin was to attend a concert and that is what Steve and I did Tuesday night.  He plays first chair tuba so he sat way back on the stage.  And, his ensemble performed first and was followed by the college wind ensemble performed second so I wasn't really sure how to connect.  Happily, I finally figured the only way to get to meet him was to find him backstage at the end of his performance and that turned out to be correct.  There was this tall fellow with a big old tuba standing outside the back of the performing arts center and it was, indeed, my cousin, Keith Preston.  I got to meet his daughter who is also a band teacher and plays trumpet in the ensemble.  I also got to meet his wife who walked up a few moments after we did. We had a nice little visit where we determined that he last time we actually saw each other was in the late sixties/early seventies when we were both in high school!  And, here we are

Wednesday night was supposed to be a temple night but Steve's belly was not feeling well so we stayed home.

Thursday morning, Steve had his six-month check up with the spine doctor and he got a clean bill of health with no more follow-up visits.  Good thing.  We were not about to fly back to Phoenix just to see the spine doc.

Thursday evening was a Shake & Bake (Mission president makes shakes and everyone else brings baked goods) at the mission home.  I would have sat this one out but I was playing my cello with a senior sister missionary who composes and she had written a piece for piano and cello and we were to perform that night.  Steve actually did stay home.  

Friday evening, we met my cousin on my mom's side, Dave Fraedrich, and his wife Shelley at the nearby movie theater to see "Captain Marvel".  We don't usually go to movies the week they release but Dave and Shelley are huge movie buffs and they invited us and we thought "why not?"  Dave bought the tickets two days ahead because, of course, the 7:00 pm show would be full on the actual day.  We had seats in the second row but, with the reclining chairs, it was really not a problem.  And, we got to watch the show with guys dressed as Captain America and Winter Soldier and who knows who else?  We had a great time and we loved the movie.

Saturday, my sister Juli drove down from Payson and we had a wonderful day down in Tucson.  Our first stop was to visit a distant cousin who knows a lot about the history of Binghampton - which is the area of Tucson where my grandparents and parents lived - and he has a lot of photos.  He shared copies of two photos with me.  The first one is of my grandparents and, most likely, daughters Thelma and Lillian in 1911 standing in front of their first home.  The next photo shows their ultimate house in the left side of the photo.

Another stop was to visit this house - now a hundred years old!  (can you see the resemblance?)  I saw it briefly over last Thanksgiving break and I wanted to go again and to bring my sister.  If you will recall, it is now a ceramic studio.

When I was there last, it was closed for the holidays and Maxine, the owner, just "happened" to be there.  This time, the studio was in full swing with Maxine very busy which was actually nice because it allowed Juli and I to just wander around un-escorted.  Here are some pictures of our explorations:

We are pretty sure the floors are original.  As is the brick as one goes into the cellar

In the same neighborhood of Binghampton is a museum of miniatures that was just wonderful.  SO many miniature rooms, houses, displays.  Our eyes hurt when we left!  Below are just a few samples of what we saw...

check out the miniature train in the miniature room!

a floor display of miniatures - probably because they ran out of wall space!!!

There was a whole display of KEWPIES!!!!!  Hundreds of them!!!!

This is a miniature little girl's clothes shop.  LOOK at the detail on the miniature dresses - even the ones that are crochetted!!

It was so fun - and I am really inspired to work on my two doll houses when I get back to Missouri.

On our way to our last stop, we drove by the "bone yard" where hundreds and hundreds of decommissioned military planes are parked row upon row on either side of the road.  It was impressive!  Below is just two rows....

Our final destination was to visit the San Xavier mission a little south and east of Tucson.  It is over 300 years old and the oldest intact European structure in Arizona.  (and, evidently, the reason the one tower is unfinished is because they ran out of money!)

Finally, we saw two  - TWO - roadrunners just outside the mission.  So cool!