TALIESIN WEST

I have always wanted to see a Frank Lloyd Wright house and we finally had an opportunity to do just  that. Taliesin West  is in Scottsdale, just a little ways from Mesa.  They give tours  daily, we bought our tickets online and headed over there the end of February. Taliesin West is a National Landmark.

Taliesin West  was  Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Taliesin West  has been called Frank Lloyd's Wright's desert laboratory. It was built entirely by the students who attended Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, which is open to this day. Students come here with their families and live and attend school.

When Taliesin West was begun, there was no water or electricity, all the work was  done by hand. Deeply connected to the desert from which it was forged. Frank Lloyd Wright was so upset when electricity finally came to Taliesin West. The electric poles  ruioned his view!

He wanted to move and start building another home, but his wife refused, saying he was 80 by then and too old to be starting another project!

Frank Lloyd Wright's ideas were so far ahead of his time.

This is in  his office and one of drawings.

He also designed the furniture that  his students built to furnish the home and school.

What a treat this was!

This was his bedroom where he slept and worked.

We both enjoyed seeing Frank Lloyd Wright's work.

I would like to see more of his work, maybe in our travels, we will have that opportunity!

TEMPE LAKE, DECOR TEAM

We finally took the time to drive over to Tempe Lake in Tempe. One of our co-workers said they kayak on  Tempe Lake, wanted to go see if we would want to take our kayak out.

It is  a nice lake, especially in the middle of a large city and pretty remarkable that it is right in the middle of a desert! We were surprised it was so large, we thought it was just a small lake.

It was a nice warm day and we enjoyed walking around, afterwards we had lunch for the first time at Cane's  Chicken. This is our new favorite chicken place!

We ordered Smart Tile off the Internet to put around the fireplace

Darrell did a beautiful job!

We are very happy with the results!

We were very busy at work. Trucks were bringing back all the Christmas and New Year's decorations back from all the resorts.

Oh..........where to put it all!!!

Every morning we have a meeting and  Mikki goes over what needs to be done for the day.....she always starts the day out with a hug for each of us!

We were  working  with a group of awesome folks!  

Mikki told us about the middle of January that she had hired "our friends" John and Kerry to work next year......we were so happy!!!! 

We saw a job on  Workamper.com in Oregon working for the Corps of Engineers that we were interested in bidding on. I started the process of  getting a DUNS number and after that registered with SAMS, the government bidding program. It took a lot of work and time, but finally, we got it all done and sent in  our bid. Unfortunately, we didn't get the bid, we were disappointed, but in the future we are all set up to bid other jobs, if we choose.

Sherry finally got her new fifth wheel to Florence and we wanted to go check it out.  We invited Jim and Gayle to go along, they are friends of Sherry's, who live just down from us. Sherry met us at LB's, a mexican restaurant in Florence.

Yummy food, good friends,  and mango  margaritas!  Life is Good!!

We loved Sherry's new place!!

When we were in Washington state this past summer, we were watching  Diners, Drive-ins  and Dives and a restaurant in  Gilbert was featured. Gilbert is not too far from us.  I wrote it down and one day we went to check it out.

Joe's Farm Grill

When we stepped in the door, there was quite a line!

We placed our order and found a table, this is a busy place!

Darrell had a cheeseburger and onion rings. He said it was very good! 

I had the grilled wedge salad.....lightly grilled iceburg lettuce with chunky blue cheese dressing....to die for!

As we were leaving, we noticed this sign.........

It says "DO NOT CLIMB ON TREES......RISK OF FALLING & SCORPION STINGS! OUCH!!

In February, Tammy from Decor,  called to say she had free tickets for us to the Osmond Brothers show. We were tickled, the first show we've attended this year. It was fabulous!

Later on in the month I joined Grace Methodist Church, after attending two membership meetings. I  am  a Methodist!

I love this church, so happy to have a church family!

WORK, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

Cal-Am has thirteen resorts and Decor furnishes all the decorations for all the events. After all the Christmas was delivered in early December, Decor Team started working on the New Years Party decorations.  That had to be ready to go the week following Christmas. It was a little intense, but it was ready on time and delivered. Delores suggested I go to some of the resorts to see what they do with all the stuff we send them.

 So, on Friday after Zumba, Darrell and I went to Val Vista, their theme was Egypt. It was amazing!!

Then it was on to Good Life, their theme was Peacocks.

 It was beautiful too. 

The theme for Sun Life was Damask

 Sun Life is the smallest RV Resort, so this wasn't as grand, but very elegant.

We stayed home for New Years Eve. There were fireworks going off, Darrell stayed up with Maggie until they were done, shortly after midnight.  I was in bed by 10:00.

Kerry and John came Monday, January 2 and got their "old" spot, next door to us.

It was wonderful spending time with them! They were only here three days!! They came over to Decor to meet Mikki, trying to  get them set up for next season to work in Decor. Hope so! They left for Yuma for the winter.