McDowell Mountain Regional Park–Day 2

First light in the morning today, and the dogs needed out to do their business.  The sun was up over the south-eastern mountains, so I took this shot with the sun behind this desert bush.  Don’t know if I will be up early enough for a sunrise…we will see.

    

The morning is still young to the north where the sun’s rays are just lighting things up.  The views here at McDowell Mountain Regional Park are just plain awesome.

Last night Marcia and I drove over to our friend Joyce’s house, where we were met later by her daughter Laurie.  After a bit of a visit we all went over to “Charr Burger Bar”, where we had a great meal.  The menu has, of course, lots of different burgers on it, along with salads, sandwiches, fish and even ribs.  Marcia had the fish and chips and she loved them.  I had a Charr Burger with bacon and swiss cheese, while the other ladies had other burgers.  The burgers are served on a Garlic Knot Bun, which was remarkable.  Joyce eats here a lot, and the manager had a homemade tiramisu which was to die for.  One large slice, four spoons, and it was gone fairly quickly.

For lunch today Marcia, Joyce and I went to Aiello’s Salumeria, an East Coast Italian Deli, which includes Isa's Pizza within the same building.  In fact, the Aiellos own both of these, and Charr’s, where we ate last night.  We went here for lunch because the manager at Charr’s promised us fresh Sfogliatelle, which are shell-shaped filled pastries native to Italian cuisine.  It was hard to decide what to have since the menu has so many different items on it….and the pizza, which we can easily see on the next counter, looked so good.  So we each had a pasta dish, and Marcia and I split a “White Pizza” slice.  It was good, but the atmosphere lacked…but I guess most delis do, and we walked out with three Sfogliatelle for later.

Marcia and I both agree that we don’t do much traveling on New Year’s Eve, especially after 4 pm.  She calls it “Amateur Night”.  So we left Joyce’s for our 30 mile drive, which takes an hour with traffic, back to McDowell Park.  After a quick stop at a grocery store, we got back to the motorhome around 4:45….just in time for some sunset shots.

With the sun dropping below the McDowell Mountain Range…

  

   

The mountains to the south, north and east just glow.  It sure gives you a good idea of the scenery ones gets to see around here.

Every hour the fountain of Fountain Hills, spews water over 562 feet high once per hour.  It is the worlds fourth largest fountain, and the event last for 10-15 minutes.  This shot was taken around 5:10, and the fountain is over five miles away from us.

And this shot is for Sandy and Arny… they miss you, but I think they miss the grass more.

That is it from McDowell Park for this New Year’s Eve.  Although the park if full, the space between each site is very large and we almost feel alone.  It will surly be the quietest New Year’s Eve we have had in a long time.  We hope that you all have a wonderful new year.