While hanging at the EXPO, the four of us discussed getting together one more time before Linda and Mike hit the road. They were off to explore parts of northern Arizona while Al and I were extending our time in Phoenix just a little longer to help our son with some projects on his house.
Although the EXPO provided the guys with shooting opportunity, it was just enough shooting to wet Al and Mike’s appetite. As I listened to the two guys conversing, much of the language was lost on me as I’m not necessarily a fan of guns. Thus, the conversation sounded more like, “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours”. Ah yes, boys and their toys.
Mike is more of a pistol shooter while Al is predominantly a shotgunner. The previous week the guys, along with their sons, spent time at the Pistol Range at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility allowing Mike to share all his toys with Al. Now it was time for Al to share his toys. Plans were quickly forged for Al to introduce Mike to Sporting Clays.
Wanting Mike’s first experience to be a fun one, Al arranged to have a large, slow-moving target brought in.
“Aim for the smiley face, Mike”. In all seriousness, I’m not sure what the balloonist was thinking landing in the middle of a clay target shooting range. In the photo above, you can see to the left of the picnic table is shooting station number 13.
Since this occurred prior to 7:00 a.m., no shooters were on the line just yet as shooting doesn’t start until seven. Staff quickly informs the balloonist that it was not ok to land. After some conversing and laughing the pilot fired off the burner and off they went for a safer spot to land.
I’m sure it was an exciting morning for everyone. Oh well, Mike and Al will just have to aim at the little black disc in the air.
The guys of course had a great time shooting, but Linda and I were more interested in seeing the desert flowers. After all, spring in the desert is beautiful and not to be missed. Thus, the two of us were off to the Desert Botanical Gardens.
This was our second attempt to visit the Botanical Garden. The winds kept us away the first time, and although we missed the peak of the wildflowers, the weather was perfect; sunny, in the upper 70’s/low 80’s, with a gentle breeze.
We were excited to see all the cactus just beginning to bloom including the saguaro. The saguaro cactus are late spring bloomers, but seem to bloom a little earlier at the Desert Botanical Garden than in the wild.
Sitting on 140 acres, the Botanical Garden is a museum of living plants with more than 50,000 in its collection.
There’s five main loops, each focusing on a variety of plants; wildflower loop, desert discovery, herb garden, nature loop, and plants & people loop.
There’s additional exhibits including a butterfly pavilion. It’s a beautiful botanical garden as seen in the photos.
It was a great day for both the guys and the gals 🙂
Years ago, you could find us visiting Chicago’s Art Institute one day and the next we’d be packing up the truck, tent, and canoe and heading toward northern Minnesota for some remote woods roughing it. Those trips were always an adventure filled with campfires, fishing, and wild blueberry picking. We’d need to keep an eye out for any black bears while stealing their blueberries as an actual bear encounter was not usually part of the plan. Fun times, bear encounters included!
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