Town stuff

Once the blush is off, I have some resistance to writing the last post from a trip.  We've been home for a week and here I am writing "the end".  Our return involved hitting the ground running with many activities planned at home, a condition that elevates procrastination to a fine art.

On this seventh day after our return, it's either get 'er done or let people think we have stalled forever down south, so on to our Yuma doin's.  We discovered that Yuma has a charming old downtown and an interesting history to go with it, so we spent some time exploring it.

A main street gallery offered a sparse collection of paintings and other art pieces.  The unique glass bowl pictured here was incredibly fascinating.  I've never seen anything like it, and cannot imagine how it is made.  The artist has several similar delicate pieces on display.  I had to dissuade the señor from plinking it out of curiosity.

Long ago, I listened to my grandmother exclaim about the multitudinous flowers she had enjoyed in San Clemente, California, where she visited her brother; I was similarly charmed by and expounded on the botanical beauty in Yuma.  The bougainvillea everywhere was profuse and colorful.  One special area was at and near a vintage adobe house-turned-quasi-museum and event center.  Built in the 1870s, the two-room structure with a kitchen lean-to became the home of E.F. Sanguinetti in 1890, and subsequently was enlarged.  Mr. Sanguinetti was a major businessman and developer in the Yuma area.

 

 

We always love to peruse historical structures, and that was no exception.  I was especially attracted to the garden-laden grounds - good thing, too, because truthfully, the "museum" interior was pretty lame.  Not much to see and what there was has been usurped into a so-called Victorian chocolatery (how's that for a new word) and a hat room.  We did have some fun trying on headgear, at least.

 

  

 

 

 

The one thing I most wish I could share in person rather than just writing it was when the señor stood next to a very odd mannequin.  He was expounding on something or other when the figure beside him began to whir and turned its head to "look" at him.  In true Chris fashion, he glanced at his companion briefly as if that were the most commonplace thing ever and continued to talk.  Color me falling down laughing!

 

 

 

Oddly, two women were having a business meeting in the front room of the house as we wandered through, so I included them in my shot.  Even more oddly, one of them was from Prescott Valley.

 

 

 

The ceiling construction was unusual.

 

 

 

Now back to the gardens: in its heyday, Sanguinetti is reported to have created quite a large oasis complete with a bathing pool in order to mitigate the summer's heat.  Now, however, the property has been divided; next door the gardens continue along a walkway leading to small shops and the most charming outdoor eatery ever.  We were told that the proprietor is a Sanguinetti family member.

 

The premises climb up a gentle incline that has been divided into multiple semi-private dining areas, screened by trellises, latticework and greenery, tucked in randomly and artistically.  Aptly called The Garden Cafe, the lunch fare equaled the charming ambiance. . . and now I've done it: taken a photo of my meal.

 

 

 

Okay, so I got a little carried away with the gardens photography.  I wanted to cart this cute fountain home with me, but it was too heavy.  The bird's beak closes after it empties its water and reopens when it refills.

Martha's Gardens, RV park music, county fair & jets . . .

One of our RV park neighbors recommended that we take a jaunt to Martha's Gardens to try out their date shakes.  I have to admit that although I love dates, drinking them in some concoction did not appeal to me in the slightest, but we did find our way to the place, and were very happy to have done so.

My biggest disappointment on arrival was that tours are conducted at the date farm but we were not going to be able to take one.  I did ask lots of questions about the work we saw being done.  The family farm was begun in 1990 and has grown to 8,000 palms on more than 100 acres.

Clearly a very labor-intensive operation, it became obvious why the cost of dates is relatively high.  I actually can't fathom how the work can be completed.  In the photo below, crews are pruning the date bunches.  Even that is nowhere near as simple as it sounds.  Each and every cluster has to be thinned so that air can circulate into it.  While they are about that, they shape the branches so that the bunch hangs evenly with the weight well distributed to prevent breakage.

I had been mentally questioning about the shoots I saw at the palm's bases; now I know that those are actual clones of the adult females that are removed and used to start new trees.  If I am again in that region, I want definitely to get the full tour; the entire process is intriguing.

Play it and they will come; all it took was to get the keyboard out to get neighbors to converge for relaxing evenings of visiting and listening.  We got to know some really fine folks and to hear some interesting life stories.

Seems that often when we are traveling randomly here and there, we hear that one event or another is just the week before or the week after we are there.  Not that time, though: we were right on time for the county fair and enjoyed all that goes with such gatherings.  Being accustomed to our years of entering lots vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers and more in the Yavapai County Fair, we were astounded to see the entries in some of those departments - a grand total of four fruits and three vegetables!  And that in a highly agricultural area!  Flowers were another matter; lots of entries there, and 4-H & FFA animal entries were plentiful and interesting.  

We confined ourselves to splitting one funnel cake as our junk food of the day.  I am fairly certain that every molecule in my body was rearranged by the afterburner blasts of military jets that were taking off just across the highway.  I have never experienced anything like it.

 

 

Our final evening in Yuma was celebrated with an incredible Arizona sunset.