An Interesting Downtown

Downtown Flagstaff is a mixture of the old and the new. The city was first settled in 1876 and grew rapidly during the 1880s with the arrival of the railroad. Some of the buildings give a glimpse of years gone by.

This building was obviously built many years ago.

The outside staircases (or fire escapes) indicate an era now gone.

If you look closely at the left side of this building, you can see tall vents running up the side. We wondered if these once vented wood stoves.

This attractive building, which houses St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, has obviously been standing for many, many years. They don't build anything like this today, unfortunately.

We saw a couple of modern murals on the side of buildings. While new, one depicts an age long gone.

One store had fancy caramel apples. We didn't buy one. They are hard to eat as you walk down the street.

Flagstaff is a very bike-friendly city, maybe in part because it is home to Northern Arizona University. There are paved bike paths around the city, the buses have bike racks on the front and rear, and we saw this fancy, crochet-covered bike rack downtown.

Madeline Island

Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands, is another must-see when you are in Bayfield. And it had the added advantage that we could take our bikes on the ferry and ride around the island.





Since the ferry ride was only 20 minutes long and we didn't go far out on the lake, the ride on the top deck was comfortable.



We rode from the port town of LaPointe to the Big Bay State Park on the far end of the island. It really isn't very far. Even with some side trips, we only rode about 14 miles before getting back on the ferry. We enjoyed some sights along the way.









We looked around the Greenwood Cemetery. The earliest burials appear to have been in 1918. We liked the epitaph on  one stone which read, "His heart was at home on the island, his soul in Colorado."



We passed the Madeline School of the Arts.



This chain sculpture of an ox and plow was out front.



There is a sign on this small building in Norwegian. Translated, I think it means small workshop.



Before our ferry docked, we watched a number of sailboats on the lake.

Biking and Kentucky

Monday we rode our bikes 15 to 16 miles on the Legacy Trail in Lexington. We don't bike very often, but we are carrying the bikes with us and it is a good opportunity to explore outside the highways and city streets. The path passes through the University of Kentucky's Agriculture Experiment Station. We saw someone cutting hay.



And another tractor raking the cut hay.



I think these are the University's barns.



And this may be an old barn once used by a private farmer.



At one point, the trail took us through a tunnel, underneath the road we had driven on to get there.



We saw this garden on the University's land.



This agricultural activity is very different from what we saw during most of our time in Kentucky. Often, we passed miles of fields devoted to horses, I think. Most of the fences were white, like these. Once in a while, we saw black fences.



Earlier, we had made one stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Kentucky's water, which is filtered through the limestone throughout the state, tastes really good and is one of the reasons a lot of bourbon is made in the state. They are really proud of the water, just look at what it says on this water tank.



We have enjoyed our time in Tennessee and Kentucky.  They are beautiful states.  Almost everyone we met in Tennessee was very friendly and helpful.  We liked Kentucky, too, but the folks are not quite as outgoing and friendly.

City Oasis

In the center of the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Tempe Town Lake provides a wonderful oasis for water sports and walking-running-biking. Yesterday we rode our bikes around the lake and were impressed with all the activities taking place. Construction of the dams for the lake began in 1997. Inflatable rubber dams were placed on the east and west ends of the future lake in the normally dry bed of the Salt River. The Central Arizona Project (CAP) uses water from that River for a system of canals throughout the Phoenix valley, making development and agriculture possible here. In 1999, CAP water was used to fill the lake.

The lake has five miles of 12-foot wide concrete paths along the north and south sides, providing lots of space for our bike ride, as well as for runners and walkers.



On our way back to our truck, we rode across the bridge shown in the previous photo. Here is a view of that bridge.



If you want to learn more about the lake, check out this Wikipedia article.

When we parked the truck to unload our bikes, we were right next to this group of Boy Scouts. We were invited to join their ride, but we learned they had already ridden for 20 miles and had 30 more to go to complete their 50-mile ride. Impressive. We passed on that invitation.



These three sculptures are called Trees of Life. They honor people who donated money to plant trees somewhere. (I didn't stop to completely read the sign.)



There was an outrigger canoe race going on. Each canoe has six people rowing and they can really move through the water. We watched one 200-yard race with rowing teams of 14-year-olds.



I really don't know what these boards are called, but they are ridden by one person, standing up, and using an oar to control the movement. It must take tremendous balance to do that.



Here are the contestants, waiting for their race to be announced.



I really liked this waterfall, dividing the Tempe Performing Arts Center patio from the lake trail.



When we moved a little further along the waterfall, we found a group of attractive young women in bikinis, having their photos taken.



It must have been a beauty contest, because as we returned to our truck, we found a circle of the women wearing crowns and ribbons. We searched online to find out what was going on, but didn't find anything.



There is a playground in shade of one of the bridges over the lake. In addition to the bridge we rode across, there are bridges for Mill Avenue and Rural Road, as well as a railroad bridge that carries the Metro Light Rail tracks.



In the midst of all this activity, we even saw a great white egret on the hillside by the lake. This photo was taken with a cellphone camera from quite a distance. Sorry if it is a little blurry.



We had a great bike ride, going 7 to 8 miles, both ways around most of the lake. What a fun morning.

Giving Thanks

The Thanksgiving weekend began with Holy Eucharist at Epiphany, where we received the fruits of creation in the form of bread and wine.



Later in the day, we joined with 910 people at the resort's Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed the meal with neighbors.





Today, we enjoyed the beauty of the Arizona desert with a hike at San Tan Mountain Regional Park. We love the saguaros.







And the cholla.



In places we saw lots of green ground cover. This is the result of the rain we had a couple of weeks ago.



In addition to hikers, there were horseback riders and bikers enjoying the desert.





It was a beautiful day. I hope you have a lot to be thankful for this weekend.