Happy Valentines Day!
Last week we had above average temperatures - in the 80 to 85 range so I spent a lot of time in and around the pool and basically pretending I was a turtle.  We had done a lot of touring about when Kylie was here and we were due for a week of laziness so it worked out great.  On Monday Wes and Jocelyn, friends of ours from Saskatoon, came to Arizona.  They are staying in a park about 20 minutes away so we have been having some great times every day.
We were treated to a wonderful meal at BJ's restaurant.  It was a late lunch and none of us had much more than toast, cereal or popcorn for supper that night. I must be slipping because I did not take pictures of our nice meals. Or I was my usual piggy self and ate it all before thinking of getting the camera out.
Yesterday we went to South Mountain which is always a great day!

South Mountain overlooks Phoenix and there are wonderful hiking trails as well as a nature centre in the park.  We then drove into Scottsdale to walk around the old town, eat lunch and have a ride on the trolly.

Ooooh, look who had their nails done for Valentines day!

These are individual calzones.  The waitress asked if we wanted to get one to share but Jocelyn and I decided to each have our own.  Huge mistake  -  one was easily enough for 2 people. These were just loaded with ricotta, mozza and provolone.  We saw the police arresting, patting down and searching a fellow's car about a block down from the restaurant.

This beautiful metal art surrounded a restaurant.  Absolutely gorgeous.
Today, we went to Saguaro Lake.

Not sure what was so funny but this picture cracks me up! 

We walked around and looked at birds, cactus', mountains and the lake and then we decided to check out the boat tour.  It is a 90 minute ride around the lake and the Salt River and we lucked out, the boat was just loading up when we got there.

 What kind of a duck is this anyway?  We saw many western grebe's as well as mallards and of course coots and cormorants.

This greater tailed grackle was pretty brave sitting right beside us on the boat.

Of course he was looking for some hand outs.

The scenery around this lake was breathtaking.  We all enjoyed it a lot!

Saguaro is one of 4 lakes on the Salt River. The Salt River is a fresh water lake contrary to its name. Back in the 16th century, some Spanish explorers were, I suppose, exploring and found salt deposits along the banks. So -  they called the river Rio Salado, which meas "river of salt."    These lakes were created between 1907 and 1930 by the Bureau of Reclamation and a coalition of farmers called the Salt River Project, now a local utility. They were created for the purpose of flood control and agricultural water storage.

This is called the elephant rock for obvious reasons.

This is the Mazatzal Mountain range and the four major peaks you see are called the “Four Peaks” and this is the same four peaks you see on the Arizona license plate.

Those peaks are about 20 miles away and are at an elevation of 7700’. This is one of the older mountain ranges in the area at 1700 million years. The peaks are made of quartzite and are resting upon granite. 
The 2nd largest amethyst mine in the US is locate on the mountain between the third and fourth peaks (from the left) and was once owned by the Tiffany Co. of New York City.

 This is a crested Saguaro cactus.  It is caused by a damaged growing tip and rather than forming branches, it forms the crested shape.  The guide told us it happens to one in 25,000 but I read 200,000 in another article.  So lets just say, it is not that common!

 Look, they gave us flowers for valentines day.  Don and Wes tried to tell us they arranged for all the ladies to get flowers.  Heh!

 We drove down by the Salt river for our picnic.

We sat around and visited with occasional breaks for checking out the birds.  Wes also likes to go look at birds and it was great to have  binocular companion.  We saw 2 herons fly in as well as a number of cardinals (yup, that's right CARDINALS).  We were lucky enough to see a female phainopepla and some house finches. We also enjoyed the bald and gold eagles.

Don did a great job cooking our blue cheese burgers. We even got fancy and added some avocado.

Our valentine cookies along with ghirardelli chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert.

It was a super fun day and we had a quick stop on the way home to look at the peach faced love birds. What is valentines day without love birds?

Thanks to everyone who has been asking me to get going on the blog. I really enjoy writing the blog and reading your comments (on here, facebook and emails)!
Special thoughts to my poor mom who is suffering with a broken arm.