Simply Belle

We were invited over at our friends’ house for a last get-together for this year before they head back to WA. to spend the summer. These are retired people who own two homes – one in AZ where they spend the winter to get away from the dark-cold-wet days of Seattle, and one in WA, which offers beautiful weather and long nights during summer.

I usually take charge of the kitchen when I come over. I made eggrolls and pansit.

FYI: I was wearing shorts and a long shirt. Even my husband asked, “do you have anything underneath that shirt?”

Boy, I haven’t even finished deep frying the eggrolls, two of my friends couldn’t seem to get their hands off the cooked eggrolls. For the other gentleman, it was his first time to eat eggroll, and he loved it so much!

Don’t you just love watching them attack the food? It made me feel good as a cook.

And let me show you the weirdness out of this gentleman.

He added catsup to his pansit. Yuck!

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It has been raining and snowing here lately so the desert is getting all the moisture to green up and bloom out the wildflowers. I haven’t seen it that lush green for a while. The soil is soft and moist. The four of us, E, R, my husband and I went for a hike hoping to stumble across one of the Indian ruins. We wandered around the desert for some time, cutting through barbwire fences often. We probably covered 3 miles but over some tough terrains. It was just what I needed as I haven’t been working out lately. Finally, after going around in circles for several times, we spotted the ruins.

The Jumping Cholla cactus

The reason why it is called Jumping Cholla is because the minute you brush by it, the pin cushions jump out and the quills jab you. My friend R was once a victim of this when he took a nasty tumble on the cholla while on a hunting trip. He took off his pants and religiously removed each pin off his body. Imagine being half naked in the middle of the desert? It is a good thing that he always carry a needle nose plier with him when he goes on a hunting escapade.

These are the indian ruins- dwellings from many many years ago, that we were looking for, while on a hike.

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First off, I would like to familiarize my blogger-friends with what Memorial Day is (thanks to Anna for pointing that out). Memorial Day is a United States holiday that is observed on the last day of the month of May. It is the day we pay tribute to our men and women who had died while serving our country, the USA. Flag are flown half mast in government and federal institutions as a sign of respect to our heroes.

During memorial day weekend, many people from different places in AZ, mostly from the cities, flocked to our place, which boosts higher elevations and cooler climate. Visitors camp out by the river, in the mountains or anywhere that is cool. Our main road, grocery stores, gas stations are jam-packed with people. It is like a madhouse. Sometimes, it is best to just stay home until the crowd has subsided.

This Monday morning, we decided to go for a long drive to Roosevelt lake which is about an hour-drive from home. I promised my friends to check on her vacant house once a month while they are away. We made sure that the drip system in the yard was in good working order. Of course, I took the camera along so I could take many interesting views along the way. I noticed that the lake is loaded with motorhomes, trailer, boats, and cars from all over places. There are so many activities that are taking place from boating, fishing, jet and water skeing, camping, and just merely sightseeing.

Roosevelt Lake was once the largest man-made lake in the world. When it is full, it can cover more than 88 miles of shoreline, big enough to hold large crowds. It is such a beautiful and popular place to cool down and to frolic around during hot summer days.

We have good memories in this lake with family and friends. When we hadn’t sold our boat, we liked to spend our weekend here boat riding while the kids jumped in and out of the boat and swam like little fish until their lips turned purple and puckered. We also used to go fishing here and caught quite a bit of good-sized crappies.


My husband took the above two pictures of the lake and me.


Boats, motorhomes, and trailers crowded the shoreline for the memorial weekend.

This is the marina where people in the area store their boats.

The arch bridge was completed in 1990 right before the Roosevelt Dam was rebuilt

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam was built in 1903 for irrigation, electrical power, and recreational purposes.

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