Boyce Thompson Arboretum Trip 2

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Our good friends, Dave & Roxanne, drove all the way from Texas to come visit us.  We enjoyed Boyce Thompson so much last weekend that we decided to take them there also.  AND there was a group scheduled to be playing blue grass/jazz music from 1pm to 2:30pm.  We packed a lunch and headed out.

It is a beautiful drive out to the Arboretum.  This picture is only one from our drive there.

There are many beautiful gardens and pathways through the Arboretum.  This is called the Discovery Garden.

The mountains in the background are such a beautiful backdrop!!

There are 2 kinds of yucca and 3 kinds of barrel type cactus.

This is a bottle brush bush.







 

This closeup shows the name fits the flower.

We were surprised to see many irises.  These are my favorite color.

There were not many tall trees.  This is a Red Gum and has an unusual white bark.

We have left the Discovery Garden and are walking through the rest of the park now. It amazes us to see the saguaro growing out of rock.

There are lots of flowering cactus in the park today!

This huge stalk of flowers is part of a century plant.

We are at Ayers Lake again.  This bird was showing off for us.  It was such a beautiful day, the turtle below was enjoying the sun.

This hummingbird had a fuzzy head.  Or is it a hummingbird.  What other species of birds have long beaks?  I didn't find one that looks like this one.

The trail takes us through some hillsides.  The rock formations are gorgeous!

Workers built this retaining wall in the late 1920's.  Amazing.  I would not even be able to get to the lowest point of the support wall.

This skinny cactus had beautiful yellow flowers. 

Love this closeup!

Here's Tic's dead "tree" for this picture group.  It is actually the inside of a dead saguaro.

There were lots of unique rock formations.  Had to share this one.

Here's Dave and Roxanne sitting on the bench in the same cave we sat in last weekend.

Here we are looking at the Picket Post Mansion.

The pictures above and below are of one kind of pomegranate tree we saw.

These flowers are on another type of pomegranate tree.  Very different flower.  Interesting.

These are the gentlemen that played blue grass and jazz music.  They both brought and played 3 instruments each.  Very talented!  We really enjoyed their performance.

This is a short video of them playing.  You can see each of them are playing a different instrument.

After leaving the Arboretum,  we took our time heading to the Mining Camp Dinner Threater. 

We saw this cactus with larger flowers than most cactus have.

What a beautiful flower!!

From the parking lot of the Mining Camp Dinner Theater, you can tell it is out near the Superstition Mountains.

 

The pictures above and below are both of the Superstition Mountains.

This is Dave and Roxanne's new transportation.  They are excited!

Dinner is served family style at long tables.

This is our entertainment for the evening.  The fiddle player was amazing.  He also plays with the Phoenix Symphony.  Very talented!

We all had a wonderfully fun day!