Surprise(d In) Arizona

I found White Tank Mountain Regional Park when trying to get reservations at Ursury or McDowell near Phoenix. I'd never heard of it, but it's near some of our friends, so I took a chance.

It is a wonderful surprise, and the park is now tied for favorite with Emerald Forest in Trinidad, CA! With 50 amp and water at each site, a double dump station, dozens of trails, spacious sites, beautiful views, and $30/night, we will definitely be back for a longer stay in the future.

White Tank Mountain Regional Park, near Surprise, AZ

Large spaces (that's our picnic table on the left), and amazing views

Friends Cyndee and Rocky drive out to see us when we arrive on Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately it is a little more snug as our dining slide is once again not working. The reset on the controller doesn't make it work, and this time we can't get the front of it to come in all the way. This is not a pleasant surprise!

We visit a bit, make plans for Friday, and I follow them out of the park to find the RV service place and groceries. 

I am not expecting the town to be so big, so clean, so nice. There's everything here. Surprise, AZ, is just that!

No luck at finding service that can take us in less than a week - no surprise :-)

Happy to find a Sprouts Market for groceries, and gas at $1.79/gal, and I'm back home before dark.

Friday we get "passed on" to three mobile rv techs before we find someone who can get to us on Monday. It means extending our stay two nights, but we have enough wiggle in our schedule, and there's open space to stay here. Bill changes the controller in the non-working slide which does straighten it enough to pull the front side level - but the fault code continues to say it's a connection issue. The tech orders the necessary wiring for our Monday appointment. 

Lunch with the sharks is first on our schedule. We meet Cyndee and Rocky at Dillons for an excellent meal. Attached to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium, we watch the sharks and rays all around us while we enjoy our meal.

After completing the paperwork, and reviewing the restricted areas, we take Tessa to her first zoo visit.

We spend four hours just in the aquarium, reptiles, birds and monkeys. We'll have to see the big animals next time!

Love the bright color of this eel

I could have watched the variety of fish all day

Rays soared through several tanks, gliding like birds

The albino alligator looked more like a plucked chicken

Teeny, tiny little guys

The Spiny Lobster in the back was at least twice as large as the other one - and the biggest I've every seen

 The Lion Fish are beautiful

Once we enter the outdoor areas we are very conscious of how the animals reacte to Tessa, not wanting to cause them any stress. The howler monkeys are the first to show any interest - jumping from the back of the cage to the front. Not stressed but definitely aggressive. We move on.

The peacocks "honk" at us, but don't even move off their perches above the cages. The other large birds are not so calm and we don't stick around. 

Not sure if he is getting her attention, or scaring her off, but this guy makes sure Tessa sees him

The monkeys are all very interested, swinging to the front of their cages to stare at her. She's equally interested in them, putting her paws up on the wooden barrier to say hi (several feet from the cage).

The reptiles ignore her - and us

The highlight of the visit is the sea lions playing in their indoor pool. Playing tag, jumping in and out of the water, full body flips, slapping each other - we laugh at their silliness for several minutes, the only ones there. Photos through the window don't come out.


Back home we relax and enjoy the spectacular sunset.

Once again forgetting it's Saturday, we head for the Waterfall Trailhead, only to find it packed with vehicles unloading lots of large families. Instead we drive the loop and take in some of the Waddell Trail. All of the trails we've seen in the park are well maintained, flat, and wide. Just our speed :-)

Too many people

Much better

Large rocks

with a tiny surprise

So many saguaros in the valley

and on the ridge tops

I forgot coffee so we need to go back to town. We look closely for what Bill thought was a crested saguaro when we were on the entrance road earlier.

Surprise!

This crested is right by the road, at the Area 2 parking, and once you know it's there you can't miss it. 

Before we get to the store we change plans again and decide to visit our second NFL stadium. We don't need to tour them all, just want to see them. 

The University of Phoenix Stadium, has not only a retractable roof, but a retractable field as well. The multi-purpose facility is in Glendale, Arizona, less than 25 miles from us. The 63,400-seat stadium opened on August 1, 2006, and is home to the Arizona Cardinals and the annual Fiesta Bowl.

The pro shop is disappointing, not having any collector pins, so I opt for a pic through the back window into the stadium

We were here!

Bill remembers they "take the field outside" and we find it soaking up the unobstructed sunshine

They roll it back inside between the goal posts for each game

Some people wonder why we don't go to the stadiums on game day. For the same reason we didn't hike the Waterfall Trail on a Saturday :-)

We're meeting friends for dinner so we return home to get cleaned up. Once again the sky is full of amazing color.

Cyndee, Rocky, Patty and Sonya join us at Macayos for drinks and dinner. It's surprising that we still have so much to talk about after more than 40 years!

Good times with good friends (missing Coy and Tom)

Sonya and Patty

Rocky and Cyndee

We make plans to get together for football and a camp fire on Sunday and return home for the night.

We are really enjoying this surprising place :-))