Visiting friends in Florence

Our friends, Nancy and Steve, let us know that they would be visiting friends Mark and Wendy in Florence and asked if we'd like to come out and join them. We decided we'd drive out for a day rather than taking Gracie out there...

We joined up with Nancy and Steve, EJ and Frank, and Mark and Wendy at Mark and Wendy's house in Florence. Mark and Wendy have a nice size lot and are fixing up the manufactured home that is on the lot, so they can accommodate visitors in RVs.

(Side note: we have visited Florence before, and I guess we may have noticed that there is a prison there. But just recently, we've met a man at church who shared with us that he "spent 8 years in Florence"... now, Florence is not the garden spot of the world, so I just thought that he meant that he was in a backwater town for 8 years... but he went on to tell more of his story and he was in prison there -- so now when I tell people here that we're going to visit friends in Florence, I say, "We're going to visit friends who have a *house* in Florence!") 

While we were visiting, Mark recommended that we might enjoy visiting an area called "The Boulders", so we drove out there...

This area of boulders is so different from the land driving up to it...

It looks like some giant was playing with rocks and has just stepped away.

Our group...

Another picture of our group with a different view behind us

Ocotillo amidst the boulders

View out to more distant mountains

Another view out toward the mountains to the east (? or north?)

Mark and Wendy recommended that we go to another viewpoint into the Boulders... 

This appeared to be private property (there was a gate below the sign that prevented us from entering the property).

A view down the road beyond the gate

We went back to Mark and Wendy's place and got supper together -- we had brought a macaroni salad and dessert (since we couldn't cook in the afternoon); everyone else participated in the cooking and we had a magnificent feast!

On our drive home, the sun was setting...

I didn't get the picture that I wanted (at one point, there was a narrow gap in the hills to the west that the sun was illuminating like a gap between teeth) -- but it still was pretty!

We appreciated the opportunity to get together with friends! It was kind of like a miniature Quartzsite gathering but a lot shorter drive for us!