Valley of Lights

Sorry for missing a couple of days of postings! We've been busy! Continuing our story about our trip to Prescott... 

When we checked into our hotel, the front desk fellow recommended a drive-through light display in Prescott Valley called "Valley of Lights". After visiting Courthouse Plaza, we drove out to Prescott Valley...

Both at the turn off the main highway and at the turn into the park, there were illuminated toy soldiers...

... that helpfully pointed the way we were to go! Sponsored by The Movement Studio

Giant Cross with Poinsettias -- one of the first lit displays. Sponsored by Yavapai Waste Solutions

There were a few lit tunnels of lights for us to drive through. Snowflake Tunnel - 120' long, 18' tall, more than 7,000 lights, sponsored by Great Circle Media 93.9 The Mountain, KAFF Country 92.9FM, Yellowstone Landscape

Dancing Bears Band -- they moved and danced! 45' wide, sponsored by Bradshaw Mountain High School Marching Bears

Giant candy canes with poinsettia, 30' tall, sponsored by The Daily Courier

Candy Cane Tunnel - 40' long, approximately 4,000 lights, sponsored by Universal Homes

Fire Truck -- the elves on the ladder tossed presents over to the Christmas tree on the right. 20' tall, 25' wide, sponsored by Central Arizona Fire & Medical Authority

Statue of Liberty - 18' tall, 1,300 lights; Old Glory - American Flag - 55' wide, 30' tall, approximately 6,000 lights, sponsored by Kooiman Realty, Yavapai Title Agency; Ribbon for Troops -  8' tall, sponsored by Back Country Firearms

Nativity Scene - sponsored by KKLD 95.9, KVRD 105.7, KQST 102.9, Turn Us On!; Reason for the Season, 1,100 lights, sponsored by Dignity Health, Yavapai Regional Medical Center

Holly Tunnel - approximately 8,000 lights, sponsored by KPPV 106.9FM, OneAZ Credit Union

Wise Men Still Seek Him, 1,000 lights, sponsored by Bradshaw Family Dental, Mingus Mountain Law Group, PLLC

December 26th Santa Display, Santa is lounging on beach - sponsored by Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce

There were a LOT more displays than we took pictures of (https://www.pvchamber.org/valley-of-lights) -- it was quite impressive!

Visiting Prescott Courthouse Square

We had heard that Prescott is known as "Arizona's Christmas City", so we went down to the courthouse plaza to see the lights...

We got down to the square a bit before dark and had dinner in Bistro St Michael, on the first floor of the Hotel St Michael, a hotel that has served Prescott since the late 1800s. (https://www.stmichaelhotel.com/history) We thought that these bar stools were rather interesting -- note the different leg lengths! They were permanently in place so you couldn't accidentally push away from the bar and suddenly have two chair legs drop 6"!

While we were at dinner, it got dark enough that the lights were turned on so when we returned outside to walk around the courthouse plaza, we were able to enjoy the lights!

East side of the courthouse

Most of the trees in courthouse plaza were decorated with lots of lights! (Some were streaming icicles of which you can see 3 in motion in this picture.)

Some more of the decorated trees

West side of the courthouse

North side of the courthouse

It was very pretty and we enjoyed walking around. In addition to the decorations, it was amazing how many people were walking their dogs around the courthouse plaza! 

A visit to Prescott

We were thinking that we might stay in Arizona for the summer, moving to a higher elevation location. One of the places we were considering was somewhere around Prescott, so we decided to take the new car on a road trip and go visit there for a couple of days. 

It is always pretty on the drive north on I-17 as we leave the Phoenix metro area and get out into the country. You can see saguaros along the road -- they typically only grow at elevations of 4000-4500' in the Sonoran Desert.

We had arranged to meet up with friends Mike and Dory at Lazy G Brewhouse -- quite an extensive menu and delicious food!

Mike and Dory invited us back to their home in Prescott Valley and took us on a tour around their community. We enjoyed learning about another community in Arizona!

Resident Christmas Party

Monday night was the Venture Out Resident Christmas Concert & Memorial Walk. 

The Activities Office makes luminaries in memory of the residents who have passed away in the past year... 

I posted last year about helping to celebrate the birthday of a fellow resident who was turning 90 (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-significant-birthday.html) -- it turned out that he passed away just a couple of weeks later in January. His family was so appreciative that we had made the effort to celebrate him on his birthday that turned out to be his last.

Our friend, Lesa's husband, Lyle, passed away about a year ago, just before Christmas. We had met up with them in North Dakota back in the summer of 2024 on our way to our Alaska caravan (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2024/07/continuing-west-and-even-more-friends.html)

The concert was performed by The Mesa Academy School Band. They did several "chamber music" selections (small groups of 3-6 playing various songs - mostly Christmas music), and then the full band played a few selections. The school is made up of 4th-8th grade (https://academy.mpsaz.org/o/academy/page/about).

In watching them, specifically watching one young tuba player whose tuba was at least as large as he was, and with which he had quite a struggle to move it around the stage to get to the side area where the chamber music performances were done -- it occurred to me that, had I ever been in band, I think I would have chosen to learn the clarinet or something lightweight and easy to carry! Alas, I was never in band!

Carl *did* play with his elementary school orchestra -- violin and then flute. He shared that, even though they were relatively lightweight and easy to carry, each of them had physical challenges in playing them -- the violin having to be held under your chin and then the two arms having to be held out to the side, and the flute requiring both arms to be held out to the side as well. 

Then there's the requirement that you have to actually *learn* to play the instrument!

These young people did a great job and were very enthusiastic. In addition to playing the chamber music pieces, one member of each small group identified (using the microphone) the piece the group would be playing, and, in some cases, introduced all the members of the group. I think that's a lot for a young person to do in front of a group of old folks that they don't know in an auditorium! Kudos to them!

Additional storage

As much storage as we thought our park model had when we looked at it, we are finding that it doesn't have as much as we thought it might, and that it doesn't have storage where we feel it is needed. 

Specifically, one area where storage is lacking is in our bathroom, so we got an over-the-toilet wall cabinet...

Carl installing the wall mounts...

Hopefully it is well secured!

Finished installation!

We are finding that in some respects, we have more storage in Gracie than in the park model! In the bathroom area, Gracie has a lot of storage in the medicine cabinets (we have two large medicine cabinets, one over the sink in the lavatory and one over the sink in the hall/shower area), plus a pretty deep storage cabinet over the toilet. In the kitchen, the cabinets are double the depth that most houses have -- we could put two stacks of dinner plates one behind the other -- so there's lots of storage *behind* whatever is in the front. It might be difficult to access, but we've learned how to make it work with creative use of baskets to hold the things in front so we can quickly remove and access the baskets in the back when needed. We're figuring out where we need additional storage and trying to add things that will work for us!

Christmas decorations

We have not done much for Christmas decorations at our new house, but I found a small wreath in the items left by the previous owners...

... so Miss Kitty is decorated for Christmas!

"Mom! Do you mind?!?!? Take this thing *off* of me, and I mean NOW!!!"

Gingerbread house

Another activity that Chef Arthur leads with the residents is the creation of the gingerbread house each December...

It is quite a magnificent creation!

Residents are free to come as help as they have time and interest.