beyond cinderella

Bill and I so enjoyed our four days off this week at San Tan. Although I have to say, Bill/Bro REALLY enjoyed our time off.

As promised, I made him those creamy lemon bars I mentioned in one of my past posts. I made them in my combo microwave/convection oven. I have come to LOVE that convection part of the oven. As most of you know I don’t like to bake sweets, but since we had so many lemons given to us from park visitors here at San Tan, I had to come up with some creative ways to use up some of those lemons… and Bill/Bro was more than willing to be on the receiving end of some creamy lemon bars. The picture below is the end result of my efforts.

And the look on Bill/Bro’s face made it all worth while…The man behind Bill looks like he could use some too don’t you think? 🙂

We also had great fun taking the park four-wheel drive Kubota out to the Malpais Hills area of the park.

The Malpais Hills area is one of the more secluded areas of the park, but it also has some of the most beautiful scenery in the park. The next picture shows a section of the Malpais.

Everywhere you look in the Malpais area is just beautiful,

But the most unusual, and in my opinion, the most beautiful part of the Malpais Hills area is that it is home to one of the rare and elusive crested saguaro’s found in the Sonoran Desert. Since we have been here at San Tan, I’ve learned that even when saguaro’s grow in their normal form, they rarely grow symmetrically. Saguaro’s sometimes grow in odd or misshapen forms. The growing tip occasionally produces a fan-like form which is referred to as crested or cristate. Biologists disagree as to why some saguaro grow in this unusual form. Some speculate that it is a genetic mutation, others say it is the result of a lighting strike or freeze damage. At this point it is simply not known what causes this rare, crested form. The crested saguaro sports the famous “hang five” (or “I love you” in american sign language). Whatever the reason for the unusual growth pattern… I think it is beautiful and we get people from all over the country coming to see our crested saguaro here at San Tan…

After Bill/Bro drove us up to the Malpias Hills area, I had my turn to drive us back. Of course, since we were going to be out on the beautiful trails, as always, we took the opportunity to scoop horse and dog poop, and pick up any trash we found along the way.

This is one of my favorite spots in the park. It sits at the top of a hill and there is a bench to just sit and rest as you look out over the beautiful San Tan Valley.

But he HIGHLIGHT of Bill/Bro’s week was when our park superintendent gave Bill the “spot light” she promised to get him so when we have people stay past park hours or some folks come in after park hours (sometimes we get people using the park as “lovers lane… ” and/or as a race track…). Either way, if they are loud and obnoxious and are disturbing the other hosts who are trying to sleep… we were told not to get into a confrontation with them, but we are to instead just “shine a spotlight” on them and perhaps they will get the message and leave…  Shine a spotlight on them… are you kidding me… I gotta say, this baby could light up a runway for landing a space shuttle!!!

Just look at this “spot light” in comparison to a normal flashlight… But, boys will be boys… and Bill/Bro LOVES his new toy… he calls it his “manly man flashlight” . You’ve heard the saying “go big or go home… ? Well, I just hope that when he goes BIG with this bad boy…”they” really will go home… :):)

Stay Tuned for more fun-times at San Tan coming soon!