history – kristilynk

Thought I’d stop by

May! So far so good but lets travel back in time a bit all the way to April, like 2-3 weeks ago.

I’ve done some moving and shaking, but just around Arizona.

April was Tucson for a show in downtown. We stayed at the historic Hotel Congress and had too much wine so even if there were any ghosts to be seen I would have been stone cold sleeping.

The following week we headed up to Crown King. A couple of our friends are getting married up there this coming October so they wanted to check out the venue. Crown King is another historic location, old mining town = dusty and dry. The little hotel we stayed in was a different story, many flowers, green grass, horses and really felt like we were in a little magical place.

Cut to..Jasons birthday week. There was a huge damper on celebration due to the sudden, unexpected, devastating death of a good friend. Good friend in the sense of chosen family. I won’t say any more…because, Hi, I am Kristi. I tend to bury my head in the sand when reality smacks me in the face.

Last minute decisions and phone calls were made to gather a group of our close friends and celebrate the life of Scott and Jasons birthday. Scott would have wanted it that way. It was a good night.

Fast forward another week, this trip brought us up more north to Whitehorse Lake in Williams, AZ. It is not often we camp in a for real campground. When I say “not often” I mean like I am pretty sure there have only been 4 times we have stayed in a for real campground. Whitehorse is the absolute coolest of all of the campgrounds of the 3 I have visited. Three sites because I have now been to Whitehorse 2 times. That’s all the math I will do tonight.

We rented the group site, there were 7 spots and a gazebo for us all to hang out, drink, play games and grill. I didn’t play games and I didn’t grill so I drank.

Amy brought all the ladies lil champs and OJ for mimosa for mothers day – bubbles and branches

Muppet babies, yes this is in AZ but it was like 35 degrees at night and COLD. Our 78 year old dogs get cold.

Renting out the entire area is the best way to go when camping in a non-wild manner. We were here for Saturday, Sunday and came home on Monday. The trip was not perfect, there were issues which were out of our control. WIND..oh my goodness, so..much..wind. This was my 2nd time here, neither times was I able to get the paddle board on the water. It was too windy this time. The last time I had just had 20 stitches from my hand removed and I didn’t want to chance getting lake water in my newly healed wound. As I was typing those words, I was making myself sick to my stomach just thinking about that. Sorry if that disturbed you.

The tiny dog, Larry, decided to try to end his life by jumping off the tailgate of the Tacoma. It didn’t work, he survived but he was sore.

Chubba Wubba, Ollie, had a scary seizure in the middle of the night. She too survived but was also sore and tired.

Our brand new, out of the box, Coleman sunshade broke because it is a 150.00 piece of garbage. The metal things snapped in the wind. We had to throw it away. I need to have a word with Mr. Coleman please.

We were all good and tired by the time we got home Monday afternoon but really in the end…a weekend in the woods, even with a series of unfortunate events, will always be a good idea. There will always be beautiful moments in nature. I’ll hold those moments closer.

Captivating Colorado

My last post was from a trip too long ago for me to remember completely. I am going to give this one a shot ~ Our journey in Colorado was only a month ago. Here we go!

We flew standby courtesy of Southwest Airlines ~ Lucky us! We got the golden ticket on the first flight out of Phoenix! Did you know Delta Airlines does not fly direct to Denver from Phoenix? Bizarre. Anyway, we arrived took a jaunt over to the rental car facility and we were on our way. Just that easy.

OH! Sidebar regarding looking for car rentals, seems super shady but here’s a little story. Obviously, I went online to look for car rentals a couple of weeks before our planned trip. I went to Budget’s website, plugged in the details and the internet spat out a number I didn’t really like, it was somewhere around 350.00 – not terrible but – I thought I could do better. I went to another website, (I don’t remember which one but something along the lines of Kayak or Priceline) their prices were like 10.00 more so I went back to Budgets website and the price had jumped to like 375.00!

Something triggered, in my wine induced, brain…open up a new “incognito/private” browser. I did and went back to Budgets website, I got the car reserved for 188.00! for 3 full days. Tip – when looking for car and airline reservations, do so in a private/incognito window. 🙂 You’re welcome. You may know this but I feel like I just discovered a new planet.

We had a ton of time to waste before checking into the airbnb so we decided to get lost in search of food. Well, getting load was not decided but it happened anyway. By the way, Denver smells like weed and dog food. Please don’t be offended Denver people, it’s not meant to be a dig, just my observation.

Finally we found a cute little breakfast spot in City Park called Syrup ~ The staff was super nice ~ the breakfast was delish and the scenery of the park area was mellow. It is a little hipstery though – no problem for me – but just a heads up.

Check in to the airbnb was easy and there was parking behind the house – thank goodness because when we drove down the street there were cars parked the length of the entire street not one space for me.

The outside of this place and all the other houses in the area look all historic mansion types and that I love.

With that said…This place is located in Capital Hill.. I think the whole house has like 8 (complete guess) units most with their own entrances the inside of the unit we stayed in was completely remodeled and in great taste.

Here is the parking and entrance area of the little dwelling.We dropped the car and our belongings off and headed off to the record store through the piss riddled alley. Sorry, girl from the suburbs here..it smelled horribly bad.

We spent some time rifling through the solid collection of vinyl records this store of over 40 years has, Wax Trax Records . The website is not great but the store is awesome. Did I tell you how much I love brick buildings??

After the records store, we NAPPED before heading out to the Red Rock Amphitheater!

This place is THE place to see live music. Bucket list item crossed off. Seeing live music at the Red Rock should very well be on your bucket list too.

It is a little tough to see the greatness from a cell phone photo, I wish I had brought a wide lens.

The above photo was taken a couple of hours before show time, once the music started the place was packed.

Head up! It’s quite the hike to get up there from the parking lot, at over 6000 elevation..bring an oxygen tank. 🙂

When the sun goes down, the moon comes up, the city lights, the stars combined with the music and people..it is surreal.

The next morning we drove up north. The plan was to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and make a pit stop at Estes Park. Come on now, we had to visit the Shining Hotel! AKA The Stanley Hotel. So majestic, so cool and I bet so haunted 🙂

They offer tours, we did not partake but we did some good exploring and off course had a redrum latte.

They use key cards now but these are the old creepy keys they used back in the day.

I bet there is a ghost in there somewhere…

As I mentioned, the plan was to go up to the national park but we saw some clouds up there that made us Phoenicians nervous. So we made the decision to be safe and head back to town – off the aunts place for dinner and drinks. Jasons aunt lives outside of Denver and his other aunts, from Holland, just so happened to be in town the same time. It was great to connect with family while out of our element.

On to the next day! Another breakfast spot worth mentioning in the capital hills area is called Jelly ~ This place was our favorite eatery. I want this shirt if anyone is asking, you can order it on the website 🙂 Screen Shot 2019-11-18 at 7.48.26 PM

Belly’s full of delicious brekky we drove to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, strolled around there for a good few hours – I feel like it is geared more towards kids but it was cool anyway. I would not say it is a must see but it was still a good day. I mean, look at that view.

Olifant!

The following day was a travel day. Not a good day for standby, delayed and cancelled flights due to wind ~ we chose to fly to Albuquerque otherwise we would have been stuck in Denver for another night, who knew Phoenix was such a hot place to fly into. I ended up leaving Jason in Albuquerque and he didn’t make any flights until the last one so it was a shit of a day but we made it home. Safe and sound and ready to start planning the next adventure.

Trippin’ in Tucson ~

The worst part of each of my days is trying to get out of bed. Now that it is colder (and I live in Arizona and refuse to turn on my heater until at least January..) getting out of bed in the dark, cold morning is an even more difficult task! This Saturday it was a teeny bit easier..The Jason had brought me a cup of coffee and I was a little bit excited to get on the road.

Jason had plans on recording with a friend, Mike from the band Love Mound ~ listen and buy here: http://lovemound.com/lovemound/?page_id=119, in Tucson and Kiah and I went along for the ride so we could piddle around town. We piled into the Jetta..Poor kid barely had enough room to squish in. Jason had his drums packed in there pretty good!

BUT..where there is a will..there is a way and she slept like a champ the entire trip. It takes about two hours to get to downtown Tucson from our place.

Mike was waiting for us outside the studio..they quickly unloaded the drums and brought them into the room..Kiah and I said “See ya later!” and we were off to San Xavier Mission ~ one of, if not THE, oldest churches in the state of Arizona. It was founded in 1692! Here is the website if you want to read more.. http://www.patronatosanxavier.org/
In the meantime, this is what we see from the parking lot. Dont let the amazing blue cloudless sunny sky fool you..it was COLD.

Mike had warned us..the church is SMALL. I don’t think I realized how small until we walked into this room. The next picture was taken from just inside the entrance.

I have no idea who the lady on the right is..I did not get a disclaimer and I hope she doesn’t find my blog and sue me 🙂 OR…maybe it’s a GHOST???

Look how close the benches are to each other…people must have been A LOT smaller back in the late 1600’s ~ I could hardly walk between them and I am a small person..

The top of the door, on this shot, to give you an idea..is maybe four inches above her head. She is 5’1

Little nook for some holy water.

Amazing wood work..

All of the pictures taken above were just from the entrance. I started walking toward the front of the church and felt a little uncomfortable..I took one more picture and nudged Kiah, “Let’s get out of here”. She completely agreed..San Xavier is a functioning church. No, there was not a church service going on at the time but there were a handful of people paying respects, lighting candles, leaving flowers and sitting in the pews (I think that’s what the benches are called?) with sullen expressions and full of emotions. I was there for the history, the art, the architecture and felt like I was intruding on these peoples and their special moments.

While walking from the main place of worship to another side alter building Kiah and I both noticed an elderly Native American woman following us, pretty quickly..it kinda freaked us out so we turned around, headed straight at her, smiled and walked the other way. Turns out..she was only headed to the bathroom. We watch way too many scary movies..as I may have mentioned in the past..

To the east of the missionary is a hill with a cross on the very top. Before take the little walk up the hill…someone has to stop and be silly..

Better her than me..after all..I am the mom 😉

While walking up the hill..I spotted something really strange..

Obviously, it had been a muddy day..who is out walking up hills in the rain or mud barefoot?

While we were walking up this way..a nun was following us. Or for a few minutes anyway, we ditched her pretty quickly. It was a nice little walk around the hill and it didn’t take us too long to get to where we started.

This kid was waiting for us on the other side. Sorry for the instagram photo but it was much faster to “shoot” him with my phone 🙂 He was patiently waiting for all of the tourists to get out of his way so he could ride his bike down the hill.

He was kind enough to wait for everyone to clear the path and sped on by never to be seen by us again. Once we were at the base of the hill, Kiah spotted a cute, dusty black mutt dog. She looked like a black lab mixed with another breed, cute pup! Roaming the Missions grounds with a dirty nose and a collar. Kiah was trying to take a picture of the tag to call the owners but the spunky mutt ran down the path and into the little store selling candles before she could get the picture.

We hurried into the store and asked if the dog that ran in here belonged to the church or did we need to find her and call the owners. To which the shop worker replied, ” I didn’t see no dog come in here but if it did..she belongs to the community and might be taking a nap”.

Kiah and I both looked at each other like…”what?” but instead said, “O.K,” turned around and walked back to the car laughing the entire time. It was the statement combined with the accent that made us laugh so hard…you may have had to have been there…but I’m still laughing.

The ride back to downtown was quick. We managed to get a parking space right in front of the studio, parked and walked around downtown.

It was around 11:30 in the morning, on a Saturday and there was only one place open to grab a coffee..Brueggers Bagels. I don’t think I have ever been to a cities downtown area where nothing was open on a Saturday…have you? Hot coffee in hand we set back out to the cold streets of DT Tucson. Kiah spotted a big church down the way so we walked thataway…

Inside, we have a Jesus

And Kiah gives Jesus a LOW FIVE 😉

and a HIGH FIVE to the baby jesus in his golden fleece diapers!

That was the extent of our fun here so..we left and continued to walk the sleepy streets of downtown Tucson.

We met up with Jason and Mike and walked to a local eatery called The Hub Restaurant and Creamery : http://www.hubdowntown.com/

The website is not that great but you can download the menu and see for yourself..good selection!

Mikes wife Karen and their youngest daughter met us there, cheeseburgers all around (with the exception of the one who ordered the veggie burger), we ate, talked and had a nice visit. 🙂

So many missed opportunities at the Hub for the blog. I should have taken pictures of the restaurant, the ice cream bin display, the ginormous mug of coffee, the burgers and our friends. On the upside of that notion..I was fully enjoying myself in the moment and not thinking of my camera or phone or internet..weird 😉

Small Town History

I have lived in the town of Weedville, AZ since the later part of the 1980’s. I had no idea I was living in Weedville until one day I posted a status on FaceBook and that status stated my comment was coming from Weedville, AZ.

What the heck is Weedville?? I thought I lived in Peoria. As I was giggling about Weedville..because let’s face it..Weedville is pretty funny….I googled Weedville, AZ. Apparently some Reverend (Reverend Weed) from Nebraska moved to the area in 1911 and named the town after himself.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0427azhist0428.html

The link above is for any of you who may be interested in reading more..I’m not writing about Weedville today.. I am writing about Peoria. 🙂

As I said, I have lived here for over twenty years. Today was the fist time I have ever stopped at the Peoria Central School in Old Town Peoria. I have driven by this place many of many of times…thought about stopping but just never have. Today..I stopped.

Not only did I stop but I got out of the car and actually went in! 🙂

I was warmly greeted by the volunteers at this facility, “We are open but as you can see, we are in the process of redecorating, renovating and cleaning. You are more than welcome to come in and look around.”

The nice man noticed I was armed with a camera and proceeded to tell me, “and of course you are welcome to take pictures as well!”

I thanked him and proceeded to walk into the first building, this room will be set up as a replica of the old school rooms of the super early 1900’s.

Question..you see rule number 2? Well now look at rule number 3…How are you supposed to address the teacher if rule number 2 is NO TALKING? Yea, I was THAT kid. 😉

By the looks of these desks, I imagine in the early 1900’s they did not have the problem of child obesity that we have today. Maybe the answer to that current issue is to bring back the smaller desks!! Inappropriate? Well, I’ll save that discussion for another blog then. 😀

This is a piano from the late 1800’s – It looks as though it’s in GREAT condition! Chickering was in business from the late 1800’s and actually got out of business before The Great Depression, or so this website tells me anyway. http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/chickering-brothers/

I’m not sure if classrooms were equipped with pianos in those days or not. Most likely not , the museum probably just has it because it’s old and cool and that’s fine but it did make me wonder so I asked uncle Google. I didn’t find anything on music in the classroom in the early 1900’s but I did stumble on this little note. Now, I’m not sure if it’s real or not but it’s cute and kind of neat to think about this little girl sitting at her little desk writing to students 100 years after her time.

http://www.dltk-kids.com/pioneer/school_in_the_1800.htm

To any of you teachers out there…this is a brilliant writing assignment for your students!

Yep, the classroom is even equipped with life size, creepy mannequin teachers. 🙂

This photo was hanging on the wall. I graduated from Peoria High School, the school is 91 years old! The people all look old so I don’t know if this was a graduating class or if it was the staff? I am leaning more towards guessing it is the graduating class..I don’t think in 1938 they would have had that many teachers in Peoria..

The next room looks like they might set it up as a home type setting. Here are some pictures of clothes drying..I like the long johns and the old time picture set up behind them.

I would imagine mom would wash, then squidgy the clothes before she hung them up to dry..

And just look at the art work on this sewing machine! The colors are so vibrant!

In this room was another piano or organ or?? I’m not sure..Anyone know what this is? Who makes it (I forgot to read it when I was actually there and I tried to zoom in on the picture but I cannot make out the lettering..)?

While I was in this room, one of the nice volunteer ladies came back to bring me a flyer for the Grand Re-opening happening November 2nd.

Here she is 😉

And see… there are the creepy, mannequin teachers in the back! Can you tell I am not a fan of mannequins?

After her and I talked for a bit, I walked to the Agriculture room. I didn’t get any pictures of this room because I was actually so engrossed with the stories I was hearing!

When I walked into the room there were two couples, about my parents age, in there. The ladies were sweeping and talking and dusting while the men sat and talked. Hmmm…. hah, I guess the old school mentality still applies here. 🙂

They told me stories of how long they have been in the area, what it looked like in their day and actually.. one of the ladies family had owned the farm property directly behind my house until about five years ago. It had been in her family for around fifty years!

Small Town..

Her and I walked together to the next building which was decorated with old old typewriters, stenographer machines, adding machines and in the corner was a glass display that scared me…In it was an old beauty shop set up..to be more precise it was a perm machine..yep..perm MACHINE..hairdressers would wrap ladies hair up in pin curls and cushions and hooked them up to ELECTRICITY…Check out this little video – about 40 seconds in the scary machine makes its grand entrance…. Sorry, in advance, for the poor quality but hey..I didn’t make it.

On that note..I will leave you for today! Until next time. Get out there everyone, learn, explore, talk to people!