McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, Christmas Time

Scottsdale has a wonderful park dedicated to miniature trains, ranging from Z-gauge on up to others that are big enough to ride on.  During the Christmas season they put up decorations along the tracks.

They've also just added a new building for their small-scale layouts.  They expect it will take the volunteers another 4 or 5 years to complete all the work that they're doing.

As you can see in the shot below, there are different layouts for each of the sizes and a lot of open framework is still showing.  I personally hope that they leave at least a little of that so that visitors can see the "behind the scenes" work.  It's pretty impressive!

Well worth a trip in July, but especially festive just before Christmas.  A word to the wise:  Go during the week and before school gets out for the holidays.  The lines get very, very long on the weekends!  Oh, and the park entrance is free, but it does cost a couple bucks to ride the train.

Cactus

We think that this is a male cactus...

Monterrey

Beautiful scenery along the California coast.

South Mountain Park/Preserve

In October, Team Diabetes visited South Mountain Park as part of our marathon training.  San Juan Road runs east/west through the park about 14 miles round trip.  This is taken facing east along the road.

Camelback

It only seems right after Pass Mountain and Piestewa that I include Camelback.  This was my 3rd attempt to get up it and I still haven't managed the top, but I'm getting closer!

The top shot is of the first real problem area on the trail. Some people can just run up this sucker, but I have to climb the rail and it's tough to haul my butt up there! The picture below was taken about half way up the climb. You never know what you're going to find!

I have made it to the top of this section every time, but this was the first time I made it past it.  There is a second challenge a little later.

The climb up, however, is rewarded with some wonderful views of the valley.

Piestewa Trail

In July, I went to North Phoenix to participate in a fun run with Team Diabetes.  Afterwards, I went partway up the Piestewa Summit Trail.

The trail goes up nearly 1,200' in about 1.2 miles, so it's steep, but most of the way there's no bigger steps than a staircase.  However, there are sections where the rocks are jagged and you do need to watch your step.  This is the one trail that I've tried so far with Minimus shoes that was actually too painful to do.

Wind Cave and Western Diamondback

In July, I was hiking down Pass Mountain on the Wind Cave trail when I came across this little rattler...

When I first saw it, it was stretched out across the trail and I nearly stepped on it before I spotted it.  I tried to persuade it to move off the path and it did so, slowly and with much hissing and rattling...

Kalusa Airplane Collection

This is a B-36 handmade to scale and painted with a typical design.  It was made by John Kalusa as part of his collection of over 5,500 aircraft.  All are made of balsa wood.  The collection is housed at the Hazy Library on the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

Mini Time Museum, Tucson

This is one of many, many cool miniature displays in the museum.  Some are in houses like this display, but others are in tea pots or a violin or as standalone rooms or single items.  We spent about 3 hours there and it wasn't enough!  Wonderful docents, too.

Cactus flowers

Aren't those beautiful? I found them hiding in a corner...

These date back to May, 2011. I'm going to do some catchup posting here...