My doctor appointment was at 11:00 in the morning and the
doctor was very nice. My friend Mary recommended him and it was a good choice. I
did have to have his office resend one of the scripts since Express Scripts
said they didn’t receive it. Then again, Express Scripts wanted it written
differently, despite having it written as we were told, so I had to ask the
nurse to do it yet again.
Many phone calls later and an email to corporate finally
put us in contact with someone in the Expat desk for Express Scripts. First we
had ever been told there was one. He said we always expedite expat orders and
made sure things were done properly. So, they fixed a ton of errors made by
their regular people including the pharmacist who despite having the script
written for 180, he dispensed 90. So, the second half was expedited and we got
them in time, but 8 were broken and some just pulverized from shipping. They
are going to add the extra ones to the next 180 sent in a couple of months.
So, that evening Scott and Sonya brought everything we
ordered online to the hotel. They had been at the hospital most of the day and
night waiting for their second grandchild to be born. Congratulations J.J. and
Breanna! Hunter is the sweetest most well behaved baby. Thanks to Scott and
Sonya for dealing with receiving all of our packages. We were too tired after
the long flight out the night before and waited until the next day to try
everything on. We were lucky that our gloves and hats fit. We each ordered
walking shoes and I sent 2 back and kept 1 and Greg kept his. All three pairs
of waterproof pants were huge. They were ordered from REI so we exchanged them
at the store for ones that fit. I found 1 pair of fleece pants that fit and
sent all the rest back. I couldn’t find any locally so ordered a second pair of
the same style in a different color. All of the base layers (long underwear)
fit. So, hopefully we will stay warm in Antarctica!
The biggest issue was my new camera. The cable that came
with it would not charge the battery in the camera. We contacted the seller
(who didn’t work weekends) through Amazon and when he answered on Monday he
said if we could find a cable that worked locally he would knock a few dollars
off the camera or we could send the camera back. No cable locally was made for
that camera so we decided to send it back. Ordered another one from someone
else on Amazon and despite saying they had one, it came back that it was sold
out. We had been at Best Buy earlier and I had looked at a 30X travel zoom and
the only reason I didn’t want one was I had tried Greg’s cameras and I couldn’t
hold it still enough. This zoom had really good stabilization so I researched
those and decided to just switch to that type of camera. So, we returned the
camera, several batteries and the battery charger (all to different sellers)
and ordered the new camera, batteries and charger. I ended up with a Panasonic
Lumix DMC DS50. I LOVE this camera! Lots to learn before our next trip, but
honestly the point and shoot takes really good pictures. So, I guess it was
meant to be to get that camera instead of my other choice.
So, the rest of our time was spent stocking up on other
things we can’t get here or are cheaper in the States. We had a list of our
favorite restaurants and split time between Scott & family and my BFF Mary.
Scott and Sonya made a wonderful Nueve de Mayo (we arrived too late for Cinco
de Mayo….lol) feast. Carne Asada, beans, tamales, fresh salsa and guacamole and
more! Seriously good food! The grandkids came and we played a bit of shuffle
board in Scott’s “Man Cave” and Anthony and Erika sang some karaoke. Erika has
a really great voice! Not sure who she got that from. (No one wants to hear
either of us sing)
Scott manning the grill
Scott & Sonya's house
the Man Cave
Bearded Dragon
Belle
Scott & Sonya
Sunday, Scott met us for lunch at Five Guys and he
brought me a beautiful Mother’s Day card. Anthony and Erika met us at the Mini
Golf place and we had a nice afternoon with them.
Scott retrieving a ball that landed on top of the net
Anthony
Erika
Scott & kids
Monday we went to Mary’s and picked her up for some lunch
and shopping. Then, out to dinner and back to her place for hanging out. Wednesday and Friday we picked Mary up for lunch and one
day was for shopping and the other for just hanging out.
Mary
Thursday Scott and
Sonya invited us for dinner so we could taste their Carrabba’s Pollo Rosa Maria
knock off and it was fantastic! Chicken stuffed with prosciutto and fontina
cheese topped with mushrooms. She had a nice salad, mashed potatoes and asparagus
and texas toast. We hung out and played a few games of shuffleboard. (I suck)
Sonya
Yum!
Scott photo-bombed us
J.J. & Breanna & Hunter
Scott had one day off and after lunch at Los Dos we
headed to Bass Pro Shop for some shopping and then off to look at RV’s. Scott
took us to a great place that had quite a few to compare. We found one that
pretty much ticked all of the boxes, but of course we won’t be in the market
for one until mid 2017.
Then, the group gathered and we took everyone out for
dinner at Red Lobster. I can’t believe how quiet Hunter is, he barely whimpered
once. Food and company was great!
So, we managed to eat a ton of food. We ate at Los Dos
Molinos (our favorite Mexican food place) twice, Five Guys twice, The
Cheesecake Factory twice, Panera twice, Carlos O’brian’s Mexican with Mary,
Panda Express twice, Pei Wei, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s, Joe’s Crab Shack,
Season’s 52, Jack and the Box and Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion. There is a fantastic
Gelato place called Frost that is truly the best gelato we have found not
counting in Italy. We had some almost every night. Now the diet begins! Our
Mexican waiter at Carlos O’Brian’s wasn’t sure we actually spoke Spanish and
repeated everything back in English just to make sure. They were easy things
that most people would know, so at the end he hit us with a long speech in
Spanish about hoping we enjoyed our dinner and hoped to see us again soon. I
answered in English “no time soon” and he said “you understood me!” We
explained in Spanish that we live in Panama.
I am very proud of my son and family. He has turned into
a fine man, a great father and husband. My daughter in law is the sweetest and
she and Scott seem made for each other. The grandkids are fine young adults as
well.
My Dad was missing as he was not feeling up to the trip.
We tried to call him often. We all had hoped he would be able to come. We
really missed him being there.
We did go to a couple of parks for some walks and
birding. Here are a few of the photos.
sunset at the park
Gila Woodpecker
Curved-billed Thrasher on nest
Mourning Dove on nest
Desert Rat
Cotton-tail
young Mockingbird?
House Finch
Eurasian Collared Dove
Black-necked Stilt
Black-necked Stilt on nest
American Avocet
Killdeer
mother & baby ducks
Great Egret
Red-winged Blackbird
Verdin
paths in the park
Inca Dove
Gambel's Quail
Ring-necked Duck
Rosy-faced Lovebird
There were many of these Lovebirds in the park, people had them as pets and let them go and they now thrive in the wild
Verdin
lake in the park
We also took a short drive to Lake Pleasant:
Verdin
All too soon it was time to come back home. Since we flew
on points we were routed from PHX to ATL where we spent the night. (ok, 4 hours
of sleep) then up early for our flight to MIA. It was at least an hour late
taking off. So, we had a shorter layover in MIA. Our luggage was checked
straight through to PTY so we worried they might get lost since we spent the
night in ATL. So, in PTY, we were excited to see our first few bags on the luggage
carousel. Then, we waited and waited and waited….one bag was missing. We were
told it was still in ATL and they would send it and then deliver it to us here
in Coronado.
Road Runner was there to pick us up and we arrived home
around 5:00. Our friend Dave was the driver that day. We pretty much went
straight to Picasso and grabbed some dinner and chatted with friends for a
short while before coming back home to relax.
Mary best brownies ever! One of the things I really miss
is fresh berries and we stopped at the grocery store and bought a huge thing of
raspberries and ate them with her brownies. YUM!
Lost luggage…..it was still in Atlanta….was supposed to
be delivered the next day by 11:00 pm, but there was a thunderstorm so they
waited another day. We got the lost one around 7:30 on Friday night. Phew,
everything was in there!
I have added the Arizona 2015 photo album to Picasa. I
will add the May one in a couple of days.
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