Mesa - Good Life RV Resort

Tuesday, Dec 6th, we waited for the traffic for the morning rush to abate to drive to Mesa. We chose this RV park because it was Passport America and they allow us to stay for a week at the reduced rate and also have a hot tub for Ray. Hopefully we will like it. There are several "Christmas" activities we planned to visit while in this area, including the Phoenix Zoo which is all lit up for the holiday season.


This picture kind of gives you the idea of the space, or lack thereof anyway. (from google)

Ray's favorite place (google)

Freya's favorite place. (google)

I decorated for Christmas and just like last year, I have it down to a science for putting the tree and the rest of my decorations up and down while we move to other places. Only takes me about 5 minutes longer for pack-up and about 10 minutes longer for setting everything back up.

We spent our first day here attending their taco lunch, getting the "lay of the land" and finding the dog park located in the park for Freya. They even have an agility course that I put her through. She was great with everything other than the raised steps and the "S" as she could not figure out what I wanted. The rest of the afternoon we spent puttering around, I started our multitude loads of three weeks without laundry and Ray put out our outside lights. By 2 pm it was time to sit and relax for awhile. Ray and I decided to try out one of their hot tubs at 4 pm. The temperature was about 105 F and had great jets. Perfect for Ray

The temps outside was 70 F. Just lovely. Much warmer than Lake Pleasant with the lack of wind. It only cools down at night to around 45 F so we do not have to have any heat on for sleeping. So far so good. We are liking the people and the amenities they have. The lots are quite wide, room for the rig, a cement patio and a parking spot beside the patio for the car so great site separation. They make sure the lots have enough room for a park model with a carport. A possible place to roost a few years from now when Ray (or me) get's tired of our nomadic life.

Wednesday .... still washing clothes! In between we took a drive into Tempe to get a feel as to where the boat parade will be on Saturday. We also drove to the Zoo to check out the parking and the "hole in the rock" that Ray wants to photograph at sunset tomorrow. They have a multitude of fishing lakes there as well as the first governor of Arizona's tomb. Ray and I walked up to the hole in the rock and then drove over to the tomb. A lovely morning.

The path at the backside of the hole in the rock.

On the way back we stopped at Costco  to pick up a few things so lunch was a hot dog for me and a brisket sandwich for Ray. The afternoon was quite cloudy so no point going anywhere to take pictures. I spent the afternoon with the laundry and cleaning out a few cupboards while Ray spent some time at the hot tub. After dinner we watched the Great Christmas Light Fight to get into the spirit so we were set for our outing tomorrow. (Turns out one of the houses featured is here in the Phoenix area so we will try to get over to see it depending on time.)

Thursday, Ray attended to some outside chores and I did a little grocery shopping. We headed toward Tempe at 3:30 to hopefully miss the rush hour traffic Tonight we are going to go to the Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo and went there early so Ray could get his sunset pictures of the Hole in the Rock. Lots of people clamoring up and down. These areas, the hole in the rock, the tomb and the fishing ponds are all accessible to everyone free of charge.

Once that was done we found a craft brew pub nearby, The McFate Brewing to have our dinner and then headed back to the Zoo to view the lights after dark. The food and beer is excellent.

We drove the 10 minute drive back to the zoo. There sure were a lot more people and the parking lot was very busy. Now we know why. Wow the Zoo Lights were awesome. We never realized it would be so extensive. It is one of the largest light displays in all of the United States with millions of lights. They have a synchronized light show involving a huge amount of trees and towers in the lagoon that starts up every 10 minutes to different holiday music. Ray had to synchronize taking his pictures before and after every song as most of the lights go out momentarily. There were tons of people, kids etc, so we did the best we could getting his pictures. It took us 2 hours to get around the whole park. A much longer event than we expected. They had camel rides for kids, a polar slide, a carousel, just to name a few activities.  They also featured about a dozen lego animal displays. Some of them comprised of more than 60,000 pieces of lego and over 500 hours to build.  But now here are the pictures. Sorry there are so many! LOL This is only a small portion of what Ray actually shot.

The entrance, you walk on a bridge over a small lake.

Below is the lagoon where all the synchronized lighting displays take place.

Hummingbirds

The hummingbird on the left drinking from the trumpet flower is made out of Lego.

Lego Do Do Bird

Lego Deer

Lego Polar Bear with cubs

These Lego pieces were absolutely stunning.

Looking for his Kokanee!

Monkey Tree

The spider hanging down in the center is made of Lego.

Candy Land

The carousel 

The "Crock Pot"!

Ray was a basket case when it was time to leave and headed straight to bed as he was getting back spasms. Oh well ... he said it was all worth it as he had a blast taking the pictures. This is definitely a do again.  Tomorrow will be a sit in your chair kind of day for him playing with his pictures and I see a hot tub in his future. LOL The RV Park tomorrow, has a pool party between 3-5 pm with live music so maybe we will attend that.