May - December 2008 - Prairie SeaShell Sea Stories

We made the trek from Guaymas to Phoenix via Tuffesa Bus Lines. It's about an 8 hour bus ride, aboard very luxurious, comfortable busses (except you must bring a sweater ... the air conditioning is always way too high!)

 Cactus and Butterfly Gardens in Phoenix

We stayed in Phoenix for a couple of days, did a little shopping and a little sightseeing. The bus service here is quite reasonable, fairly quick, and relatively easy to get around ... unless you want to go to the Cactus and Butterfly Gardens as I did.

We took city transit as far as the Zoo, then had to trek through a desert picnic ground, over the hill and down into the ravine to get to the Garden ... all in 100F degree temperature. It was well worth the trip, the cactus are most impressive, and the butterflies were beautiful.

I've included just a few of my favorite photos.

 Trailer in Calgary May snowstorm

One of my first missions was to find a job for the summer. I was very fortunate to find work, right across the highway from the trailer park at a Nursery & Garden Center. I had known one of the girls from Blue Grass Nursery from my days at Greenview, so I stopped in to see her to see if they were hiring, and sure enough they had a position open immediately in their Wholesale Dept. I started right away.

Since I was working full time now, Don decided he should try his hand at a new job, and was hired on the spot at the interview at an electronics company who assembles circuit boards etc for the oil drilling companies. It took a little adjusting to get used to working different schedules, particularly for Don since, every other week, he worked a 3:15 - 11:45pm shift.

 The whole family

We still found time to do some family things, and have included a few photos.

A major event this summer was the purchase of home in Beddington, a neighbourhood close by our house in MacEwan.

The last two times we were in Calgary, we had been looking at the possibility of purchasing a condo or smaller home for Shannon to live in, or for us when we are back in Calgary.

She had been living with Greg & Julia, but when they purchased a home in the SE of Calgary, she thought that would be too far of a commute to her work in the NW of the city.

Rents in Calgary are quite high, and she was finding it difficult to get appropriate accommodations. We had pretty much given up on the idea of purchasing, just couldn't find the right place in the right neighbourhood, at the right price, when a realtor friend found this property that was going into foreclosure.

 Beddinton house

It had all the requirements we were looking for, so we made an offer, and sure enough it was accepted. Possession was to be at the end of August, which would give us plenty of time to do the necessary renovations and get us back to Mexico after Christmas.

Or so we thought ... I won't go into all the details, because that could be a chapter all on it's own, but we didn't actually take possession until the day before Thanksgiving (that's Canadian Thanksgiving in October - for all our American friends).

Thus, Christmas is now here (in fact, I am writing this chapter on Christmas morning, waiting for Don & Shannon to wake up) and we find ourselves only part way through the renovations.

Naturally, the renovations were more extensive than we had expected,  we found that wiring need to be redone, the walls were not properly insulated, and the plumbing required much assistance from a plumber friend. However, it is progressing, and is now functional, and in an acceptable condition for us to escape for a month or two.

And, lastly, but most importantly, we celebrated the birth of a new grandbaby on October 1, 2008.  Evelynn Ruth Engelhardt. One picture wouldn't do her justice, see all in photo album below:

See pictures of our Summer 2008 in our photo album.

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