WINTER ESCAPE - PART II: THE ARRIVAL OF RON AND NAOMI

A little over a week after our arrival at Tucson Estates Ron and Naomi Garwood arrived from Rochester, NY.  Ron and Naomi are long time friends of my sister Carol's from when she was a short term missionary in Japan in the 1970s.  It just so happens that I visited her in Japan during that time and met Ron and Naomi who were also short term missionaries and who were not a couple.  I had not seen them since 1976 and Jim had never met them so this was a much anticipated visit.

The day before their arrival, Ron had to dig out their driveway from 10' of snow.  No wonder he was so
 taken with all the citrus available for free at TE.


The week Ron and Naomi were with us was packed full of activities.  One of these was making 28 lunches for a Vista Missions (http://vistamissions.org) team which arrived at the Tucson airport from Seattle one Saturday.  We made bag lunches for the team and met them at the airport while they were awaiting vans coming from Mexico to take them to their destination in Mexico, several hours south of Douglas, Arizona.  This team was doing construction work as well as running eye clinics and dispensing glasses.  Our sister-in-law, Carolyn Watson, used to run these teams and now that she is semi-retired from teaching Spanish, she still goes along as a member of the team.  Here is Carolyn lending a helping hand.

She knew that Carol and Frank were bringing the lunches but Jim and I were a total surprise to her as she didn't know we were in Tucson. 

Ron is a major pickle ball player so every morning (unless going on an 8 mile hike) he would be on the court at 7:30 am and we wouldn't see him back until 9:30 or 10 am.  He's a guy who likes his exercise so when not playing pickle ball he would be biking, hiking, walking or playing golf.  This freed Naomi up to go thrift shopping with Carol and me.  The day Ron when on the 8 mile hike, the rest of us visited Sabino Canyon (a future blog) and on a hot day (too hot for Naomi), Ron, Jim and I visited the Sonora Desert Museum (another future blog).  

When not out running around we found time to enjoy each other's company at home, like this tea party we had just because Carol made scones.

And they were GOOD.

A week  was way too short with Ron and Naomi and we were sorry to see them go back to snowy New York.  We all tried our best to help lure them to be permanent snow birds in Tucson (now that Naomi has retired they are selling their home in Rochester but keeping their summer cabin in upstate NY).  I hope I don't have to wait another 30 years to see them!

 Next time - Outings to Sabino Canyon and the Sonora Desert Museum.

Audrey