Tuesday, December 19, 2017 (Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, AZ)

Today is our last day at Lost Dutchman which meant it was time to start some packing up. We walked over to give Ray a hand with taking down the pop-up shelter and all of the Christmas lights. After that, Steve took down the Christmas lights he had strung up on a tree in our site and did what packing up he could do in advance of leaving in the morning.

We really didn't do much for the rest of the day...Steve finished editing pictures and I got started on a blog update.

With our final night here, Deb had also planned one final outing. Again, too bad she's not here to partake with us!
Ray picked us up at about 4:00 and we headed to the Four Peaks Brewery location in North Scottsdale, Grill and Tap. We enjoyed some great beer and an early dinner before hitting our next Christmas light extravaganza...Illumination Symphony of Light.

Unfortunately an accident on Loop 101 had traffic backed up for miles. Google Maps offered an alternative route around the backup but traffic was still extremely heavy. We arrived at the location of the light show only to find line up(s) incredibly long. Needless to say by the time we finally inched our way to the start of the show our patience was frayed. The attendant scanned our ticket, told us to turn our car headlights off and what radio station to tune the radio to ...and we were on our way. It's a drive through route with lights dancing to music.

Because we would be constantly moving Steve and Ray wouldn't be able to use their DSLR cameras on a tripod, so Steve thought he would try his GoPro camera this time and video'd the whole route. Here are some snaps taken from the video. With the movement of the car, the lights rapidly dancing around and turning off and on, the stills aren't as clear as the video...
























The show was very well done...unfortunately, the long wait to get in tainted the whole experience. Not sure if it is that way every night while its on or if this particular night was an anomaly but if the long wait is the norm, then they really need to address the problem. We'd highly recommend seeing it but not sure I'd want to sit in that line up again. It reminded us of some of the long border waits we've experienced crossing from the Vancouver BC area into Washington State.

And that concludes our "week of Christmas lights"! We really want to thank Deb for all of her hard work in planning it. We're just sorry she wasn't able to participate in all of the activities. Thank you, Ray, for continuing on with the schedule Deb had put together even though she wasn't here. We really enjoyed it all!



6 comments:

  1. The GoPro did a great job taking pictures of the Christmas lights! Where are you headed next?

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    1. After a stop in Goodyear to visit friends, we'll be settling in Quartzsite for bit.

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  2. The light show looks great. I'm not looking forward to dealing with Phoenix area traffic. :-(
    Travel safe!

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    1. For the most part, traffic in the Phoenix area flows well...of course, it's just those dreaded accidents that cause havoc.

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  3. Love the Christmas Light show and thanks for taking us along really enjoyed the excellent pictures.

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