Our route today, took us through the Gila-Pinal scenic highway, from Apache Junction, AZ to Globe, AZ. En-route were many scenic natural vistas, but this man-made one was also very pretty. This bridge won the annual award of merit in 1949 for the most beautiful steel bridge by the American Institute of Steel Construction. Click to see image full-size.
We’re on the road again! Today, we stopped for a few groceries in Indio, California. While I was waiting for Bob to come out of the store, I took this photo of a “Pride of Barbados,” a.k.a. “Red bird of Paradise.”
This is probably my favorite flowering shrub in the world – unfortunately, they refuse to thrive where we live. They love desert climates – along the California coast? Not so much. Click on the image to enlarge.
By the way – I took an even better picture of one of these in Kingman, Arizona last year.
Verna and I take a breather after a long hike through the Botanic Garden. Click for big.
After we visited the Orchid Show and Sale at the Botanic Garden, we took our usual stroll out through the various sections of the garden. We visited the Japanese Garden, the Fuchsia Garden, the Dahlia Garden, the Rose Garden and, of course, the Cactus and Succulent Garden, where this photo was taken. We also visited the upper and lower meadows, the Children’s Garden, the Water Wise Garden, the Vegetable Garden, the Pumpkin Patch, and – well, it goes on and on. It is always relaxing and we enjoy all of it.
I’m not sure of the name of the particular cactus in the photo, but it is similar to a prickly pear and produces these pretty yellow flowers. Click on the image for full-sized view.
By the way, I put up a Slide Show on the other site, if you’re interested in seeing the Orchids we saw today.
We stopped at Torrance Zamperini Field today to visit the Western Museum of Flight. While we were there, a neighbor to the museum had his hangar door open and inside was this beautiful Boeing-Stearman vintage biplane. I paused to take a couple of images to merge into this 3D shot of the aircraft.
Click on the image to enlarge.
If you don’t have a pair of 3D glasses, you can see the 2D version here.
This is Wikipedia’s summary of the Boeing Stearman Model 75:
The Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 is a biplane, of which at least 9,783 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s as a military trainer aircraft. Stearman became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely known as the Stearman, Boeing Stearman or Kaydet, it served as a Primary trainer for the USAAF, as a basic trainer for the USN (as the NS & N2S), and with the RCAF as the Kaydet throughout World War II. After the conflict was over, thousands of surplus aircraft were sold on the civil market. In the immediate post-war years they became popular as crop dusters and as sports planes.
