Arizona--Two Sets of Friends with My Meque

My meque (mejor que un esposo) Javier and I were invited to visit good friends Katherine and Barry in Anthem, outside of Phoenix, in April, and Barry offered to drive us to Bisbee, near the border between Arizona and Mexico,  to visit friends Jeanne and Ken, who'd moved away from San Francisco last October, two months after Katherine and Barry had stayed at their bed and breakfast!

These are such good friends that time to talk was our greatest wish--granted--but we also had tea with the Queen, followed the French election, and strolled along the grounds of their community, where the cactus walks on crutches, as you can see here!

On our way to Bisbee, we visited the incredible Kartchner Caverns, voted "Best Cave in the USA"!

Jeanne made us a delicious all-vegan dinner.  Then we celebrated Jeanne's 70th birthday with a cake I made in Katherine and Barry's kitchen!

The next day, Jeanne drove us to the border, where I scaled the wall between Arizona and Mexico to get to Mexico, as I longed to do in 1967, when I left San Francisco to do volunteer work there instead of participating in the Summer of Love!  (I didn't know what I was missing at the time, but we had a different kind of summer of love in Zamora, Michoacan.)

We also walked down the stuck-in-time street of Erie in Lowell, part of Bisbee.

But the sweetest moment of all was when I opened the card from Katherine, the kind of person who gives her guests hostess gifts, and saw the sweet sentiment: 

Inside the card, it said, "I'm still looking for the little black dress."

I am so grateful to have friends like these--and a meque to share them with!