Geezer IX - Geezer Day 3

We heard rain on the roof on and off during the night and it continued after we got up.  If you had asked me what kind of weather to expect in Flagstaff in September I would not have guessed rain.  Oh well, the main purpose of our trip is getting together with old friends so the rain doesn’t really matter.

John and Jack put in some work in on the puzzle.

One of our new friends paid us a visit, but no handouts this morning.

Our only morning activities were talking, reading and working on the puzzle so after lunch we decided to get out of the house and visit the Riordan Mansion State Historical Park in Flagstaff.  The Riordan’s were a prominent family in early Flagstaff and owned a large lumber yard and mill.  The mill was run by two brothers and in 1904 they built a 13,000 square foot mansion for their their two families.  There were two separate residences joined in the middle by a common area.  The home was designed by Charles Whittlesey who was also the architect of El Tovar, the famous lodge on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The design was an “arts and crafts” style that featured a design emphasizing simplicity and lots of light to contrast the popular Victorian style that was popular at the time.

After walking around the grounds for a while we took an hour long guided tour of the inside of the house led by Elizabeth who worked as a docent at the park.  She was very good and we learned a lot about the family, the house and the early days of Flagstaff.  I really didn’t expect much, but it was really very interesting so for anyone visiting Flagstaff, I would strongly recommend a visit to the Riordan Mansion.

The Riordan Mansion.  This view is of one of the family's residence.

The other family's residence is to the far left with the common area in the middle to the right.

The Geezer's gather at one entrance to the house.

This is the gatekeeper's house.

The entrance to the front yard.

There were a lot of interesting things about the house including stained glass windows and these carvings.

Our tour starts with our guide Elizabeth on the left.  There were no pictures allowed in the house so this was the last of our pictures before the tour started.

The weather had varied between partly sunny and rain all afternoon and when we finished our tour it was raining again.  John and Greg were taking everyone out to dinner tonight so since it was already after 5:00 we decided to go straight to dinner.  We all wanted Mexican food so we went to Salsa Brava, which was rated as the best Mexican Restaurant in Flagstaff.  One of its claims to fame was that it had been featured on Guy Fieri’s Food Network show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  The dinner was excellent and we all had a good time, thank you John and Greg.

The Geezers at dinner.  From the right front, there's Jack, Steph, Greg, John, Val and Dave.

It was still raining when we left the restaurant, which led to a slow, cautious drive back to the house.  When we returned, the puzzle makers worked on the puzzle while the rest of us read and chatted.  The end of another great day in Flagstaff.