El Encanto Revisited

All this shopping and hunting for just the right bracelet had left me hungry ~ and for good reason, too. It was now dinner time.

Wow! Where did the day go?

This time there was no struggle to determine where I wanted to eat. Because I had a hankering for some good guacamole, El Encanto was the no-brainer choice.

And besides, I thought it would be nice to take pictures of the critters around the koi pond at the restaurant.

El Encanto was the first restaurant that I dined at when I arrived at Cave Creek. Now it will be the last restaurant that I dined at during my stay. And just like the first time, I was to dine alone.

I chose a table by the window over-looking the koi pond ~ just like I did when I first dined at El Encanto. I forgot about the chairs that were on wheels and that would roll me away from the table at the slightest push against it.

Instead of Buster, my waiter this time was Jonathan, a young fellow who was one of Cave Creek's many transplants.

In addition to that sumptuous guacamole, which was seasoned with just the right amount of garlic and lime juice, I ordered a bowl of Mexican meatball soup and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. (This meal was going to be just a "one-wine-glass meal.")

The meatball soup was rather tasty. And it filled me up very well ~ so well that I had plenty of left-over guacamole to bring bring back to my room and enjoy later that night.

However, the true highlight of the meal was the guacamole that I was craving. You can't get guacamole this good on the East Coast unless you make it yourself.

After my meal, I went outside to take pictures of the koi pond in front of the restaurant.

It was a large pond that had a beautiful waterfall in the back.

Such a large body of water in the middle of the desert in Arizona was home to quite a few aquatic critters, including this Mallard that looked like it was doing yoga. And what do you suppose this pose would be called?

There were several varieties of ducks, like these nice brown ducks.

You can see the restaurant reflected in the water above the ducks.

This was one of the sweetest ducks I've seen.

And of course you have to see her other side. It was hard to decide which was this duck's best side.

This fellow hung out with the sweet speckled brown duck.

He looks a bit pleasingly pensive, doesn't he? Maybe he's glad that he didn't wind up on the menu!

Again you can see El Encanto reflected in the water. Those large dark squares are the windows ~ one of the windows that I sat at when I was dining.

Here's a duck party. It was really amazing to see the number of ducks at this pond.

Let us not forget about the geese. There weren't as many geese and there were ducks. But the geese commanded your attention, especially when they trumpeted and honked loud enough to wake the dead.

And let us not forget the turtles. They were everywhere.

Here's one just starting to poke his head out of the water.

Here are 2 turtle buddies swimming side-by-side.

Hey wait a minute! These turtles look like they're more than just buddies!

This fellow looks like he's catching his breath ~ or being in the middle of telling those 2 kissing turtles to "get a room!"

While I was busy taking all these pix of the koi pond critters, one of the waiters approached me.

"Follow me and I'll show something you'llwant to take a picture of."

OK.

The waiter led me to a tree and told me to look up. I didn't see anything at first.

"Look up there. There's an owl."

Oh my God! There was an owl! I had never seen an owl in the wild and had always wanted to.

"And that one's just the baby. The mother should be nearby. I'll see if I can find the mother."

And with that he started calling "Hoo! Hoo!" in his Spanish accent.

My God! If that was "just the baby" how big was the mother?

The mother never did show up. And the owl-calling waiter left to return to his post.

In the meantime, I kept watching the owl and taking as many pictures of it as I could.

All the while, the baby owl was following me with its eyes ~ even after I left the courtyard and stood at the other side of the wall where my car was parked.

Seeing that owl was the biggest rush of my day. In fact, it was the biggest rush of my entire trip!

Not only had I fulfilled a long-time dream of visiting Arizona, I also fulfilled another long-time dream of seeing an owl in the wild.

And how was I to know that my long-awaited trip was going to be this awesome "two-for-one" deal?