A ton of cacti

We had the house all to ourselves for a few days last week. (We didn't throw any wild parties. Can't speak for the stuffed animals in the basement, though.)

The humans left us for Phoenix, Arizona. It was their first time ever in the southwestern US - Mom's aunt and uncle have started snowbirding there for the winter and invited them to visit. Mom was imagining warmth, sun, and barren, flat expanses with cacti and maybe a few scraggly bushes.

She was right about the cacti. They're abundant, alright, and she never got tired of looking at them in their many various forms. Most landscaping is gravel with desert plants rather than lawn. 

As for the warmth and sun... sort of. It ranged from the 50's to low 70's, was windy most of the time, and clouds rolled in and out. So, great weather for exploring the outdoors, but not exactly lounging poolside weather.

She was somewhat right about the terrain. Phoenix is in a valley surrounded by mountains. So, it did seem mostly flat, unless you head towards the mountains, but mountains are there in the distance being all picturesque. Phoenix is huge and sprawling, but the pockets of undeveloped land Mom saw were quite well populated by all kinds of plant life: bushes, trees, and of course cacti. (No desolate expanses of sun-cracked dirt.)

Mom was very happy to finally see this on the night they flew in. (Their flight got delayed several hours thanks to intense snow and icing in Michigan that day.)

On Day 1, Mom and crew walked around this lake in Fountain Hills. It was too windy for its namesake, the musical fountain, to do its thing, but Mom had a great time anyway admiring the plant life, sculptures, and numerous black duck-like birds with white beaks.

Cactus on an island. =)

Saddest cactus award. They're trying to help it, at least...

Don't they look like little pineapples?

These ones remind me of coral

Aww!

Some grow straight up...

...while others seem a bit afraid of heights

They got a bit turned around on the way home... and this just happened to be in the parking lot where they stopped to get their bearings. <3

On Day 2, they drove up South Mountain. (Really? Nobody could think up something more original than "South Mountain?") Mom took in some gorgeous views from the backseat as they twisted and turned their way up. She was very glad her uncle was driving, not her!

As you can see, definitely not barren!

this personable cactus welcomed them to the top of the mountain

Wow, yeah, Phoenix is big, alright!

How cool is it that cacti can grow all the way up these mountains?

Their next stop of the day was to Papago Park. They viewed this sandstone formation that reminds us of Jabba the Hut.

The main attraction, however, was Hole-In-The-Rock. (Again, where's the creativity, Arizona?)

Naturally, Mom and her sister wanted to climb up there and look out the big hole. So they did. (There's a trail behind it that isn't nearly so steep.)

The view from the top. (And a super cute dog.)

...and looking the other way

On Day 3, they visited Carefree, Arizona and admired its desert garden. It happened to be partly cloudy, so the giant sundial wasn't as impressive as it could've been, but the plant life sure was. 

Prickly pears will always make me think of Horse Isle. =)

my personal favorites, barrel cacti

not sure what this is, but talk about dramatic flair

It's almost like this one is still decorated for Christmas...

Mountain-ish thing resembling a giant rock pile they saw on the way out

The mall they stopped at for ice cream on the way home had an open-air courtyard with palm trees!

...and, likely due to the proximity to Valentine's Day, a giant teddy bear made out of (fake) flowers!

They spent the rest of the day swimming in the complex's pool (water was warmer than the air...), relaxing in the hot tub, and watching the sun set.

They headed back to the airport the next morning for a much faster return trip, though it didn't really seem that way to them due to the time change.

Goodbye, Phoenix

Goodbye, mountains

Almost home

Really late to the party...

Happy February! We're noticing the days starting to get longer at long last. Felicity and Julie aren't griping about the weather either: 40's and sunny is about as good as it gets here this time of year.

So, last weekend, we tried something new. We've been curious about it for quite some time, but when we tried a few years back on different computer, it didn't work. Since we watch horsey YouTube videos occasionally, we couldn't escape the reminders about it. 

Forgive us, HI3, but we tried again, and now we have an account on Star Stable!

When you go to sign up for the game, it lures you in with a free trial of being a Star Rider, a mystery free gift, and the fun of personalizing your character and horse right off the bat.

We checked out the horses first, naturally.

The choices were a whole bunch of solid-colored horses and 2 pintos. Even though they're at the top, which probably makes them even more frequently-chosen, we couldn't resist the pintos. We liked the one above, but we found the necklace-like marking distracting.

...so the first pinto it was! The only realistic mane/tail for this one was white, which made that choice easy.

We modeled our character loosely on Mom, once again, because it only seems right. Which basically means she looks like Julie too, if she was older. 

Neither Pepsi nor Summer were on the first name list we were looking at. We could've had Summer in the last name, but that didn't seem right without Pepsi. So, we fiddled around with possibilities for a while and eventually agreed on "Clara Lakesong." "Clara" because we just liked it, "Lake" because we live near a huge lake, and "song" because we all enjoy music.

For our pinto buddy, we went with "Frostflight." It has a nice ring to it, his coloring reminds us of melting snow/ice/frost, and we are ready for winter to make its exit. =)

We started out wandering around the Moorland Stables area, getting used to the controls, missing having control of the camera, and trying to get our bearings. It was a Saturday morning, and there were all sorts of other players riding around on fantastic horses. The starter horses, all Jorvik Warmbloods like Frostflight, are cute and kind of cartoony. Many of the horses you can buy in the game take it to another level entirely - such lovely, realistic graphics!

We mutually agreed from the outset that we were NOT going to buy any additional horses until Frostflight has been trained all the way, which we think means getting him to level 15. At the rate we're going (too busy to play much except on weekends), this should give us plenty of time to admire the many options and pick an eventual horse #2. Because c'mon, when the game gives you a personal stable with multiple stalls, who's only going to have one horse indefinitely?

Fortunately for Frostflight, he doesn't have to be lonely when Clara isn't around. It took us a while to discover a mailbox, but once we did, we were in for an awesome surprise: our new player gifts were a "winter terrier" and a saddlebag he can ride in. He bears a striking resemblance to my real-life pup, Scampy. <3 The little guy can either scamper along next to Clara/Clara and Frostflight or ride in the saddlebag. We're not quite sure what triggers it, but every now and then when we're riding along, the pup will give a little bark and suddenly be on the ground instead of in the bag. Maybe he just wants to stretch his legs? He also seems to end up back in the bag after running alongside Frostflight for a while. (Tired?) Well done, Star Stable. So much cuteness.

Because it's wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere, I take it, right now players have the option of toggling snow on and off. 

The default is having it on, so we have spent lots of time with it on.

...but a lot of the quests make more sense if it's not on, and I find it easier to navigate when everything isn't white, so we've toggled it off a lot too. 

Some highlights from questing so far:

Very impressive fire graphics! And remarkably, no matter what we do on the game, so far it doesn't seem to overly tax our laptop - no fan running on turbo even in busy areas.

...smuggling an NPC from one location to another in a sack. Long story.

Don't ask me how she stayed on Frostflight's rump.

We've logged in quite a lot when it's evening/nighttime on the server, and the northern lights are so pretty!

Venturing out on a bridge in dire need of repair. Frostflight was not fazed in the slightest...

Fixing the bridge was a labor-intensive process. One step involved retrieving logs to be made into planks. They balance on the horse's rump so nicely. XD

After fixing the bridge, Clara was tasked with setting off a celebratory firework.

Giving NPC Sindra a lift

Herding two horses to Fort Pinta

Fort Pinta's mayor, a "talking" pony named Mayor Peanut. Another long story.

So far, we are really enjoying Star Stable, even if it is geared for a younger crowd. HI3's amazingly diverse equines, breeding possibilities, and seemingly infinite world still make it our favorite, but the graphics on Star Stable are so cool, and it's fun to be questing again. (We've never really gotten into HI3's questing options - so addicted to lassoing wilds, ha ha.) Time will tell if Star Stable has the same staying power with us as Horse Isle 2 and 3. We were totally sucked in and paid to become a Star Rider, so we're hoping it does! In our opinion, the more fun horse games in our lives to give us a break from real life, the better! <3