This last weekend I got to go down to Arizona for a friend’s wedding. I was so excited to get to spend a few days with my friends and to celebrate the joy and happiness of our friend getting married. I flew in on Thursday and spent the rest of the day going to and from the airport picking up people from the airport. Once we were all gathered together, the next day we started out with a morning walk around the beautiful Riparian Preserve in Gilbert.

This preserve is a favorite for walkers, photographers, bird watchers, and duck feeders. The paths take you around a series of ponds that are home to all kinds of birds that call this area home. People are welcome to bring cereal or bread to feed the many ducks around. And this is a favorite place for people to walk with their dogs and play with their kids in the fun children’s play area.

But our favorite part of the preserve was the group of Saguaro cacti that stand near one of the entrances. There were also some beautiful purple colored cacti near it. I don’t know what kind of cacti they are, but the purple color set against the dessert colors of the park were so lovely.

We stopped by one pond as we were leaving where a family gave us the rest of the bread that they were using to feed the ducks. It was so fun to watch such a huge group of ducks slide across the water towards us. We happily spent a few minutes indulging them with food watching the rest of the birds across the water.

This is such a lovely area and I can see why it is such a favorite spot for those that are lucky enough to live so close as to enjoy it’s simple beauty all the time.