There is a hot chocolate sipper that is pure decadence, an ahhhhhhh moment, a pound the table scene from When Harry Met Sally moment, savor pure chocolate at its best from a bean-to-bar chocolate shop. This is what I’m looking for, what I can’t forget. How did I get here? When I lived here 20 years ago I could navigate—but never happily. Who, I ask you, likes…

Yuma arrived on western maps in 1540 when native Indians led Spanish explorers coming up from the Gulf of California to its narrow, and relatively safe, crossing of the wild Colorado River.  In the 1800s, a rope ferry provided the only southern crossing into California, in the early 1900’s a bridge transferred early Model-T drivers to bounce along the wood…

East Wetlands

Yuma has invested in its history and ecology: when Arizona began to run out of money, Yuma took over park operations for the Prison and the Quartermaster depot. In the late 1990s Yuma began to reclaim the riverfront, and having planted over 250,000 trees and grasses, created a sanctuary for birds in the wetlands,…

After years of bypassing, I spent a week in Yuma—and discovered it is more than a crossing point, more than a refuge for snow birds, more than the America’s winter vegetable capital.  Yuma is history, even its prison is a window to a dustier, sweatier time.  Yuma is for foodies—whether you seek hot Chilies, Tex-Mex, sushi, or fine steak.  Yuma is an outdoor…

There is a Hilton Garden Inn on the riverfront at the crossroads, but for an authentic Yuma stay, try the Historic Coronado Motor Hotel, until very recently the oldest surviving Best Western in the United States. 

While they have left BW, Yvonne and John…

Yuma offers a variety of dining options, from the Garden Café near the City Hall, where you sit under the trees

serenaded by birdsong from the aviaries that line one side of the expansive outdoor restaurant, to Lutes Casino

(still run by the Lutes, filled with eclectic memorabilia and just plain…