A Visit to Tucson

At least once a year, I come to Tucson to visit my sister.  We arrived a few days ago and have been enjoying ourselves very much here.  It’s so fun to just to hang out with her— to sit out on her porch, put my feet up and sip a glass of wine.  The desert here is totally in bloom.  The rocky hillsides and gullies are covered with yellow blossomed Palo Verde trees and the Prickly Pear cactus plants that have many beautiful yellow flowers too.  I can’t stop taking photos because everything is so beautiful.  Yesterday we went to Tohono Chul Park, a botanical garden filled with desert plants and art work.  After strolling along the beautiful paths ooohing and aaahing at all the plants but especially the Saguro cactus with crowns of white flowers, we went to the restaurant and had a lovely lunch.  For me, the lunch hit was Quesadillas filled with calabacitas (squash, onions and eggplant cooked together).  In the evening, we met Randy, Christie , Riley and Desiree at the Gregory School where the kids go.  There was “An Expo” of the students projects and we enjoyed seeing their schoolwork.  Then, we saw the Middle School play “James and the Giant Peach”, a funny play with amazing sets made by the creative students.  Today we journeyed out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  I first visited this amazing museum in 1961 on a Spring trip with a college class.  It’s one of the best zoos in the country and filled with marvelous cactuses, Palo Verdes, Ajaves, jojobas, wonderful exhibits, a great variety of habitats found in the Desert.  I still marvel at the wonderful adaptations the plants have to survive in the arid environment.  My favorite part was the Hummingbird Aviary where we saw nesting hummingbirds.  The birds were so adapted to

people that they would fly right up to us or allow us to come very close to where they were sitting.  The energy in this house was wonderful.  Tomorrow we begin our week long birding trip in SE Arizona.