Arizona Sonora Desert Museum | Saguaro National Park
Friday - 22 November 2002: Tucson, Arizona
- We had a WONDERFUL day in Tucson! I guess if I mention that it was 85
degrees, a few readers may abandon me all together, but try to understand!
Even the locals are confused by this hot spell. DT ran this morning and I
packaged up Lisa's Hanukkah gifts. Little Treasures for our Little Treasure.
Our first stop was back to the Art Museum for the craft fair. You would not
believe the variety and quality of goods for sale! Amazing! There is an
artist who takes tin cans (tomato sauce, soup, etc.) and cuts patterns into
the sides of the tin, smashes then a bit, so they resemble lanterns and then
burns them with a torch, so they look completely NOT like a can. If you burn
a small votive candle inside the decorated can, the design pattern is
reflected on the wall. Why didn't I think of this? Another artist takes
cut-out paper designs (butterflies, flowers) and applies them to the
underside of clear glass plates or platters, so they show through on the top
- just beautiful - and then she seals them over with a coat of silver or
gold paint. Martha totally sucks compared to the craftspeople in Tucson. We
spent over an hour at the craft fair and didn't buy a thing. We may go back
- the fair continues for several days.
Our next stop was the
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum... which I mistakenly
thought (possibly because of its name) was a museum. Wrong. The
ASDM is a Zoo. Today, it was a Zoo crawling with bicyclists - many riders here
for the big bike race were at the museum. (Girls, I am here to tell you, all
bike riders do not look like Lance Armstrong.) We spent so much time here -
3 hours - walking along the "trail" and enjoying all the exhibits. The
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum
and botanical garden, all in one place. We saw (sit down, get a drink)
lizards, snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, stalagmites, stalactites,
salamanders, prairie dogs, bobcats, ocelots, jaguars, coati, desert bighorn
sheep, coati, iguanas, cardinals, quail, ducks, river otters, cactus, doves,
cactus wren, beaver, javelinas, coyotes, and Mexican wolves. Well, that is
all I can remember at this time. One of the highlights of the day was
a "raptor show". The Zoo has three Harris hawks that they bring out twice
daily and let fly around over the heads of the delighted masses. Beautiful
birds - and they live and hunt as a family unit - very rare in the bird
world.
Harris Hawk
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is so nice! You follow a trail and it leads to wonderful places!
They have even included a "cave" you can tour through. The entire park is
really focused on education - they have a really neat 75-foot spelunking
trail in the cave for kids to climb through. DT was most happy to finally
see coati - because they are always in his crossword puzzles! The javelinas
are especially ugly. We watched one digging around for a root and then chomp
on it for about five minutes, making a lot of noise and ruckus. The
javalinas also really reek. We had an interesting conversation with the
bobcat keeper! She told us what the bobcat eat (rats, mice, chicken, javelina,
snakes, rabbits - all dead) and that both the bobcats on display are neutered
(too many bobcats). She also suggested we not feed our dog at the same times
every day, to keep him on his toes. DT suggested maybe our dog was never going
to have to fend for himself in the wild.
Our next stop was the fabulous
Saguaro National Park. Here are photos of our
afternoon in the park and of our sunset in the park:
Saguaro Cactus - as far as the eye can see in Saguaro National Park
Ocotillo, with Prickly Pear in foreground - and DT with a really tall
Saguaro
Prickly Pear in Saguaro National Park
Sunset in Saguaro National Park
Back to the RV for a rest! We showered
and drove back downtown to El Charro.
El Charro is one of Tucson's best
Mexican restaurants and the fabled creator of the Chimichanga. We never did
get to a chimichanga! There were so many wonderful things to try! El Charro
was rated by USA Today as one of the 50 Best Plates in America. This means,
the newspaper has chosen 50 great American food items and named the best
places for each item. El Charro won-out for the best chimichinga in America.
Guess we will have to go back??? Our waiter, Ricky, answered all our questions and made a few suggestions.
One suggestion was a fabulous Margarita. Wowser! A girl only needed one! Two
special types of tequila, fresh lime juice, etc. I had chicken tacos stewed
in beer, a tamale and a chicken adobe enchilada. It was an amazing amount of
food, but since I had only eaten a bowl of cereal at 9 a.m., I had no
trouble finishing my dinner! DT, Mr. Adventurous, had chicken enchiladas.
We could not absorb all the menu - so many choices. The restaurant also had
a wonderful strolling Mariachi Band. Five men and a young woman, strolled
table-to-table, singing your favorite Mexican hits.
Tomorrow is Civil War Saturday - and the big bike race in Tucson. I
understand half of my friends have already migrated into the Enemy's Lair. We
will continue our Chicken Wing search and cheer for Our Ducks.
GO DUCKS!
RV Park:
Beaudry's RV Resort
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