So Much to Do, So Little Time

It is hard to believe that a 2 month visit to Tucson, AZ is not enough time to see and do everything that this area has to offer but it is true. We have found many great places to visit in the area and in the city. I suppose that most cities provide many things to do and areas to explore although I feel that often what we find is similar to other cities. So I don’t always feel that we need to do everything that I have read or heard about in the area. This time, my list of what I don’t want to miss keeps growing and I suppose it is because of the abundance of nature and beautiful settings in this area as well as the abundance of history in the area.

I suppose if I were here for a long time, I would grow weary of the desert and start to miss the green, lush landscape and rolling hills of home. For now though, I am loving the beauty of the desert landscape and the distant mountains that surround us. It may not be for everyone, but for me, I am mesmerized and drawn to its ruggedness, isolation, and surprises such as the plants and animals that thrive here and call it home. After another beautiful sunset last night, we fell asleep to the sounds of the coyotes howling in the distance. They were pretty active last night and at one time early this morning, before sunrise, Tim heard them pretty close behind our trailer. It feels good, sometimes, knowing we have a six foot fence between us and the desert.

trent enjoyed watching the coyotes

We haven’t seen the coyotes in the wild but we have been spending a bit of time at the Sonoran Desert Museum. There we have seen many of the native animals and plants in their natural habitat. Each time we go, we have been able to attend a ranger talk where they share knowledge and provide a close up view of the animals. I have enjoyed all of the talks that we saw but the raptor free flight was probably the best.

Even though it looks like we were close to these animals, there was fencing between us and they are further away than it appears

vulture on duty

We have also been able to share the experience with friends we have met on the road. Pat and Brian who we met in Deming, NM are from Yuma, AZ and contacted us when they were going to be in Tucson for an overnight stay. We had guest passes that we got with our membership to the Desert Museum and invited them to spend the day with us. They enjoyed it as much as we did and that day we got to see many of the animals that call the museum their home. Yes, even though it is considered a museum, more that 85% of it is outside and to me it is like a combination of a zoo, arboretum, and historical museum all rolled into one place. Hopefully you can get a feel of the place from the pictures.

the ranger programs are very interesting and you can get up and close with the animals. This owl flew in and perched very close to us

On a cooler day before it was due to rain, we made a trip south to the Tumacacori, a National Historic Park. Tumcacori was the first mission in the Arizona territory and was founded by Father Kino who also founded the San Xavier Del Bac Mission that I shared in a previous post. Unfortunately, Tumacacori was abandoned and fell into ruins. Much of the early adobe structures are disintegrated but the ruins of the never fully completed church survived and was preserved by the National Park Service. A park ranger provided a very detailed and informative tour around the mission grounds and helped us to understand what life at the mission was like in the 1700 and 1800’s.

the mission church

the roof was missing for awhile so quite a bit of decay inside the church

the cemetery

remants of a few buildings at the mission, don’t you live the mountains in the distance?

Of course our visit in Tucson would not be complete without a visit to Old Tucson Studios where many of the western movies and TV shows that we grew up with were filmed. I know it was very touristy and a bit pricey, but I really enjoyed our visit to Old Tucson. The Old West shows even though staged and a bit overacted, were great fun and provided a glimpse into the lives of many celebrated Wild West heroes and villians. I liked this visit better than our stop in Tombstone even though that was a real historical location and this was a movie studio that was used to look like it. I especially like that Old Tucson was used in films as a town from Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, California and even Minnesota.

city hall at old tucson

we highly enjoyed the shows in the street - gunfights, bank robberies and jail breaks filled the day

the can can show was entertaining and funny

this church has been in many movies and the mountain in the background is in almost every movie and tv show filmed in old tucson

this church was from the little house on the prairie set

Since we are staying in the city, we had to experience some of the city’s nightlife. Tim read about a historic hotel in town that had jazz bands performing every night. We drove in one day to check out the hotel and purchase tickets for a show. The hotel surprised us. I guess being from the East, we are used to historic hotels that are many stories high. This one is only 2 stories and has a couple of restaurants, a lobby bar, a radio station, the jazz club, an outdoor patio and stage and a nightclubs on the first floor with all of the hotel rooms are on the second floor. We enjoyed lunch on the patio and purchased tickets for a show the following Sunday. It was a jazz musician from New York City who traveled the world and incorporates music from around the world in his show. While not the typical jazz that we listen to, I really enjoyed the music that he shared with us especially how he blended the other music and cultures into American jazz.

In addition to touring the area, we spend a good bit of time at the RV park. We have enjoyed a few more to the musical entertainment here as well as just hanging out with our neighbors. Mother Nature continues to provide beautiful sunsets each evening so I hope you don’t get tired the pictures. We still have a couple of weeks left so I am hoping that we will still get to a few more places so look for at least one more post about the Tucson area.