The Slow Tour Through Tucson

Finally, the mythical clouds parted and the government shutdown ended . . . and sighs of relief were emitted from all our fellow travelers on the road! We felt lucky to have had so many national park visits completed before this happened, as we overheard more than a couple of people say that they had to fork over lots of $$$ to take helicopter tours over the Grand Canyon, as they'd flown out there anyway and it was the only chance they'd get to see it. With the saguaros, at least they were visible from the state park and entry road, but we were still so happy to get to chat with the rangers (we just love a good ranger!), and visit the east portion of the Saguaro National Monument.

This was officially the slowest hike we've taken. We only went about a mile to the Freeman homestead and back, but were out for about an hour. We also finished all of our water, and were the only people out in the desert in the middle of the day. (Super clever of us.)  Our other desert hikes that we took in the early mornings were much more enjoyable! 

We did love the variety of plant and wildlife that we saw. 

Their energy was high though when we checked out the presidio in downtown Tucson. 

That night we found El Super, their local Mexican grocery store. Heaven. By the time that we walked out our cart was well stocked with fresh salsas, tortillas, baked goods, and a happy amount of fruits and veggies. 

No lard, though. 

Our kids would willingly unload any other possessions and replace them with quemada, a goat milk caramel we found there. Did I mention this place was heavenly?

Puppy Dog Eyes Lead us to Tucson

So, originally we didn't plan on visiting Tucson. Then, with the government shutdown we thought it was surely off the list as seeing the Saguaro National Monument was the only draw there for us. Then, the little guy gives us his big sweet puppy dog eyes look, and asks if we can still go, because maybe we can see it from the gate. 

Awww,  sure sweetie, we'll drive 280 miles west just for you to see them!

If you go to the park on the west side of Tucson, though, you do pass through state land with plenty of saguaro to see. It was declared "the best day of his life". 

(Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but putting that out there really made the drive all worth it!)

I thought that we'd just see a few, but they grow just like a regular forest. A lot of these with the multiple arms would be about 150 years old.

With the monument closed, we checked out the nearby Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum instead. We went in the morning, and thought that we'd be done by lunchtime. 

After an hour in the hummingbird aviary it was clear that we were in it for the long haul. (For bad planners, they have sunscreen dispensers in the washrooms--genius!)

While some hummingbirds were shy, this little guy was a bit cheeky. He'd turn as if he was giving you his best angle, and was so far out on the branch he was nearly in the path. 

This photo isn't zoomed in; he really let me be that close!

Did you know that the inside of a cactus is woody? They had excellent exhibits and demonstrations while we were there.

Prairie dogs! These are some funny creatures to watch; they seem super paranoid, as if they don't realize that they are in a zoo and are on constant lookout for predators.

To say this is a museum is a bit of a misnomer, as it's really more of a garden and zoo full of desert life. Since it was all so foreign to us, being more familiar to cedar and salmon, there was a lot for us to learn and marvel over. We loved the javelinas (so ugly they're cute), and the variety of cacti.

More than six hours after we got there this little guy is still so happy and grateful that we let him linger as long as he wanted. 

That's hard to see in this picture, isn't it? ;)

We were bummed we didn't see the coyote in it's museum enclosure, but spotted one in the parking lot. (Right after we saw the sign not to feed the coyotes any cookies. Cookie-eating coyotes must be a problem there?)

Since it was a full day there, we'd gotten a recommendation to watch the sun set over the desert, so pulled to a nearby spot to hike up. Hiking in the desert made me a bit nervous, as falling on a cactus just seems like something I'd manage to do. However, we all stayed upright!

While the sun was setting in the opposite direction, the view of the moon rise over Tucson had everyone else captivated.

Not the best sunset I've captured, but there seemed to be a fair bit of pollution in the air making the colors a bit muddied.

Our first full day there was such a success, we stayed all week!

More tomorrow~

Judy

Truth or Consequences?

Heading south from Albuquerque we made it as far as Elephant Butte, New Mexico. It's a random place, to say the least. We loved the park we stayed at though, as it had big sunny spots great for sitting outside to watch the sunset, and smooth pavement for the kids to scooter around on. 

We'd had weather on the cool side in northern NM, so being a bit south we relished the warmth of this place. 

Our first day there we headed to the neighboring town of Truth or Consequences. It seems like the sort of place you accidentally end up residing in; you roll into town for a night and wake up five years later. There's a very Vonnegut/Robbins vibe going on, which felt amplified given that it was my forty-ish birthday. (As if I should have more of an internal plot and narration going on based on the randomness of the situation, but my end conclusion was that, to be cliche, life was pretty good.)

When I say it looks like people roll into town and stay, it really does look like this happens. This wasn't a trailer park, just sighted on a normal residential corner. You'd see airstreams with built-on rooms right next to posh adobe homes. 

We walked around their downtown, and only a handful of shops were open. Most were closed so their owners could dance or eat pie (that's what their signs indicated, and I'm inclined to believe them). 

The two local bookstores were open, and full of treasures. At the first one we went to the owner just let our kids pick out a book for free. 

The relaxed vibe runs deep here. Yay reading!

Our youngest found this gem, which made him feel ecstatic.

We didn't check out the hot springs here, but they seemed popular with the locals (or the transplanted-now-locals).

What I liked about this place was that the seemingly loose building codes and general randomness led to lots of unique homes that were fun to walk around and see. This isn't a town to visit if you're looking for anything in particular to see or do, but fun for observing a unique way of setting up homes.

Even the UFO signs in New Mexico are rather non-committal. Traveling here we found the frequent highway road sign "Gusty winds may exist" funny in a philosophical sort of way as well.

In Elephant Butte that night we found ourselves at Casa Taco, which was like their local Cheers. We felt right at home and ate ourselves silly, the perfect celebration and start of a new year!

 

We liked it so much we went there our second night, too. (After that night it felt like we ate salad for a week straight, to compensate for our attachment to the cuisine of New Mexico.)

Sauntering Around Santa Fe

In continuing the theme we'd started in New Mexico, we continued eating our way through Santa Fe. (I know, friends, such a surprise, right?) In what was maybe our longest day on record, we started the morning at the Balloon Fiesta (with a 4am wakeup), ate a green chili breakfast burrito and funnel cake for breakfast at the Fiesta Park, then headed north to Santa Fe. We'd heard about the Horseman's Haven Cafe before, but also recently caught Anthony Bourdain's review of it on CNN. We were there for brunch, and to the New Mexico question of "red or green?" we answered green--going for the hotness!

Someone is really excited to dig in!

And on the other side, we're more excited to eat toast. I even ordered an extra side of it. We didn't bring a toaster on this trip, and it's a serious regret!

We were full, seriously and uncomfortably full, when we finally left. It was great to get to Santa Fe by lunchtime, and have the entire day before us for exploring. We immediately declared it fabulous when we found a parking spot right away on historic route 66 by a local bookstore. We can't pass these up, and our traveling home has added more than a couple of books into its cubbies. (It's as if I've completely forgotten standing amongst piles of books to sort before we left and declaring book collecting my worst habit.) Luckily, the kids are growing out of clothes (up, not out, despite what these giant plates of food might lead you to guess), so at least we're lightening our load by donating those along the way.

The architecture, plaza, and churches in Santa Fe are unique and beautiful. We have short attention span for shopping, but happily spent most of the day wandering around and enjoying the Santa Fe vibes.

In the afternoon we checked out the Georgia O'Keefe museum. It was a nice museum, but they must only display a fraction of their collection. I think that even with serious study and time spent looking at the works, an hour is a fair amount of time to spend here. It was nice to introduce the kids to her art, and it really is so much better in person. They were able to see how her flower and landscape paintings nearly glow and reflect light, but in the gift shop the books and prints they saw didn't do the art justice. 

Later, it was great to see that they recognized this mission from one of her paintings.

Dinner time came and went, and we were all still full from brunch. Around 9pm we finally hit the last place on our agenda, which we'd pulled long ago from Sunset magazine's recommendations, and went to El Parasol for dinner. It was just a couple of tacos at this point, as we still weren't hungry but felt the need to check something off of our long standing wish list. It was a great end to the day, and after about thirty seconds in the car we had three sleeping kids. 

However, they have all declared that green chili isn't worth it (the taste is great, but the heat sticks with you all day), so we're going to be a red chili family. I hope we don't lose any friends over that declaration. =)

~Judy

Fiesta in Albuquerque

Albuquerque was one of the first destinations we set a date to get to before we left home, as friends of ours (our daughters were inseparable in those days before we left) were planning on being there for the balloon fiesta. It was their mom/grandmother's 90th birthday party and family reunion, but we were welcome to crash the party. 

First things first, though, and being our first big city since leaving Seattle we had to stop for Korean food our first night in town. We had gone way too long without spicy red noodles, our particular brand of soul food.

After that we spent some time checking out their plaza and historic church. 

The next afternoon we met my friend and her girls there, and lots of silliness ensued. In typical little brother fashion, this guy sort of stole the show.

He is 13, and eating, finishing eating, or at least thinking about eating, in most pictures. Sofia's restaurant filled him up, and we all loved the food.

We hung out at our friend's hotel that night while the kids swam, then our daughter got to have a sleepover since we all planned on meeting up at the sunrise balloon launch the next morning. 

The phone call tag as we tried to find each other on the field went something like this:

"I'm by the cow's udder."

"I think I see that. We're by spider pig, and Elvis is behind us. Do you see the big queen? We'll walk towards that."

Once again, we felt so lucky to get together with friends on this trip, and make great memories with our children. Without them, we wouldn't have even known about the balloon fiesta. What's the best travel tip you've received?

This is really worth seeing; you feel like a little kid looking up in amazement all morning.

~Judy