Heading Home From Tucson

Of course eventually we had to come home and left our little "route 66ish" revamped motel.

Of course we found the best Mexican Food that morning, by wandering the streets of the oldest part of Tucson called the "Presido" where the first wall was built like in the mid 1700's. The houses were all renovated and definitely where I would live if I could live in a place that the temp reaches over a hundred most of the summer- I might be complaining about the snow this winter- but I am a Colorado/Mountain girl to my bones. We found Little Cafe Poca Coso, not because of our fancy aps on our smartphones or trip advisor- but by the old fashion way and best way of asking a local.

We found The Grille a few days before the same way- a very scary building in the un-renovated area of Tucson's downtown, that served gourmet breakfasts and another good local Mexican restaurant by asking a "cute guy" in Borders- someone else did, I didn't.

The Davis Bilingual Elementary school was having an art show at the Cafe- wow- was impressed with what the Art Teacher was doing with these kiddos and of course I had to be a patron and buy some art work!

But with very happy tummies it was time to go home- and in a little village outside of Tucson- we found a way we could fuel our souls as well! The church we started with Matt and Wendy, our fellow Tucson travelers, is in a old Creamery Building- so we appreciated a church housed in an old gas stations!

Of course - the morning of our return-this is what we woke up to!

 But it melted fast because Easter, after churched we had about 50 people over for lunch and they did get to enjoy the new pergola ( structure over table,)we had put up in the Fall but not really enjoyed yet!
Sun is shining now- and Spring Break is over and everyone is back to work and school- including me!!







 

Tucson Trip- Hiking Seven Falls

Of course we also hiked in Sabino Canyon, up to Seven Falls, about a 3 mile hike up.

I lost count of the times we had to cross the same stream- I haaaaaate getting wet, so every laughed at me.

Did a little lizard hunting, luckily they were usually too smart and too fast.

Put on a whole bunch of sunscreen...

Almost at the top, I sent the rest on ...

and happily sat down to sketch...

Since up at Seven Fall, those little colored dots are people, they were doing this....did I mention I hate water.

Of course on the way down we had to cross the stream all over again- yuck!

Tucson Trip- Hummingbird in Flight

Still at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

I was very happy with my Nikon SLR camera- the "sports mode" is much improved.

Tucson Trip- Biking at Fantasy Island

We of course did some biking too, well, everyone else did some biking- I sketched....biking or having a few hours uninterrupted to sketch- I'll take sketching. So....

documented the send off...

And then went to sketch- which was just down the road on a wide turn off- where across the highway was a falling down barn-but turned out to be an active residence!

Happily sketch, unitl I realized I was loosing the light and then wonder why no one had called me to go get them! So headed back to the trail head and paced around wondering why my hubby wasn't bringing back my babies from the "wilds" before it got dark!

Everyone did get in safe-and so we headed to a local brew pub-the best thing after a good ride or sketch, no matter where you happen to be!

Tucson Trip- Mission San Xavier Del Bac

We drove south out of Tucson to go see the mission in the San Xavier Indian Reservation, we were probably looking into Mexico, we were so close.

There was a whole art class set up, sketching-so my group headed off and I plopped down and did a quick marker sketch. The mission is heavily done in a Morrocan style. Which is not that unusual, because Spain retained much of the artistic influence of their Muslim conquers,even after the Christians took it back over-and since Mexico was settled by Spain-  Mexico is a land of heavy patterning and bright colors as well.

The chapel and oldest part is the center, darker rougher looking part-the church is very asymetrical, literally missing one bell tower, that was never finished.

The the heavy patterning continues in the interior of the chapel...

Pretty amazing, though writing this the day after Easter it makes me ponder somethings. I love churches and cathedrals, they are true works of art, all the frescos, stained glass and paintings are a way for the priest to communicate to the illiterate people the stories of the Bible. But San Xavier is a good example as well of how its shear impressiveness and granduer was also a way to communicate to the Natives, the power of Spain to help in their submission.

San Xavier, was covered with statues of Saints, candles to buy and then burn, even had a replica of the Saint you could pin a small trinket on to be healed...all contrary to the message I heard and celebrated yesterday- that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, that Him and Him alone could save- that the curtain in the temple that divided the Holy of Holies where God resided over the top of the Arc of the Covenant stood and that any one who entered would drop dead, being in the presence of God, except the High Priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement- that in the moment Christ took the sins of the world on his shoulders and offered up his life for us-the curtain was ripped in half and all who had the blood of Christ on them, could be in the presence of God.

"No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest."

Hebrews 8:10-12
If you read the Bible, God gets extra mad at those who keep others from coming to Him!

Animals of the Desert

More from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, do you have a feel yet how cool this place was!!

This barn owl weighs only a pound! He hacks up pellets of all the fur and bones of the little rodents he eats but can't digest! yuck!

Everything in the desert is smart enough to take it real easy when the sun gets high, including these Mexican Grey Wolves, who are still endangered.

This is a kiwati, or something like that, I can't find it on the Web and they aren't in Colorado. They look like a cross between a raccoon, ant eater and a little bit of cat!

The birds of prey were amazing, flying all over the place, landing here and there and then returning to their handlers!

River Otters are a "Hoot"!

Have you ever noticed that it doesn't matter the species ( even these Desert Sheep) the male has to have a higher perch?

That Grey Fox is trying to decide if it is worth it to try and catch that little bird in the heat of the midday sun.

That's a javalina-a hairy pig. My husband use to hunt them with a compound bow, even had one of the heads mounted-yeah.......do you know how sporting good stores get all their trophies they line around high up along the walls?....widows- the second the hubby is in the ground, the wife gets rid off all the dead things lining the house. Jon keeps his hides in his office-the rest of the house is animal free and his hunting passion has subsided for mountain biking- he still hunts deer and elk in the fall, he is a Colorado boy-but not so much the exoctic animals-though javalina is pretty good, so is antelope. He did bring home a bear roast one time, since the etiguette is if you help another hunter pack out game, you get some of the meat- yuck- you have to marinade it for like a week and then cook it for another- it has tricanosis, like pork, so you have to be really careful-thought he would try and make sausage with it using my Cuisinart food processor-took my a looooong time to de-bear meat that! We do eat a lot of Elk and Deer- between my husband and brother-Did have rattlesnake once, that tastes like chicken....humm don't know why all these animal pics made me thing of cooking wild game?

From the Cross

"Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing" Luke 23:34

"I tell the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43

"Dear woman here is your son. Here is your mother." John 19:26,27

"My God, My God why have you forsaken me." Matthew 27:46

"I am thirsty" John 19:28

"It is finished." John 19:28

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Luke 23:46