February 11
For Norm’s birthday we went into downtown Tucson. We found the visitor center to pick up a copy of the walking tour and hit the streets. One of the highlights was taking a step back in time to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. A short talk by a docent gave us enough information to get a picture of what the area looked like in the 1700‘s. The fort was started in 1775, and by the late 1770’s, the 11 acre fort was completed with ten foot high adobe walls totally surrounding it. The fort marked the northwestern edge of the Spanish frontier. They have reconstructed some walls and you can see where the original walls were. They found the ruins of a sweat house dating back 2400 years ago. They have found corn, an agricultural crop, dating back to 2200 BC. This is the oldest identified site in North America. This southern part of Arizona didn’t become part of the US until the Gadsden Purchase was made with Mexico so we could build a southern route for the railroad. We also walked into the old Congress Hotel built in 1919. The floor in the café is made of 1000’s of pennies lying side by side. It became famous when Dillinger and his gang rented rooms here. As luck would have it, the building caught fire and they had to escape out the window with the help of firemen. Their heavy suitcases filled with submachine guns and bulletproof vests alerted the fireman. Also, the gang was recognized from a story in True Detective Magazine and they were soon arrested.
Norm picked out the Bamboo Club Café for his birthday lunch. He had fond memories of Asian food from his working days in Phoenix. We weren’t disappointed!
Before heading back to the Manor, we drove through the Barrio Historico neighborhood which was the one of the original neighborhoods for the “working people.” The darling small bungalows are being redone and are painted all colors of the rainbow, subdued hues of course. A few street later we found a couple of streets where the more wealthy families lived in larger homes. It’s nice to see them being restored. Much of the neighborhood was demolished when they built the Convention Center.
February 12
What a fabulous day! Our first destination was the Mission of San Xavier del Bac which rises dramatically from the desert floor. Called the White Dove, its white dome and towers contrast with the brown of the desert floor. It truly is the finest example of mission architecture in the US. Father Kino laid out the foundation in 1692, but it wasn’t started until 1783 taking 14 years to build. What an undertaking in the middle of nowhere to build such a magnificent structure. The interior is beautifully done with reds and other brilliant hues. The interior was restored in the 1990’s by Italian restores along with local residents. One of the displays lists the items that were inventoried in the living quarters in the late 1700’s included “2 poor tables and six worse chairs.” Everything of importance was in the church. It is on the Tohono O’ohdam and is still and active church. They used the image of the scallop shell over the door and in the alter from the cathedral in Spain at Compastella that I visited.
We drove through the Palo Verde Wildlife Refuge hoping to see some unusual birds on our way to Kitt Peak National Observatory. No birds but a nice drive took us up 6,000 feet to the observatory. We were very excited about our reservations for the night tour and had strict instructions to arrive by 5:00. We were amazed at the number of telescopes; 24 optical and 2 radio telescopes in all. It is the largest group of telescopes in the world. They have the largest solar telescope in the world. It is water cooled throughout the housing to keep it at a constant temperature. Universities from all over the world do research here. Geranimo, our guide, made sure our tour was fabulous! We had many turns looking through telescopes with chances to see the brown lines of gases across Jupiter, clusters, nebulas, and a very close look at the moon. It was freezing cold but we were so happy and engrossed in the tour that we didn’t mind a bit. My favorites were seeing the moon in such detail, the Orion nebula with the gases visible and dual stars. Amazing! We also learned how to read a star chart, really read it, and find many of the constellations. Geramnimo was so excited to have us be successful at seeing the things that he was pointing out! His enthusiasm was catching. We also used binoculars and couldn‘t believe what we could see. Kitt sits on reservation land and had an unending lease until an administrator goofed big time and made some changes without keeping the tribe in the loop. The tribe took it to the Supreme Court and won. Now they are working on a 75 year lease with 73 years to go and then they have to leave the land in its original condition. What a huge mistake. Going down the mountain, they covered our head lights and we followed a pilot car. Any light will cause misreadings on the telescopes. We learned so much and saw so much first hand!
February 13
We made it to an estate sale this morning before visiting Sabino Canyon. Not much at the estate sale but it was fun getting back into one of the nicer neighborhoods. Sabino Canyon National Forest is a favorite hiking area in Tucson and being a Sunday, it was a very busy place. We took the tram ride with a guided talk to the end of the canyon and walked the 3½ miles back. Water was flowing in the river and it made a nice walk. We stopped at Sagurao National Park East before heading home.
February 14
From what we had heard, the top place to visit in Tucson is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with its well defined mission: to tell the story life in the Sonoran Desert and all of the creatures who call it home. It has examples of everything that crawls, runs, climbs, flies and slithers. We made it just in time to see the Free Flight Show that included, owls, hawks and falcons. They flew around and over us so that we got a good close look at them in flight. The next couple of hours were spent walking the trails viewing all kinds of desert life. Before leaving, we caught a great talk on rattlesnakes. Thank goodness it is still cold enough at night that they are usually still sleeping but we could still run into one. The hospital stay after a bite runs about $100,000. They have a fabulous docent program and docents were around every bend to answer questions. The museum met our expectations!

We also drove to the Saguaro NP West to take a short hike to get a close up look at some petroglyphs that were over 800 years old and are still as clear as could be today. We made it home in time to do the laundry. Lucky us! Tomorrow we move to a state park on the east side of Tucson.