2/13/18 Catalina State Park

Today we drove 20 minutes north and took a walk in Catalina State Park.  The area was very different than the desert park near us.  It is in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains and is surrounded by Coronado National Forest.  The path was wide and lined with creosote trees and cacti.  On one of the knobs of the mountain we noticed a natural A (for Arizona?).  The path was uphill for a bit and then leveled out before descending in a series of manmade steps to the canyon floor.  Fun fact:  if a barrel cactus is leaning, it is leaning toward the southwest (see pic)!  I also took a pic of an ocotillo plant.  At this time of year is looks like a bunch of thorny sticks, but when the rains come, it leafs out and has bright red flowers all over it.  Most of the wash is sandy, but at the bottom of the canyon there are a number of large boulders that have washed out of the sides to litter the bottom.  We saw a number of century plants complete with the elongated flowers left over from last year.  Coming down the canyon, I stopped to take a picture of the conglomerate canyon wall.  It is probably the remains of an ancient mudslide.  Many-armed saguaro lined the top of the canyon walls.  We chatted with a young couple (married in July last year) who are traveling from California to Michigan.  They are taking their time as they don't want to get to Michigan until late March (I don't blame them).  We gave them some suggestions from out trips out west - Antelope Canyon, Marfa, Texas (we only mentioned Marfa as they said they wanted to stop in Roswell for kicks), Zion, etc.  At one point we saw two women on horseback and then later, a couple on horseback.  The last pic is of a small tree in the wash - you can see how the water has eaten away the soil at its roots.  After 2 1/2 miles of a lovely walk, we drove home for lunch.  Food tip:  I only use a dab of mayo when making tuna - just enough to hold it together, but when you are out of mayo, a small bit of ranch dressing works quite well.  We will have leftovers for dinner tonight.  We hear it is supposed to rain tomorrow so we will see what we will do for an excursion - there are so many choice.

2/12/18 Park and School

So today we went back to the desert park nearby and took another lovely walk, trying out a new trail. We didn't like this trail as well as the last one as there was a lot of loose sand and it felt like walking on the beach - very tough on the legs.  We did see some pretty cool cacti though so it was worth it.  I took a pic of some strange new growth on a cholla.

We also saw several hawks.  When we got back, we looked it up and they were Harris's hawks and this is the most northern part of their range.  We also saw several cacti with round holes drilled in them - either by a bird or a small owl.  There was a large epiphyte on one tree and a couple of crazy cacti.  One of them looked like it was chewed by something - insects, birds?  We came back and had lunch and then I was off to read to 4th graders at Manzo Elementary School.  The school is in an impoverished neighborhood and was not doing well, but has turned itself around by adding a chicken coop and a greenhouse in one of the patios.  The parents love to come and help with the gardening and the chickens and have become more involved in all of the school activities.  The second patio had picnic tables and a small stage for performances.   The students in Miss April's class were great!  I had picked up a book at the Habi-Store and read to them for a half hour.  They loved the story and were engaged and responsive to questions.  We only got about four chapters in and they were wondering what was to happen next.  I told them I was donating the book to their classroom and they all cheered.  The book was The Kid Who Ran for President by Dan Gutman - an excellent choice for this age group.  When I got back, Dave and I drove for a half-hour to the Good Feet store.  His feet have been bothering him and we thought he might benefit by having new shoes.  He said his feet felt better as soon as the put the new ones on.  We will put his old ones right in the garbage can.  We went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner (celebrating Valentine's Day a bit early) and then drove home.  On the way home, we went by a Chinese restaurant named Wok and Ro (very funny).  When we got home there was a spectacular sunset.  We had a few clouds today which is unusual, but Dave heard there was a 40% chance of rain on Wednesday - we will see.

2/11/18 Tubac Art Festival

We got up this morning and drove an hour south of Tucson to the charming town of Tupac.  Apparently, it has been an artist haven for many years and the art festival is a major deal here.  The town in small and the whole town was blocked off for the festival.  The outskirts became parking lots and the enterprising local teacher's association charged $8 per car.  That must be the major fund raiser for school funds for the year!  We had a lovely time wandering from tent to tent looking at paintings, photography, jewelry, crafts, pottery, etc.  One street was devoted to foot tents and trucks with offerings of BBQ, Asian, Greek, burgers and dogs, Mexican, fried dough, ice cream, etc.  Terry (our neighbor) had told us to look up a former Ledyard woman who once was editor of the Westerly Sun (Carrie Jacobson) and I took a photo of Dave and her standing in her booth.  The second picture is of cacti made of metal.

The picture of the small boy at the fountain was too adorable to miss - he had a great time just sticking his hands in the flowing water and then giggling.  We had to go through a border patrol booth on the way back - that is how close to the border with Mexico we were.  The German Shepherd and the officer decided we were not carrying drugs or illegal immigrants and let us pass.  We walked our feet off in Tupac, but had a very lovely time - we were definitely ready to eject the shoes when we got home!  The picture of the rooster is the mailbox of our across-the-street neighbor.

2/10/18 Last day of the work week

Dave didn't feel well last night for some reason so we had a low key morning.  We went to Home Depot to buy some tape measures for Habit-Store.  They have some, but they are all beat up and people do walk off with them from time to time.  We bought five and donated them to the store.  We then stopped at the grocerystore for a few supplies.  We had an early lunch and headed into work.  It was fairly busy today.  Dave did a lot of loading and unloading of trucks and I ran around the store doing customer service.  We both felt like our feet were smoking by the end of the day.  I woke up this morning and saw the most incredible sunrise - see pic.  I think it was because there were some clouds for the first time in the sky today.  Nothing else new to report.  We may drive down to Tupac tomorrow as they are having an art festival (thank you Terry for letting us know about it).

2/9/18 Habi-store

Well, no pics today, but we did meet a few interesting people at the store.  The first one was Joe.  He is a disabled veteran who is having a house built for him.  He is a paraplegic who gets around quite well in a motorized wheelchair.  I told him at one point I was going to issue a speeding ticket.  I had a chance to talk with him and he leads a very interesting life.  He spends 8 months here and 4 month in the summer in New York City.  He takes wonderful pictures of sunsets and then transfers them to canvas or metal and sells them outside of the Met.  He also is training to be a tracker on horseback.  He has skied ( I'm not sure how that was done) and scuba dived.  He was chosen to demonstrate robotic legs to the Secretary of Defense.  All in all, an interesting guy.  I was selling an octagonal oak table to another couple at the end of the shift and we got to chatting.  I mentioned that we were here from Connecticut and he was very excited as he grew up in Fairfield.  When I said we were from Mystic, he laughed out loud.  They live in Newport most of the year and volunteer at Mystic Seaport. He works in the shipyard and she used to work in CSR where Dave volunteers on Fridays.  She knows Dave's boss, Chris White, and several other people at the Seaport.  Unfortunately, I did not get their last name, but what a coincidence!  We went over our time as we were having a grand time chatting, drove home and Dave had a late nap.  We have just finished dinner so we will read for a while until it is time for bed.  Tomorrow we work the afternoon shift.  A week from tomorrow, the store in celebrating its 37th anniversary so everything in the store will be 37% off.  We said we would work the morning shift and stay on if needed as I imagine it will be very busy, especially first thing in the morning.

2/8/18 Arthur Pack Regional Park

We enjoyed the movie last night.  I am so glad they didn't re-make it - they took a new tack.  It was campy with a bit of adult humor - fun.  This morning we found a lovely desert park only 7 minutes from us.  It is next to a high school and a golf course.  I took lots of shots of saguaro cacti, a palo verde tree, and a barrel cactus.  One of the shots is of a dead saguaro - quite interesting to look at the "ribs".  Another is really messed up - looks like a Dali sculpture.  Some have many arms and some have no arms.

We did see a jack rabbit go hopping by.  This afternoon we worked at the restore.  Dave only had to unload one truck and it wasn't too busy on the floor.  I am adding one more picture - Dave is standing next to a very, very tall saguaro.