I
know, it seems it has been almost forever since there was a new blog post. Not that we haven’t been busy – in fact, that
is often the issue, we HAVE been busy.
So
before I write about what we’ve been doing, I should finish up our fun times in
Arizona.
Tombstone,
Arizona, is an actual town. It was an
old mining town, founded in 1979, which burned down twice, and was the site of
the shootout at the OK 
corral. Really,
Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp and the whole crew.
There’s also a 1950s TV show with a fictional sheriff, ostensibly
narrated by the editor of the town’s newspaper, the Tombstone Epitaph. That’s the real name, odd as that might 
seem.
We
drove on down to Tombstone and spent half a day. We visited the museum, and watched a
multi-media presentation on the history of the town. Then we walked by the Epitaph and picked up
copies of the paper written after the big shootout, and finished our visit by
watching a re-enactment of the shootout.
It was fun, as well as funny, but also rather sad because the shootout,
while inevitable, seemed pointless, as 
so many feuds usually do.
The
silver mines are still functional, and the town is a bit of a tourist
destination. Worth of a visit if you’re
in the area. And as the sun is heading toward the horizon, you can pose like an 
old gunslinger!
Richard
and I also drove up Mount Lemmon, the tallest peak in the Santa Catalina
Mountains, which ring Tucson’s north and northeastern perimeter. Mount Lemmon is 9,159 feet high, so the peak
was 
full of snow, even though Tucson was having temperatures in the 60s!
People
periodically report seeing cougars around Mount Lemmon, but unfortunately, we 
didn’t see any. Lots of saguaro at the
lower elevations, and various rock formations that looked like giant children
had tried building sand castles!
We
made it to the summit by sunset, and it was a gorgeous drive back down past all
the rock formations glowing various colors as the sky turned from blue to
flaming pink to a muted gold, and then dark.
Tucson was 
spread out below, twinkling lights on the flat valley between
the mountain ranges.
I
joined Tucson’s Urban Sketchers, and went on a couple of meet ups. The first was to the San Xavier Mission, a
church completed in 
1797. It’s a
gorgeous old church built in the Spanish style, located on the Tohono O’odham Nation. It was a chilly morning, but plenty of people
attending the worship service, as well as tourists visiting this site, and a
number of vendors selling everything from 
traditional fry bread to woven
blankets and beaded jewelry. I mostly
drew the church, and chatted with various people as they wandered by and
stopped to see what I was doing.
Our niece came down from Phoenix and spent a night, and the next morning she and I joined another sketching meet up at an old motel-turned-restaurant, the Monterey Motel Café, complete with musical entertainment. Great way to spend a Sunday morning!
Two other Urban Sketcher events I went to included the El Rio Reserve – not quite an urban park because it’s quite a bit north of Tucson, but still close enough to be in the general metropolitan area. Some trees for shade, a few benches for sitting, a rocky hill studded with saguaros, and a lovely pond with random ducks paddling around – what a lovely place to sketch for an hour or two! My watercolor sketch really does capture the oddly bell-shaped hill. Though since I work on an open page, the photos always look a bit skewed or warped.
The last sketching event was in the Mercado district, a new area built to resemble an older traditional market. There are a number of private homes built somewhat in the old hacienda style, so it’s very picturesque. Another great place to draw or paint!
And even though this was in downtown Tucson, I saw a road runner! Really, complete with the crested head, long tail, and long-ish legs! What a weird looking bird!
The only other excitement was the desert bloom. Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert, and most of the time the environment is muted shades of dusty green and dusty brown. Beautiful clear blue skies turning into dramatic and fiery sunsets. Dark skies filled with twinkling stars, because Tucson has very few street lights, it’s a dark city so that the various observatories and astronomical research stations can study the night sky.
But it spring, the desert blooms. The cacti flower in brilliant yellows, oranges, and pinks. The saguaro sprout white flowers on each arm, so it looks like they’re all wearing floral crowns! Butterflies visit, bees go crazy, and tourists come to see the sudden color. It really is a joyous time!
We liked our little house in Tucson so much, we’ve booked it for next fall to spring. We’ve never done that before, but it really was a comfortable cottage with a large back porch and yard. We even had an orange tree, full of Arizona sweets! Who knew that Arizona grew delicious oranges!
