TUCSON, AZ

TUCSON, ARIZONA

We are in Tucson. AZ hiding out in the Oro Valley Workdmark Resort. I suppose if one wanted to hide out in the Desert, Oro Valley Would be a great choice! This is a beautiful place to be!. We are enjoying the many varieties of native Cacti and other spiny Desert vegetation. The recent rains brought out a few Cacti blossoms this week. The heavy rain also washed out a road! It amazes me how a heavy Arizona rain can accumulate so much so quickly as to take out a road!

We arrived on Friday and found a room at the Comfort Inn because our Condo was not yet ours. Then on Saturday we met up with Lindsay and Steven and her Aunt, Joyce, who goes to our church at Metro! Small world! We were at BIOSPHERE II on a tour. Afterwards, we headed to Starbucks for coffee and conversation. We had a great visit and, afterwards, we checked in to our condo.

BIOSPHERE II is very cool! It was built back in the late 80's as a facility where life could be sustained in its own environment. You should Google BIOSPHERE II and read all about it. But today, it still stands and is being rebuilt from a few years of financial neglect. It is a tourist interest as well as a living Laboratory, the ultimate Environmental Science Lab, now owned by the University of Arizona. It was very interesting! I'm glad we got to see it after all these years of knowing it was there!


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On Sunday morning we went to church here in Oro Valley.  The church of about 80 souls is located near Ina Street and Mona Lisa Street.  I was wondering why they didn't call it the Mona Lisa Church of Christ?  That would have been vey cool!  Instead it's called Ina Church of Christ.  The sermon was good and a couple of people were friendly.  It's churches like this one that makes us miss our METRO even more!

We returned home, changed clothes and ate a quick bite before driving out to the other side of Tucson to the Arizona - Sonora Desert Museum.  It is an outdoor exhibit on several acres that has historical significance dating back to the Dinosaur Age of more than 12,000 years ago.  Fossils have been found in the ancient mud bog that supposedly date back even farther.  Only God knows the truth about that date!

The outdoor Zoo exhibit was cool. Some of the animals were in hiding or sleeping for the winter, but we got to see, Cougar, Big Horn Sheep. Deer, Wolves, Black Bear, as well as an Avery, Aquarium and small animal habitats. The grounds were well kept and it had nearly every king of plant you might find in the Sonoran Desert. We definitely enjoyed it!


On up the road a couple of miles was the Saguaro National Park, where we went to visit. As its name indicates, there were a lot of Saguaro Cacti there! It is a piece of Desert, now protected by the National Park Service. One would have to be very careful hiking across this desert! With all the spiny, thorny plants growing along the ground, and at every height up to 40 feet, there would be danger with every step! But the nearby volcanic hills and mountains are definitely calling my name!

Just back up the road a few miles was the "OLD TUCSON" town where John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and others filmed some of the old western movies. We didn't get to spend time there as the day was ending and we only had 45 minutes until it closed. Maybe later we can go back.

It appears that Tucson has much to offer, after all, it is the old hometown of David and Christie Vaca! So she would have made sure there was a lot of stuff to see! We like it here. In fact, I might could live here..... Hmmmmmmm