Thursday Night
Scott calls about our flight. We had emailed them our itinerary,
and hew noticed the return flight was Saturday at 1 pm. We call
American and Jill straightens it out to Sunday at 6 pm. It was
almost a short weekend.
Friday
We get up at 4:4 am and attempt to dog proof the house. Jill
sleeps on both flights (we had American frequent fliers through
Dallas.) We land in Tucson at 10 am and Scott and Carrie are at the
airport, having put the kids in daycare. Day off without the kids?
Wow!
We drive by hundreds of planes and the air force graveyard (from
the movie Can't Buy Me Love.)
We drove around the area near their house and saw a real dude
ranch where they got married. Lots of Europeans spend a lot of cash
to stay there. We were surprised at how low the buildings and houses
were and how scrubby and wild the terrain looked. We almost
attempted to cross a "wash-out" by Scott chickened out. Probably a
good thing.
We got to Scott and Carrie's and got settled in (throw the bag in
the room and call it done.) They had a very southwestern style house
with a desert garden and a chimnea on the front patio. A secret
garden was on the side of the house and a large back yard and pool
(cactus, agave, saguaro, aloe, ocetillo, Mexican blue oak, mesquite.)
Scott and Carrie's
After Keith and Scott had a quick game of ping pong (the house
won, of course), we set off for our afternoon out. First stop was
Rossa's, a locally owned Mexican place with cold beer and great
enchiladas. Jill's avocado enchiladas were great. We decided to
catch a movie since it was pouring rain and most our ideas for things
to do were outside.
The movie didn't start for a while, so we had a couple of beer at
Dirtbags, a college hangout. Keith was reminiscing about a pretty
wild road trip out to Tucson back in college. The movie we decided
on was "Best in Show", a mocumentary about dog shows and the people
who own and show the dogs, very similar in style to "Spinal Tap".
Scott, Jill and Keith had each had three beers and laughed the whole
time. Carrie had just one beer and didn't enjoy it nearly as much
(at all?). Definitely a 2 beer or more movie.
We went grocery shopping for the next night's dinner and then
picked up the kids and headed back to the house. The kids got mac
and cheese (Keith's jealous?) and then we left when the sitter showed
up. We went down to the trendy 4th avenue and met up with Jim and
Brigitte. The wait at Caruso's was at least an hour, so we killed
time playing foosball at a bar next door.
Spencer
Cassie
The food at Caruso's was great and since service was slow, they
heaped on extra Chianti for free. Keith, in his classic post dinner
and drinks style, slept in the car on the way home. Must have been
good!
Saturday
There was a serious group effort to make pancakes and eggs for
breakfast. We didn't remember the bacon defrosting in the microwave
until after we left the house. Carrie's mom came by to watch the
kids and we started the day by checking out the house Jim and
Brigitte were having built. Very nice.
We then met up with Jim and Brigitte at the Tucson Botanic Gardens
for the Chili Festival. We checked out lots of chili foods and also
got to see lots of local flora and fauna. We bought chipotle flakes
and jalapeno powder - which was great on the cheese popcorn, but wee
paid for it later!
An unusual cactus at the Botanic
Gardens
Butterfly
We then drove out to the Desert Museum west of Tucson with a stop
at a pass to take in the view. The museum was pretty cool, with a
hummingbird aviary, cat country, black bear, javalina, wolf and
coyotes.
Pass on the way to the Desert
Museum
Scott, Jill and Carrie
Hummingbird at the Desert
Museum
Sunset at the pass on the way
back
Another shot at the pass
That night we cooked and bbq'ed at Scott and Carrie's for dinner.
We played lots of darts and ping pong. We sat out on the front patio
roasting marshmallows in the Chimnea for Smores while listening to
the coyotes howl (really close!)
Sunday
After a heated doubles ping pong tournament (Keith might want a
table now), Scott and Carrie graciously let us borrow their pickup
truck to drive to Salino Canyon. We took a tram thing up the canyon
with lots of stops to walk around and enjoy the warm sun.
Taking the tram
A waterfall in the canyon
One of the houses we looked
at
After the canyon tour, we even looked around four open houses to
get a feel for the local style. They were all very Southwestern and
nothing like the Victorian look of houses in Houston. A couple of
the houses were really amazing (and amazingly out of our price
range!).
We relaxed a little back at Scott and Carrie's and played with
their kids. Scott met back up with us and we headed out to the
airport for a very long trip home (the time change and the long drive
home from the airport put us home pretty late).
We had a great time in Tucson, but it was awfully short. We
invited everyone to come visit us in Houston (really!) and we hope we
may plan on bumping into them on other vacations as well (ever been
to New York?). |
