Arizona Day 4 - Caves and Canyons

Once again, there was no sleeping in on this vacation! Then again, why sleep away your vacation - time is limited, may as well make the most of it!

We were up and on the road this morning with 3 destinations on the agenda - Colossal Cave, Sabino Canyon and the Butterfly house at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It was about a 45 minute drive to the cave so we had more scenery to enjoy. We were at the cave shortly after they opened and only had a a short wait until the next tour started. This gave us some time to enjoy the breathtaking view from the visitor center, as well as wandering through the gift shop.

Of course John had to find something to stick his fingers into...

And to sit on....

The Cave tour itself is about 45 minutes long and is about 1/2 mile long - all underground. It was amazing to see all the different rock formations created over thousands of years! That, combined with the fact that it is always about 70 degree's in the cave, it is always a perfect day for a walk! The cavern was actually a CCC project back in the 30's and it was in the early 90's that the park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was hard to get many really good pictures in the cave, but we did manage at least a few.

Once we made it out of the cave, we headed back to the house to drop Michelle off since her asthma as really bothering her. Then John and I headed out with Richard to Sabino Canyon - again, about a 45 minute drive. We have come to the conclusion that everything is about 45 minutes away from Michelle and Richards house!

Since it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we knew that it was going to be busy at the canyon, but we got lucky and actually found a parking spot right away! (Apparently Richard said is it not uncommon to have to drive around the parking lost for 15 minutes some days, just waiting for a spot!). There is a tram that runs up and down the canyon, leaving about every 30-40 minutes. If you opt to ride the tram, you get a 45 minute narrative along the 3.8 mile climb into the canyon. If you do not ride the tram, there is no fee to use the recreation area, with the exception of parking. Since we were limited on time, we decided to take the tram all the way up to the end and then walk part of the way back down.

Aside from the road that the tram follows, this area is virtually untouched. The strangest thing to see what that there was actually water in the river beds, ever though we were in the middle of the desert. That is only because it is January, and this tends to be the "rainy" season. Along the way, we were amazed by how many people we saw actually RUNNING through the Canyon. I guess if you live in the area, this is THE place to go to get in your workout. Granted I don't blame them. If I lived here, I would probably do the same thing!

After spending a few minutes taking pictures at the top of the massive Canyon walls, we decided to start walking down. We figured about what time we had to be at the bottom to make it to the Botanical Gardens on time and would base where we got back on the tram by that. Along the way, not only did we get some great pictures,

But we also had the chance to cool off by walking in the water that flowed over the road...

Took in some of the local scenery... (Yes, John too this picture, but they were flirting with Richard)

and got some exercise!

Of the 9 stops on the route, we walking all the way back down to stop 5 before catching a tram to head back down. We would have gladly walked all the way down, but finding dinner along the way to the Botanical Gardens would probably be a good idea!

Dinner at Quizno's again (this was the 2nd time in 3 days) on the way and we got the the Botanical Garden's about 15 minutes before the butterfly house closed. But this was the way we planned it. The guys were here to attend the after-hours butterfly photo shoot. They allow a limit of 5 people in to the Butterfly house after normal hours for the sole purpose of taking pitcures of the butterflies! You are allowed to bring in any equipment you want - tripods, flashes, lights... you carry it in and you can use it!

While they were in playing with the butterflies, I spend 2 hours just wandering through the gardens. It was really peaceful just wandering by myself. Since it was so late in the day, there were not many people there so it was really quiet. It seemed like every corner I went around, I found something interesting. Many of these I did try to capture in a photo, but some of the pictures just did not do justice to the peaceful scenery.

At one point, one of the staff of the gardens pointed out a Cooper's Hawk that was perched way up in one of the trees. If he would not have pointed him out, I would have NEVER seen the bird - he knew how to hide in those trees!

Meanwhile, John and Richard were getting up close and personal with the butterflies. Just how personal? How about nose to nose!

There was just too many awesome picture from today to try and narrow down just a few to post a few here. To see a better selection of the events from today, click here. This will take you to John's Flickr photo's, feel free to bookmark that site as new photo's are always uploaded there!

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

What a day! The weather was perfect! Sun was shining, light breeze blowing and not a snow flake to be seen! Getting out and enjoying that sun was perfect!

We spend the morning at the Desert Museum and it did not take us long to figure out why Shell and Richard are members! I could spend time here all the time! The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place! What could be better! From seeing barn owls at eye level, getting up close and personal with hummingbirds, to watching hawks soar right over your head, there are surprises around every corner!

We spend a large part of the time we were there visiting the hummingbird house. This enclosed area is the home to about 22 hummingbirds. These little birds were fascinating to watch! They have no fear of people and will swoop right over your head (and sometimes almost landing on you!)

Aside from the hummingbirds, there was a wide variety of animals and birds that kept us entertained for hours! We had the privilege of watching one of the trainers work with a raccoon to get him acclimated to his carrier. This was very comical because he would run in to grab the food, but scamper right back out before she could close the door. He was bound and determined to NOT have to stay in the "cage".

One of the other things that we had fun with was finding hidden creatures in the various cactus. This one looked like a giraffe! Not sure where the idea came from, but we started taking pictures the odd finds... one day maybe we will have to do a album just of those photos! Could be interesting!

Once we finally left the Desert Museum and made the drive back over the mountain (where we of course had to stop and the scenic overlook to get a great view down on the desert we were just walking in) to get back into town, it was time to find lunch!

We were introduced to Beyond Bread. Beyond Bread can be view and similar to Atlanta Bread Co or Panera Bread, but OMG! I wish we had one of these in Green Bay! The fresh baked breads smelled wonderful, the dessert case was unavoidable and the salad that I ordered was just as good as it looked (and yes, it was bigger than my head!). Shell kept talking about the awesome pretzle bread that they make, but unfortunatly, they only make that one certain days, and this was not one of them :( bummer.... that sounded really good!

Arizona - Day 2

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Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

One good thing about living in Arizona, aside from the warmer temperature, lack of snow and did I mention warm weather? You can grow fruit trees in your back yard!

Shell and Richard have a variety of fruit trees that they have planted. Like Tangelo's? Just walk out the back door! Lemons are right there too along with sour oranges and (when in season) nectarines! That right there would be a good reason to live in a climate like this!

Day two brought a whole new set adventure! As per my request (one of the first ones I made after we started planning this trip), we were headed to Tombstone! You see the movies, you hear the stories, but you never really can get the real feel of the town until you actually walk the streets! It was really like stepping back in time. The "main" street of town still has the look and feel of the days when Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the McLaury brothers walked the streets.

Now you have to understand, Tombstone has always been one of my favorite movies, and to be able to walk these street was just too awesome. Being able to also hear more of the history of this famous was very eye opening. Did you know that they town of Tombstone (the town that refused to die) actually burnt down twice and was rebuilt after each fire? I never knew that! The last time that the town was rebuilt, many of the 2 and 3 story buildings were only built as single story buildings.

The Birdcage Theater is still there! You know - the theater in the movie where the townspeople gather and (in the movie) Wyatt sees Josephine for the second time). It is the oldest building left in tombstone.They do offer self-guided tours through the theater, but we opted to just get out picture taken in front of the bar. We were having to much fun just wandering the streets. Yes the town is a bit more touristy that it was all those years ago, but just walking the streets was fun! They offered a trolley ride around town for a few bucks, but we opted to take the stagecoach ride 2 miles around town - very cool! Our guide pointed out many historical sites and gave us a great history of the area. Did you know that up until no too long ago, Wyatt Earp's house still stood in Tombstone - until one night some vandals took a match to it and it was destroyed in minutes.

For lunch we had to hit one of the local favorites... Big Nose Kate's Saloon. Very cool! And then it was off the the big shoot out...

The Shoot-out at the OK Corral... Yes, it is still there! They do a great show around this famous gun fight. Yes, again, touristy, but still very entertaining! The actors that were part of these show were great! The guy playing the part of Doc Holliday was awesome! Same mannerisms and walk that we all know Doc for! Not to mention the attitude!

By the time we did all this, we were exhausted! But no trip to Tombstone is complete without a stop at the Boothill Cemetary! It is amazing how many "Unknown's are burried there! But is is also interesting to read to stories about how many of those that are burried there actually got there.

Once we left Tombstone it was back to Tucson... and Fusion Wasabi... Sushi for dinner!

Goodbye to snow - at least for a few days!

Waiting to leave MN
Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

This morning we began our Arizona Adventure! We were at the airport by 6am - I think I was awake anyway!!

Not really sure what the temp was this morning when we left home, but my guess is that it was about -4. People might call me crazy too, but knowing that I was going to land a few hours later in warmer weather, I left the jacket at home. When we landed in Tucson, it was almost 60! Now that is what I call getting away from the cold! No matter how "chilly" it gets here, you won't catch me complain! I don't have to see snow and I can walk out of the house with a long sleeve t-shirt on and not be cold!! I really had thought about bringing a knitting project along to keep my occupied on the plane, but with all the security measures, I figured that , just my luck, they would not let me take my needles on the plane! So I had to settle for the MP3 player and crossword puzzle books!

Today was a relatively quite day once we landed. Richard picked up up at the airport - many thanks to our gracious chauffeur! Of course since neither of us have ever really seen a cactus up close before, we had to take a picture of the first one we saw - right outside the airport! After a quick lunch with him and Shell, Richard was headed back to work. The rest of us went home and took naps - sitting on the plan doing nothing really takes it out of you!

Michelle got tickets for all of us to go to the Gaslight Theater tonight. This was a comedy dinner theater that was really cool. The seats we had were awesome too... up in the balcony overlooking everything!

By the end of the night, we were exhausted! Tomorrow is a new day!

The First Basketball Game of the Season

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Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

The day that Darrin had been waiting for finally arrived! Their first game of the season! They boys have been practicing hard since the beginning of December and were ready to hit the court!

It was really weird at first watching the game because there was no scoreboard. They don't really keep score... well they do, but not officially. The boys tried to keep up, but they just cold not do it!

We were just wishing that we would have brought the video camera to capture this first game - just to save it to show the boys when they are seniors in High School!

New Years Eve - Welcome 2009

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Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

Once again, we had some friends over for New Years Eve. Why go out and deal with how is out for the evening! We would much rather have a nice evening at home with friends! This year, in addition to the usual gang (Beth, Chad and Dan), Bill (a co-worker) and his wife Sarah joined us, and then Nicole (another co-worker) also stopped by for a while.

It was definitely an interesting evening! There was no shortage of food, as I once again, went overboard on the food! BBQ Meatballs, homemade chicken strips with various dipping sauces, the usual chips, dips and cracker, plus a HUGE variety of John's homemade chocolates!

With the chocolates, it was really hard to say which ones were the biggest hit... Bill and Sarah loved the chocolate coated coffee beans, but Beth and Chad... not so much! On the other hand there was only 1 of the s'mores left (marshmallows dipped in chocolate and then rolled in graham cracker crumbs), a larger amount of turtles were gone, I think ALL of the homemade peanut better Twix were gone as well as about half of the dipped potato chips! Needless to say, there was not a shortage of chocolate!

There was also not a shortage of beverage... one would think that we drink all the time with the variety of alcohol in our cupboard. We just have varying tastes and have started a grand collection of flavors. Some bottles we bought just to try a specific drink and then it sat there. So we were on a mission to maybe have some of those almost empty bottles become empty. As a way to make it easier to decide what to drink. John pulled everything out of the cupboard and turned the counter into a bar - it was a well stocked bar! I never realized just how much was up in the cupboard until it was all taken down! I think we need to use what we have before we buy anymore!!

The entertainment for the evening once again centered around Wii... upstairs it was a variety of games including Raving Rabbids, Redneck Jamboree, Bowling and more. The basement however had been turned into a rock concert as RockBand got a great workout!

Beth and Nicole had their own laughs playing pinball and pool. At first Beth was very confused as to why the 8 ball was white instead of black. That was, until I told her that was the set of pool balls that glowed under the black light. So that brought a whole new dimension to the game! Nicole even brought out the "Yooper Cue" - made out of a long stick with all the bark shaved off! Straightness was not high on the detail list when this cue was made - controlling your shot is a bit difficult!

Of course the highlight of the evening was the countdown to midnight... I was just really glad that I did not pass out the noise makers until right before midnight! From 11:53 until at least 12:05, it was a constant stream of noise from the party horns! I don't think the cats came out of hiding until morning!

The only drawback to having a NYE party at your house is the clean-up that you get to wake up to in the morning! What a great way to start off the new year... cleaning and dishes. But of course, we had to have fun with that! John pulled out the ice shot glasses that he had made for the occasion and figured that they would make a great subject for some photo's... Yeah, I know, big surprise there... John taking pictures of weird things! But I have to admit, they turned out really cool!

Surprisingly enough, even with all the food that we had the night before, there was not a lot of leftovers!

To see a full presentation of the photo's from the evening, go here