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!