Tucson, 7–14 Nov 2021
/Melody signed up for a literary translation conference in Tucson, so I tagged along. We went a few days early so she could also play tourist for at least part of the time. Melody hadn't been to Tucson before, while it's been about 40 years since I was last in the city.
The last time we had been on a plane was in late 2019, so we tried to do quite a bit of planning for when to arrive at the airport and double-checking what we could expect to be different. We knew we wanted to do some hiking, and while we left our hiking backpacks home, our boots and poles meant checking a larger bag than we normally use. Other planning involved figuring out what was open on which days, what passes or tickets we would be able to purchase ahead, and coordinating with family so we could get together.
Sunday, 7-Nov
We didn’t want to get into Tucson too late, so our option was a mid-morning flight. Needing to get to the airport a couple of hours ahead and allowing for time to get to the airport meant getting up pretty early. Due to road construction, the bus stop we would normally use was closed, so we walked to the alternate stop which is a few blocks further away.
Once we made it to the airport and dropped off the bag, we made it to security, which wasn’t too busy. We picked up some lunch to take onto the plane then found our gate. All said, we weren’t rushed but didn’t have too much of a wait before we boarded, until we found out that the flight was delayed for a half-hour.
We both ended up getting reassigned to different seats because of a plane change. While we weren't reseated next to each other, the person in the middle seat didn't mind switching. There were a few empty rows at the very back of the plane, so that person went to one of those rows with his partner (who was in the row behind us). So we ended up having an empty seat next to us.
Once we arrived in Tucson, we went to get our car rental, ending up with a smaller car than we thought, but fortunately, things still fit. We arrived at our Airbnb a bit early, but since it was self-check-in, we were able to let ourselves in and get settled.
We still had some time in the afternoon, so we hopped on the tram downtown to start a walking tour. The trail is indicated by a turquoise line on the sidewalk, so we went to the start and then followed along. We got to the point where the path took us directly into a closed-off construction area, so we tried to figure out the best way to detour. The direction we chose ended up taking us pretty far around, and it wasn't clear if we would be able to get back to the trail, so we doubled back around the other way and continued.
It started to get dark, so we decided to follow the trail until it got near a tram stop, then go back to get groceries and dinner. On the way, however, we passed an ice cream store, which meant we needed pre-dinner dessert. After that, we found the tram stop and went back.
The grocery store we decided to try had fewer items than we had planned, but we were still able to make do. We also got a couple of pizza slices and took them back to our house to eat. Since we would be hiking the next day, we packed our lunch and called it a night.
Monday, 8-Nov
Saguaro National Park is divided into two parts and our first hike. The Douglas Spring, Bridal Wreath Falls, Three Tank, and Garwood Loop was in the east section. The name of the hike is a mouthful because there are several trails which criss-cross, and we do like our loops.
We got familiar with the desert vegetation as we started working our way uphill on the Douglas Spring Trail, with lots of saguaros, ocotillo, and barrel cactus, as well as palo verde and mesquite trees. It was a pretty direct route up to Bridal Wreath Falls, although we weren’t surprised that there was no water. Because it was dry, we were able to walk right up to where the falls would be, which was an interesting view.
Returning to the Douglas Spring Trail, we found the Three Tank Trail to continue on the loop, on which we only saw one former tank. Next was the Wildhorse Trail, then finally the Garson Trail to finish the loop.
Having hiked over seven miles, we were done and returned to clean up and unwind for a bit. When dinner time came, we went a block or so to get some really good tacos. The next block down was another store where we picked up some more groceries to fill out what we didn’t get the night before.
Tuesday, 9-Nov
This was the day we planned to do something other than hiking, and we went to the Arizona-Sonoma Desert Museum. The plan was to get to the museum soon after they opened, and we arrived at a pretty empty parking lot. We had purchased tickets the night before, so we were quickly starting to look at exhibits.
It took us a little while to figure out the pace we wanted to take. At first, we thought there would be a lot of time, but since it was less than an hour before the daily raptor free-flight show, we started picking up the pace so we could finish the reptile and minerals buildings. After that, we found where the raptor show would be, and there were already a lot of people there. We were warned that the birds would fly as low as our heads, and you could tell people weren’t sure how much of a buffer there would be. Turned out some of them flew right at head level.
After the raptor show, since we were already there, we walked along the Desert Loop Trail. We were on the lookout for javelinas, but the only ones we saw were in an enclosed area. That led us into Cat Canyon, where we saw a gray fox and bobcat sleeping.
We went to the other side of the museum to grab lunch, then went directly to the hummingbird atrium. The hummingbirds were mostly avoiding people, but things were set up so it was easy to view the birds from all sorts of angles. We then went to the cactus garden, taking our time as we went through the well-labeled specimens. The last thing we did was to go through the Mountain Woodland area, then we were ready to head back.
After relaxing a bit back at the house, we hopped on the tram to the Mercado District to meet up with my cousin Rachel, who had started working at the University of Arizona in June. We grabbed some snacks and drinks and had a great time chatting.
On the way back to the house, we picked up some food to eat there and settled in for the night.
Wednesday, 10-Nov
For our second hike of the trip, we went to the west part of Saguaro National Park and went on a loop to Wasson Peak. Leaving a bit early to try to finish before the temperature got too hot worked out well at Douglas Spring, so we did the same for this hike. The trailhead ended up being just past the entrance to the Desert Museum, so the route was familiar to us.
There were few cars in the lot when we arrived, so we figured there would be few people on the trail. Right at the trailhead, we had a choice to make: we could either stay on the trail or go a little further in the wash (where the water goes after the rain) with the chance to see petroglyphs. We took the latter option, and there was still a little bit of water here and there, enough to support frogs and some tadpoles.
We had almost gotten to the end of the wash, wondering if we had missed the petroglyphs. When we looked up, we clearly saw several groups of them.
Out of the wash, we started steadily climbing, but Wasson Peak still looked very far away. The views got better as we gained altitude, and before we knew it, we were at the spur trail that lead up to the peak. Once there, we saw a raven flying around, but it left as we sat down to have lunch. As we were finishing, we saw a hawk flying around; for both birds, it felt strange to see them at our level or below, rather than high in the sky.
As we were going back to the main trail, we ran across a couple who were on their way to the peak. As it ends up, they're from Olympia, WA, and spend a couple of weeks in Tucson every year. Small world.
We knew the trip down would be longer since it was not as steep, but it felt as if we were going quite a bit away from the direction we came from. We did eventually make a turn to go back towards the car and walked past the remnants of an old mine on the way.
Having finally made our way back down and close to the end of the trail, the trick was to figure out the best way to get back to the car. It looked like some people walked along the road, but we were able to double back into the wash, then go back up to the trailhead and the car.
Back at the house, we cleaned up and relaxed for a bit before hopping onto the tram downtown for dinner. The place we ate also served ice cream, so of course, we made sure to leave enough room.
Thursday, 11-Nov
This was the first day of Melody's conference, but since it didn't start in the afternoon, we did a bit of sightseeing in the morning. We drove a bit south to the San Xavier del Bac mission. As we drove up, we saw there was scaffolding all along the church, so our view of the church was obscured, but we did get to see at least a few of the details. We arrived just a few minutes before they opened, so waited with the dozen or so people who were also there until the doors opened.
The mission was founded in 1692, while the church that we saw was completed in 1797 when Southern Arizona was still a part of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico after the country's independence, then finally became part of the United States in the mid-1850s.
We walked into the church, which is still in use. Rather than having artwork hanging on the walls, there are scenes painted directly on the walls (including painted-on frames) and a very colorful decorative lower half of the walls. The frieze at the top of the walls is pretty intricate, both in pattern and painting. On the way out, we saw the door was extremely weathered. We wandered around the grounds a bit, then headed back to the house for lunch.
Melody was going to her conference later in the afternoon, while I went south again, this time to the Pima Air & Space Museum. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to go through the exhibits, so left right after lunch. The map I was given was pretty big, and since you start in a hangar, it was hard to get a sense of scale for the museum.
I began looking around the hangar, and it wasn't too long before I realized that I was looking at half of the hangar; the other half was across a short wall. The showpiece items in this hangar were a Wright Flyer replica, an SR-71A Blackbird, and Blue Angels F-11A and Thunderbirds F-4E jets.
After going through a couple of other hangars which housed older planes (including a B-29 Superfortress), I started with the outside exhibits, which covered the majority of the area of the museum. After going through the more modern planes (such as a 747, DC-10, and even a 787), I walked around a few older planes used as Air Force One. After that, the planes that stood out the most were a Super Guppy (which has an extremely large cargo area) and a B-52G Stratofortress.
Ready for a break from the sun, I went into the Aerospace Gallery, where the highlight was a mock-up of the Phoenix Mars Lander. Looking pretty closely, it seemed to have too many details to just be made as a museum exhibit, so I found a docent to ask about it. He said that it was built side-by-side with the actual lander, and used on Earth if they needed to replicate things they were seeing on Mars. The mission was led by the University of Arizona, and after it was complete, the University offered the mock-up to the museum for display.
I also walked through the 390th Memorial Museum hangar, which was like a museum-in-a-museum. The centerpiece was a B-17 which has been fully restored to “combat ready” condition.
Having covered almost all of the exhibits, I went back to the house to spend the rest of the day while Melody went to events associated with her conference.
Friday, 12-Nov
This was to be a full day of conferencing for Melody, so I decided to check out one of the tours at Colossal Cave Mountain Park. I hadn’t been on a cave tour since probably elementary or middle school, so I thought it would be fun to see what this one was like.
There were surprisingly few tickets available when I had checked a couple of days before, so I ended up on the tour that started at noon. There were relatively few lights in the cave itself, so most of us were handed small lamps to carry. The lights that were up are installed and removed every day, so the tour guides walk the caves more often than just giving tours.
The cave itself wasn't as colorful as some caverns I had been in before, but it was still interesting, with lots of stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. Several were broken off (by people), but the vast majority were still intact.
There were bats in the cave, but we ended up not seeing them since they were most likely sleeping. The tour guide explained that they were migrating, so there were fewer than at other times of the year.
After I was done with the tour, I found a place for lunch (which happened to also sell ice cream; sound familiar?) then tried to figure out if I had time to drive up Mt. Lemmon. Unfortunately, it seemed like it would be getting dark by the time I got to the top, so I went back to the house instead and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. I wandered out to pick up something for dinner at the store and by the time I got back to the house, Melody had gotten there.
Saturday, 13-Nov
One more day for Melody's conference, and a lazy morning for me before driving north to have lunch with my cousin Arleen near Phoenix. Another cousin, Carol, was visiting, so I got to spend time with her, too. Seeing Arleen’s daughters and their families was a treat, and even though one of Arleen’s sons-in-law wasn’t there, we saw him on TV (just another normal Saturday for them).
What made seeing Arleen so special is she’ll soon be going to Vietnam with her daughter Jen and family for a few years. Unless we make it over there, it will probably be a while before seeing her again, at least in person. Several of us cousins get together occasionally to chat online, so it will be fun to hear about how things are going for her.
One thing I thought about doing along the way is to stopping at the Gila River War Relocation Center, where my dad was relocated to. You need a permit from the Gila River Tribe to visit the site, and I figured I would need to spend more time figuring that out, so that will need to wait for another time.
I made it back to Tucson in time to have dinner with Melody, and we finished up packing what we wouldn’t need for the morning.
Sunday, 14-Nov
Our flight out of Tucson was earlier than the flight down, but we were both closer to the airport and taking a car, so that helped. We had enough time that we could relax a bit before boarding.
When I originally booked the flight, Melody and I weren't in the same row, but she got a notification on her phone that she was reseated so we were next to each other. That was a pleasant surprise.
Our flight back was uneventful, and it was nice to see familiar sights when we were on approach.