Yeeeeee-Haaaaaaa

The 86th annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, Arizona’s "Celebration of the Cowboy", is centered on the Tucson Rodeo for nine days this month. It's one of the top 25 professional rodeo events in North America and the event is an official event in the year-long celebration leading up to Arizona’s 100th statehood birthday on Feb. 12, 2012.

Schools are out and Cowboys are in.

Mutin Bustin...the youngins, 5 to 7year olds, don't stay on long.......

This major outdoor event attracts locals and visitors from all over the world. Schools are closed on Thursday and Friday of rodeo week so families can enjoy the festive parade and rodeo traditions. Visitors come to experience the area’s Old West ways, including this championship rodeo, under warm desert skies, come rain or come shine. Everyone has dusted off their boots, grabbed their Setson, and are ready to see championship rodeo at it's best. Whether it's Mustin Bustin, Junior rodeo, Bareback riding, Steer wrestling, Saddle bronc riding,

Team roping, Barrel racing, or the crowd favorite, Bull Riding, there are 700 cowboy contestants, all looking to stay on a bull the longest or rope a steer the fastest. They have come at the pleasure of the massive crowds who have come to cheer them on to winning an event or two. Ada has been working as a volunteer (her third year) in the ticket booth this year; a promotion from ticket taking of previous years. (I guess they found out she knows how to work a credit card machine and has experience in sales.) Its great fun and a great non-profit organization whose mission benefits the University of Arizona Scholarship fund,  the Lion’s Club, Rotary Clubs and 4-H Groups.

Road trip, part 2, Las Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas under sunny warm skies on Thursday, amidst a whole host of low flying planes coming into McCarran Airport in rapid succession. Its Super Bowl weekend and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority expect a great boost across the economy board with about 275,000 extra visitors. Visitors are expected to spend about $85.6 million on food, entertainment and a lot of gaming and sport betting. People are here from around the world and are out and about soaking up the excitement of the Super Bowl, and the Super weather, especially if they came from anywhere other than the Southwest, which seems to be the only area spared the evils of this winter.

The Sphinx greets the masses

at the Luxor Hotel....

New York, New York........

take a ride on that rollercoaster if you dare....

At the new Aria and City Center....

only an Engineer would have his picture taken in front of a giant eraser

Looking south on the strip.......

Looking North on the Strip,

so much walking today.....

Freemont Street........Old Town Vegas,

away from the strip, but always great fun here........

Home of the "Pawn Stars",

Old Man, Rich, Corey and Chumlee.

Donald watches this show all the time.

It's a "History Channel" reality show.

Road trip, part 1, Tucson to Palm Springs

Leaving Tucson and heading west through the Sonoran Desert,  passing through Gila Bend, Buckeye and so many other towns, small and all so similar, we are working our way to Quartzite, Arizona; the half way mark of our 350 mile trip to the Palm Springs area. Quartzite is the geode and gem rock capitol of the country and maybe even the world. We will be having lunch there and will poke around some before making our way to California, to the Palm Springs area approximately two hours down the road from Quartzite. We will actually be staying in Indio, CA, where dates are the main attraction for Donald.  For sure, we will venture over to the Oasis Date Farm, the biggest and most famous date place, where he will be having date shakes, nut stuffed dates and also purchasing a few pounds of them for himself, and a few more to take back to Tucson for Lena & Stephen. And, guess where he will spend the afternoon?  Ha, ha, ha…….

Quartzite......rocks and other stuff

Oasis Date Farm, Thermal, Ca.

                                                Date Palm Fields

Date Shakes.........Yum



The Salton Sea

The Salton Sea, seagulls and all, is a salt water surprise 30 miles south of the Palm Springs area along Rte 111, which was formed between 1905 and 1907 when the Colorado River burst through poorly built irrigation controls south of Yuma, Arizona. Almost the entire flow of the river filled the Salton Basin for more than a year, inundating communities, farms and the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Continued filling of the Salton Sink was finally stopped in 1907, when a line of protective levees were built by boxcars dumping boulders into the breach from Southern Pacific tracks. By then, this inland lake was about 40 miles long and 13 miles wide, covering an area of about 400 square miles.

The Salton Sea is currently 35 miles by 15 miles and can be as long as 40 miles by almost 20 miles in particularly wet years. It has an average depth of 29.9 feet and, at its deepest, is 51 feet. It contains 7.3 million acre feet of water and evaporates 1.3 million acre feet each year. There is a five-mile-long trench on the south end of the Sea that is 51 feet deep. The Sea is currently 228 feet below sea level. Interestingly, the bed of the Salton Sea is only five feet higher than the lowest spot in Death Valley.

Fantasy Springs Resort.... Indio, Ca.

Nice accommodations, but a bit chilly for swiming.

A Walk on the Wild Side.............

Trail bait........
The pride of the Sonoran Desert, the Desert Museum is is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in one place; where wild animals roam and plants thrive, all native to Tucson and the Sonoran Desert region. It’s an all outdoor experience, so bring your hat, sunscreen, wear comfortable shoes and don’t forget the water bottles. Of course, having had lunch at the Ocotillo Café, we were then ready, with map in hand, for a great outdoor experience. For no less than 2 hours, this 2 mile nature walk will provide plenty of fresh air and Kodak moments at every turn. As members, this is a one of our favorite places that definitely provides a high “WOW” factor when you bring guests.. …

Big Horn Sheep

Boojam tree..........love saying this

Mr & Mrs. Bobcat live on this ledge........
Javelina.......

Docents at every ramada (shelter)

Mexican Gray Wolf

Mountain Lion (the star of the museum)

Prairie Dogs, always alert

need a rug....Hubbell Trading Post

Hubbell Trading Post

One of the most amazing places in Arizona is Hubbell Trading Post, located in Ganado Arizona, about 400 miles north in the snow country of Arizona. While traveling there would be unlikely for us snowbirds, we are fortunate to have our own Western National Parks Association store here in Tucson that hosts a traveling version of this wonderful woven art show a few times a year; where hundreds of handcrafted Navajo rugs, in a wide variety of sizes and designs are available for our purchasing pleasure. (Even Donald’s) Klagetoh, Wide Ruins, Teec Nos Pos, Ganado Red . . . these very names of Navajo rug styles evoke hints of distant lands and the rich artistic traditions of other cultures. All too often the history of the West contains tales of the clash of cultures, but occasionally there was a place where people of many backgrounds came together in cooperation. One such place was the trading post of Lorenzo Hubbell in Ganado, Arizona.

As the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation, Hubbell Trading Post has served the area since 1883 as a place where many peoples could meet in exchanges both cultural and economic. In recognition of its importance, the trading post became a National Historic Site in 1967 in order to maintain an active living trading post environment for future generations. Western Nationals Parks association (WNPA) has operated the trading post for the National Park Service since 1967. And the best part..........no sales tax here!

Salem is getting a new museum that is all about itself

January 1, 2011
Such a great New Year's gift..... Talked about by many, for so many years, and even a Boston Globe article this past fall highlighted the need for Salem to have a Museum dedicated to all of Salem's history, not just any single event, where visitors can trace the steps of Salem's history under one roof. Below is today's Salem News press release, written by Tom Dalton, outling some of the details should you wish to read it in it's entirety. Thanks Gordon College. Good job Tom.

SALEM — There is a new museum coming to town, and it is not — trumpets, please — a witch museum.
The Museum of Salem is scheduled to open in April on the first floor of Old Town Hall. Under the leadership of Gordon College, which manages the historic property on Front Street, planning has been under way for months.

This museum — maybe "gallery" is a better term — will use a series of large, interpretive display panels to tell the city's story from its Native American beginnings to its 21st-century present.
The museum won't neglect the infamous witchcraft trials of 1692, but it won't dwell on them, either. After all, those tragic events are fully covered in other places and are but a brief moment in nearly four centuries of history.

"It will have a significant place, but no more significant than some of the other major contributions that Salem has made to our nation's history," said David Goss, director of museum and historic studies at Gordon.
"We're hoping it will put the Salem witchcraft trials into its proper historic context and not overshadow, to so great a degree, all of the other things that have happened in Salem's history."

The Salem museum will be a place, Goss said, where visitors can begin an exploration of the city, get an overview of what happened here and, hopefully, find the answer to the question: Why does Salem matter?
Goss, who is spearheading this project, can answer that question in a hundred different ways.

"Salem is one of the very earliest of American settlements — that makes us significant," he said. "We are also instrumental in helping establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This was the first capital of the Mass Bay Colony prior to Boston. ...
"I guess we were the beachhead, we were the Normandy, when you think of the Puritan arrival in the New World."

Even before the Puritans, there was life in Salem. Originally called Naumkeag, this was the site of an important Native American settlement.
"The path that is Essex Street was a pre-Colonial path that was used by the natives," Goss said. "It went from downtown Salem way out to Winter Island."

As is told so well at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, this was once a major seaport. This new museum will highlight Salem as a fishing port, a center of the China trade and home base for privateers during the American Revolution.
Salem also has interesting links to the Civil War, westward expansion and even the Gold Rush, all of which will be explored.

"The first mayor of San Francisco was the former mayor of Salem," Goss said.
A lot of people are working behind the scenes on The Museum of Salem, which is receiving funding from Gordon College and other sources.
Kristina Wacome-Stevick of Gordon College, the artistic director of "History Alive!" helped get the project off the ground.

Agnes Howard and Emerson "Tad" Baker, history professors at Gordon and Salem State University, respectively, have made significant contributions, as has John Goff, president of the nonprofit Salem Preservation Inc. and a local authority on Salem's early history.
Maryellen Smiley, a former curator at the Wenham Museum, is serving as curator on this project and pulling a lot of the material together. Gordon students have been working as researchers.

The interpretive panels, which will include art work and depictions of famous figures in the city's history, are being done by Great Island Design of Salem, which is run by Debra Glabeau and Ken Harris.
The museum is expected to hold a "soft opening" in April and add more interpretive panels in the following weeks.

On April 21, the museum planning team will headline a special 7:30 p.m. program at Old Town Hall, which will introduce the new museum to the public.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

From a different place…far, far away, reminders of home and family are with us today. And while we enjoy a different Christmas experience in the Southwest pole of Tucson, it cannot compare with the warmth of family and friends back East. Missing you all, but not the snow, and with great thankfulness for your friendship and love, Donald & Ada wish you a very
Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year
Hugs all around! Howdy from Tucson!

At the Gelateria......."Frost" at the Casa Adobe Plaza

What's your gelato flavor?

You have about 50 choices here.

Translated from Italian, gelato (jeh-lot-o) literally means frozen. Although gelato is a frozen dessert, the word does not begin to describe its immense flavor and texture. And while gelato is often compared to ice cream because it is a frozen, creamy product, there are actually many healthier differences. Unlike American ice cream, which contains 10-20% butterfat, gelato contains only 3-8% butterfat, making the calorie count so much less. They say the you can have 5 of these for every 1 ice cream, so while Bunny, John and Ada banked their calorie savings for future indulgences by having only one scoop, Donald went for the guilt free double scoop.......

Tohono Chul Park

Where Nature, Art & Culture Connect!

Nestled between Oracle Road and La Cañada lies a 40 acre oasis. An outdoor museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing the vegetation of the Sonoran Desert; a sanctuary for birds and other desert inhabitants in a more natural state. Bobcats, coyotes, javelina, rattlesnakes and more traverse the dry washes in this area and if you are lucky, you might just see one. No cages or pens, nature is free to roam anywhere with-in this Eco friendly environment....... so have your cameras ready. Unfortunately, we only saw bunny rabbits and birds this trip.
Donald with Raleigh, our docent today
By day this is a pretty quite place. Sounds of birds and rustling bushes are the basic sounds you will hear. If you are lucky to arrive in time for the docent tour, you will truly appreciate and learn about all the adapted plants that have survived and flourished in the desert.

As you arrive, and before your start on the walking paths, there is a Park Tea Room where they serve breakfast for the early explorers, and lunch for us later arrivals.With their focus on native plants, there are greenhouses where you can purchase plants for your own home garden and plenty of green thumbed experts that will gladly give advise on how to maintain what you have or suggest something you might add. Donald spends a lot of time talking with these folks while I take the pictures of the plants and try to remember all the names. Of course, buying a book in the gift shop helps too. a huge grove of Prickly Pear Cactus

Teddy Bear Cholla
One big Agave......
Throughout the park their are Ramadas to rest the weary soles (of your feet) and take shade. Did you ever guess where the "Ramada Inn" got their name? Well, in the Southwest it's an open or semi-enclosed shelter roofed with brush or branches, designed especially to provide shade. Throughout the park you can find these, mostly made out of the spines of fallen Saguaro cactus.

An Exhibit House showcases the art, reflecting the rich legacy of the Southwest Indian, Mexican and Cowboy traditions.(pottery, rugs and paintings.)The Desert Discovery Education Center hosts an ongoing schedule of lectures. classes and workshops for all ages. The Wells Fargo Foyer Gallery puts the spotlight on the park's permanent collections, and most important, restrooms........

Certainly, it's a place that will beckon you back many times to visit, so it's best if you become a member, and we did. Although we've been here a number of times, mostly for lunch with Lena & Steve over the years, we look forward to going back many times over the winter months, especially now that we are members, and we plan on sharing with visitors too. And, did I tell you, they have the best prickly pear lemonade in town. (A whole other blog.)

Hummingbirds are everywhere, but too fast to catch with my camera, so I settled for a few finches. (Ok Dawn, what is there Latin name?)