Time to update everyone!

First of all we are currently back in Dublin for the month. Have left the trailer and truck in Prescott, AZ with friends. Thanks to Debbie and Tom for keeping them. We will return the first of April to continue our Alaska adventure.

It was a relatively cold winter in Tucson this year. We even got blizzard warning on the cell phones and dis have a bit of snow. I guess we can not complain about mostly 50 and 60 temps. But the 70’s form previous years would have been nice. Since this is the desert the temps at night usually are close to freezing. We had one morning when the temp was 17 (much to cold). The palm trees had turned brown because of the cold as you can see.

 

On one day I took a hike in Sweetwater Park. This  park is used to  recycle waste water. Because of this there were lots of birds to photograph. More picture can be seen here.

We also had a nice sunset hike in Saguaro West the pictures are here.

Besides the hikes I had some success in Geocaching. On one trip I only found one out of seven tries.  Good thing there were other days that were much better.

We found a great bike trail along the Jullian Wash. This trail took you behind Pima Air Museum. We also got to view the largest solar field I have every seen. It was a University of Arizona project. All along the trail you could see the four mountain ranges  that surround Tucson (Tucson, Catalina, Rincon, and Santa Rita Mountain ranges).

Up on arriving back home we were welcomed with snow just a hour after we got home. More pictures are here.

 

What have we been doing?

Let’s go through the regular schedule;

Monday Sue has quilting, and I have camera club.

Tuesday Evening we have dinner with a group from here at RCW at the Desert View Restaurant. This really turns in to a story telling 2 or 3 hour event with lots of good laughs.

Wednesday is our RCW hiking day.

Thursday is Habitat.

Sunday is church at the lively Southside Presbyterian Church. They have great music and the 1.5 to 2 hour service goes by very fast.

In between Sue is working on a new quilt. I had to make a new table for the trailer. The old table I made was just to heavy and kept breaking while on the road.

The Habitat project is a rehab. Dave and I have taken on the additional project of putting down ceramic tile on the bathroom floors and a small TV alcove. There are from 15 to 25 people normally on site on Thursdays. Thus we have taken a couple of additional days to set and grout the tile. We still have one bath to go. For some reason they want to keep one working bathroom!

The rest of the time is spent relaxing and sometime trying to stay warm. This year has been exceptionally cool. Night temps in the 30s and cool days in the 50s. We have had some 70+ days however. This weekend it is expected to get back to the 70s.

The pictures for this post are from Saguaro West NP. You will find them here.

Sabino Canyon Hike

On Friday Sue and I took a lovely Hike up Sabino Canyon on the Sabino Canyon Trail. We probably did around 5 miles round trip. Susi went with us and did a painting beside the stream.

You know how no matter where you are you may run into someone you know quit unexpectedly. Well that happed as we were resting a couple came and sat down on the next bench. I noticed the ladies red hair and thought that looked familiar. On closer examination I discovered it was Bret and Lisa of Airstream Life. They were enjoying the day before the start of Alumafiesta here in Tucson.

Check out the pictures here.

Tucson Desert Museum

While it was cold this morning, Sue and I were off early to the Desert Museum. Beside a nice stroll our major stops were to see the Humming birds and the Raptor flight show. I have included a few pictures below with more here.

     

San Marcos, CA

The past week we drove over to San Marcos, CA to visit our son Matt. It was a beautiful 442 mile drive over with perfect weather.  The main attraction of the drive was the beautiful sand dunes just after you crossed over the AZ/CA border. 

Since Monday was a holiday Matt did not have to work. He took us on a 6 mile hike up Iron Mountain which is near his home. It was a 6 mile hike round trip. That is 3 miles up and 3 miles down. Matt and Sue were much faster than me. I made it half way and then took a separate route for to an overlook to view the town of Ramona, CA. Nice hike but I have to get in better shape.

 

On our own Sue and I went back to Callaway Winery which we visited two years ago. Of course we had to have some samples and the tour of the facility. This is a private winery and its products are not sold in stores. Each visit has been rewarded with some wonderful selections.

A drive down to Oceanside got us the photos of Pelicans on the pier.

You remember that it never rains in southern California. I am here to report that is a lie. It rained for there days. One day was dedicated to Quilt stores. Another day was a trip down the San Diego via the trains. This  provided a very relaxing trip and some good views of the ocean and countryside. It is not much for pictures however.

Our last day with Matt was spent at La Jolla to see the seals. More pictures can be found here.

For our NOVA friends we had a great meal here:

Our drive back to Tucson was rainy and foggy in the morning but much better in the afternoon.

Wings over Wilcox and Chirichua National Monument

The week started with Dave, Sue, and I going to the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography. I had learned of the museum from a presentation at photo club by a former president of the University. He was a founder of the Museum. The current exhibit was “The Jazz Loft Project: William Eugene Smith 1957 – 1965 .  You can see more here.

Latter in the week the four of us took a bike ride up the Santa Cruise river for several miles.

On Friday we decided to got to Wilcox, AZ for the Wings over Wilcox event. This is where the Sandhill Cranes spend the winter feeding. At the visitor center the informed us that the best time to see them arriving in number was to be at White Water Wash between 4 and 5:30. We decided to take Chirichua National Monument since it was on our way sort of. What a pleasant surprise! When we think of Monuments the thoughts are of more museums rather than parks. We all agreed that this was a place to return to. The pictures should give you and idea. The first picture was along the highway on the way to  the Monument.

      

From here it was over to Whitewater Wash to see the  Cranes. The problem was they had already arrived and were too far away to get good pictures. I

 

A more complete set of pictures can be found at https://plus.google.com/photos/115188712460885370534/albums/5835938308745842017.

Our first exploratory trip

Yesterday we were finally feeling well enough to go out and explore a bit. First on the list was to find a FedEx office to ship the defective battery from my new laptop. It would not charge and was less than 3 months old. Lenovo shipped me a new one and provided the return shipping for the old one. It only took 3 days to get the new one.
Next was to find the Desert Trails RV park. This is a park John my brother-in-law was going to visit this winter but decided not to come. Took some pictures of the place and were allowed to drive through (next three pictures).



From here we headed to Saguaro West NP visitor center and a walk around there. Was sure nice to be out and not coughing a lot. Note, I did not say not coughing!

Find the pictures here. Sorry, I deleted the original pictures by accident an have reloaded them.
  

Next was  to find the parking lot for the Santa Cruz River Bike path. We are looking forward to doing this latter this week when it warms up a bit. While there we hiked up the trail a nice bit. Was sure nice with the warm sun even though the temps were only in the 40s. Along the way Sue took this picture of a road runner with her phone.

Sure nice to be out again.