Winter in Tucson

I've been lazy in terms of not posting anything in a while, but we've been busy!  Here's what we've been up to in the last couple months!!!  These first pics are from early February when it snowed in the mountains and almost snowed in town, which apparently was a REALLY big deal to the Tucsonans... lots of people reportedly drove up the mountain in their pick-up trucks and loaded their beds with snow so they could drive it back down and show their kids, who have never seen snow :)  

Adriane came to visit in mid-February; here she is hiking in the Catalina Foothills!  We basically vegged out a lot and sat by the pool, although we did catch a drag queen show and took a shopping trip to Nogales, Mexico one day :)  We were tempted to bring a few puppies back from Mexico with us...but we were strong and resisted!

In early March, Kenny and I headed up to Mesa, AZ to catch a spring training game against the AZ Diamondbacks!  Unfortunately the Cubbies got slaughtered...but it was a beautiful day and we ate lots of bad stadium food.

Just a few miles from our apt in Tucson there's a kick-ass street we found one day while running errands...I just had to document its existence!

My Mom & Dad came to visit in March, and we saw more on their visit than in our entire time here thus far!  We went to the Pima Air & Space Museum, the Kartchner Caverns down in Benson, AZ,  the Sonora Desert Museum,  the Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon, the San Xavier Mission, & the Catalina State Park!  They also went and checked out the South American butterfly exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.  We were all pretty worn out by the end of their visit!  This first pic is a little red wolf at the Sonora Desert Museum:

Also at the Desert Museum, this bobcat just posed so nicely for me:

Fat little groundhog sunning himself:

The San Xavier Mission is beautiful, dubbed the "Dove of the Desert".   It's just south of Tucson on the San Xavier Indian Reservation.  It's currently undergoing massive renovation to restore both the interior and exterior.  The Native Americans there set up tents just outside of the mission and sell frybread drenched in honey and powdered sugar.  Awesome.

 

Kenny and Zoey snuggling in our temporary sleeping quarters while Mom & Dad visited:

Mom & Dad are ready to hike down Sabino Canyon, almost 2.5 miles back to the parking lot!  (I have no idea why this is underlined, and for the life of me, I can't fix it)

And here they are catching the sunset at Gates Pass!

Yay for family visits!  We were sad to see them go.  Next up: our trip to Ireland!!!  I will definitely take lots of pics and post them as soon as we get back!  Our time in Tucson is almost done; it seems we'll be heading to either Seattle or Chicago next...but we're holding out hope to return home to Madison, if jobs miraculously appear there!

Take care,

Meredith