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Tucson
(pronounced as too-sahn)
is a city with long history dated back to 1775. Situated at the borderland
of Arizona, Tucson shows a blend of Spanish, Mexican, American cultures and
architectures. Pardon my ignorance, I never heard of this historic town
until I was told I needed to be there for a conference!
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Weather was lovely. With the few days
of rain prior to my arrival, it was not too dry at all. Perfect to shake
some moisture off me! Yet I forgot that
without clouds in the desert, a mere 25 degrees Celcius means heat from head
to toes. So you got it, I missed my sunglasses, shorts, sandals, short sleeves tees,
wide-brim hat. However, I was the one who stayed fully equipped for the
desert evening of 10 degrees Celcius. A dry 10 degrees C is actually quite
comfortable.
All the way I was looking forward to seeing giant
cactus. No surprise, I wasn't disappointed at all. They are literally
everywhere! |
| El Presidio |
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| Built in the late 1700s,
the Adobe walled fort protected the area's settlers. It was the largest in a
chain of Spanish forts that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of
California. The original wall enclosed about 11 and one half acres.
Remains of the wall are buried several feet below the streets, sidewalks and
buildings. One portion is on display at the Old Pima County Courthouse. |
Old Pima County Courthouse
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Modern artwork at the
Tucson Museum of Art &
Historic Block |
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La Casa Cordova
Built
in 1848, within the Presidio walls, this Adobe house is the oldest existing
residential building in Tucson. ¡@ |
The Historic Block
features 5 restored homes of historic El Presidio District with La Casa
Cordova as one of them. |
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El
Charro Café In operation since 1922,
El Charro is the oldest continuously family owned Mexican restaurant in the
USA. It occupies a home built in the 1890s that is listed on the National
Registry of Historic Places. Heehee, and this is where I had my Mexican
dinner. Portions were huge, as in most American restaurants! |
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| My hotel is located in the
midtown residential area. Early Friday evening when I was strolling around
the hotel with a Thai girl from my group, we noticed this funny huge cloud
over the Catalina Mountains. Later in the evening I found out from the local
news that it was a thunderhead due to the high temperature in the day. Phew,
glad
we didn't have a thunderstorm. See the Catalina Thunderhead?! |
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Prickly Pear Cactus right outside my hotel room!
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Saguaro Cactus outside someone's
front door across from our hotel, taller than the house itself!
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Instead of grass and
flowers, various kinds of cactus and succulents are grown in yards, as
fences around houses, simply everywhere.
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| As we couldn't get an
available meeting room on Saturday morning, the 10 or so of us held our
meeting by the pool, with frequent fighter jets noisily flying over us
(Tucson is near the airforce base). The orchard in the hotel has lots of
oranges. Then one of these oranges fell and hit one guy in his head. I joked
that he could be the next Newton (who was hit by the fallen apple and
discovered gravity) haha.
I whined at our German chairperson that if I knew we
would meet by the pool, I would've brought along my swimsuit. However, not
having the proper pool clothing did not discourage me from dipping my feet
into the pool during our coffee break. Songbirds, a glass of iced green tea
and tipping toes in the cool water certainly made me feel like I was on
vacation. |
| The guy who got hit by an
orange kindly passed me towels for me to wipe my feet. What a nice gentleman
(^.^). At the same time, he picked many oranges and gave everybody one. The
orange looked wrinkled, thick-skinned, and was light-weighted. He assured me
it's juicy. Yet, I was the first to try. Ouch, what kind of sour orange was
that?! I have a strong belief it's a crossbreed of some kind. Later this guy
peeled another one and realized how sour it was. But he put a smile on his
face quickly and passed the orange to the girl next to him, tricked her into
thinking it was a
delicious one. Guess what, she had just one bite and threw it to the grass!
Turns out I deceived her too. She asked later, "But you had the whole
thing." "No, I threw it away!"
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Can you tell these wrinkled oranges are very sour? |
| As we lacked some
participants for afternoon meeting and a few of us wanted to go shopping,
the rest of us took the prime opportunity to visit the desert. Three of us
immediately bought a cap from the hotel gift shop. I didn't have to buy
sunscreen like some of my companions. Why?! How would I ever forget my
sunscreen now that I have rather fair skin tone. In fact, I was comparing my
skin tone with a blond girl who lives in the Fargo (Central US) and found
myself lightened up much since I no longer live in subtropical land. We would've got a rental
car if it wasn't the rental company was closed on the weekends. Fortunately
a local engineer offered to show us the desert (^_^) |
| For a moment I had to
entertain this concept of outdoor museum with live vegetation and animals.
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With indoor exhibits where we can stay
in the shades, cages of animals, a cave, dinosaur fossils, trails,
gardens, this is certainly a unique experience.
It was scary that rattle snakes were on the ground
although we didn't see any. I've seen so many reptiles in the exhibits that
I can easily recognize a rattle (the tail of rattle snake) and even know
what it sounds like. |
Calcite Cave - felt blind initially. Those without
sunglasses (me!) took quite some time to adjust our eyes. |
| I still don't quite
understand why these little creatures are called Prairie Dogs and they don't
look like dogs at all.
One thing for sure - they are very CUTE! |
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| Cactus Garden ¡@ |
I used to have this idea that cactus is watery
inside. The truth is, they have a tree-like skeleton. Evidence can be
spotted in the Cactus Garden just like the dead Saguaro Cactus on the right
here. |
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Saguaro Cactus |
Organ Pipe Cactus |
Yes, I am short here, much shorter than cactus!
I had to keep sucking mint and drinking water to avoid
heat exhaustion. I still got a red face at the end of the excursion (the
first sign of heat exhaustion). With the spectacular views and experience, it's all worthy! |
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And I bought a pack of Saguaro
cactus seeds. We'll see. That guy from the Illinois who gave people
sour oranges warned me that they may rot in wet places. Sounds like an
exciting summer project for me, huh? |
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