Tucson To Phoenix

I'll get back out on the streets of The Lou this weekend but I want to finish up some Arizona stuff. Saguaro National Park, which we saw just over a week ago, has another branch northwest of Tucson. It's a perfect stop on the way back to Phoenix.

This is typical landscape for middle and southern Arizona. My feelings about it seem to change over time. I used to view this as beautiful country, very spare and clear. This trip my reaction was that it is more harsh and unforgiving, unsuitable for cities without great manipulation of the environment. It felt good to come back to the pastel softness of Midwestern spring. I dunno, maybe I'm just getting old and cranky.

The bottom photo has some of that manipulation, a strip of irrigated emerald alfalfa between desert dirt in the foreground and sand-blown mountains in the back. I'm a climate pessimist. Your opinion may be different.

One last Arizona post tomorrow, probably. Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song ages ago about the owner of the place.                        

Tucson

So, the destination:

We got into Phoenix late Wednesday night and flopped at an airport hotel.  Yesterday morning we drove south to Tucson, Arizona's second city, and headed for the part of Saguaro (sah WHA row) National Park east of the city. There's another to the west we'll get to on Saturday. 

This is the iconic southwestern US plant, but they grow in a limited area of southern Arizona and northwest Mexico. The saguaro don't start sprouting the characteristic arms until they are about 75 years old.  But there are lots of other interesting things. You could, for example, wreck your bike and break every bone in your body.

Mrs. C and I like to look for local cuisine when we travel. We ended up at the Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant. It gets terrific ratings on Tripadvisor and we certainly agree. It's in a very old building, plain white adobe, but the food and staff were first class. I had maybe the best mojito of my life.

We drove back to the hotel through downtown. Ain't like the Midwest.