Day 21-June 15, 2016-Saguaro National Park, Old Town Artisans, Borderlands Brewery, San Xavier Mission Del Bac and the pool
Temp is up to 102 today. Hot but nice.
When we went to the Nat’l. Park the other day Anita, the volunteer who gave the presentation about monsoons, told us she was doing a presentation on cacti today so we went to hear about them. When we left we knew so much about the 20 varieties of cacti in the Nat’l. Park that our heads were spinning. They’re all unique, one even only blooms one day a year for 5 hours. And all of the ones of this variety bloom the same evening from about 5-10PM, no matter where they are. Anita is on call because they’re supposed to bloom very soon and she doesn’t want to miss it. But the star of the presentation (and the Park) is the Saguaro. It only lives in the Sonora Desert, so only in this part of Arizona and some parts of Mexico. Very interesting plant and very interesting presentation. We drove into the historic section of town to Old Town Artisans, a group of 35 crafters making beautiful jewelry, pottery, clothing, etc. Not far from there was Borderlands Brewery, which we heard about from the salespeople at T-Mobile yesterday. Seemed like a great place to eat lunch. They don’t sell food so they had no problem with our bringing our packed lunch in. There are picnic tables all around, lots of people must do what we do.The beer was great, we got their special Noche Dulce or, as they call it, Black S—t. It was really refreshing. Colorful murals are painted on many of the buildings in town and a lot of the bridges have paintings or sculptures on them. Tucson has a lot of solar arrays, large fields of solar cells and 38% of the energy used at the Air Force Base comes from solar energy. Some buildings have their entire roof covered in solar panels. Back to the other side of town, we went to San Xavier Mission del Bac, a gorgeous church built in 1783 by a Franciscan priest with sand, lime, clay, rock and wood. After 14 years the money ran out and it was never completed. It was restored in 1978 and it is beautiful inside and out and is considered the finest example of Mexican Baroque architecture in the US. When we first walked in our jaws dropped it was so gorgeous and as we got closer it got even grander. I’ve been in Notre Dame in Paris and St. Patrick’s in Dublin and this is just as awe inspiring as they are. The Patronato San Xavier, a group of citizens, now protect church and the adjacent school both of which are still functioning. In the parking lot local people sell crafts and flat bread. Back at the campground before dinner I went in the pool and Harry read for a while and then shot a game of pool. Another wonderful night, warm, not hot and breezy. Lots of stars again.