Tucson

We had an enjoyable trip to Tucson this week, got the truck tuned up and did some shopping. Two nights were spent at the Comfort Suites near the Tucson Mall. Monday we drove over from Organ Pipe, took care of the truck, went to the mall and wound up getting lost looking for a pizza dinner.
Tuesday was a great day!! The daylight hours were spent at the fantastic Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. The private museum is in the foothills just west of Tucson. We were greeted by a docent holding an owl.

Early in the day we were treated to the flying raptors show. The birds fly free and are lured in by the trainers putting pieces of meat in the trees. It is hard to get a good photo of a flying bird at a low level.

The park overlooks the Tohono O'Odham reservation to the west.

Well, I could bore everyone with zoo pictures and I don't want to but I do want to post a couple of neat photos of the bobcat and mountain lion. So here:

Tuesday night we had dinner at the Arizona Inn. A very swanky place which we probably would not have gone to on our own; however we had a gift certificate thanks to some of the Gift Shop employees at the North Rim. The food was a 9.5, unfortunately service was a 3. I think our server was just learning.
Wednesday we drove back to Organ Pipe and stopped at the Desert Rain Cafe in Sells on the Tohono O'Odham reservation. Very good and different food, the O'Odham are trying to get their members to return to native-traditional foods rather than processed foods. 60-70% of the tribal members have diabetes. Sherri and I had the appetizer sampler which had desert hummus, tepary bean dip and cholla bud salsa. For the main course we split a tepary bean chicken quesadilla. We washed it all down with agave ice tea. The lunch was good and very interesting.
Back in Organ Pipe on Thursday, Steve a seasonal ranger, and I combined our programs for the folks in the town of Ajo. 55 people showed up for our mining/ranching program in the plaza. I thought the turnout was small but Sue, the head of interpretation, was pleased with the numbers. Tonight I have my program in the park's amphitheater and 75-100 will be in attendance.
I'll leave this week with a photo of the beautiful Sherri at the museum. Ya'all come back next week.