i am finally back to Arizona after almost a year. After my last visit, i am obsessed with cactus. So I had been doin research on Tucson for a while. Anyway, I flew in to El Paso on 25 April, a day after my final exam. So this time I didnt have to bring my text books along with me. Then drove to Tucson. It was a good 4 hours drive. As usual, I didn't have to drive ;-). There weather was in the 80s. It was nice. The hotel we stayed at was next to a pig farm. How nice. Everytime, I opened he drapes, I saw some walking bacons. Oh did I mention they smell too :-). Good thing the hotel has an out
door jacuzzi. It was relaxing. Tucson is pretty dead at night. It's not a big city, rather a college town (University of Arizona is located at downtown). For some reason, I really like the atmosphere there. We had dinner at the University district, the infamous 4th Ave. That St has a few bars, restarants, shops, gift shops, etc. Perfect plaza for tourists liek me to hang out. We had pizza. (Magpie Gourmet Pizza). It was good.The next day we went to Saguaro National Park. We got up pretty early because the temperature would hit 9
2F. At the park, we did a short hike. Took lots of pics. I was pretty pissed because I had the wrong mode on my camera. So most the pics came out blurry. Ahhh!! Also there were tons of flies. And they follow you around. Pretty annoying. I wonder what they feed on ... It would have make sense to see bees cause there's a lot of wild flowrers. After the park, we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Dont let the name fool you. It's more like a zoo than a museum., It has a large collection of cacto plants and desert animals. I really like that place even though the weather was hott. After lunch at JACK IN THE BOX, we headed to Pima Air and Space Museum. I thought that place is better than the one in DC. Saw the Air Force One that was once used by President Kennedy. That was pretty neat. Later we we
nt to Mission San Xavier Del Bac. It is a beautiful historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson on the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation - the best preserved mission church in the US. There were Native Americans selling frybread right outside the church. At night we had dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant (Caruso's) at 4th Ave. It was pretty cheap and the food was good.
The next day we drove south to Tombstone. There was really nothing at Tombstone except for the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral that has been portrayed in numerous Western films. After spending a mere 15 min at Tombstone, we headed to Bisbee. Our journey was slowed down by a Bike Race that took place on the highway towards Bisbee. So a 20 mile journey ended up almost 1 hr. It was pretty annoying. At noon we finally arrived at Bisbee. Bisbee was
founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the finanl ba
ckers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine. Bisbee's last mining operations closed down in 1975, after having extraced more than six billion dollars' worth of metals. However, Bisbee's is able to thrive by preserving its original architecture attracting artists and retirees turning the little town to a lovely tourist town. It reminds me of Jerome, near Sedona. We had lunch at the majestic Copper Queen Hotel. They were many sighting of ghosts at this hotel. Originally , I was planning to stay a night there but had to change the itinery due to the lack of time. So no ghost hunting this time. But the sandwich was good and the view from the hotel was awesome.
2F. At the park, we did a short hike. Took lots of pics. I was pretty pissed because I had the wrong mode on my camera. So most the pics came out blurry. Ahhh!! Also there were tons of flies. And they follow you around. Pretty annoying. I wonder what they feed on ... It would have make sense to see bees cause there's a lot of wild flowrers. After the park, we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Dont let the name fool you. It's more like a zoo than a museum., It has a large collection of cacto plants and desert animals. I really like that place even though the weather was hott. After lunch at JACK IN THE BOX, we headed to Pima Air and Space Museum. I thought that place is better than the one in DC. Saw the Air Force One that was once used by President Kennedy. That was pretty neat. Later we we
nt to Mission San Xavier Del Bac. It is a beautiful historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson on the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation - the best preserved mission church in the US. There were Native Americans selling frybread right outside the church. At night we had dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant (Caruso's) at 4th Ave. It was pretty cheap and the food was good.The next day we drove south to Tombstone. There was really nothing at Tombstone except for the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral that has been portrayed in numerous Western films. After spending a mere 15 min at Tombstone, we headed to Bisbee. Our journey was slowed down by a Bike Race that took place on the highway towards Bisbee. So a 20 mile journey ended up almost 1 hr. It was pretty annoying. At noon we finally arrived at Bisbee. Bisbee was
founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the finanl ba
ckers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine. Bisbee's last mining operations closed down in 1975, after having extraced more than six billion dollars' worth of metals. However, Bisbee's is able to thrive by preserving its original architecture attracting artists and retirees turning the little town to a lovely tourist town. It reminds me of Jerome, near Sedona. We had lunch at the majestic Copper Queen Hotel. They were many sighting of ghosts at this hotel. Originally , I was planning to stay a night there but had to change the itinery due to the lack of time. So no ghost hunting this time. But the sandwich was good and the view from the hotel was awesome.After lunch, we went to Chiracahua National Monument on the way back to El Paso. Chiricahua National Monument covers a small section of the Chiricahua Mountains in the extreme southeast of Arizona, and contains large expanses of volcanic rocks eroded into dramatic pinnacles
and spires, an interesting variety of vegetation and some unusual wildlife species. Not many people visit, since the monument is quite remote and access is difficult - although it is clos
e to interstate 10 there is no direct route south and the main approach is from the west, 40 miles along AZ 186 from Willcox. I didnt expected the view to be so dramatic, It was worth every penny to go up there, in this case - $5 ;-)
and spires, an interesting variety of vegetation and some unusual wildlife species. Not many people visit, since the monument is quite remote and access is difficult - although it is clos
e to interstate 10 there is no direct route south and the main approach is from the west, 40 miles along AZ 186 from Willcox. I didnt expected the view to be so dramatic, It was worth every penny to go up there, in this case - $5 ;-)On the way back, there were many tumble weeds tumbing around by the never ending rd. Saw a small dust devil and a road runner. Just the way Arizona should be.
