It has been a busy week here in Tucson. Besides our usual weekly trips to check on the progress of the house, daily walks, happy hours, and just sitting out enjoying the weather, we did manage to accomplish a couple of our favorite activities.
The week started out with a great hike in Saguaro National Park West. This time we headed out bright and early to get to the far northeast part of the park. We parked at the Box Canyon access area on Picture Rocks Road and stitched together a conglomeration of multiple loop trails to create for ourselves a fun, unique 6 mile hike.
One of us, not to mention which, but she drags us out at o’dark thirty to avoid the heat, had us on the trail about 9:00 am with temps in the mid-to-low 50s! So long sleeve shirts to start with. The trail was mostly very flat and winding with lots of side trials.
There were places of sparse vegetation, but it was mostly very heavily populated with native cactus like; saguaros, chollas, barrel, prickly pear and even hedgehog.
One of the sections around the Cactus Canyon loop was probably the most densely populated forest of saguaros we have seen on any hike.
There was also an abandoned mine. No, I did not go down into it, I abided by the warning sides and stayed on this side of the fence. Wonder what they mined there and how they found this place originally.
Later in the week we had the great opportunity to attend a small “community” theater production of The House of Blue Leaves at the Live Theater Workshop here in Tucson. We were invited by our long-time Tucson friends, Susan and Jeff. The production’s star is a good friend of Jeff’s.
It was a unique experience for us, as we had never been to a theater like this before. Very intimate with the cast and production, it made us feel like we were there with the performers in the scenes. We really enjoyed it and promised ourselves we would go see more there.
What would wintertime in Arizona be without golf? Tucson is famous for all its wonderful courses. There are over 40 courses here in the area. For me though, I golf on Wednesdays with a group from the RV park. We are a small group of 10-12 and use the golf course on the Air Force Base. It is a fun course, perfect for us duffers.
Rounding out the week was the full moon of January. This past Wednesday morning was a once in a decade Super Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse. Though our astronomy knowledge leaves a lot to be desired, we are fascinated with astronomical events. Tucson is a perfect place to view the night sky. They are very particular about “light pollution” and the skies are always crystal clear. We were up early before sunrise to see the full eclipse. It was magnificent. I “borrowed” these pictures from one of the folks here at the RV park. Much better than the ones I took.
As if that was not enough, the full moon rise that evening lit the entire sky like the sun was rising.
Can’t wait to see what the next week brings.