SONORA DESERT MUSEUM…A MUST SEE!

Wednesday, January 14 - Today we visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. We were here back in 2010 and consider it one of the best attractions we've enjoyed in all our years of travel. We enjoyed it very much in 2010 and were not disappointed with today's visit. We consider the Desert Museum an absolute MUST SEE for anyone passing through the Tucson area.

The Desert Museum is ranked on TripAdvisor.com as one of the Top 10 Museums in the country and the #1 Tucson attraction. Unlike most museums, about 85% of the experience is outdoors. The 98 acres includes 2 miles of walking paths, 230 animal species, 1200 types of plants - 56,000 individual specimens, and one of the world's most comprehensive mineral collections.

The setting is lovely.

Beautiful trails.

The Sonora Desert Museum is part zoo, aquarium, garden, museum and gallery. The focus is on seeing the Sonora Desert's plants and animals in a very natural setting. The animals are viewed in ways that make you think they are not fenced-in. The enclosures are so huge that the animals can be seen roaming around the desert without seeing the fencing.

We delayed arriving at the Desert Museum due to local fog in the Tucson area. We had planned on arriving around 9:30 am but were delayed till 11:30 am. There was just no safe way to drive there until the fog lifted. You could easily spend the entire day at the Museum. We left after 4:00 pm (The museum closes at 5:00 pm.) and didn't really see everything.

The museum is divided in sections depending on the plants and animals housed in the area. These areas include the Aquarium; Reptiles, Invertebrates, and Amphibians; Ancient Arizona (the rock & mineral collections; Mountain Woodlands (bears, lions, deer, bighorn, wolves); Desert Grasslands (parrots, prairie dogs, blue heron, owls, snakes, beaver, turtles); Cactus Garden; Hummingbird Aviary; Life Underground; Cat Canyon; Desert Loop Trail (coyote, agave field, javelina); and of course the Ironwood Terrace Restaurant.

These guys stole the show. They are called Garden Eels. They disappear straight down in the sand and then grow back up. What a hoot.

Male tarantula

This guy climbed high on the tree to pose for us. Notice the tongue.

Javelina are not pigs. They look similar, but pigs are from the "Old World" and Javelinas are "New World" animals.

Mexican wolf

The highlight of our day at the Desert Museum is the Raptor Flight. At 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, there is a Raptor Free Flight display. These amazing birds of prey whiz by flying so close you can often feel the brush of feathers and rush of air as they whiz past. The show lasts about 45 minutes and is something you just can't miss!

The Common Barn Owl was gorgeous!

 The male Harris's Hawks put on an excellent show.

The female Harris Hawk is much bigger. Look closely at those huge talons.

The Gray Hawk almost disappeared 15 years ago. 

Again, we consider The Sonora Desert Museum a 5-Star/Must See attraction. You'll love it!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYES ARE NATIONAL CHAMPS!

Tuesday, January 12 – The big game is finally here. The inaugural National Championship college football game would be played tonight. Our The Ohio State Buckeyes, which after their loss to Virginia Tech were given only a 40-1 odds to be in the playoff, will play the Ducks from the University of Oregon. Marsha’s biggest decision of the day was what would she wear? She knew her Buckeye necklace was a shoe in. She didn’t know if she wanted to wear the short-sleeve T-shirt, long-sleeve T-shirt or sweatshirt. If all life’s decisions could be this easy!

It doesn’t take much to make her happy.

It was the battle of the O states. Lee Coro picked the Buckeyes to win the game on ESPN Gameday. We thought that would be the jinx that would do us in.

 

The game was awesome. Both teams played their hearts out. We were nervous wrecks the entire game. We were just waiting for the shoe to drop. But…..

	1st	2nd	3rd
OSU	14	21	28
ORE	7	10	20

FINAL!

Ezekiel Elliott was named MVP. What a game he had!

This was only Cardale Jones’, our third-string quarterback, third start. Outstanding!

Now here is a class act. Urban Meyer, OSU football coach.

What a night for the Buckeye Nation! Congratulations to The Ohio State Buckeye football team.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

A GORGEOUS HIKE…SWEETWATER PRESERVE

Saturday, January 10 - We've been anxious for the weather to warm-up and the wind to slow down so we could go on a hike. Finally, Mother Nature cooperated, and we had an opportunity to head to the hills. We headed to Sweetwater Preserve on the Northwest side of Tucson.

The Sweetwater Preserve is a 703.26 acre preserve located in the eastern foothills of the Tucson Mountains. It is a beautiful area and some amazing trails allowing one to hike among the towering Saguaros. We even found three more crested Saguaros.....cool! Hiking among the Saguaros is so weird. It's like we are on another planet. It simple brings a smile to our faces!

Paul looks like a midget compared to these Saguaros.

We hiked the trails that make up the outer perimeter of the preserve. The trail is not rated, but we would guess it to be easy to moderate. The change in altitude is only about 450'. One of the bothersome, if not difficult, aspects of the trail is the "marble" condition of the gravel on much of the trail bed. A little rough on the feet!

The trails are fairly well marked with signs at intersecting trails. The maps on the signs are a little confusing giving us a chance to test "who knows best" where we should go between the two of us. Marsha was usually right which is amazing because she has absolutely NO sense of direction. There are also arrows pointing out the trails which we actually found the most helpful.

There are many different cacti families represented on this Preserve.  

There are some really odd looking cacti along the hike.

Little babies are all over the place.

The last mile of the hike gave us a great view of Tucson.

By the end of our hike we had traveled a little over 5 miles and where happy with the workout we had received.

If you want to hike among the Saguaros, this is the trail for you. We truly enjoyed our day and look forward to our next hike here in the Tucson area.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!