Weekend Wrap-Up

It's hard to believe that we only have 4 weekends left before Curtis graduates. We aren't sure how many more weekend adventures in Arizona that we're going to have, but we're trying the best we can to cross more things off of our Arizona Bucket List. However, if we had to leave tomorrow, we know we could be content with all we've seen here in the past year and a half. 

Well, almost. There's one more hike we have to do. It's kinda at the most popular attraction in Arizona. We can't leave until we've done that. ;)

Flowers in the Desert

Anyway, on to our weekend! On Friday night, we decided to attempt an elusive letterbox in Tucson Mountain Park. Because these mountains are on the West side of Tucson, we made it into a romantic sunset hike. 

"The Selfie Lot"

Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea. As it turns out, the scenic overlook at Gate's Pass gets quite crowded at sunset. However, most of the sunset seekers stay in or around the parking lot, so we were on our own for most of the trails.

Facing East

As it turned out, the clues still didn't work out for us. To be fair, the box was planted over a decade ago, and right from the start it's hard to match things up. We called it and decided to focus on the romantic sunset aspect of the night. :)

There goes the sun!

On Saturday, we decided to do a letterboxing trip in Santa Cruz County, with a side trip to Lake Patagonia State Park. The drive on I-19 was gorgeous with all the mesquite trees in bloom. It almost reminded me of fall in Iowa. :)

We started with a short hike in Patagonia. Right before the entrance to the park, there's another part of the park called the Sonoita Creek Reserve. It has many longer hikes that take you to cool sights like different mines. We decided to do a shorter hike across the dam and spillway for the lake.

Spring in Southern Arizona is just as colorful as can be. We're in that perfect window right now where everything is blooming, and it still isn't too hot to be outside and enjoying it. I love when the Ocotillos are in bloom. For eleven months out of the year, ocotillos are just long, thorny sticks that stand 10 feet off the ground, but right now, they have the prettiest red blossoms. 

Lake Patagonia

The dam

After goofing off around the dam, we hiked back to the truck then drove into the park for a picnic. Charlotte loves picnics, because picnics mean peanut butter. Curtis and I had fun discussing books that we read as kids. Now after remembering my favorite childhood stories, all I want to do is go to my parent's home and raid the bookshelf. :)

After lunch, we took our time driving back up Arizona highways 82 and 83, letterboxing here and there. Charlotte is such a good passenger - she now sits exclusively in the back seat, besides poking her head up every now and again. She was fascinated in the cows by the side of the road. In the above picture, she was carefully watching Curtis as he was retrieving a drive-by box.

I took advantage of her standing still to get a picture with her. It almost looks like she's posing with me...except she leaned away from me as I took the picture. Silly girl.

A unique prickly pear cactus

Our last boxing stop was along the Arizona Trail near Sonoita. We enjoyed getting to hike another 2 miles in a new section of the trail for us, even though it was quite warm at this point with no shade to speak of!

As we hiked along the trail, we were both haunted by constant buzzing noises. We're both a little traumatized from last week's bee incident, but we couldn't decide if the noise was real or just in our minds. Thankfully, nothing eventful happened today. :)

More beauty in the desert!

After finding one last box, we drove back home and called it a day. In our apartment, we only have Eastern-facing windows, but as I was making dinner I could see red reflections off of the other apartment buildings, and knew that meant there was a great sunset going on out front, so I made Curtis and Charlotte come outside with me to enjoy it!

We finished up a great day with cheesecake. Home is where the cheesecake is waiting for you in the fridge. :)

March 2014 Adventures

A review of our March, just a little late :)

What were we doing in March when we weren't on our vacation?

Having adventures, of course!

Curtis' semester has been heavier than last, so there have been more nights at home with homework. But we've still gotten out a bit and enjoyed this gorgeous weather - the warmest winter ever on record for Tucson! It was a great year to move down here…until of course, this winter is followed by the "hottest summer ever"…not sure if I'm ready for that! Considering we already have to run the AC at night, it's going to be a long summer!

But time to stop worrying about that, and remember all the great hikes we had while it was still tolerable~

The month started with a hike in Oro Valley at sunset - and what a lovely sunset it was! I couldn't focus on the letterboxes we were getting, the sky was so beautiful.

Then these clouds started rolling in - they were a beautiful shade of blue, and with them came much needed rain - all weekend long!

I love the blue skies contrasted with the bright yellow flowers.

The next weekend, (3/8/14) we drove down to Patagonia, AZ. While driving down I-10, we came across this oversized load:

At first, we got excited thinking it was a small plane, but then realized it was a boat. Bummer!

We started near Vail, AZ, where we met up with other Tucson letterboxers and did our road cleaning duties. That's fair, right? The city of Tucson lets us hide boxes all over (whether they know it or not) and in return, we pick up trash off of a road twice a year. :)

We made a few stops on the way down to Lake Patagonia, all for letterboxes. I didn't get many pictures on this trip, but the few I do have only begin to show the beauty of this area.

Petroglyphs on a rock, somewhere near a box.

Green! :)

So funny story: This area is a big bird watchers area, as many different and unique birds frequent this area. Our main goal was letterboxing, but we hiked with hopes of seeing a cool bird or two. As we were walking down this trail, there was the lake to our left, with the typical water plants all over. At one point, Curtis stopped and pointed, saying "look! I think I see a crane! There's it's backside!"

After looking, I had to break the news: "that's not a crane. That's a cow." :)

So he mistook a cow's front for a crane's back side. Common mistake, right? Sadly, no other bird - or almost bird - sightings that day.

The next 2 weekends were our spring break trip, but we pick up again on March 29th, with a few different hikes off of the Catalina Highway and Agua Caliente.

Above: a Japanese Isolation hole thing, from back when the Japanese prisoners were building the highway. 

Curtis plays around in them. I did not, it's rattlesnake season and I am paranoid.

Curtis: "They're basically Japanese time-out chairs."

After this picture, he climbed out of this tiny hole.

Hiking Soldier trail in the Catalina Mountains.

Selfie: Me with Tucson in the background!

Our destination: Beautiful overlook, and a letterbox!

New growth on the prickly pears.

We were able to get all letterboxes off of the Catalina Highway (Yay!) and we finished with a hike on Agua Caliente trail, for another letterbox. Thankfully not too strenuous, as it was really warming up! It pays to begin hiking early in the day.

The next day, (March 30) we drove up to Phoenix to meet with Curtis' sister, Lydia, and her husband, Jeff.  We hiked 3 miles together in the beautiful South Mountain Park, the largest municipal park in the country, and found a letterbox from 2000! Afterwards, we ate at a sushi/Hawaiian restaurant, which served the BEST SUSHI EVER, no joke! We're so excited that Lydia & Jeff are moving to our lovely state soon - it'll be so nice to live closer to family, even for just a year!

And that was our March - I can't believe that we've hiked about 130 miles already this year (not counting a 10 mile hike that only Curtis did with friends), and found 148 boxes so far! I'm hoping we can still have some time during the summer to keep up, but if not, there's always next fall. :)