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. :)

When it Rains...

January 30 & 31, 2015

Last Friday, rain came through Southern Arizona, and stayed for the weekend. We blame the Seahawks, who had also came to visit for some reason. Our plans were for our weekend were altered, but we still had quite the adventure!

Driving through the Huachuca Mountains on a grey day!

Of course earlier last week, we purchased our new vehicle Ghillie, and right away we started planning out all the trips we were going to take. The travel bug has bitten us, and we are desperate for adventure! On Friday, we decided to go for a road trip to "break it in." We had a couple more letterboxes to plant in Cochise county before the Tucson Letterboxing Event next week. We headed East on I-10, awe-struck at how fast we could accelerate on the interstate. ;)

This was also Charlotte's first ride in Ghillie. She misses having a seat in the middle of Curtis & I to sit in, and tries to make up for it by sitting in Curtis' lap. We put her in the back seat, where she sat for a bit, then slowly made her way back to the front, where she finally settled for my lap. 

This really wasn't the best day for this adventure. We started out by having to drive on a dirt road, but of course with the rain, it was now a muddy road with lots of big puddles. All this gave us a chance to try out the 4 wheel drive. It works! ;) Then, we did about a 2 mile hike, and decided hiking in this rain was miserable. Thankfully, we were still able to get both boxes planted!

After finishing up, we drove through Sierra Vista, into Fort Huachuca, then through the Huachuca Mountains before meeting up with Highway 83. It was still a pretty drive, with clouds hanging low over the mountains. The worst parts were the dips in the road, where the water would form large puddles and washes. Just a note, when you see signs that say "Do Not Enter When Flooded" in Southern Arizona, they're serious - it really does flood easily when it rains!

Our new Jeep handled it all great though, and we were thankful to make it home safely after having traffic backed up on the I-10 in Tucson. 

On Friday night, Curtis' sister Lydia and her husband Jeff came over for the weekend. We had been planning to do some hiking and driving up the beautiful Mt. Lemmon, but decided to save that for another time when it wasn't raining and we could enjoy the views. (We also heard later that the Catalina Highway was closed because of the weather, so this turned out to be a good call!)

Control room at the Titan Missile Museum

Instead, on Saturday we went to visit a place Curtis and I have saved "for a rainy day." We drove South on I-19 to go visit the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, AZ. We took the hour long tour there, and it turned out to be an interesting and enjoyable tour.

It started with a short informational documentary, then we headed underground to view the missile and control room. 

The Titan Missile II!

Here it is - the missile! This is one of 18 missile sites that were around the greater Tucson area. This one was the one located closest to the Air Force Base in Tucson. It is now the only remaining missile out of 54 in the world. See why you need to come see it? :)

Back outside - after the tour, we walked around the area and checked out all we could see from above ground.

There's a missile under there!

My husband in a fancy shmancy hard hat. ;P

Where all the missiles around Tucson are located

After we finished there, the rain had let up so we decided to make one more stop along I-19 - to the San Xavier Mission. Constructed in 1783, it's the oldest intact European structure in Arizona, and is breathtakingly beautiful! It's still an active church, but they offer tours daily. We opted to just tour on our own though.

The San Xavier Mission

Curtis and I had actually visited here before - it was our very first weekend adventure while living in Tucson! We had only come with friends for the sake of letterboxing though. This time, I feel like I was able to appreciate it so much more because of all that I know about the history of Arizona now.

Inside the Mission

I don't have any pictures of the inside from the last time I was here, so I was once again blown away by the beauty and detail of this mission. This place is so worth visiting if you're in Southern AZ!

The view when you enter the Mission

Murals on the walls.

Facing the front entrance of the mission

Ceilings!

The detail on the front of the Mission

The mission courtyard

My souvenir for the weekend :)

Oh yeah, and while we were touring the Titan Missile Museum, the tour guide volunteered me to pull on the handle of this door on the inside, and I got a certificate for it. Pretty great souvenir if you ask me! ;)

We enjoyed a late lunch at La Parrilla Suiza in Tucson and played a few more games with Lydia and Jeff before they left. It continued raining on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning, we woke up to something that happens very rarely down here: fog! It wasn't very thick, we could see the roads just fine when driving to church, but we couldn't see the mountains at all. We couldn't see them on Friday and Saturday due to rain clouds, but on Sunday the fog completely hid them. It was weird!

And that was our weekend! We're already preparing for next week's hike and hoping for much better weather. Have a great week! :)