Tucson

Cute W and I spent a long weekend in Tucson, AZ, visiting J, who’s been doing the University of Arizona’s STEP-UP program in cancer prevention this summer. She’s been loving Tucson, and Cute W had a work conference in Phoenix, so he decided to attend the conference and then drive down to Tucson. I got jealous and just flew directly to Tucson to meet up. Yes, it was very hot. We happened to be there for, like, the hottest weekend of the summer. But it’s a dry heat, and that really does help, I swear.

We stayed at a very cute little VRBO that was easily walkable to lots of good stuff downtown, and did you know that Tucson’s mass transit is all free? The extremely convenient Sun Link Streetcar connected from campus to downtown and it was extremely easy and accessible. And more important, air conditioned like crazy!

For my first day, Cute W was finishing up his conference and J had plenty of work to do, so first I wandered over to Caffe Luce in search of breakfast, and I had what may have been my favorite iced chai ever. Then I used the nearby Tugo bike share to get myself to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Or actually, I tried. First, I spent some time getting lost, because that’s just what I do. Then I realized that the spot where I thought I was going to leave my bike and walk for 15 minutes was actually a spot where Google Maps told me I could leave my bike and drive for 15 minutes. At which point, as the sun rose ever higher and grew in strength, I ordered an Uber. But I’m glad I made it to the Botanical Gardens! It was extremely lovely, featuring, as you might expect, plenty of gorgeous plants.

There were also some extremely tall cacti…

And other fun little treats, like mosaic benches hither, thither, and yon, as well as miscellaneous reptiles.

To my relief and delight, there were also air-conditioned galleries with displays of quilts, artwork, and more. Here are a few of my favorites:

One gallery that particularly charmed me contained artwork by members of the Gardens staff. The pencil drawing in the center was by one of the Gardens’ facilities technicians.

I ate at the little Cafe, wandered around a bit more, than took an Uber back to where I’d caught one before, a spot where I noticed that the streetcar stopped right by the bikes. I wandered downtown a bit and landed at The Screamery, where I tried some of their extremely delicious Sweet Cream Honeycomb ice cream.

Y’all, it was so delicious. It was so good that I was instantly sad that I hadn’t ordered a larger size, and I even thought to myself, “Nobody knows you here. You could just order a second ice cream right now.” Restraint prevailed and I managed to leave the establishment without ordering more by reassuring myself that I would bring the rest of my family back (and yes I did). I took my sweaty self back to VRBO for a shower before meeting up with J for dinner, which involved more sweating as we took an extremely long walk to an Indian food truck.

We had planned ahead to do a little hike, but when we arrived in Tucson, the heat was daunting. In fact, one of my Uber drivers was like, “Please don’t hike, it’s so dangerous” with all the heat. The solution was to drive up Mount Lemmon and go for a hike where the altitude brought temperatures down as love as the upper sixties. Along the way, we saw so many cyclists riding up, up, up the massive slope. Later I heard that el Tour de Tucson is so extremely popular that tons of cyclists are always training for it. It was extremely impressive. The hike itself was lovely, with plenty of flora and fauna to enjoy.

Was I once again the weak link, the slowest in my family? Well sure, but it was partly because I was stopping to take pictures, including pictures of the two of them.

That night we went to Corbett’s for dinner, where we watched some World Cup soccer.

The next day visited the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures, which was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some extremely lovely dollhouses, and then some dollhouses that had all sorts of mixed scales and styles together, and some big displays of collectibles that were not special. But there was also some extremely cool stuff, like the diorama that someone made based on an 1866 photograph taken in Bristol, England. The whole area was demolished just a few years after the photo was taken, so now it’s a little diorama of a lost piece of the world.

There were examples of some super-cool miniature art as well.

We also visited a tasty vegetarian restaurant, Tumerico, where I got plenty of veggies with my rice and beans.

We also loved Presta Coffee, just around the corner from our little home stay. Our last meal before Cute W headed for the airport was a lunch at Seis Kitchen, which served extremely delicious Mexican food and agua frescas and felt a bit like going back to Mexico.

On our own, J and I got pedicures and then had dinner at Los Milics Vineyards tasting room. Honestly, I didn’t love any of the wines, but the food was delicious.

The next morning, there wasn’t too much time before I had to head to the airport and J needed to get back to work, so after breakfast, we split up. I wandered around a bit and visited Posner’s Art Store, which was jam-packed with supplies. When I first walked in I was a bit startled to see two children in a cage. Turns out, they were just handing out with Shadow, the store’s pet rabbit. Upon further investigation, it looks like the pet (who was hiding after bidding farewell to its guests) has inspired quite a bit of art.

It was excellent to see J and follow her around on a tour of campus and some of her favorite Tucson places. She really likes Tucson and would absolutely visit or even live there again. She’s really enjoyed the people she’s met, and she’s learned plenty, too. So: yay.

Meanwhile, all the Mexican food in Tucson reminded me of how much I loved the fruity deliciousness of agua frescas in Mexico:

I went home and decided I had to make my own jamaica (pronounced ha-MIKE-uh, not like the island nation, as I ordered it confidently at one restaurant). I was extremely pleased with my efforts. Here are some hibiscus leaves that I bought at the new Mexican grocery on Eastern Parkway, and a glass of my delicious finished jamaica:

J is already starting her last week in Tucson. Next stop for her: San Juan, PR.