By the time we were back in Tucson it was well past time for lunch. After a futile search for a Taco Bell, we eventually went to a Jack in the Box. We had never been, but they run pretty funny commercials. Turns out it's something like a combination of all
the mediocre elements from Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s, Captain D’s and Wonton Express. Burgers, teriyaki bowls, fish, some Mexican style items. Interesting place, if you like burgers, fish
and Chinese. Matt had some sort of “nachos” that were really tacos covered in nacho cheese. In desperation, Maya got a grilled cheese sandwich. We also split a pack of jalapeno bites. Between the teenagers making out in the corner and the people talking loudly behind us and the locked bathrooms it was hardly a pleasant luncheon. And that kind of set the tone for Tucson for us. We kept discovering that Tucson is not at all like we imagined it. We had expected something more like Santa Barbara or Flagstaff, but it reminded us more of Cleveland or Cincinnati. Everything looks a little beat up, the roads are narrow, there isn’t much of that picturesque stucco-and-Spanish-tile architecture that’s so common in southern California and the southwest. It just wasn’t what we expected.
Making matters worst was that fact that the highway is under renovation or something. All the exits are closed. If you a going through the city, you’re fine. But if you want to get off at any of the exits in the city, you have to instead get off at the northernmost or southernmost ones and work your way back to where you want to be. This is made even harder by the
Gem Show traffic. Yes, Arizona, with all its mineral wealth, is the center of the world for Rock Hounds. That is really what they call themselves.
The Gem Show isn’t really accurate. It’s more like the Gem
Shows. Of course, the main shebang is in the convention center, but that doesn’t stop anybody and (seemingly) everybody from selling gems. Everywhere we went, the parking lots were full of white exhibition tents. Even little parking lots next to grocery stores had at least one small tent. Gems Gems Gems, Your Fossil Headquarters, Welcome Rock Hounds, Gem Show Parking This Way.
Well now, the
main thing we wanted to do that day was see the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s something like a zoo, but that’s hardly the end of it. It really is a
museum of the desert. The animals are the main displays but there is more information about the workings of the desert environment to read and they animals aren’t the only displays. We started in an artificial cave. It was pretty accurate. This led eventually to an earth science sort of room. Cool photos of galaxies hang above the circular room. Around the walls are panels showing the stages of Earth’s geologic history as revealed by various rock samples. The samples are on display as well. It was neat to see the evidence science has for what’s happened in the past laid out in such a clear way. Another neat thing in the room was a relief globe made of marble. Unlike most relief maps it was
not vertically exaggerated. It’s weird to think that even the highest mountains are just barely-noticeable rough patches compared to the whole surface of the Earth.
In the Mountain Woodland area we saw deer and prairie dogs. They also had snakes and other creepy things. Cat Canyon wasn’t that interesting. Most of the cats were hiding or something. In the Riparian Corridor, however, we saw a lot of neat stuff. Foremost of the animals there were the beavers. Neither of us had seen a real-live beaver before. They look so bulky and ungainly, but they can really move in the water. Also, they are kinda ugly. Maybe it’s just when they are all pressed up against the glass. The whole riparian (river) area was set up in a nice way. They have all these ponds at ground level for the otters and coatis (which we didn’t see) then there’s stairs down and a tunnel and you can walk back through the area but see the animals underwater. They also have a lot of fish in tanks along the tunnel too. They even had “den cams” so you can look in on the otters and beavers if they happen to be at home.
We saw bighorns and got to feel how massive their horns are. There were also two different walk-in aviaries. One had all kinds of different birds, from ducks to parrots. The other was just hummingbirds. Apparently there are more different kinds of hummingbirds in the Sonoran desert than anywhere else in the U.S. There was some stuff that we had to skip or rush through because the place was closing down almost literally as we left each exhibit. It would have been nice to have more time just to look at the landscape. There’s something abut the lumpy hillsides and the flat valleys all covered in saguaros that really resonates with both of us. We could easily have spent another two hours there. Easily.
When we got back into Tucson, we ate supper at a place called Zona 78. They make a lot of their own cheeses and import this amazing blue cheese from Australia (of all places). Maya got a massive motzarela, tomato and greens salad and Matt got the “Roaring Twenties” pizza. It was amazing food. We highly recommend
Zona 78 to anybody happening though the area. We also shared an order of garlic bread, but it was so massive we could have shared it with a couple other couples. The wine list looked good too, but we didn’t get any because we had brought a bottle of one of our new favorites along with us. It’s Barefoot Winery’s Muscato. It’s just so delicious and sweet and usually so cheap. We drank that back in the hotel room and watched Futurama. We recently bought the whole series (and all the movies) on DVD so we brought along some disks and our DVD player. Good wine and sci-fi comedy cartoons: that’s an evening’s entertainment!
By the time we were back in Tucson it was well past time for lunch. After a futile search for a Taco Bell, we eventually went to a Jack in the Box. We had never been, but they run pretty funny commercials. Turns out it's something like a combination of all the mediocre elements from Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s, Captain D’s and Wonton Express. Burgers, teriyaki bowls, fish, some Mexican style items. Interesting place, if you like burgers, fish and Chinese. Matt had some sort of “nachos” that were really tacos covered in nacho cheese. In desperation, Maya got a grilled cheese sandwich. We also split a pack of jalapeno bites. Between the teenagers making out in the corner and the people talking loudly behind us and the locked bathrooms it was hardly a pleasant luncheon. And that kind of set the tone for Tucson for us. We kept discovering that Tucson is not at all like we imagined it. We had expected something more like Santa Barbara or Flagstaff, but it reminded us more of Cleveland or Cincinnati. Everything looks a little beat up, the roads are narrow, there isn’t much of that picturesque stucco-and-Spanish-tile architecture that’s so common in southern California and the southwest. It just wasn’t what we expected.
Making matters worst was that fact that the highway is under renovation or something. All the exits are closed. If you a going through the city, you’re fine. But if you want to get off at any of the exits in the city, you have to instead get off at the northernmost or southernmost ones and work your way back to where you want to be. This is made even harder by the Gem Show traffic. Yes, Arizona, with all its mineral wealth, is the center of the world for Rock Hounds. That is really what they call themselves. The Gem Show isn’t really accurate. It’s more like the Gem Shows. Of course, the main shebang is in the convention center, but that doesn’t stop anybody and (seemingly) everybody from selling gems. Everywhere we went, the parking lots were full of white exhibition tents. Even little parking lots next to grocery stores had at least one small tent. Gems Gems Gems, Your Fossil Headquarters, Welcome Rock Hounds, Gem Show Parking This Way.
Well now, the main thing we wanted to do that day was see the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s something like a zoo, but that’s hardly the end of it. It really is a museum of the desert. The animals are the main displays but there is more information about the workings of the desert environment to read and they animals aren’t the only displays. We started in an artificial cave. It was pretty accurate. This led eventually to an earth science sort of room. Cool photos of galaxies hang above the circular room. Around the walls are panels showing the stages of Earth’s geologic history as revealed by various rock samples. The samples are on display as well. It was neat to see the evidence science has for what’s happened in the past laid out in such a clear way. Another neat thing in the room was a relief globe made of marble. Unlike most relief maps it was not vertically exaggerated. It’s weird to think that even the highest mountains are just barely-noticeable rough patches compared to the whole surface of the Earth. 
In the Mountain Woodland area we saw deer and prairie dogs. They also had snakes and other creepy things. Cat Canyon wasn’t that interesting. Most of the cats were hiding or something. In the Riparian Corridor, however, we saw a lot of neat stuff. Foremost of the animals there were the beavers. Neither of us had seen a real-live beaver before. They look so bulky and ungainly, but they can really move in the water. Also, they are kinda ugly. Maybe it’s just when they are all pressed up against the glass. The whole riparian (river) area was set up in a nice way. They have all these ponds at ground level for the otters and coatis (which we didn’t see) then there’s stairs down and a tunnel and you can walk back through the area but see the animals underwater. They also have a lot of fish in tanks along the tunnel too. They even had “den cams” so you can look in on the otters and beavers if they happen to be at home. 
We saw bighorns and got to feel how massive their horns are. There were also two different walk-in aviaries. One had all kinds of different birds, from ducks to parrots. The other was just hummingbirds. Apparently there are more different kinds of hummingbirds in the Sonoran desert than anywhere else in the U.S. There was some stuff that we had to skip or rush through because the place was closing down almost literally as we left each exhibit. It would have been nice to have more time just to look at the landscape. There’s something abut the lumpy hillsides and the flat valleys all covered in saguaros that really resonates with both of us. We could easily have spent another two hours there. Easily. 
When we got back into Tucson, we ate supper at a place called Zona 78. They make a lot of their own cheeses and import this amazing blue cheese from Australia (of all places). Maya got a massive motzarela, tomato and greens salad and Matt got the “Roaring Twenties” pizza. It was amazing food. We highly recommend Zona 78 to anybody happening though the area. We also shared an order of garlic bread, but it was so massive we could have shared it with a couple other couples. The wine list looked good too, but we didn’t get any because we had brought a bottle of one of our new favorites along with us. It’s Barefoot Winery’s Muscato. It’s just so delicious and sweet and usually so cheap. We drank that back in the hotel room and watched Futurama. We recently bought the whole series (and all the movies) on DVD so we brought along some disks and our DVD player. Good wine and sci-fi comedy cartoons: that’s an evening’s entertainment!
1 comment:
Oooh, I'm glad you guys made it down there! Looks awesome!
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