Tucson is a strange city with virtually no down town area. It's like a smaller version of LA: everyone drives everywhere and the suburbs sprawl out in all directions. The surrounding desert is surprisingly lush- the greenest in the USA apparently, despite being the hottest and driest. It is dotted with saguaro cacti which only grow locally and are very strange.
They can be +150 years old and don't start to throw out their arms until they are 75.
Yesterday we spent a very entertaining few hours at the Sonora-Arizona Desert museum which is a type of zoo/education centre with lots of local animal and bird life. My favourites were the prairie dogs and the humming birds.
We also visited the Tucson Museum of Art which has a temporary exhibition about Frieda Kahlo. I was very interested in this having read Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna recently.
Today was cold and drizzly to start so we visited another art gallery in a rambling adobe house and then went on a fruitless search for a needlework shop. We finished the day with a drive through a small part of the Saguaro National Park.....very disappointing lack of life but we did see a roadrunner.
We know the importance of needlework shops to you, Gay, so hope you are lucky in your next stop. Fascinating facts about the cacti, and the lush vegetation in desert conditions mirrors conditions in Perth. Must be the water table!
ReplyDeleteHave fun!