Hunkering down in Tucson, AZ (01-31-2011)

     After saying goodbye to everyone in Quartzsite yesterday, we arrived in Tucson with the idea of staying for two days and then heading for El Paso, to see Paul's mom before meandering across Texas.  That was before we saw the weather forecast though.  I'm sure everyone is aware that most of the country is getting blasted with yet another nasty winter storm.  Our daughter in Indiana reports that ice has been falling for hours now, and Boston is expecting another 20 inches of snow.  I am  glad we have been able to stay as far south as we have, although we sure haven't avoided all the snow and cold weather.  El Paso is expected to get about 2-4 inches of snow on Wednesday, and the low temperature is supposed to be 9 degrees on Thursday, so we're going to wait it out here and see if Friday's weather looks better.  Its not going to be cozy warm in Tucson either, but it won't be that cold!

   There is a gem show going on here right now, so the town is busy, and we'll have to leave this park and find somewhere else to stay tomorrow.  They had no room for us after tonight, so we scouted out a couple of places and hopefully it won't be a problem.  We found two places, but one doesn't take reservations (state park) and the other is $50 a night.  Talk about sticker shock!

    There is so much to do in Tucson, we could spend a month here, but today we chose to go to the Sonoran Desert Museum.  I'm glad we did- its one of the best museums we've been to.

All of the exhibits are first class, and the  shows were interesting and informative.  In the morning the show starred about a dozen live animals, most of whom walked across the stage, from one side to the other.  The birds that were featured flew over the heads of the audience, or walked down the aisles.

     The museum is mostly outdoors and the displays of wildlife and habitat  of the sonoran desert were very well done.  By using glass windows above and under the surface of the display, you are able to see the animals in a more natural setting.  We saw a fox sleeping in his den, and the snakes look like they are touchable, but live behind glass built into artificial rocks.




 

a hawk and one of the handlers

In the afternoon there was a raptor show that involved 4 handlers and 5 hawks. The hawks are actually a family of hawks, since this breed hunts together as a family.  Everyone was asked to keep their hands low, and not put them above their heads, and the hawks flew so low you could feel the breeze from their wings. We watched them for about a half hour and learned a lot about their habits in the wild. We never heard the handlers talk (a ranger was addressing the audience) but they all had headsets to talk to each other.  The only time the handlers stood is when they wanted a hawk to land on their arm.  The rest of the time they would stay in a crouched position.

  We were frozen by the end of the day but we had a great time.