Spring Break 2008 Part 1: Tuscon, Arizona

Turns out that we picked the perfect time to fly out. Had we gone a few days earlier, we would have been caught up in the chaos from the American Airlines flight cancellations and bad weather in the upper plains states. Our flights were full, but ran on time or early. We got to Tuscon and found our luggage, and got our rental car with no problems. From there, we headed out to the Arizona-Sonoma Desert Museum. We took tons of photos there, both to get used to the new camera and because there was lots of nifty things to see there.

Standing out front of the museum was a docent, holding a kestrel. They are such beautiful birds that I never get tired of looking at them.













We quickly realized that our awesome find from last year, the cactus wren, was pretty much a junk bird in Arizona. We actually later learned that it's the state bird of Arizona. Here's one, sitting up in a cactus, singing prettily for us.










A ground squirrel was hiding on a rock and chittering at us before we went down into the mining and minerals cave.




Inside the cave, there were all sorts of awesome mineral displays, including a gigantic stack of sulfur crystals, a double-terminated quartz crystal thicker than my wrist, and nifty display showing how crystals can form in cavities.









Back outside, we took some neat photos of cactus blooms and these crazy sticky trees with Dr. Seuss-style blooms on them.











We walked around the grounds, photographing all sorts of wildlife--rescues now kept in captivity for their safety and our enjoyment. Box turtles, a mountain lion who was snoozing in the sun, a wolf who couldn't be bothered to keep track of the onlookers, a big-horned sheep who was posturing, and more birds than you can imagine kept inside a netted area. The lizards were just hanging out everywhere.