Tucson Trip

Last week, the airport managed to open in time for my flight out. I couldn't have been more excited. I was visiting my sister in Arizona. I had never been to a desert before. And we were going to an observatory (see previous posts about my nerd-dom).

I got in late Wednesday night. Thursday morning, we were up early and went for a trail run. I spent most of the time being terrified I'd see a snake and being thirsty. The thing I learned about the desert is that even if you're not remotely dehydrated, you're thirsty, because the air is making your mouth dry. In the afternoon, we went to the Desert Museum. It was kind of like a garden and a zoo. The afternoon is not a good time to go to a zoo in Arizona. Just about every animal was asleep, or at least hiding from us. Then we went to dinner and drinks and I bought a used copy of the Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? board game. Clearly, we played that.

Friday was a gorgeous, hilly bike ride. I used a road bike for the first time in a long time, and it had the clip pedals, which I had never used before. No falls, and I managed to get out of the clips to save myself from a fall as I got used to shifting with longer hills than I'm used to. I did get really winded a few times, but I'm chalking that up to the altitude, not my fitness. We were supposed to leave for the observatory at 3, so we went home and got lunch, then met up with some of Elaine's friends and found out that it was going to be too humid to use the telescope, so they canceled the event. Boooo. So we went out for Mexican food and hung out for a while.

Saturday, we went to Biosphere 2. I learned that Biosphere 1 was the earth. It was really interesting to see what they intended to do and what they currently use it for. Then we were going to go to a bar to watch the beginning of the Notre Dame game. We got quite a bit side tracked at the garage sale at REI (I got a GPS watch for 1/2 off because of a scratch on the screen that you can barely see) and wound up getting to the bar at halftime. I average watching .25 football games a year. This was an entire half with three overtimes. You're welcome, Notre Dame fans. I'm pretty sure the universe was trying to get me to watch football more regularly, so the game was really interesting AND ND won. Then more food and drinks with more friends.

Sunday, we got up and went for a hike on Mt. Lemon. It was really cool to go from cactus-y desert to a forest that would be at home in the northeast just by going up. I did take pictures so you can see the progression from cactus to trees, but I haven't uploaded any yet. We then went to the San Xavier del Bac Mission. Pretty much exactly what I expected. Since they Dia de los Muertos celebration was going on, we went to check that out in town. It was really interesting, but also really creepy.

Monday, I flew home. I gave up my seat on my flight for a $400 airfare voucher and a $7 food voucher (for the terminal). Then, I checked my bag for free at the gate. I wound up making money on this trip. I was kind of hoping to be able to give up my seat on the next flight to get even more money. Maybe next time.