Tucson Update (pictures to come)

Our Tucson visit with David, Heather and John went by in a whirlwind. We worked hard, played hard, were present with our friends working on their new house (mostly painting the ceilings), hiking, visiting, eating out and in: it feels like we packed so much into a few short days. In addition to working on the house and her consulting job, Heather has a formidable schedule of exercise and dance classes and regular hiking/running routes. I went along to some of the classes and we all hiked together a lot. Compared to my recent home life, where I spend at least several hours per day writing and working, it's been like boot camp in the sunshine! I'm impressed and grateful that my body has held up to it so well.

Hence, I haven't been very present on here, although I've tried to keep an eye on others' blogs. I've also been pretty unusually remiss about toting the camera along and documenting things. And I've run into problems transferring photos from the camera to the netbook: I stick the card in the reader, and the computer offers to 'format' it for me, which would mean deleting all the pics--not what I want! I will put pics in soon.

We're on the west cost now, visiting with Phil's mom at the farm for a few days as well as other family, and to see how Phil's little trees are doing on his timberland. I'm planning to stay active, but throttle back a little, let my sore muscles stretch out, regain my rhythm and catch up on work and writing, and then evaluate stepping up the pace of my regular routine.

Some findings: Tucson is beautiful, warm, friendly, dry and sunny. Our friends live close to downtown and we walked all over. We sat in a beautiful courtyard (pic to come), with a flurry of birds constantly alighting on the water fountain to drink.

Restaurants in Tucson are vegan and gluten free friendly! It's generally pretty easy for me to fit in with our friends foodwise: they like to eat lots of vegetables. They are regular guests at an Ethiopian restaurant not far from their house. I learned that injera is not gluten free (which explains why I was sick the one other time I ate Ethiopian—a shame, it was yummy). The staff were knowledgeable and friendly, and they gladly gave me extra salad and misr aside from the injera plate.

One evening, we ate at the Congress Hotel. Since this is a bar and hotel, I was expecting standard American fare, but it turned out that they had a gluten free entree that was also easily made vegan (all they had to do was omit a cheese garnish). Plaintain-sweet potato tamales with beans, rice and julienned marinated vegetables on top. I wish I'd brought my camera: it was deliciously presented (although it probably didn't look so appetizing after I'd picked it apart—I didn't eat the corn or the rice). It was sweet when afterward Phil commented that it made him happy to see me order something right off the menu, as opposed to bits and pieces. It's usually easy for me to order 'straight' at Thai restaurants, and we had some great Thai food on the last night—lots of veggies, lots of spice, perfect.

We went on some wonderful hikes. Already at the airport when we arrived, I was mesmerized by all the fascinating shapes and colors of the cacti: we were lucky enough to be there in the blooming time. It reminds me of Israel with all the bright colors and diversity of shapes—prickly pear, cholla, agave, aloes—while the saguaro and ocotillo were a new kind of beauty.

On one hike, we followed a dry watercourse up and up. We saw honeybees clustered around a waterseep (and then read afterward that they were likely Africanized and we shouldn't have gone so close). We found several abandoned mineshafts and peered down into their mineralized mysteries. We made hiking poles from the skeletons of saguaros.

On another hike, we made some serious elevation and got a wonderful view of the surrounds. This was a late afternoon outing, and we got back to the car right after the sun went down, which means that we were out there for that bated, crepuscular time when everything is shifting. A troupe of quail flushed out of the hillside as we climbed. We saw several cottontail rabbits, some of them running for cover, one of them nibbling grass quite unperturbed, cocking a quizzical eye at us every few moments. And we saw a rattlesnake! It was coiled up and hunkered down flat, right on the edge of the trail, so well camouflaged, so still.

Again, I apologize for the lack of pics. I'll see if I can find someone knowledgeable around here to help me get pics soon!