Days 4-7: Sights of Southeast AZ

Most of the week we spent hanging around my parent’s place visiting with them and my grand parents who drove over from Silver City, NM. But we did venture out to see a few things:

Tue: Tucson Children’s Museum – Nice little museum in a historic old library in downtown Tucson. Some fun activities for the kids.

Wed Pt 1: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum – By far the best thing we did this trip. A mix of zoo and desert botanical garden, they have some great animal exhibits including mountain lions, coyotes and a really cool hummingbird pavilion. And the restaurant wasn’t bad.

Wed Pt 2: San Xavier del Bac Mission – This is an interesting place. The interior is more rustic than you see in many old churches in Europe, but is nonetheless remarkable. Built from 1783-1797 by Franciscan missionaries, I’ve been told this is the oldest continually operating church in America, but I think that’s probably incorrect as I suspect there are churches all over New England that are at least this old. However, the “mission” as a religious effort trying to convert the local population to Christianity has been in the area since 1692, first operating out of a site a couple miles from where San Xavier stands today, then later at the current location. Be sure to check it out, but don’t come on Sunday unless you want to join Mass as the church continues to serve an active Catholic congregation.

Thu: Nogales, SO, Mexico – This is the nicest Mexican border town I’ve visited.

Fri Pt 1: Colossal Cave Mountain Park – Fun, but not awe inspiring. I think the history of the site, including its role as a Franklin Roosevelt-era New Deal / WPA project, is pretty interesting though.

Fri Pt 2: We carried forward another Fuller tradition with a Scorpio Birthday Party (SBP): my father, grandpa Fred and myself are all Scorpios. I think this tradition started before I was born because my great grandma Loma was a Scorpio as well. The first SBP I remember included the four generations (Loma, Fred, Dad and me). Loma passed a few years ago, but with the birth of my youngest daughter Erin in 2002, we were back up to four generation strength as she just made the cut with her Oct 23rd birthday. Next up? A really long day in the car.

Milestone of Note: Grandpa Fred turned 80 this year. We had a great discussion over dinner one evening about how much the world has changed in his 80 years vs my nearly 40 years. I may blog about that conversation at some point, but he and I agreed to revisit my opinions in another 40 years .