Since it was another cold day today (albeit four degrees warmer than yesterday) we opted to drive into the Old Pueblo to check out the Arizona State Museum's Native American exhibit. And this time Kevin came along! The museum is located just inside the Main Gate of the University of Arizona.So, after the last of the Sunday morning political talk shows ended, we were on our way. We got to the museum's front door at 11:57am with several other anxious visitors waiting for it to open at noon. Non-flash photography was allowed.
Entrance was free but we paid a $10 donation and spent the next 2:40 hours going around the "Paths of Life" exhibit that detailed Arizona's and Sonora's main ten tribes, including the Seri and Yaqui from Sonora and the Tarahumara, O'odham, Colorado River Yumans, Southern Paiute, Pai, Apache, Hopi and Navajo in Arizona (and in neighboring California, Utah and New Mexico). I didn't miss a beat; reading all the descriptions, listening to every tape. Despite the many shared cultural traditions of these peoples, there are still distinctive characteristics of each tribe, dictated by their geography and climate and later by their experiences with the Spaniards, Mexicans and later white settlers and Mormon pioneers.
http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhibits/index.shtml
"Seeing these pretty photos of the Sea of Cortez makes me want to vacation in Mexico right now" I said to Kevin as I viewed the Seri habitat in central Sonora, now the drug-cartel-burdened state of Sinaloa.
"Be my guest, I'm seeing all this scenery right here in the museum, I don't need to go down there!"
I sighed in disappoitment. "I'm going to have to get you drunk and sneak you across the border, it looks like that would be the only way to get you down there..."
The Univeristy of Arizona is a beautiful campus with its tall palms, cacti and well-landscaped paths. Several youths were riding their dirtbikes across the museum lawn as we left. The next time I get to this area I'm going to study all the trees growing on the campus and visit the UA-Arboretum. There's allegedly an acacia there from the Middle East.
Tucson was warmer than expected. My leather jacket was too warm for the museum. When we left campus at 3pm we walked west on University Blvd back to restaurant row. Gentle Ben's was closed today for maintenance and we opted for the old Nimbus Brew Pub across the street, now a gourmet pizza place called "No Anchovies!" where a Nimbus Pale Blonde went for $4. We each had two slices of pizza and strained to talk under three loud stereo TVs above us playing three different football games. (Arizona was beating Seattle 34:21) Fans were glued to the TVs. Although the food and beer were good (Kevin said "The pizza sucked!" and gave his left-overs to the dogs later), the noise was just too much. Departing was a relief for the ears.
We had no other plans for the city and left for home at daylight. The mountains in all directions were pretty much naked. Only Mounts Lemmon and Wrightson seem to have gotten some snow. The lower foothills were all dry. I gassed for $1.51 a gallon although several stations on Kolb Ave sold regular unleaded for $1.49.
Talks of a four-day weekend trip to the Colorado River and Lake Havasu came up on our drive home. I'm curious if I can plan a decent roadtrip with such a short notice, something that encompasses some hiking, some native American history, a decent brew pub? I found three sites we must see: the Grapevine Canyon just outside Laughlin, NV(a comfortable four-mile hike), the Barley Brothers Brewery in Lake Havasu City, and of course the famed London Bridge across the Colorado River, an original stone bridge built in the 1840s across the Thames that was bought by an American businessman and shipped block-by-block across the ocean to California and then trucked to its current location across the Colorado River in Arizona. Although the websites of Lake Havasu look more like something old people would enjoy when snowbirding in the South (it's marketed as a winter get-away), I don't want to fight for solitude around a Blue Hair Crowd. We are already in that season of oversized RVs and Senior Discounts.
"I've never been disappointed with any of your roadtrips" reassured Kevin. But half the fun of any roadtrip is the journey along the way. We normally find quirky roadside attractions, funky diners and unusual landscapes off the beaten path. Weather along the river is forecasted to be between the mid 40s and mid 60s later this week, not much warmer than it will be here.
http://www.desertusa.com/Thingstodo/du_ttd_grapevine.html
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/havasu.htm
http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/aug/stories/lkhav.html
http://www.barleybrothers.com/
"Seeing these pretty photos of the Sea of Cortez makes me want to vacation in Mexico right now" I said to Kevin as I viewed the Seri habitat in central Sonora, now the drug-cartel-burdened state of Sinaloa.
"Be my guest, I'm seeing all this scenery right here in the museum, I don't need to go down there!"
I sighed in disappoitment. "I'm going to have to get you drunk and sneak you across the border, it looks like that would be the only way to get you down there..."
The Univeristy of Arizona is a beautiful campus with its tall palms, cacti and well-landscaped paths. Several youths were riding their dirtbikes across the museum lawn as we left. The next time I get to this area I'm going to study all the trees growing on the campus and visit the UA-Arboretum. There's allegedly an acacia there from the Middle East.
Tucson was warmer than expected. My leather jacket was too warm for the museum. When we left campus at 3pm we walked west on University Blvd back to restaurant row. Gentle Ben's was closed today for maintenance and we opted for the old Nimbus Brew Pub across the street, now a gourmet pizza place called "No Anchovies!" where a Nimbus Pale Blonde went for $4. We each had two slices of pizza and strained to talk under three loud stereo TVs above us playing three different football games. (Arizona was beating Seattle 34:21) Fans were glued to the TVs. Although the food and beer were good (Kevin said "The pizza sucked!" and gave his left-overs to the dogs later), the noise was just too much. Departing was a relief for the ears.
We had no other plans for the city and left for home at daylight. The mountains in all directions were pretty much naked. Only Mounts Lemmon and Wrightson seem to have gotten some snow. The lower foothills were all dry. I gassed for $1.51 a gallon although several stations on Kolb Ave sold regular unleaded for $1.49.
Talks of a four-day weekend trip to the Colorado River and Lake Havasu came up on our drive home. I'm curious if I can plan a decent roadtrip with such a short notice, something that encompasses some hiking, some native American history, a decent brew pub? I found three sites we must see: the Grapevine Canyon just outside Laughlin, NV(a comfortable four-mile hike), the Barley Brothers Brewery in Lake Havasu City, and of course the famed London Bridge across the Colorado River, an original stone bridge built in the 1840s across the Thames that was bought by an American businessman and shipped block-by-block across the ocean to California and then trucked to its current location across the Colorado River in Arizona. Although the websites of Lake Havasu look more like something old people would enjoy when snowbirding in the South (it's marketed as a winter get-away), I don't want to fight for solitude around a Blue Hair Crowd. We are already in that season of oversized RVs and Senior Discounts.
"I've never been disappointed with any of your roadtrips" reassured Kevin. But half the fun of any roadtrip is the journey along the way. We normally find quirky roadside attractions, funky diners and unusual landscapes off the beaten path. Weather along the river is forecasted to be between the mid 40s and mid 60s later this week, not much warmer than it will be here.
http://www.desertusa.com/Thingstodo/du_ttd_grapevine.html
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/havasu.htm
http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/aug/stories/lkhav.html
http://www.barleybrothers.com/
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