Adventure 839: Day 62/Tucson/2023

When I first went to Kansas to meet Judy's parent's, I lexperienced the pre-church ritual of eating fresh baked semel with cheddar cheese and strawberry preserves. Today, we did half of the ritual. We ate the semel, but we skipped church in favor of touring the Desert Museum. We got to the museum with just enough time to join a hundred or so of our newest friends to watch the raptors soar, swoop, and preen in a very entertaining half hour show. The trainers first brought out two ravens that darted down and around the crowd so very close as to nearly snatch the caps off a tall gentleman's head. Then came the solitary and quite regal barn owl, which looked askance at the crowd while raising it's feathery eyebrows as if to say, "Hmph". I forget the name of the next birds except they're known as Mexican Eagles. They, too, swooped and buzzed just overhead of the crowd. The show ended with a cadre of five Harris's Hawks, very intelligent birds that hunt as a group. The group, led by a single alpha female, even participated in a mock attack against a trapped ground rodent or rabbit. In this case, it was just make believe, but in real life the birds work together to flush prey out into the open. The show alone was worth the price of admission. We wandered the grounds looking at various exhibits and finished with a live animal presentation in the auditorium that included a Mexican military parrot, a porcupine, and a very skittish barn owl. In all, it was a good introductory experience for the kids to life in the Sonoran dessert. We stopped in at a local favorite, Eegees, for lunch, and then we rested for the afternoon. We endured a mediocre dinner at the famed El Charro restaurant (In my view, they're living on reputation at this point). Bonnie's dish was excellent, but the rest of us fared less well. The hostess was surly, the waiter inept, and our table placement felt like the owner's would do anything to increase seating, that is if the back store room location is any indication. If I were the type to write reviews, this experience would rival some of the flea bag hotels my buddy Ed and I stayed in when we took our East coast trip a few years back. Our joke was, "We can stay here, but we couldn't bring our wives." Nonetheless, no one has complained of Montezuma's revenge yet, so life is good, especially today.

This is a worthy tourist attraction if you're ever down this way.

Life can't get much better than hanging out with our favorite grand daughters.

They were still smiling even after a few hours of walking the sun.

We still haven't seen a live javelina. These bronze guys are as close as we've come.

Obligatory cactus picture: iconic.

Raven.

Bighorn sheep.

Barn owl.

Williams family.

Mexican eagles.

Harris's Hawks.

Fish hook barrel cactus beginning to bloom. We're still hoping the desert blooms before we leave.