Tucson and Scottsdale Arizona and Palm Desert, California

This was our first time in Tucson and we had three full days to get a taste of this large city. It is just a 2-hour Drive south of Phoenix and it too is surrounded by hills/ mountains which does give it that extra desert beauty. There are a few things to see in Tucson. Originally I booked Tucson so that we could see the Boneyard, which is one of the largest collection of active and non-active airplanes in the world. It's a large collection of stored airplanes out in the desert and they all belong to the United States Military. We did not luck out because 3 weeks before we arrived in Tucson, the Boneyard closed to the public. All the tours and entry on to that part of Davis Air Force Base was all shut down due to the Iran war. We could drive around the acres and acres and acres which was all fenced in, that's as close as we could get. We did try and find higher ground to take a cool image but that was impossible as well. 

The Boneyard at Davis Air Force Base has between 3000-4000 airplanes depending on the year.  It is mind-boggling to view so many retired airplanes that can be returned to service at any given time.  The Royal Canadian Air Force has 390 airplanes but they are not all active.  I don't know about you but I strongly feel that we should remain close friends and allies with the American people Mr. Carney.

The Boneyard is very close to the Pima Air and Space Museum, which is a huge collection of retired airplanes and helicopters and military equipment. It is one of the biggest collections in the world and there are now over 450 airplanes and helicopters at this Museum.  Once you have paid your way into the museum, there is a tram tour that you can take which cost $10 per person and it tours you around this extremely large site.

It was 33° that day and we decided to pay the extra money instead of walking around in the heat. There are so many different planes that I've never seen before. One looked like a blimp. It was interesting to be that close to several Air Force One planes. These are the planes that the President of the United States flies on.  JFK and Lyndon Johnson were on these retired Air Force 1 jet planes. I would have liked to have got inside the plane that would have been more interesting for me.

There were lots of World War II planes. The Flying Fortress was housed in its very own hanger and you could climb up a stepladder to stick your head inside the Flying Fortress.  Those poor bastards in World War II who had to freeze their asses off and did not live much past 18 years old, they just didn't have a chance. The history was very interesting and the mock-up of when the Allies bombed Berlin was also interesting history. 

Inside the Flying Fortress

The Gunner sat in this bubble turret.

There was a collection of so many hangers and we made it to each and everyone and they were all different.  Many aircraft were suspended off the ground and hanging from the ceilings of these hangars, which gave a good viewpoint. 

A Black Hawk Helicopter was smaller than I thought and this helicopter was immortalized in the movie Black Hawk Down.

Darren beside the Black Hawk

You could spend 2 days if you're really into airplanes and helicopters, the ticket allowed for that.  

The Space portion of the Pima Museum was limited but we found some interesting things like a chronological space race between countries.

This sleek aircraft with the needle nose looked like a Stealth Bomber.

We also bought the double pass to get us into the Military Equipment Museum which was mainly all World War II Nazi and American Jeeps, Tanks and Transport Vehicles. Things that I never even dreamed of or seen before were in this hangar. There were Nazi uniforms and helmets which were super interesting.

A collection of Desert Storm equipment easily identified with it's sand color was also on display. All in all Darren and I really enjoyed it and it was a nice afternoon out in the hot sun. 

The next day we went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum which is neither a museum nor really a zoo. It's a collection of things put together. This was highly recommended by all the blogs and Tucson Visitor sites.  The drive up was very pretty once you began climbing in elevation. The large homes on display were scattered around the desert on this curvy and hilly desert landscape.  The Saguaro Cactus were larger and taller than I have seen them in other parts of Arizona and Mexico.

There was a scenic spot that we parked at along the way. We left the car and walked up the path to a  pretty vista to take a few pictures.

We arrived at our destination and paid our entry fee of 30 USD for an adult and 27 for a Senior. We began to hit the many exhibits. The gift shop was the best gift shop we've ever been in. It had multiple drawers of fossils and rocks that were individually priced and very good prices so that kept us entertained for quite a while. There was jewelry and t-shirts, the typical things in a gift shop plus more. There were two different art galleries and they were a nice walk-through in the AirCon, and there was a small aquarium that was quite congested with people so I didn't even go in.

We made the 2:30 show in the theater. There were two presenters that loved their muses. The first was an Arizona Gila-monster which is venomous. There was another larger lizard and then the male presenter presented two different Rattlesnakes. I am not into cold blooded creatures but it was still interesting.

The Gila-monster was on the table and they had a camera on her and it was put onto the large screen to get a more detailed view of this cold blooded creature, which I did not really need that.  The smaller the better when it comes to creepy things.

Arizona Rattlesnake

We continued onto the different displays outdoors. There was a pollinator station and I love me some bees, that was cool. It was 36 that day so we were always searching for shade

We walked to the Hummingbird Sanctuary and I was looking forward to this. I absolutely love hummingbirds but I could only spot three and so that was not that magnificent. I watched them off my balcony the first week in February in Palm Desert. That was glorious when they hovered close to your face for seconds. 

We then made our way to the Bird Aviary and although it was nice to sit and watch doves and ducks we only saw one stunning yellow bird. That was quite spectacular. There was a nice cool place to sit in the shade. 

Hummingbirds actually do sit still.

Not sure what was up with this Cactus?

Cute little Hummingbird

Yellow Backed Oriole

We made our way to exhibit 9 where the River Otters were supposed to be but they weren't there. That was disappointing because we love watching otters. Darren and I could be entertained watching otters for hours. The Beaver wasn't there either. 

The Stingray area was very deceptive, when you walked into it you had to pay more. We just walked out because we've seen stingrays in the wild and we didn't need to see them for 4 more American dollars. That also was disappointing. 

We continued on in the heat. There was a big desert loop that you can walk which is considered exhibit 7 but it was 36 degrees that day and we decided not to do that. That would have probably been an extra 5,000 steps which would have been nice if it was cooler. The desert grassland area and its animals. had a sad little deer the bears we could not see they were in hiding. They had euthanized the Mountain Lion.

They had a sign up about that. That was disappointing. We saw some Prairie Dogs which were cute. I'm sure they're very cute until you find them in your backyard, digging holes in your yard. 

We saw our first Black-Throated Magpie Jay which was a large incredibly beautiful bird with 12-in long tail feathers. It looked very similar to the Canadian Blue Jays with there coloring, but he had a spectacular feathered headdress and was twice as large. He was a highlight for us.

We continued on and saw the Mountain Goats which I felt sorry for. They were just sitting there panting in the hot sun and the description of the museum when we read it that morning gave you the illusion that they were these free roaming mountain goats climbing up mountains and they were fake rocks. 

Leaving the Park.

We walked along a cactus garden. Lots of little gardens spread throughout the area. It was a very pretty setting and lots of dappled shade here and there, but overall honestly we've been to 85 countries and that was hands down for both of us the worst zoo we had ever been to because of the lack of animals. They said to make sure you come in the morning which we did to see the animals out but so many of them were not there like literally not there.  It was overall disappointing especially for the price we paid but there were some highlights as mentioned. The drive there and back was spectacular. Very pretty, prettiest desert landscape I think we've ever driven in due to the copious amounts of large Saguaro Cacti.

The third day we drove to the San Xavier del Bac Mission about a half an hour from where we were staying in our Hilton timeshare. It is on Indian reserve land now and there is a big hill beside the Mission which you can climb up and around which we did that. It was very interesting to see the mission from far away because it does stand out with a very stark white in the desert landscape. The front entrance of the mission was under restoration, so it was covered over by a mock-up tarp. It's a very pretty Mission settled in 1692. There were croplands around the mission which probably originally belonged to the Mission or first established by the Mission. The church was old and beautiful.  You could not walk around in the courtyard area of the mission, which I found disappointing. It's not the best mission that we've ever been to, but it was interesting and worth the drive out.

Darren inside the Mission.  It had very thick adobe styled walls and as you can see very tiny hallways and doors.

One of the Chapels

Inside the old church.

The Architecture of the old Mission was beautiful.

The courtyard that we could not get into.

The Mission picture taken from up on the hill.

We took a drive up to Sentinel Peak to get a good view of Tucson and it was closed on Mondays and the gates were actually closed which didn't make any sense and it happened to be Monday. So then we drove back down to the Old historic area in the downtown of Tucson where the Old Courthouse is and Artisans have buildings set up with their studios and other historic buildings. But alas, everything was closed on Monday and we did not know this which was highly unusual for tourist areas. We did walk around the area and  take a few pictures and then we drove back to the timeshare. 

Colorful signage in Old Tucson.

The old Courthouse of Tucson completed in 1929.

Some of the surrounding fountains around the Courthouse.

All in all,  I'm glad that we went to Tucson and checked it off but we have no desire to return. It is not the prettiest city either. There is a lot of disparity in Tucson. We saw a lot of Meth Heads walking around with no teeth. There seemed to be a large drug problem in Tucson and a lot of poverty which obviously did not add to the beauty of the city.

On the day we left Tucson to drive back to PHX to pick up our friends we stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm. This was fun as we paid 12 each and received feed for the Ostriches which freak me out and they can bite. They look like dinosaurs. We fed Goats, Sheep, Tortoise, Chickens, Bunnies, Ducks, Donkeys, Rainbow Lorikeet and Parakeets.

Freaky Buggers.

Put asparagus in a close pin and feed them.

The Donkeys were super cute.

The Goat Penthouse where you had to work to feed them.

Bunnies everywhere.

The Rainbow Lorikeet were beautiful and also freaked me out by landing on me immediately trying to get the nectar that I wanted to feed them. They were screaming in my ear and they are bloody loud. They flip the little plastic lid off themselves. They are aggressive. We saw them in the wild last year in Australia and I watched them eat from a Breadfruit Tree for close to an hour. The birds were bigger and brighter in color in the wild which seemed backwards.

That killed over an hour for us and we enjoyed it.

Eating the nectar provided in the little plastic cup.

We arrived in the United States on January 30th and more or less vegetated for a few weeks.  We had just lost our beloved brother-in-law Bill on January 15th and we were still in a bit of shock.  It was also extremely hot for February in Palm Desert.  I originally booked Palm Desert for the month of February for hiking as we had experienced quite a few different hikes and were pumped to do more.  I had hurt my good knee hiking in the Azores in early January and my knee obviously needed to heal.

Sunnylands Art Exhibits, extensive gardens and short movie were all free and very enjoyable and the movie was very interesting.

We had 5 days of crap weather while in Palm Desert.

We had lots of snow in the mountains when it rained in Palm Desert.

Off my balcony.

Daxtin arrived for his February break and we had a record low in Palm Desert, we played a lot of ping pong, Pickle Ball and we took him to Joshua Tree National Park which is beautiful but we needed toques and mitts to hike that day which we did not have.  Dax and Darren golfed a few times and we visited Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage formally the winter home of the Annenberg family known as Camp David of the West and took Dax to Village Fest.

Dax posing with Marilyn in Downtown Palm Springs.  We had an hour to kill before the Musical Hair.

At Joshua Tree National Park.

At the Marriott Resort playing Jenga.

Lots of wildlife even at the resort.

The golf course on site had a ton of wild life to view.

Blue Heron

About 40 Turtles all sun bathing.

Chollo Cactus

Some pretty bushes.

The boulders are amazing at Joshua Tree.

Joshua Trees are very unusual looking.  Standing water in the desert in not a norm.

You can see the snow covered mountains from Joshua Tree.

This is the bud of a flower of the Joshua Tree.

Some perspective on the size of a Joshua Tree with Darren standing at the base.

The tallest Joshua Tree is now 42 feet.

The combo of the Joshua Tree and the rock formations are so breathtaking.  Visit the Visitor Center to explain how the rocks of Joshua Tree were formed, very interesting.

The rock formations are really fun to climb on too.

Back in Palm Springs, we took Dax for a Date Milkshake at The Windmill Market.  These shakes are so much better than the Date Farm.

With my cousin Shelley and her husband Darren and family in La Quinta.

We saw some friends that live in Palm Springs and we visited my cousin and her family who also have a home in Palm Springs.  Later in February we had two couples arrive for a week and we hung out with them and played lots of Pickle Ball and had a blast.  

Kollers, Dragans and Cannells

I am sure most pervs do this?

The mountains are everywhere in Arizona.  We had this view for 11 nights while at the Westin Kierland.

Pickle Ball singles is a lot of work.

A beautiful blooming Flowering Orchid Tree

Dragans and Cannells on our balcony at Marriott Desert Springs I

Darren and I went to an RV Show in Mesa at the Arizona Athletic Grounds.  It was a super hot day and we tended to bounce from air conditioned units only.  This was the size that I settled on if we were to purchase some day.

We moved on to Arizona in early March and it was record breaking heat waves for the whole month which curtailed our hiking options and this gave my knee more time to heal.  Darren and I played singles in Pickle Ball quite a few times and that was fun and a good workout.  We had more time in Arizona to come once we picked up the Libners.