Adventures in Arizona

I finally got together some of the pictures I took while in Arizona. I've grouped them according to topic, in some fashion, rather than the usual chronological order.

Birds

We saw quite a few birds, although the birding should be better in the spring. Here are a few shots. We had a pretty long visit from a Goshawk on the back patio gate. Another hawk of undetermined species perched on a neighbor's roof. While we were doing the final inspection of the house, a Roadrunner was quite friendly. Finally, we spotted this Cardinal at the feeder on the back fence.

Traveling around

Madera Canyon is one of the hiking places near Green Valley. David and Bonnie (shown with Amelia) came to visit us one weekend, and we took a trip up Madera Canyon and went on a little hike up the mountain. When we came back down to the entrance, I took a series of shots and stitched them together into this (135 degrees, more or less) panoramic view of below Green Valley (to the left) and toward the northeast (on the right). Incidentally, David and Bonnie are on a long trek, and David is documenting lots of it on his Blog. Back home, I took this late evening shot of one of the bell towers for the Presbyterian Church.

Becky came to visit, and among other things, we took a trip down to Tubac and then to the Mission San Jose Tumacacori. It is now a National Historic Park. Another shot from the right front and the rear, showing part of the graveyard. Tortillas were being served, and Amelia sampled them (so did I). On Sunday before escrow closed on the townhouse, we went for the final inspection. Here's Becky posing in front of the carport. In the arroyo just behind me is one hole of a golf course. Afterwards we went on a little drive to see the hills of sequaro, stopping to shoot a closeup of this one near the road. We stopped to see the Mission San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson. It is currently under restoration and part of it is surrounded by scaffolding.

After Becky left, Linda and Sandy came for a few days. After a bit of a whirlwind time, we took a little trip down to Nogales to sample the sights, sounds, and food and other things. Here's a shot of Linda coming out of a shop after a successful venture inside (she didn't buy anything!). Here's a shot of some of us at the, Elvira Restaurant, where the food was very good. Of course, they served us all tequila, and Sandy showed us how it is done. With that obvious recommendation, I tried it, I liked it, I liked (?) it. Enough of that.

Car show in Tubac

On the day we went to Tubac, the Santa Cruz Car Nuts had their annual show at the Tubac Golf Resort. There were around 400 cars there (including some late model ones, both customized and not, mostly uninteresting to me). However, there were a number of intereting cars, so here are a few shots (sorry, should have written down the years of some of them, but I didn't, and I don't want to take time to figure them out). I may have most of the makes right. Here's the Wedge, a home built car. This is a true mid-engine car - the engine is between the driver's and passenger's seats. Here is a nice Linclon Continental convertible. Also an eye-catcher is this postwar DeSoto convertible. Another eye-catcher was this late 1930s Plymouth pickup. A bit later model is this 1970s Volvo P1800. One later model (1983) car that I did find interesting, because it is pretty unusual, is this Avanti convertible. Down the line was another red convertible that I found quite interesting, because I have a white 1964 Valiant just like this one (well, except for all the rust on mine). This Corvair was interesting because Amelia had one just about like it when we got married (but I married her anyway). There's a little nostagia (not for me, personally, but...) in this Studebaker Starlite coupe. By far the oldest car at the meet was this 1903 Olvera, which looks a lot like a curved dash Oldsmobile. The owner, sitting behind the car, had an interesting story to tell me. When he first came to Green Valley to visit friends, they all immediately went to an open house nearby. While he talked to his friend out front, his wife went to look. She came back out and said (in so many words, I don't quote) let's buy this house. Elapsed time in Green Valley: 30 minutes. Oh yes, they bought the house. Another pair of unusual cars is the two Franklin automobiles that came down from the Franklin Museum in Tucson. But - FLASH - if you live nearer to Tucson than to Cazenovia, New York, get over there soon, because they are moving. As some might know, Amelia's maiden name is Franklin (not related, I suppose). While not real rare, it is always a treat to see a Ford retractible, 1959 I think. This 1930s Bow-Tie (Chevrolet) roadster looked might pretty. There was also this lime green (or is it seamist?) sibling of the earlier Lincoln Continental, this one a coupe. There were two tributes to Henry J Kaiser on display. Has anyone seen one of the Sears Roebuck versions lately? Here's a nice 1930s vintage four door Ford cabriolet getting some attention. Wrapping it all up, here is a fairly rare (around 50 produced) 1962 Ford Thunderbird Sports Roadster. I saw one of these at a show promoting the current Ford Thunderbird in Phoenix, Oregon several years ago.