Life with Andrea

saguaro national park

petroglyphs at saguaro national park

more petroglyphs.

inside the Mission San Xavier del Bac

Teddy bear cholla cactus

The only warm room at the Mission that day.

Mission garden.

Kartchner Caverns (photo from Wikimedia commons).

More about Tucson. Tuesday, we did go to the Arizona Desert Museum, and stopped by the wet side of the Saguaro National Park. The desert museum was cool - I had been told to go there by two friends, and because I am quiet and obedient, I did. Or even if not. And, it had lots of plants and info about them. We wandered around somewhat clueless until we finally found a docent - who answered our questions and then said, I’m leading a tour in 30 minutes if you want more info. So we went on his tour. He was great. We learned how to smell creosote bushes, and about different kinds of cacti which all look like saguaro but aren’t, and we saw javalina and cougar and a coupla owls - the elf owl is TINY and can hide behind a branch! The only roadrunner I saw on our trip was at this museum/zoo, but Bob saw TWO in the wild, which is not fair! :( . They had a raptor flight in which trainers let hawks go and they swooped over us, and across us, up very close. Bob has pictures, I may get some. Then we went to the national park, and did a short walk. short because the museum tired us out. But on that short walk, we went to Signal Hill, which had petroglyphs. They were definitely cool. And that night, we had ice cream sundaes, but you don’t care about that. Wednesday, we went to the other side of the national park, and took a real hike. We went towards Douglas Springs. I think we have something about Douglases. Douglas Creek, Douglas Falls, Douglas Springs. The first interesting thing about the walk was how close we were to the cactus. The trail was narrow, and there were these huge cactus all around us. Also small ones. Saguaro are maybe 30 feet tall. Cholla are 1--3 feet tall (and cute). Prickly Pear are from 1-5 feet tall. The mesquite trees are overhead - maybe 20 feet tall. Creosote about 5 feet. And other trees and bushes I don’t know. But we were right among them. They call it a forest, and that could only be true of the trees were bigger, for me. But there were certainly lots of kinds of plants. The ground was not covered, one could easily mistake the path for one of the empty gravelly bits, but there were plenty of things growing. I didn’t expect to find so many plants. We hiked up for a while. Bob saw a roadrunner (because he is greedy). We saw lots and lots of birds, but we don’t really know what they were (except the woodpecker at the end, I think it was a flicker, and some quail). They only sat for pictures when they were too far away for the photo to be any good. The mountains sat for pictures, but - those pictures are hard to interpret. But it was lovely. Full of wonderful views, and lots of plants, a few flowers, many many birds, squirrels and Bob’s roadrunner.

Tucson in December I am always depressed and cold and crabby and tired of rain by the end of Fall Quarter, so, being proactive, we got tickets to a sunny and warm place for the week following the end of Fall quarter. This fall in Portland was warm and sunny, up until December 1. Figures. And, we’ve come to Tucson, which started raining the day after we got here. Rain, and snow, and sleet. Our first activity was sleeted out. (A trip to Kitt Peak Observatory). We had a lovely drive up to Kitt Peak, though, and Bob took lots of great pictures. I took a few crummy ones, we’ll see what you get. Today, we went to Kartchner Caverns, which was also very cool. Inside the caves, about 70 degrees, so that was warm enough. But outside about 30 degrees, and so maybe “cool”. There were amazing cave formations, many on a food theme. Soda Straws are stalactites that are long and thin, and hollow in the middle. Guess what they look like? Fried Eggs are formations with one large crystal, darker, in the middle of the flat top of a stalagmite, surrounded by liquidy lighter-colored multiplicity of crystals. Guess what they look like? And there is a kind of “drapery” formation in three colors, which forms in sheets on the top of a cavern, which they call “bacon”. Also, there is a kind of soda straw which forms a bulb around it’s base (which means, the part attached to the ceiling), and then it tapers and gets thinner. They call those turnip straws (like soda straws only different). Guess what they look like? But, in general, it was fantastic. There were colors of red, blueish, yellowish, milky white, and yellowy off-white. Some of them were absolutely fantastic. We followed that up by a trip to the Mission San Xavier del Bac, which was wonderful. It had all the elaborate ornamentation you’d expect in a cathedral, but rather than being tile, it was painted. There were statues, and carvings, and paintings, painted ceilings as well as walls and archways, it was just great. There was a courtyard that was paved with stones and ringed by arches - probably like a promenade ground. And there was a tiny garden/courtyard near a place they put candles for memorials - I forget what Catholics call their candles. The special room for the candles was a separate building, and it had hundreds of candles. THat was the only room I had been warm in ALL DAY, our hotel room not excepted. Candles do work to heat up a place - you get enough of them and the btus add up. Tomorrow, we’re going to the Saguaro national park, and to an outdoor museum. Let you know more about it all soon.

Springtime in February 

It really is not supposed to be 63 degrees and sunny for three or four days in a row in February.  I'm not complaining exactly, but this is not real.
The daffodils are up.  Our crocuses are past their prime.  I've got flowers on the flowering quince, and leaves on the currant.  The forsythia is budding.  Does this SOUND like February?
My friends and family on the east coast are suffering through another blizzard - I spoke with one friend today who said she had -6 degrees today, and her pipes were frozen.  She's got about 35 inches of snow.  And I need to mow the lawn.

Anyway, we have had a lovely weekend.  Yesterday, Bob and I met our friend Jerry Porter and we walked up the lower Macleay trail from the city to the Audubon center.  Then, we met several birds, one of whom spoke with us in a very erudite manner.  He one is not supposed to encourage semiwild ravens to talk, but when he says "Hi Ari", it's hard not to say "Hi" back.

Several of the birds were out of their cages.  I really liked the falcon, possibly a peregrine falcon, very pretty.  After we saw the birds, we walked through some trails.  There was a pond - and at the pond, there were newts!  I have never seen a salamander or a newt.  Turns out newts are a type of small salamander - so not all salamanders are newts, but all newts are salamanders.  They live in the water and look like chameleons, but they're not lizards.  So says Jerry, very insistently.   It's hard to see him in the water, but he's just about in the center of the picture.  We saw SEVERAL of them, in different places in the pond.  

So, SAturday, we took a walk and we had lunch in Portland, and we were tired.  But, that does not mean we are done - because the weather continues to be lovely.  Today, we walked along a new part of Burnt Bridge Creek Trail (new to us).  We took Baxter with us today (dogs are not welcome at Audobon but they are on today's trails).  At one point, we saw a pond - new and hitherto unexplored by gillaspys.  So, we walked around it a bit, Baxter got uncomfortable when he had to jump over a rivulet.  There were lots of ducks.  I looked for newts, but of course I did not have the patience to look hard, and so I did not see any.  Still, it was lovely and sunny and new to us, and we all enjoyed onr SECOND day in a row in the sunshine!

This last picture is of part of the "stone house" on the Macleay trail in Forest Park.  Someone had set up pretties - incense and scarves and candlesticks.  It has no roof, but it makes a nice landmark and resting spot.

We went to visit Elizabeth for Christmas.
She lives in Boulder, and the elevation is significant - something like 5200 feet, one mile ish.  It gave me a headache the first day or two, but that's pretty standard.
The second day - headaches notwithstanding - we drove to an XC ski place, Eldora, which was about 45 minutes out of town.  I had to sit in back behind Bob with my eyes shut, because I knew the road would scare me - and I'd worry about slipping in the snow.  Soren said, at one point - Oh, I can't believe how we've gone from no snow to LOTS of snow - which was not what I wanted to hear!  not while we were driving.  But, Bob got us there safely, and everyone laughed at me.  Both good things.
We skiied for a few hours, and then Andrea, Bob & Soren walked around while Elizabeth and Javi skiied some more.  It was a very pretty place.
Eventually, Bob drove us home - and I sat in back with my eyes closed again.


Another day, we went for a hike near Boulder.  It was a pretty hike - but I had on the wrong shoes.  EVeryone but me went for a 4 mile hike, I just did 1.5 or so.  And, then Cait decided to look for something.  So, we waited and waited and waited for her.  Everyone else came back, but Cait did not. It started to snow.  It continued snowing.   We waited at 3 exits to the trail, and after an hour she called us - on a phone borrowed from a stranger - to say where she was.  AARGH.  But, after all, everyone was safe, if cold.  Soren says - I'm not going hiking with Cait again unless she brings her phone!

And another day, we went for a walk IN Boulder.  Still pretty.  We saw a snowman made with the 8 inches of snow that fell.  And we went to "the imitation game" about Alan Turing.  Very good movie.  Very good snow.  Very good town.

Christmas happened in there someplace.  We were all together, we did things together, we had adventures together, and we all survived. What more could one ask for Christmas?

A few more interesting things happened in Azerbaijan before I left.

First, I finally got to see inside the main part of a mosque.  I did not GO in, because that's verboten, but I stood outside, and took a picture of the inside of the dome.  All the insides are beautiful - I wish I could go in one and spend time there.  Even Marc couldn't take a picture when he was inside, though.  Still, I have this picture.


And, as I was walking around at night, I took a few pictures of things. Everything is lit up in Baku.  Fountains, streets, even the outsides of buildings.

 Anne said that, while you may own the INSIDE of your building, the outsides all belong to the President.  And if he says it's time for a light show, it's time for a light show.  The lights go on at night, and they get turned off about midnight.  So, in their area, there are street chandeliers, and exterior lights, the clock tower lights.  This picture is right outside Anne and Marc's apartment.


You can read by the lights of the city.  I guess that's what it means to live in an oil rich state - the president can burn electricity and not care.

And the last exciting thing I did was go to the modern art museum.  I"m not a big fan of modern art, but some of it was very interesting.  I even have a favorite Azeri artist now!  Mikail Abdurakminov.  And, there were some funny pictures, (the watermelon lady) and some great sculptures (the not really a fish).  I have more on facebook than here.

On the last day, I decided I would read some of the comments other people had made about Azerbaijan, because Anne told me there's an online ex-pat community, and I thought I'd check it out.  It does not seem that people who live there are as kind to the country as they might be.  People complain about how expensive it it - one post said, if you want to have even a passable apartment, it will set you back 1500 euros a month.  His version of "passable" was the apartment Anne and Marc had - in the "Times Square" area.  They've got marble floors, or parquet wood.  They've got air conditioning.  They have electricity and wi-fi and all the things you'd expect in the states.  This is NOT a first world country - and yet their apartment is so posh it has everything.  And the posting person was complaining that it would cost such a lot of money.  Well, it should!  It's an elegant place and an elegant apartment.

Another complaint was about the stores.  I meant to take a picture of the food store, and I just didn't.  The ex-pat referred to them as "convenience stores".  Well, the stores are markets.  They seem to have EVERYTHING.  It's all jammed into a tiny space.  The shelves go up to the ceiling, and you don't have lots of choices, but if you want it, it's there.  They only have one kind of coffee, but they have 30 kinds of tea.  They have fresh vegetables every day.  The have a real butcher counter - where the butcher cuts it up and serves you directly.  And the meat is fresh.  I found batteries and dish soap and crackers and candy and dairy stuff and meat and rice and noodles and everything one would expect in an American store - it was all stuffed in there.  Not as much choice, but all the things.  And constant service.  Everyone happy to help you.

Anyway, this is the end of Baku for me.  I had a wonderful visit.  I think it would be a great place to live - if only I could learn the language and find a job there!

But it’s interesting, and old, and a landmark of the city.   I got this picture from an Azeri travel site. Traveler.AZ