Life with Andrea

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.