We just spent a few of our forty days of Lent in the real desert. Last weekend we took a trip to Tucson, Arizona, to see our oldest son. The drive is about six hours, but other than a little traffic slowing us down leaving San Diego, the roads were wide open. We've been planning this trip for weeks, but kept pushing the dates back because of this and that, until finally we decided to make it happen, although the visit was a shorter than we would have liked. But we did have time to share a few meals, get out on a hike in the hills around the city, and spend time with our adult son and his fiancée. His apartment was tidy, if a little bare - my husband hung some pictures for him. And although the whole fam wasn't together, it's always comforting to have more of our group together than usual.
The dog was a great traveler. I was a little nervous about how the change of scenery would affect him, but he didn't seem phased. He's just happy to be with his people. And he didn't jump around in the car like this photo seems to suggest - he curled up in the back seat with the girls and slept the whole trip. This was just after a break at Dateland to get gas and snacks - our favorite oasis on the I-10 roadtrip.
Windmill farms on the way home.
Since our son's apartment is small, we stayed at Davis Montham Airforce base in their temporary lodgings. We had a little two bedroom house outfitted with a dog crate and dishes, and, to the delight of our youngest, it had a covered wagon at the playground.
AZ's state tree - the palo verde.
An ancient face ready to speak the wisdom of the Saguaro
At a certain elevation, we entered a new ecosystem, moving from desert to grassland with scruffy shrubbery. Another trail nearby with higher elevation shifts to a pine forest according to our future daughter-in-law, but we didn't have the time or willing participants for a longer hike.
Resting near the site of a "waterfall" or tiny trickle.
The sky really is blue here. The initial ascent was fairly steep.
No daffodils, but spring poppies were in bloom.
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