Arizona ~ January 25 - February 6, 2006

Here's some pictures from our family reunion & bead show in Arizona:

A scenic shot of the desert that stretches out for miles & miles, just outside of Tucson.  It's what I loved the most about Arizona - the desert.  It's so inhospitable & still so vibrant with life.  In the winter, it is hot (by my standards) during the day & at night, quite chilly.  There's no water and a lot of the vegetation is dormant right now, but everywhere there is still green ~ cacti, the small buds of the Mesquite shrubs & the green bark of the Palo Verde trees, the soft velvet leaves of the olive trees, weeds, Honeysuckle, Boganvia & the odd wild flower.  It hasn't rained there in over 100 days & still there is growth ~ amazing!  And the birds - so many birds!  Cactus wrens & long-tailed grackles, loads of doves & sparrows, hummingbirds, pigeons & small songbirds thriving in this prickly, harsh environment.  And there is something mystical about the desert - perhaps it's just that the environment seems foreign & strangely fantastic to me, but I get this tingly, exciting feeling when I'm out there - hard to explain. 

I really like this picture - but I had to shrink it down so it's hard to make out that the cactus closest to the front is missing a piece of the top of it.  There's just a black (charred?) ring instead of the cactus head - I think it might have been struck by lightning.  There's quite a few cacti around that have these missing tops.   

A whack-o-mole shot of my head popping up with that vast, dry desert in the background. 

One of our first days there, we went to the San Xavier Mission.  Unfortunately, one side of it is scaffold, but you still get the idea of how big & beautiful this building is.  It's called the "white dove of the desert" & was built in 1783.  After we walked through, we ate flat tacos cooked by a Mexican couple right in the parking lot & watched a roadrunner scurry across the landscape.

Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone

During a stretch of 6 years from 1878 to 1884, a large amount of the town's pioneers were buried in this graveyard.  Lots of outlaws & miners & gun shooting gamblers.  There's even a guy in here that was shot over the color of his shirt!  The McLaury brothers (featured in this photo) died as a result of the O.K. Corral battle.   

Here's a photo of my family (can you spot me?), we were suited up with raincoats & a flashlight

before going into the Bisbee Copper Mine!

And here we are on a trolley heading into the mine.  This is not the tour for a claustrophobic.

The mine was a very eerie experience, going deep through a tunnel in the side of a mountain.  I thought a lot about the miners that worked here, what it must have been like for them.  What were they thinking in the morning on their way to work, if they went to work in the morning?  I wondered if it bothered them that they wouldn't be able to see the sun, like it would bother me?  I wondered what it was like for them when they came out, if it was still light out or if the only light they ever saw was that of the moon - could anyone be happy in perpetual darkness?  The men that worked down here, worked by candlelight - what was it like to have your light source blow out inside the mine - sheer & utter darkness.  And the danger of dynamite & rock slides...it's a very eerie place.  Our tour guide is a retired miner - he was very factual, but he never talked about the emotional experience of being a miner. 

My cousin Shane looking a little unsure about the whole thing.

The coyote "money" shot - sans the netting.  Mom & I went to the Desert Museum just outside of Tucson when we first arrived & we also stopped in again on our last day there.  It's more like a zoo that showcases all of Arizona's animals & plants.  I really enjoyed it, accept some of the areas seemed rather small and uncomfortable for the animals to be living in.  For instance, this coyote was fenced in with netting - I would imagine he would prefer to roam free.  That being said, I saw a very squashed coyote on the freeway driving back up to Phoenix so maybe this guy is better off? 

A plumb groundhog enjoying the warmth of the sun as much as we were.

These are Javelinas - they're bristly boar-like creatures that roam around in the desert.  They remind me of warthogs & I think they're quite adorable!

This is a Gamble Quail perched up in a tree.  For some reason I thought quails never bothered with trees but rather spent most or all of their time on the ground foraging for seeds & whatnot.  I was wrong. He seemed quite content perched up in the tree.

Can you believe this shot?  A hummingbird sitting still long enough to get a good photo of him - this is a rarity indeed!  At the desert museum they have this fabulous walk-in bird aviary.  Mom & I sat in there for an hour at a time just watching all the birds flitter about.

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