Touring Tucson with Friends

On our first day with our friends from Laramie, we set off to the number one tourist destination in Tucson – the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, jam packed with all the flora and fauna of the area in its own natural setting.

This first picture is, to me, the appropriate beginning point in that it shows "the march" of the Saguaro cactus up the hill in the background while showing the variety of the rest of the landscape. [For the uninitiated, it's pronounced "Sah – wah - ro"]

Also for the uninitiated that strange looking tree is a Palo Verde, which when literally translated is "green stick," an apt description in that what leaves there are are so miniscule as to be unnoticeable.

This second picture is one of Clara with our friends (you'll perhaps see their faces later) looking at one of those Saguaros which basically only grow in the Tucson area.

Then we go to the walk-in aviary where the birds flit around inside a totally enclosed cage that you can walk through. Here's a quick sample of them.

















































A few more
observations and interesting photos from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. This first one shows some big horn sheep who stood immovable as if posing for a drawing class. Next is an unknown species of fish taken from an underground viewing post into a tank that also contained beaver and otter, neither of which photograph nicely.

Then we have the "flower" of a (mis-named) Century Plant – so called because it lives for several years (but not a century) before flowering; then it sends up this humongous "flower" which stands approximately eight to ten feet tall. The "flower" is prized as a decorative accessory in many Arizona homes, while the plant, as expected, dies immediately upon "flowering."

Lastly, we have a picture which I like just for the geometry of the shapes – it features a saguaro and an Arizona Yucca (Cactus.)