Family, Animals and Cactus in Tucson

We had a great time Tuesday exploring the Tucson Desert Museum with Tina and Vance, our niece and her husband.  They are spending this month in Arizona in the RV and we decided to meet at the museum.




I saw something new before we even paid our entrance fee.  A cell phone charging station!

Next, we saw these bronze statues of an adult javelina and 2 babies.

The museum has a number of Sonoran Desert native animals.  I sure wouldn't want to encounter this mountain lion on a hike.

This black bear would be equally as frightening.

This is a wolf.

Here is a cold, wet roadrunner.

A bobcat

This mountain sheep ram kept butting this log, then licking it.  We couldn't figure out why.

The Rufus hummingbird was one of several in the aviary.

Of course, a desert museum also includes cactus, lots and lots of cactus plants.

We were most impressed with the cactus gardens in Tucson.  The animals were interesting.  And we had an enjoyable lunch in the on-site grill.

Family Time

One of the great things about spending the winter in Arizona is the fact our son in Colorado loves to come here with his family for spring break. Wednesday night, they came to our place for dinner. Except for wind, the weather was beautiful and we sat outside for a while.



Afraid that the wind would blow our plates of food away, we came inside for the rest of the evening. Fourteen-year-old Kylie was in fashion with a stocking cap on her head while wearing shorts and a tank top. She loves to take pictures with her iPhone, especially selfies.



Her 8-year-old (going on 9) brother, John, also had a stocking cap.



They enjoy playing Old Maid.



Thursday we spent most of the day at the Phoenix Zoo. Here are the grandchildren in front of a large noodle.



The petting zoo was a highlight of our time at the zoo. Kylie enjoyed combing this goat. She even took a selfie of the goat!



This goat so wanted to be petted, he first cuddled up to me, then to John.



Grandson John and his siter both tried milking the plastic cow.



A living cow was preparing to give birth in a nearby stall, but we all decided not to wait around and watch.

The zoo here is wonderful and we had a good time walking to nearly all of the animal areas. There were a large number of turkey vultures. What interesting-looking heads they have.



Another exhibit had a different type of vulture. I only saw them from a distance and don't know what kind they are. But I don't think I would like to meet them up close!



Young John's favorite was the tortise. I didn't get a good photo of it, but I was able to get one of Kylie's favorite, the giraffe.



They sold snow cones in one snack stand. I think this young boy had his hair painted to advertise the different snow cone flavors.



Look at this sleeping female lion. She doesn't look very dangerous at this moment.



We were fascinated by these graceful gerenuks.



We were able to walk through an enclosed area with these small monkeys. They are so cute.



Who knew that elephants sleep on their side, just like horses? A little later, we saw her (him?) up walking around.





These warty pigs are a little scary looking. The zoo keepers spend a lot of time in close contact with the animals so they know humans are safe and so the keepers are able to examine the pigs and give them shots.







There were lots of other animals, but if you want to see them, you will have to make a trip there yourself. This blog is long enough.

Birds, Flowers and Perfume

Monday we returned to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve to see what new birds were in the area. It was a beautiful morning and we spotted a number of birds we hadn't seen there before (though none were totally new to us). This verdin is such a cute bird.



We saw lots of American avocets.



And watched two great blue herons (or the same one, twice) flying.





There were lots of ring-necked ducks.



This duck, which looks a lot like a mallard, has a head that is very dark purple. I don't know what it is.



All these birds bring out the humanoid avian watchers, as well.



Lots of plants were in bloom.



This fellow brought his alpaca for a stroll through the preserve paths. Certainly something we hadn't seen before.



So what, you ask, did perfume have to do with all of this? At VDO we have lots of citrus trees. Some still have fruit clinging to the branches, but the trees are also blooming and they smell sooooo good. We've never smelled this before and it is a real treat and a good reason to spend a warm March in the Phoenix Valley.

2012 in Review

Oh, the places we've been and the things we've seen! This year has truly been amazing.

In January, we left Arizona, headed for Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. We made a stop in Big Bend National Park, where we saw this raccoon and duck.



Then we continued to Santa Ana for two weeks of training to drive the big green tram around the refuge. We enjoyed giving the tours.



In February, we learned more about birding. At least 400 species of birds have been documented at Santa Ana, more than anywhere in the country other than the states of Arizona, Texas and California. This is a Northern Shoveler.



We learned about beer can chicken at the Smokin' on the Rio Grande BBQ Cookoff.



You can see many more birds if you check out my posts from late January and February.

In March (clockwise from top left) we spotted the scissors-tailed fly catcher, a raccoon in the trash dumpster, the colorful green jay, the fly catcher again, a screech owl camouflaged in a tree stump, and fallen trees blocking the tram route.



In April we visited the South Padre Island Birding Center, where we saw this little blue heron. Across the canal from where our RV was parked, we spotted these crested caracaras. John spotted this coral snake. We learned the warning, "red touches black, friend of Jack; red touches yellow, kills a fellow."



In May, we headed north to Colorado and beyond. The trip didn't start out very well. First, we had a flat tire on I-10, then our front landing gear failed. We made it to Albuquerque, where we had repairs done. In Colorado we watched John and Kylie in their sports events. We ended the month in Alberta, Canada, and saw great scenery on a visit to Waterton Lakes National Park.



In June we drove from Banff National Park to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We saw Lake Mistaya as we drove along the Icefields Parkway. The campground in Jasper National Park was full of cow elk and their calves. We saw a number of black and grizzly bears along the way, made a stop at the Signpost Forest in Dawson Creek, and watched the start of Yukon Quest, a 444-mile canoe and kayak race on the Yukon River.



We spent the month of July in Alaska, including a tour of Denali National Park and another through Kenai Fjords National Park. We rode the riverboat Discovery III out of Fairbanks; saw lots of wildlife, including sand hill cranes, caribou and moose; the volcano Mt. Redoubt; numerous bald eagles; a calving glacier; a puffin at the Seward Sea Life Center; Portage Glacier; and this great view of Mt. McKinley (Denali), the tallest mountain in North America.



August took us to Valdez, where we saw a bear in the campground and watched the salmon run upstream from the sea. Then we drove north out of Alaska, back through part of the Yukon, where we saw more great scenery. We then boarded an Alaska Marine Ferry that took us through the beautiful Inside Passage and back to the lower 48 at Bremerton, WA.



In September we stopped at Promontory Point National Monument in Utah to see a reenactment of the meeting of the rails on the transcontinental railroad. Then it was back to Colorado, where we spent time on their boat with Eric, Liz, Kylie and Eric, saw a beautiful sunset in Chatfield State Park and viewed great fall colors in the mountains.



In October, we returned to Arizona, where we saw more great sunsets, bought new chairs, enjoyed Oktober Fest, and dealt with a dead truck battery and later furnace problems.



In November, I spent time in the pottery shop at our resort. We went birding at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch, attended a historical festival and a chuck wagon cook off, and hiked in the desert. John completed three hiking sticks from diamond willow branches he obtained in Alaska.



This month, we have faced a couple of RV issues with the bed and TV, I did more work in the pottery studio, we enjoyed Christmas decorations at our resort and attended a concert at Organ Stop Pizza. The month ended with an unforgettable time at the Fiesta Bowl parade.



Over these months, we have spent good time with both new friends and old. Some of these folks we saw here in Arizona, some in Texas, others in Colorado. We also met family and friends as we traveled in Canada and Alaska. We met with RVing friends who are also relatives, Harry and Marilyn, and visited with John's sister Cindy and husband John in May and John's brother Tim and wife Diane and sister Kendal and husband John in late September. This month we attended an neighborhood party here at the resort with our neighbors.



As you can see, it has been an amazing year. We have been so blessed to live this life.