Christmas Day in Tucson

After present opening and listening to the new cd from The Capitol Steps, "Barackin' Around the Christmas Tree", we went to Sabino Canyon.  We weren't the only ones - could hardly find a parking space!  Look at all the people on the tram road!

For the 3rd Christmas  in a row we cooked "Cardamom Honey-glazed Roast Duck" on the rotisserie in the grill.  It was dark but I could stiil photo the turning duck.

And voilà (notice the spelling, Jil).

The recipe is from Arabesque, by Greg and Lucy Malouf.  It's one of my favorite cookbooks, although mine is the original version.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Christmas Present.

Christmas Past.

The zoo and the barn

Feeding the giraffe was great fun for Gus, but Faye wanted to keep the food for herself.

The horses at the barn weren't too interesting, but the tractor and the bobcat (motorized kind) were.

The Cape Cod McGuires visit Tucson!

As usual, morning started with coffee and Gus was very willing to help Grandpa Bart make coffee.

Faye loved Cactus, who proved to be a very tolerant kitty. 

There was daily swimming (I think the slide had warm water coming down).

Almost Complete

We re-arranged the living room and painted and recovered furniture.  The only missing pieces are 2 big pillow/cushions for the window seats - to make really good places to read.  They'll be ready in a couple of weeks.

Sorry, I forgot to make this one "large", but you can see the window-seat well.

Guess Who's in Tucson?

Who do you think all these people are waiting for?  This was the scene at Park Place Mall at about 4 pm Sunday.

Not the best picture in the world, but recognizable anway.  I guess when I get smiled at like this I get too excited to stand still. 

Lance is doing a 2-week training session in Tucson, with a book-signing appearance today at Border's.  It seems that Mt. Lemmon is good climbing practice..

Thanksgiving Pictures

Grandpa Bart took this great picture of Josie (and Dazzle) and Iz (and Annie).

I think this is simmilar to one of Jil's postings, but the next one was the first dress-up detail.

Catching Up (under threat of de-linking)

My last post was Oct. 24 and Wendy has threatened to de-link us from the Agreeable Sisters blog if there isn't some new activity for the Desert Grandparents. We had a great visit with Jerry Sawyer (of Jerry and Mary from Sunriver) November 13-15. Here we are during our 4 mile hike in Saguaro National Park (east)- can't see us too well, but that saguaro is pretty cool.

After the hike we went to Illusions Gallery and to the Tucson Art Museum to see an Ansel Adams exhibition. There were about 100 photos - many of which we had never seen. My favorite was the Golden Gate Bridge site, pre-bridge.

Here's the living room with both sofas finished - the window seats will be visible soon. Right now everything is moved all around for re-painting. Can't wait to see the new colors.

                                         I'll post pictures from Thanksgiving weekend next time.

Casa Malpais

Yesterday we visited another archaeological site, Casa Malpais; this one near Springerville, AZ. It is completely different in construction and location from any I have ever seen. It's built with lava rock on terraces created by a shield volcano's lava field. Even the grinding stones were lava rocks. It dates from the mid 13th to mid 14th centuries - there were earlier pit houses (700AD) near the lowest terrace. The site is about 1/2 mile from the Little Colorado River.







Our guide (only guided visits are permitted) thought this was a kiva although there had been no evidence of a roof when the site was researched in the 1990's - maybe just an open plaza area. Anyway, pretty cool.

Here is their seasonal calendar circle. It has openings that align with summer and winter soltice sunrise and sunsets. The alignment goes to petroglyphs on the lava cliffs behind where I'm standing. If you're interested in ancient celestial stuff, check out this link.

Meant to link Fort Apache too! Still figuring out how to do this.

Fort Apache

We've been staying at a Worldmark resort in Pinetop, AZ. This was our timeshare trade from the Calgary trip that was supposed to have happened in early August. Not the greatest area, but we've hiked a little and found some interesting places to visit. Fort Apache was one.

The fort is on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The fort, former Indian school (now a junior high school), and museum are all run by the White Mountain Apaches. There were several gowas (wickiups) near the museum. Here's one.

The visit also gave us permission to visit Kinishba, a pueblo-type complex of over 600 rooms. Although not ancestral to the Apache; they are protecting the ruins for the Zuni and Hopi people. My photo is one dimensional and doesn't convey the scope of the complex at all.

Catching Up - Next Post from the White Mountains

I went to Santa Barbara two weeks ago to help Leslie at a horse show. Look who got a chance to ride! It's Lucy riding Owen. She rode 2 different days - the last one for a half hour.

I was able to go to school one morning with Henry, Mae and Lucy. And I got a chance to see Wendy's garden. It's pretty impressive -even though it's fall.

When I got home there was more fabric to wash. This one's for the window seats in the living room. What do you think? There's actually some lime green in there too - it doesn't show.

One Sofa is Finished

One sofa is back and we think it looks really great! We have fabric for the window seats (cushiony) and we're doing some painting - all to add color. Looks as if we started in the right direction.

Do you remember Jerry and Mary Sawyer from Sunriver? I had brunch with Jerry last weekend when I was in Bend for my friend Emmy's wedding.

And today we were walking the tram raod in Sabino Canyon and we saw one deer, one coati and Pam Shriver. We were not paying much attention when we heard someone say, "Bart and Cindy McGuire!" Pretty shocking to see her here. She and two of her cousins were spending a couple of "girl days" at Canyon Ranch.

Sofas and Hiking and Tennis

We haven't done much exciting lately. We've been watching a lot of tennis. These don't look like sofas, but they will when this fabric gets put on the 2 couches in the living room. I hope they're as pretty as furniture as they are on the line. The fabric is a Sunbrella, made for outdoor furniture because it's sun-resistant. So we washed all the cut pieces to make them a little softer. It worked.

We took a 5 mile hike in the Tucson Mountains (west of Tucson toward the Desert Museum). I know the landscape doesn't look much different. It was pretty and it was hot. We came across this Desert Tortoise who looked like he/she? was hot too.

Back in Arizona

We're definitely back in Arizona! We took a walk up the tram road in Sabino Canyon and look who we came across. You should enlarge the picture to get a good look at the beautiful Black-Tailed Rattlesnake.

Schoolmarm the slow way - 2 hrs. 39 min.

Here are the Thomasons ready to start down. As you can see, it was a beautiful day for a hike.





Tillie found a good place to take a little rest.

We stopped for lunch and snacks. This is the snack stop. Check out the leg/arm warmers!

Everybody made it to the bottom and we headed straight to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - a nice reward for a 3 and 1/2 mile trek!

Cucumber Gulch August 16, 2009

We "hiked" about 2 and 1/2 miles here today. We left from the Breckenridge Nordic Center http://www.breckenridgenordic.com/breck_center.html and had great views of the ski runs at Breckenridge and of the Ten Mile Range. We were lucky enough to see a beaver dam too.

Cataract Lake August 15, 2009

Bart is doing well. We "hiked" around Cataract Lake in the White River National Forest. There was a waterfall that we walked way below and had a great walk around the lake (about 2 and 1/2 miles).