We spent early Sunday morning exploring more in the back yard and neighborhood. After several servings of breakfast (the two-hour time difference took a day or two to adjust to), Lisa and I left the girls with Uncle Ted and headed to the Southwest Indian Art Fair at UofA Tucson. We had a lovely time looking at beautiful art and amazing jewelry, though we were well behaved and returned home with only Kettle Korn. Maia and Cecily were pretty much where we left them, digging in the dirt in the backyard. Apparently, though, they had done a much more extensive excavation in our absence, filling the deep holes back in just as we returned.
Monday morning I went for an entertaining run in the desert (it's great for my running confidence to be the youngest runner by at least 30 years!). After a quick shower, we all piled into the car and headed out on an all-day adventure. Our first stop was the Mission San Xavier del Bac. (To get a detailed history, please click here.) It was a gorgeous day, and the church was stunning.
We climbed a short hill to get a better view of the mountains and surrounding alfalfa fields (we were surprised by the green fields!) and encountered this lovely lion.
Cecily was delighted to stretch her legs:
Maia was a little nervous about falling off the edge:
A view of the mission from the hill:
After our walk and tour of the church, we climbed back into the car and headed south to Tubac, a town just 25 miles (or so) north of the Mexican border. We had a delicious lunch at the nearby Wisdom's Cafe (though Maia was the only one of the three of us who got to try the "world famous" fruit burrito) and then headed to the galleries and shops of Tubac. It turns out that it is very good to be a cool little kid in a place filled with grandparents missing their grandchildren. We could barely walk two feet without someone stopping to ask them where they were from, what they thought of the desert, would they like a few pennies for the candy store... In one shop, the delighted shop owner handed them each a Sacajawea Dollar and was then regaled by her history as Maia had just finished a biography of her prior to our trip. I purchased my one souvenir from the trip, a beautiful necklace of blue lapis. We also found our souvenir for Sean, fresh spices for all the fish he'll be catching (and cooking outside on the grill!) this summer. We were also able to knock off a few more license plates in our attempt to see all 50 license plates (we started this just after Thanksgiving on our drive home from Rochester when we spotted Hawaii in the next lane. Turns out, there's an App for that! Though, unfairly, it counts Washington DC). We were parked between North Dakota and West Virginia, woo!
Exhausted and hot, we climbed back into the car one last time and headed north. About 15 minutes into our drive, we had to go through the Border Patrol. Ours was a fast and easy experience, but nonetheless an eye-opening experience. In any event, we all slept well after a long and fun day.
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