Exploring the area around Tucson

Wednesday, July3, 2013
San Xavier Mission, De Grazia Gallery, Sabino Canyon

We are still on Tampa time, so getting up at around four or four-thirty seems pretty normal!  Our goal is to be up and dressed before Auntie Edna's son, Jim, and his family come to collect her.  They are going to Laughlin for the Fourth of July fun and games.  And we nearly make it!  We're sitting on her back patio enjoying coffee and home-made scones when they arrive!  Lots of chit chat and catching up and they're off!

Here's Auntie Edna and part of her family

We take a few more minutes on the patio and find that a cottontail is cruising the backyard!  The poor little guy seems to be trying to find his way out and our presence has quite disturbed him!  A quick photo and we go back inside to allow him to escape!

We've got several items on today's agenda, but they are all fairly local so it's okay that we don't hit the road until about nine-thirty.  We've got yogurt and grapefruit sections and watermelon that Auntie Edna laid in for us;  she's been feeding us like royalty and it will continue even though she's gone!  She made so much chicken for lunch yesterday that we will get at least two more meals out of it!  We load up our lunch and LOTS of water and head for the San Xavier mission

More beautiful roadside art!

The three-hundred year old building is a remarkable Spanish Catholic mission built on the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation.  In addition to the building there is a small hill with a shrine on the top, guarded by stone lions, and topped with a large, white, wooden crosss, and a mission school.  The school bears the Man in a Maze symbol whick represents man's journey from birth at the opening of the maze (really a labyrinth) to death at its dark center.

The grounds, of course, have many beautiful cacti and are populated by dozens of adorable ground squirrels.  Maybe there are hundreds!  Who knows?

From the hill you can see a field in which people have used stones to spell out names and initials to wish peace and blessing for those named.  One thoughtful person made such a wish for "YOU"!

The interior dates back to the construction of the building and is extremely ornate.  It reminds me a bit of the cave churches in Turkey, in that the artwork is a bit primitive.  There is a replica of St. Francis to which the faithful affix small tokens and prayers in hopes of alleviating their own or a loved one's suffering.

 From the mission we headed for a gallery and chapel belonging to a famous artist of the area, Ted De Grazia. There is both a permanent and rotating collection and visitors can also view his grave, his home and the chapel which he built to honor Father Kino and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

This mourning dove chased off the little bird (finch??) who was dining on the cactus fruit.  What a bully!

Papago Legend Monster, 1975, oil on canvas

Driving anywhere is this fantastic state yields the most surprising views, like these tall palm trees against a background of majestic mountains!

and of course the cacti are everywhere!

We round out our day with a trip to Sabino Canyon.  As you would expect after a month of temperatures over one hundred degrees, there is precious little water in the canyon, but the biodiversity is still quite amazing!  Yucca are in bloom, the cottonwoods shimmer in the slightest breeze, the black-trunked mesquite are so unique!

We take the narrated tram ride to the end of the canyon and back and our guide, Cindy, is kind enough to take our photo and to point out the most amazing find of the day!  Look at the mask in the rock!!

As we hop of the tram, a road runner scurries by and we follow, cameras at the ready!  He has either a mate of a youngster with him, which doubles our chances of getting photos!

On the way home we stop for finch food for the little guys in the back yard and for some staples for us at the first food store we find.  It's a farmers' market and I couldn't resist this t-shirt!

Home for yummy leftovers and planning for tomorrow!