Thanksgiving weekend in Tucson with Miss Lauren

 The water in Tucson is awful. But the company is terrific! We stopped in Tucson, Arizona to visit with Josh's sister, Lauren, who is attending University of Arizona. She had the weekend off from school so we all could spend Thanksgiving together.

The Saguaro National Forest surrounds Tucson so we had several chances to go out in the rugged desert to take in all the beautiful scenery and check out the wide variety of cactus.

 Our first day out we drove up to Tanque Verde Waterfalls, which is actually just a stream most of the year until the floods. We drove all around up in the hills and finally stopped to hike a bit. It was beautiful! The Saguaro cactus were huge!! They are called the desert monarch because of their regal appearance. They don't start growing arms until they have been growing for at least 75 years. Some of the ones we saw were so large and had so many arms they had to have been hundreds of years old.

Josh and Lauren as a cactus.

After we hiked down to the stream, we lounged around for a while. Here is Josh and Lauren to left in this picture enjoying the beautiful weather.

Lauren being super bad ass!!!!! You're so rugged.

 We spent a while down by the water playing on the rocks and soaking up the sun. This area actually gets flooded in the spring, to the point where you cant even drive on the nearby roads. It was cold to Lauren but it was beautiful and warm to Josh and I. 70 degrees at 2pm is perfect weather in my eyes. However most of Tucson was bundled up in scarves and jackets.




Enjoying the sun!

  The first place Lauren took us to eat was a street cart that made amazing Sonoran Hot dogs. I had no idea what I was in for. They take hots dogs, wrap them in bacon, grill them, then top them with beans, onions, tomato, salsa, jalapenos, mustard, sour cream, and avocado. Yum! Pleasantly surprised. We went back again a few days later.

 Thanksgiving was just what I thought it would be like with someone in college. She had a turkey and potatoes. No pans or any sides but at least she had the turkey :)

We ended up going to the store and stocking her up on pans and seasonings. She'll be ready next time we come.

 Here is our beautiful hostess in front of the table. The turkey and the rest of dinner turned out great.

 Not only did she not have pans, but she also didn't have chairs. I thought it was a perfect thanksgiving though. Normally you would make your way to the couch after dinner to lay around. We got to eat on the couch with the table in front so we could lounge in between servings.

 We spent Black Friday laying around, watching movies, and eating lots of turkey sandwiches.
Then went out for Small Business Saturday. It was so much fun! We ran into these Aztec dancers and were able to sit around having a beer while they danced.

 We spent a lot of nights down on 4th street at the bars. Some how I forgot to take pictures. With the beer flowing and meeting all of Lauren's friends I guess I forgot, but I did make it home with the camera.

Here is a picture of Lauren pointing at her picture on a wall under a bridge. They took pictures of people in the street and made them into tiles. Her tile is at the top of the picture in the middle. She has her sunglasses on her head if you can see that close.

 One night, after it was dark, she took us to the only Catholic site in the America that is dedicated to an unconsecrated burial ground. According to legends a man was having an affair with a married woman and the husband killed the man. His body is buried here at the El Tiradito Shrine. There are a lot of different stories but they all sound about the same. Candles are always lit and you can come put your wishes in the wall and say your prayers. We all wrote a wish and stuck it in the wall.

 On Sunday we drove to Tombstone. Hello Wild West! We watched a shoot out in the street and saw covered wagons pulled by horses. It was definitely a tourist trap. Every store was filled with souvenirs. You can rent any number of movies to tell you the stories about Tombstone. Wyatt Earp was shot here.

 Here is Tombstone's old newspaper. It is now a museum. They say they called it the Epitaph because every tombstone needs an epitaph.

 Lauren sleeping on the way back. We all caught a cold on this trip. Stuffy noses and awful coughs didn't hold us back from being tourists though. We slept when we could and drank a lot of Theraflu.

 We went for a drive through the east side of the Saguaro National park. It was crazy!

 We took a ton of photo's! Once again though, the pictures don't do it justice. They were beautiful! All sorts of different cactus! There was more than 50 different species at the park.

 We were able to watch the sunset in the park. So many colors. Now I see why artists love it here.

I didn't see a lot of wildlife though. I guess you have to go out at night to see most of them.

We spent so much time running around to see all the great sites, eat all the traditional food, and drink as much as we could. Finally being sick caught up with us and we spent most of the last day napping.

Thank you Lauren for the great time! We love you!