Aussies visit Day 3

It was good that we went sightseeing yesterday rather than today.  It began to rain early in the morning and continued all day.  It wasn't a downpour but enough to make it nasty walking around outside without an umbrella.  We adjusted our plans and it was decided that we would visit the Arizona State Museum on the Univ of Arizona campus.

The museum is on the edge of the center of the campus and parking spaces are very difficult to find.  I managed to find a space at an one hour parking meter.  Once we were parked we walked a couple blocks to the museum and Gerry, Vivian and Patrick toured it.  I didn't sign up for the tour and waited for them in the lobby.  Since the metered parking had an 1 hour limit, I had to keep feeding it quarters.

Gerry took a number of photos in the museum and was very impressed with the pottery & display depicting early Indian life in the Arizona area.  She said some were very beautiful and delicate.

 

I stopped at a bar/cafe to get a coffee and also to find a dry place to sit down.  There was a Starbucks down the street but I don't like to spend my money on the high priced Starbucks coffee.  Well, my plain cup of coffee cost $2.50 at the "cheaper" place.  To add insult to injury the coffee wasn't any good.   Lesson learned.

This was the view from the car with the rain coming down heavier and a small river of water running down the street.  It looked like a neat area with a lot of small shops, restaurants and bars.  I think a trip down there for dinner one evening is in the cards.

Once the three musketeers returned we started further downtown to look over the "Old Pueblo" area but the rain would have made it miserable to walk around and view the buildings.  Vivian asked if there were any expensive homes in Tucson and when I mentioned the beautiful homes on the east side of Tucson, we changed course and headed for some house viewing.

There are a number of beautiful homes in the northeast section of Tucson at the base of the Santa Catalina mountains on the way to Mt Lemmon.  They are either $1 million homes or have million dollar views.  We took a number of photos but didn't want to invade everyone's privacy so limited the photos to the two below. 

 It was starting to get close to "happy hour" and we decided to take them to a local western bar.  Tucson McGraw's Cantina has a patio with a nice view looking south toward the Santa Rita mountains in the distance.  Once again the rain and cool weather forced us inside for our drinks.  It was meant to be a short visit so they could enjoy some of the local flavor and we moved on after one drink.

I think Patrick was ready to buy a 10 gallon hat and stay there but he was over ruled by the 3 of us.  He would make a good cowboy and looked ready to round up some doggies.

Nobody was ready for a large meal so we headed for another local bar/restaurant called Montgomery's.  They have good sandwiches and cold beer so it was easy to pick it.  Rueben sandwiches aren't common or available in Australia so they ordered one of them and also a fish and chips dinner.  Both were pleased with their meals and liked the atmosphere at the restaurant.  We had non-stop conversations and learned more about each other.

By this time, it was too late to do much and since they were leaving in the morning, we decided to call it time to return to the hotel.  We sat in a bar area at the hotel and enjoyed the fireplace and more conversations.  As a matter of fact, we closed the bar down and talked for a couple hours more.  Lots of catching up about the family and our lives, so conversation came easily.

We finally decided it was time for us to head home and let them catch some zzzzzzs.  It was after 11pm when we arrived back at the motorhome and we headed to bed.  Tired, but we had a great day.

That was our day, how was yours?

Aussies visit Day 2

We had made plans last night to go sightseeing in the Tucson area today and had an early start.  We met Vivian and Patrick at their hotel and started our adventure for the day.

First on the agenda was a visit to the San Xavier del Bac Mission south of Tucson.  We took a short cut through the Tohono O'Odoham Indian reservation and came in the back way.  It was a beautiful clear, sunny day perfect for taking pictures and we managed to take a number of them.

First picture up was of Vivian & Patrick standing in front of the Mission with a beautiful sky in the background.  We lucked out and were able to take the photo without a horde of people in the picture.

Early image of the Mission

We had to dodge two large tour groups in the church and patiently waited for the altar to be clear to take the photo below.  The outside entrance of the church is a replica of the backdrop of the altar.  The church is still in use after being completed in 1797.  Over the years they have added a courtyard and wall around the church and are still in the process of renovating the church. 

 Vivian, Patrick and Gerry checked out the nice museum at the mission and caught up with the history of the mission.

After leaving the Mission we continued south on I-19 to the Titan Missile site in Green Valley, AZ.  When the US and Russia reached an agreement to dismantle inter-continental missiles all the sites were closed down and many were destroyed.  The site at Green Valley was left as it was at the time of the closing, minus the warhead, and is open for tours.  Gerry and I have been on the tour a number of times and waited while Vivian & Patrick took the hour long tour.  They both seemed impressed with the site and were happy they had the opportunity to see it up close.

Then it was back toward Tucson and a visit to Saguaro West National Park.  We stopped in the visitor center so they would have an idea what was there and to read up on the park's history.   There are hundreds of 100+ year old saguaro cacti in the park and there is a dirt road leading through the area.   

Upon leaving the park we decided it was time to have an early dinner and I chose the Guadalajara Cafe for dinner.  We wanted them to have a typical Mexican dinner with salsa prepared right at the table and to be serenaded by a Mariachi Band.  Since it was also "happy hour", we enjoyed some adult beverages.  Flan was the dessert of choice and the three of them shared a large portion.

Since we were in downtown Tucson, we took them on a short tour of the area.  There has been a lot of road construction in the area and I had to keep my eyes on the road.  By this time everyone was on overload and we went back to their hotel and dropped them off.  All of us were worn out and needed to get to bed early.

It was a long day, but we had nonstop conversation on a variety of subjects.  Vivian and Patrick have traveled extensively and it was interesting hearing their views of the various places they have been.  We also were brought up to speed on family matters and daily life in Australia.  What a treat it has been to meet family from "Down Under"!

That was our fun day, how was yours?

The Aussies are in town!

I am an amateur genealogist and have been researching my family line for several years. About 17 years ago Gerry asked me if I could help her research some of her ancestors. My ancestors have been in the US for at least 140 years and some have been here since the 1650s so it was relatively easy to research them. However, Gerry's family came from Croatia & Bohemia during the early 1900s so it's been more difficult to trace them back.

She did get a break when, during a conversation with her Aunt Mary, it was revealed she had a letter from some relatives in Croatia. Of course, it was in Croatian and Gerry doesn't speak the language so she had it translated to English. She had an address of the relatives and decided to send them a letter seeking information on the family. Then she waited for a response. After about 6-8 weeks a letter arrived from a young girl named Melita who is the grand daughter of the lady to whom Gerry wrote. Luckily Melita was studying English in school and was very eager to practice her writing skills.

Gerry and Melita corresponded over the years and one letter mentioned some of the family had migrated to Australia after WWII. That was an important clue for us and since the surname wasn't that common, I got the brilliant idea to search in Australia for anyone with the surname. After all, there only about 23 million Australians so how could it go wrong. I chose to look up the name through the Australian phone books and came up with addresses for 6 possibilities.  Gerry wrote an exploratory letter to each person listed. The first letter that was answered was a miss, but they were nice enough to respond so that was fine. She hit the jackpot on the next letter and found the cousin who had moved to Sydney, Australia during the late 1940s. Their family data matched up and she communicated with him for many years, exchanging Christmas cards, letters, photos etc.

Now you may wonder why the above is important to this blog since many people communicate with relatives in different countries. Last year Gerry received the usual Christmas card and Vivian, the daughter of her cousin informed us that she and her husband Patrick would be vacationing in the US in December of 2014 and January 2015 and wanted to know if we would still be in Tucson in January. We actually had decided to not return this winter but when we knew they were coming to town, we changed our plans so we could meet them.  That is a nice feature of having a home on wheels.

The Aussies arrived on January 6 and we picked them up at the airport. Gerry had a picture of them so she could pick them out of the arriving passengers so that went well. Once they retrieved their luggage, she called me at the cell phone lot and I drove the car up to the arriving passengers area. They were standing on the curb with Gerry and I recognized them immediately.   Patrick and Vivian were finally in Tucson and we were happy to see them.

We all piled into the car and headed out to the Casino del Sol Hotel and Casino where they had booked a room for three nights. After dropping them off at the hotel we parked the car and waited for them in the lobby so we could chat and make some plans for the next few days. They are a delightful couple and have traveled extensively, so were eager to see what Tucson had to offer. After chatting for a couple hours and firming up plans for the next day we bid them goodnight so we could get an early start the next morning.

We did notice there were a number of RVs in the parking lot at the Casino and decided to check them out more closely. It was dry camping (no facilities ) and free. All in all there were around 35 RVs parked there with their slides out, jacks down, grills outside and some had their solar panels hooked up. It looked like the people were there for the duration. Since it was free, I imagine they will stay there for a long time. The local Walmart usually had 3-5 units parked overnite but they all leave in the morning so they don't take up parking spaces needed for the daily customers.

That was our day, how was yours?