Tubac Festival of the Arts

56th Annual Festival of the Arts

February 4 – 8, 2015 – 10 am – 5 pm daily

The 56^th annual Tubac Festival of the Arts, Arizona’s longest running festival, will be held on February 4 – 8, 2015 from 10 am to 5 pm each day; admission is free.
A juried show, the Tubac Festival of the Arts features 175 art booths with artists from around the country. The festival features a range of artwork from fine painting and sculpture to fun and functional ceramics, skillfully crafted wood and leatherworks and shimmering glass. Visitors will also see photography, unique jewelry, artful clothing and mixed media works.


Yesterday friends Ron & Dee asked us if we wanted to go to the Tubac Arts Festival today and we both readily agreed that would be great.  They picked us up around 10:00AM and we were on our way to Tubac.  It was a quick 45 mile trip down backroads and then I-19 south to Tubac.  As soon as we arrived I knew I was in trouble.  The close in parking lots were full and we snagged a spot on a ballfield 6-7 blocks from the beginning of the exhibits.  Thankfully there were numerous spots for me to rest my weary old body.

We managed to see most of the booths and Gerry picked up a couple gifts and also a ceramic soap dish.  She did manage to check out every jewelry booth along the way and there were a lot of them.

Not all the booths were jewelry spots and one of the nicer ones had  paintings on copper sheets.  They would look great in a house but wouldn't fit very well in our motorhome.

There were a lot of people at the Festival, but not as many as there will be Friday-Sunday.  It will be a zoo then with most likely twice as many people there.  Not us though!

We all saw what we came to see and decided to have lunch at Manuel's in Green Valley.  It is one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and we weren't disappointed today.  Rather than bore you with meal pictures I am only including Gerry and Dee's meals.  Yes, those are adult drinks on the table.  I had my usual beer and the others had margaritas. (plural for each).

It was very hot out there today and it was nice to find some shady spots to take a break.  As usual, there weren't any water fountains available.  We had a bottle of water and stopped for some soda and that helped a lot.

Thanks again Ron & Dee for the ride and company.  We had a great time.

Two Ts & a S (Tubac, Tumacacori & San Xavier Del Boc)

We were able to cross three more sightseeing places off the bucket list for Grant.  He had researched these on the internet and wanted to check them out before he left Tucson.  

TUMACACORI -  We headed for Tumacacori first since it was the longest drive from the motorhome.  Grant likes to know how far everything is and I guessed 25 miles away, but it was more like 50 miles away.  He noticed the longer drive.
 
The Tumacácori Mission was established in 1691 by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino. It was established one day before the Guevavi Mission, making it the oldest Jesuit mission site in southern Arizona. The mission was originally called San Cayetano de Tumacacori. It was established at an existing native O'odham or Sobaipuri settlement on the east side of the river.

After the Pima rebellion of 1751, the mission was moved to the present site on the west side of the Santa Cruz river and renamed San José de Tumacácori. Father Kino was a Jesuit missionary and was instrumental in the building of Mission in this area.  When Portugal, France and Spain withdrew the Jesuits from New Spain and other places, Franciscan missionaries took their place.  It was almost 75 years before the present day church was built.  Mexico made all non-Mexican born people depart after they gained their independence and by 1848, the mission was abandoned and began falling into severe disrepair. Preservation and stabilization efforts began in 1908 when the area was declared a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt and continue today.

The area was used by cattle ranchers as a corral, grazing and other uses for many years and many of the buildings were destroyed.  The graveyards were destroyed and it still remains a mystery where they were.  One small graveyard is behind the church, but over 375 recorded burials took place at Tumacacori.

Gerry & Grant

Homemade tortillas

Grant taking a closeup of Mexican Poppy

Side view of church and food storage area on right.

Typical O'odham Indian house with shade porch in front.

Front view of house

 TUBAC- History
Established in 1752 as a Spanish presidio, the first Spanish colonial garrison in what is now Arizona, Tubac was one of the stops on the Camino Real (the "Royal Road") from Mexico to the Spanish settlements in California.
Tubac's most famous Spanish resident was Juan Bautista de Anza. While stationed at Tubac (1760–1776), de Anza built the chapel of Santa Gertrudis, the foundations of which lie beneath today's St. Ann's Church.
Apaches attacked the town repeatedly in the 1840s, forcing the Sonoran Mexicans to abandon both Tumacacori and Tubac.
Tubac was the scene of a four-day siege in 1861, between Tubac's male population, Confederate militia and Apache warriors
Tubac is now an artsy town with a lot of craft goods, jewelry, paintings, clothing, etc. on sale in the many shops there.  We stopped there for lunch and to give Grant a chance to pick up some souvenirs for his mom & dad.  It would be easy to write a complete blog about Tubac, but that will have to be at another time.

Grant kissing a frog,  finally!

Pottery

 

A little of everything

Grant & Gerry looking for bargains.

 San Xavier Del Boc -  It was late in the afternoon by the time we got to San Xavier and they were closed for the day.  We did want Grant to see how beautiful the mission church was there, so we stopped by for a few minutes.  Once again, we did give it the time deserved to fully appreciate the beauty of the church.  I have photos from other visits and will do a blog on it later.

HISTORY
 The current church dates from the late 1700's, when Southern Arizona was part of New Spain. In 1783, Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velderrain was able to begin construction on the present structure using money borrowed from a Sonoran rancher. He hired an architect, Ignacio Gaona, and a large workforce of O'odham to create the present church.

Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Xavier became part of Mexico. The last resident Franciscan of the 19th Century departed in 1837. With the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, the Mission joined the United States. In 1859 San Xavier became part of the Diocese of Santa Fe. In 1866 Tucson became an incipient diocese and regular services were held at the Mission once again. Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet opened a school at the Mission in 1872. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity now teach at the school and reside in the convent. The Franciscans returned to the Mission in 1913.

Since it was Wednesday, Grant reminded us of the free pie at that restaurant.  He couldn't remember the name, but he did remember the free pie.  So, at the end of the long trip we stopped once again at the Village Inn and had dinner plus the pie.  Gerry's chicken pot pie left a lot to be desired and she returned it for another one.  It was ok, but not up to previous experience with their chicken pot pie.  They let us pick whatever pie we wanted from the menu as a way to compensate us and also comped a portion of the meal.  The real pies are shown below.

I'm a fast eater and the small piece of cherry pie was mine.  The other two pies slices were very rich and tasty.  Gerry brought half of hers home and Grant managed to finish his off.

That was our interesting, busy day, how was yours?

Tubac & Manuel's

All of us have some quirks and things about us that we can't explain.  Gerry and I like to keep track of when our odometer changes every 1,000 miles and especially for milestones.  I haven't bored you lately with this quirk, but feel obligated to report that our Saturn Vue has turned over 116,000 miles and is still running great.  Other than hail damage two years in a row it still looks good.

Gerry wanted a new pot to plant her Christmas cactus in since the old one was too small and tipped over very easily.  We took advantage of that need and drove down to Tubac to pick out a nice one.  There are a number of shops down there that have nice ceramic things and we like one that is off the main road.  They have a very nice selection and reasonable prices for a tourist area.  She found just what she was looking for and was on her way into the shop to pay for it when I captured the picture below.

Gerry checking out the wares.

Not sure what you would do with this one.

Fear the terps.  (U of MD mascot)

$30 for a  huge ristras

It is a beautiful drive down there through the desert and then onto Old Nogales highway.  Along the way you pass through very large pecan orchards and they are starting to loose their leaves for the winter.  The Walden family purchased 7,000 acres of land along the Santa Cruz river in 1948 and farmed cotton on the land.  In 1965 they planted pecan trees and are now one of the largest pecan producers in the U.S.  They are the principal suppliers of pecan to Europe along with sales throughout the world.

Green Valley pecan orchards on Old Nogales Highway

 The Santa Rita mountains are east of Tubac and are very rugged and steep ranges.  The sun was shining on the mountains in the late afternoon and highlighted the peaks.  

Santa Rita mountains.

 We had a difficult time on the way back trying to decide where to stop for dinner.  The three candidates were:  Village Inn (free pie Wednesday), Argenziano's (great Italian meals) and Manuel's in Green Valley.  Manuel's is an upscale Mexican restaurant with great authentic  Mexican food.  We've stopped there many times in the past and would put them just behind Guadalajara as one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in the Tucson area.  We both enjoyed our meals very much and they had cold Dos XX and margaritas to top the meal off.

When we turned on to Sahuarita road off of Old Nogales highway and drove a mile or so we could see the traffic light at Houghton rd and Sahuarita from about 8 miles away.  You truly can see forever out here in the desert.

We got home in time to watch a couple tv programs and see the Univ of Illinois beat Georgia Tech in basketball.  Each year they have the teams from the ACC and Big Ten play each other over 2 consecutive nights.  The games resulted in 6 wins for each conference with my Univ of MD team winning also.  Win win for me.  I hope this is going to be a good year for both Illinois and Maryland.