Change of Scenery

I spent the better part of last week in Tucson, Arizona.

As they have a number of times in the past, my sister Kath and her husband rented a place for a few weeks. As they have a number of times in the past, they invited me down for a slug of their getaway time.

This year, my sister Trish (the youngest sister, the one who’s still working full time) came along, too.

Whatever the season, it’s always nice to have a change of scenery. Especially if you’re enduring a New England winter.

Now, as this winter is going, there hasn’t been all that much to endure. But as weather patterns would happen, the days leading up to our trip were miserable. A snow-ice-sleet-rain-sleet-ice storm followed by a deepfreeze that turned the city into The Ice Palace. The high on deepfreeze Monday was 11 degrees, so we were definitely ready to roll come Wednesday.

Arizona, here we come!

Much of the Arizona terrain is monotonous: sun-baked, sandy,  brown and flat. And the terrain on the highway from Phoenix airport to Tucson is Arizona in spades. Sun-baked, sandy, brown and flat, interspersed with sunbaked, sandy, brown and flat towns, all along the way. Those towns…

I know that Springsteen was talking about New Jersey when he wrote “Born to Run,” but if ever a lyric applied, it would be to those Arizona towns:

Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap

And then you get to Tucson, which is plenty sun-baked, sandy, and brown – with some flat thrown in for good measure – but where there are hills and mountains and some truly stunning scenery. And if you’re looking for a change of scenery from New England, Tucson would be it.

What’s Tucson got going for it?

Gorgeous state parks, for one thing, where you can tramp around and ask yourself “how did anyone ever live here?” But indeed they did: indigenous people and ranchers. Nice hikes, including plenty that are easy-peasy and don’t include death-defying drops that scare the bejesus out of anyone with fear of heights.

Lots of different types of cacti, including one spiny one that kind of attacked me when I got a bit too close. But the best of their cacti is, of course, the saguaro, which becomes totally adorbs once it starts to spring arms. And sometimes breasts. And sometimes other body parts. And, when a bird nests in them, they have little eyes and/or mouths that make the cactus look like it has a little face.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a mostly outdoor museum with a wonderful raptor show – those birds can really zoom – and all sorts of wonderful flora and fauna you can observe. And if you’re lucky you get to see a javelina or two. Which we did.

Javelinas are peccaries, hoofed pig-like animals that are (along with the smiling saguaro and the road-runner) something of an Arizona mascot. They’re by no means relegated to outdoor museums. They are garbage marauders and roam around in gangs (mostly at night) looking for trash. In past trips, we’ve seen them on the grounds of the house we’re staying in. This time around, I wasn’t so lucky, but in the days before we arrived, Kath was taking a walk with their earlier houseguests and spotted a few strolling around the gated community mid day. (I made one purchase for myself on the trip: a Christmas ornament of a saguaro-as-Christmas-tree flanked by a javelina wearing a Santa cap. Oddly enough, it was made in the great state of Maine.)

The weather, unless you’re there in the dead of summer – and I wouldn’t be caught dead in Tucson in the dead of summer, where they get lots of 100 degree plus days. I know it’s a dry heat, but no thanks. But the weather in January is glorious: 50’s and 60’s. Sunny, sunny, sunny. Brilliant blue skies. It was nice to be able to sit outside and soak up the sun, hoping to get some to penetrate our bones and take it back to Boston with us.

What did we do in Tucson? A couple of hikes/museum visits. A trip to the arts town of Tubac, where there was some decent shopping and an excellent, ultra-authentic Mexican restaurant. (Best Margarita evuh! Tubac is about 20 miles from the Mexican border, and on the way back to Tucson, we had to pass through a border patrol/ICE checkpoint. We were waved through, but others were not so fortunate…No sign of the caravan, however.)

We hung around. We ate great food. We drank great wine. We laughed a lot.

A most excellent change of scenery.