Observations for the Day (Hudson US Family Tour Edition – Part 2):
– We arrived in Tucson and met up with hubby’s brother and sister-in-law. I was so great to see them as they live in SoCal. We stayed in this most wonderful house with such interesting detail. The funny thing was that the house is very southwestern but as the owner lived in Hong Kong for a while, many of the decorations are Asian. Here is my first attempt at a picture gallery on this blog (you may have to click on it to make it start):
– The weather in Tucson was crazy – hot and very windy one day, cool the next and then hotter and windier the next few days. It blew desert pollen up our noses and we were all sinusy and sniffy. Hubby and SIL were the sickest with body aches and coughing. I, as usual, got a headache.
– Our oldest son is in the Air Force in Tucson and we got to visit with him, our daughter-in-law and this cutie – our youngest grandson Harrison.
– We toured around Saguaro National Park and saw bunches of cactus. There were a few things I’ve never seen before such as saguaro and ocotillo in bloom as pictured below. The kids used to call ocotillo “okie choky”. This was the cool day hence my jacket.
– Our house came with a pass to a resort and spa with pool access. It was pretty amazing. Here are some funky cacti we saw there with red fuzzy protrusions growing out of them.
– I am a Christmas ornament addict and here is one I picked up in Tucson:
– Here is hubby acting up. Surprisingly, alcohol was not involved:
– I was once again able to make my travels quilt related. We visited the Cactus Quilt Shop and they were very welcoming and friendly. I took a picture of a quilt hanging on the wall as well as the center square.
– I also bought some southwestern fabric that I knew I couldn’t get in Rome, GA. Not my style but hubby loves it, so I thought I’d make him a small quilt to use in his office.
– We popped into Wal-Mart since it’s an unspoken southern law that you have to go to Wal-Mart wherever you are. In Tucson, it’s so dadblamed hot that they actually have covered parking!
– There was this unusual plant at the house we were staying in. It looked like it was made of clay. I think it was a succulent and it was about 6 feet tall.
– Another something I’ve never seen before – a humming bird baby in a nest. This was outside our son’s house.
– My cancer pill gives me hot flashes and I ran out of liposomal vitamin C which seems to help, so I was glowing a bit more than usual. As we weren’t paying the power bill…..
– As our visit to Arizona came to a close, we began our adventure to Arcata, CA to see my sonshine which is always a thrill ride. To get to Arcata, we have to fly through San Francisco which is easily my candidate for hell on earth. It’s a 50/50 chance your flight will be delayed or cancelled. We woke up to a text message saying our Tucson flight was delayed an hour due to air traffic control at SFO. This would cause us to miss our connection to Arcata. Sigh! Same S*%@, different day.
– Hubby called United (our only choice for Arcata) and they wanted us to stay in Tucson for another night, fly out the next morning, wait at the airport all day and arrive in Arcata at midnight. I noped on that one as we would lose an entire day there. He told them that we’d take our regular flight, they could put us up at a hotel in San Fran and we’d take the first flight out in the morning. As such, we had to check our bags only to San Fran, so we’d have our toiletries and clean underwear.
– Arrived in SFO, walked toward baggage claim, passed the Arcata flight and low and behold – it was delayed! We got on it, our luggage didn’t. We were happy to see sonshine and friends and the hotel had a make-up remover towelette which was a plus and a toothbrush with about 8 bristles which was a minus. Our luggage arrived at 6am so we were able to face the day fresh and clean, complete with deodorant and clean undies.
– Part 3 – Humboldt County edition – coming soon!