After a quick shopping trip at Tucson Mall and a visit to
the Cheesecake Factory in the morning, we went to the Old Tuscan Studios.
Sadly, they were not open, but it was a bit annoying that they were doing a
bait and switch. When we arrived the gates were open and one of the buildings
had a big sign saying “YES, we are OPEN”. So we put on sunscreen, gathered up
all our things, put on hats etc and headed out. When we went in it turned out
that the Studio was closed but it was the gift shop that was open. So you can’t
tour the studio, but you can buy an overpriced T-Shirt that says you did. True
story.
So we spent the rest of the day today at Arizona Sonora
Desert Museum. It is a mix of museum, Wildlife Park and botanical gardens. It
is very well set out, with a walking trail that led us through the park. We saw
mountain lions, a bear, big horned sheep, desert tortoises, and prairie dogs
(ALLAN! ALLAN! ALLAN!).
There was a history of Arizona landscape exhibit, gemstones
and a cactus garden. Seriously, everything in the cactus garden could kill you.
The cactus are named things like Baja Fire and Creeping Devil. There is the
rather sweet sounding Teddy Bear Cholla, which looks furry from a distance.
Then you get close and realise that…THE SPINES ARE SO CLOSE TOGETHER THEY LOOK
LIKE FUR. It’s creepier than a tarantula (they had those too). And snakes, fish
and amphibians.
They had a great otter and beaver habitat, with a glass viewing
window into the beavers den. One of the beavers was nomming on watermelon,
holding it up in his little paws. Cute!
There was a walk in aviary and also a hummingbird habitat.
They are tiny, but fly so fast you can’t see them properly, you just hear a
buzz as they zip past.
Driving to the RV Park we saw a roadrunner race across the
road. They are about the size of our bush hens back home, but with a long tail
and sandy coloured.
It’s really hot here. Someone told us that summer can get to
118F which is nearly 48C. Scary hot.
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