March 10, 2004 - 10:15 p.m.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Mountains rise like islands from the sea of sand and rock that is the Sonora Desert.
They are thousands of feet tall, jagged in some places, velvety smooth in others. There are no foothills, no gradual buildups; just a whole lot of flat land and then when you least expect it -- WHAM -- a mountain.
And the mountains have stubble, in the form of saguaro cacti, which, with their thin profile and upright branches on either side, look more like soldiers standing guard.
In the middle of the islands, floating somewhere out in the sea, lies Arizona's "Desert Museum." Museum is a bit of a misnomer as they've thrown in a zoo and botanical garden as well. Here, you can see every poisonous animal native to this region of the country, every nonpoisonous animal unique to the desert and just about every species of plant.
There are so many different breeds of cacti, my head has been spinning. My favorite visually is the saguaro, but in name and concept, I'm a fan of the jumping cholla. That's pronounced "hoya," like the Georgetown mascot.
The jumping cholla's spines are loosely connected to the plant, so one brush and everything you touch instantly pierces and adheres to you. Each spine is covered with hundreds of microscopic barbs, so once you've been stuck, removal is extremely painful. The plant is called "jumping" cholla because the spines separate so easily they appear to jump right off the plant, and some say if you get within less than an inch of them, they'll actually find your skin. What a delightfully angry little plant.
The museum has everything you could possibly want: ocelots, mountain lions, parrots, raptors, natural stones, rattlesnakes, scorpions, artwork, havelinas (little pig-looking things that are not pigs and smell much worse)... you name it, it's here.
I went into a hummingbird house and got so close to one it could have landed on my nose. I've never been that close to a hummingbird before --- it was amazing.
After the museum, we went to the University of Arizona, where Katie is getting a marketing degree. After a tour of the campus (which is beautiful) and a stop in the union, where I bought a T-shirt, mug and picked up a copy of their student newspaper, Tom and I drove back to Carefree.
I'd write about the sunset we saw, but I think that's worth another entry.
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