Gardens, Desert Museum and Tubac

With Linda at the Tucson Botanical Gardens

My friend Linda from Sumner, WA, is visiting for nine days and we hit the ground running. In the past three days, we've been to the Tucson Botanical Gardens, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the artsy town of Tubac. Tomorrow will be hiking and the Happy Saguaro, with more adventures in the following days.

Tucson Botanical Gardens

Spring has sprung at the gardens, with color everywhere! Above is a prickly pear and below are poppies against a purple wall.

There are probably dozens of varieties of irises blooming.

Linda means "beautiful" in Spanish, so here is Linda looking beautiful surrounded by spring green.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The day we decided to visit the Desert Museum, which is largely outdoors, is the day the rain clouds finally split open and dumped on Tucson after a long drought. 

A coyote posed beside our car on the way in.

The cactuses were exploding with flowers!

A dove was perched on a tree bursting with yellow blooms.

People who say the desert is just brown have never been to Tucson in the spring!

Tubac

The historic village of Tubac, south of Tucson, has become a destination for the arts, with galleries, shops, working artists and restaurants.

This colorful Mexican glass caught our attention. Linda bought a little pitcher to use for coffee cream ...

... and I bought a large Mexican Talavera pottery pitcher for iced tea.

Color, color, color surrounded us in Tubac.

Back home

Last night we decided to cook at home instead of going out. Linda got excited over prepping the tomatoes and mushrooms, which she roasted with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delicious!

And after dinner there was a double rainbow!

Have a colorful day