Another sister visit!

Jada, their mom, Laura, and Leah 

at Tohono Chul Gardens.

Two days after my sister flew back home to Louisville, my sister-in-law and her two wonderful daughters visited me from Illinois! They couldn't stay long, so we packed in as much as we could in two days. I warned them to bring hats with brims to shield against the harsh desert sun.

Day 1: We toured the Tohono Chul Gardens to introduce them to our fabulous desert plants. They're from northern Illinois near the Wisconsin border, so it was very different from what they're used to.

That's Leah in the stream side garden. Below is a Mexican sunflower plant beside a pink stucco wall with an empty window frame. 

I love showing visitors the Mexican/Southwest architecture at Tohono Chul. It's always been my favorite type of design, even when I was a kid growing up in Pittsburgh and had only seen that style in pictures and on TV.

We capped off the day with margaritas and Mexican dinners at Guadalahara's!

Leah and Jada hiking along a dry desert wash.

During monsoon season it's a river.

Day 2: The temperature was going to hit the mid-90s by the afternoon, so we set off at 7 a.m. to hike at Catalina State Park. It was all new to Jada and Leah, although my sister-in-law had been to Arizona before.

We hiked among the saguaros, ocotillos, chollas, mesquite, desert shrubs, wildflowers, lizards and birds. Laura and I, below, are dwarfed by the towering saguaro cactuses.

Afterward, they headed to an outdoor market at St. Philips Plaza while I took a break from the sun. 

Then we escaped the searing heat with an hour and a half drive up to Mt. Lemmon. The temperatures there are always about 20 degrees cooler than in Tucson, so it was in the 70s with a nice breeze.

We went from 2,500 feet elevation to over 8,000 feet, which was like going from Mexico to Canada. Our ears popped a lot!

Jada was fearless as far as climbing onto rocks to get photos. But we all agreed we'd be pretty nervous about climbing like this woman who we watched anchor a rope on top of a rock tower and then rappel down.

We went from the Sonoran Desert at 3,000 feet elevation up through semi desert grasslands (4,000 feet), oak woodland and chaparral (5,000), pine-oak woodland (6,000), ponderosa pine forest (7,000), and mixed conifer forest (8,000). It was amazing how suddenly the saguaros stopped.

Mt. Lemmon is one of the "sky islands" in Arizona, and we bought a few souvenirs at the Sky Island Trading Co. in Summerhaven (population 71), the little village at the top. Sky islands are mountaintops surrounded by radically different lowland environments.

On the way back home we had an excellent early dinner at the Eclectic Cafe, one of my favorite Tucson restaurants. I forgot to get a picture. Then they collapsed at their hotel -- I don't know if they ever made it into the pool -- while I collapsed at home. 

I'll sure miss them. Come back again next year!

Have a colorful day