San Xavier del Bac Mission
The San Xavier del Bac Mission
has been under (partial) restoration for
several years. On January 9 (Happy Birthday, Tanna and Hailey) they had an
"unvailing" of the finished restoration of the west tower, when they invited
photographers to come and take photos of it. We took the opportunity to
pretend I'm a photographer (I guess for this purpose only a camera was needed -
and no one was stopping anyone at the gate without a camera). Be that as it
may, I did take some interesting pictures. Here is a shot with the
restored west tower
in the foreground with the unrestored one to the right (that tower was never
finished). Backing off and moving to the right, this shows more of the
unrestored part. Just
focusing in on the right tower, it really does look
spectacular.
Here is a closer view
and a detail of the
ornamentation above the window. In contrast, here is a shot of the
unrestored left side
window and balcony. Here is the
bell tower just to the
west of the Mission. The moon was just over a day from being full, which led
to some nice moonshots. Here's one of the moon just above the
cross at the top of
mound just east of the Mission. And here is one with the
moon peaking through
an arch of the east tower.
Backyard visitor
On January 11 we had an unusual (but not unheard of) visitor in the backyard.
It was (we think) a
Goshawk (well, maybe it
was a Cooper's Hawk), who stayed around around for several minutes, changing
from one position
to another.
Nebraska visitor
In Mid-January we had a visit from my nephew Kent. He arrived Friday morning
and we immediately took him to the first stop (or at least should be) for all
visitors, the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. And
here he is, just inside
the entrance. After lunch we did our favorite thing, which is to watch the
raptor demonstration,
which now includes
raptor stops on the
overlook. The next day Kent and I went to
Tombstone where we
saw numerous commemorations of life (and death) in the old west. Here's Kent
in front of the OK Corral
and here he is holding up a stop sign in front of a slightly less sinister
place, the Courthouse.
After a visit to Bisbee, I dropped him off at an old (aren't we all?) high
school friend's house near Sierra Vista. I headed home in time to get some
nice sunset pictures
east of Sonoita. It stayed pretty
pretty for
quite a while.
Santa Cruz Carnuts Car Show in Tubac
Of course, I have to show you a few (well, put out there for you if want to
look) shots from the
car show in Tubac.
Only a few of the more than 500 cars
there, ones that attract me for one reason or another. First, a
1956 Dodge Custom Royal
four door sedan like the one Dad and Mom used to have, and being a young driver
also enjoyed on occasion. Theirs was three-tone, light blue, dark blue,
and white, though. Then, a twin-H power
1954 Hudson Hornet. I
threw the clutch (or maybe the rear axle, I forgot) out of a Hornet that was
two or three years earlier and belonged to an uncle. A very unusual car to
see anywhere is this
1952 Cunningham C4R
racecar. It was built by
Briggs Cunningham with
the idea of trying to win at LeMans (he did finish as high as third), and was
driven by some of the best drivers at the time, Phil Walters, John Fitch,
as well as Cunningham. (For you ocean racers, Cunningham had a career as
a yachtsman, too - he won the 1958 America's Cup). Except for his first cars,
powered by Cadillac, he used the then new and powerful Chrysler Hemi, suitably
modified for racing -
there we see the 8 carburetors. In another vein, here is one of the last of
the Edsels, a 1960 Ranger.
I have no personal history with that one. Here's one I sort of do. It is a
1951 Plymouth Suburban,
which I believe was based on the Concord model, the two door fastback version
of which (same color, about) my Grandfather had, and which I took to graduate
school over the hill to Salt Lake City and back a number of times. Back to
ones I have no connection to, here's a
1947 Studebaker pickup
that is certainly not in the color it was when it came out of the factory.
Here is a unusual car/engine combination, a
1934 Ford with a 392
cubic inch Chrysler Hemi (that would be a 1957 or 1958 engine, I think). Note
the bulge on the hood to make room for the valve cover. No personal experience
with this one either, but here is a
1910 IHC delivery.
Finally, here's a 1911
Model T, which won it's class.
Popcorn time
On February 5th, the "people that know how to do it" came to take down the
popcorn ceiling everywhere in our townhouse (except for the closets, bathrooms,
and kitchen, which the builder had the good sense not to do in the first
place). Needless to say, not only did I not want to do it myself, I didn't
even want to see it. Consequently, we took off for a visit around southeastern
Arizona, some of which we had never seen before. Our first stop was at the
Singing Winds Bookshop,
an out-of-the-way shop on a cattle ranch north of Benson. Amazing collection
of books, many I've never seen anywhere else. After that we headed south
to Benson for a quick lunch and some browsing around. After that we headed
to Douglas, where we had never been before. Just outside of Benson one can
look at the old
copper mine. Here's
another shot around a bit
to the right, and close
enough to the sun angle to make the picture look hazy.
In Douglas we only took a quick drive through the town and then it was time
to head north to our primary target of the afternoon, the
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area to see if we could see some wintering
sandhill cranes, and other birds as well. We weren't disappointed. We saw
quite a lot of
sandhill cranes on the
shore and later some
flying. There were
nowhere near as many as we have seen at the Bosque del Apache near Socorro,
nor do they seem to fly in and out here at reliable times as they do at the
Bosque. We also saw a number of other birds, including quite a few hawks
(but too far away to identify) and a vermillion flycatcher. On the way back
to Sierra Vista, where we stayed for two nights, we saw a nice
sunset and as you well
know that wasn't the only
picture I took.
The next morning we took off for a lengthy trip over some gravel roads. First
stop was going up the road toward Coronado Peak, where we stopped off at
the Coronado National Monument
headquarters. A bit further up the road, here is a shot back toward the
east-southeast showing San Jose Peak. The line going off in an easterly
direction in the center-left side of the picture is the US-Mexican border.
Further up we came to the pass below Coronado Peak, where we took a break
and I got a picture of
Amelia with our
destination (kind of) in the background. A bit further on we saw this
interesting rock
formation. After another 20 miles of gravel roads, we eventually reached
Parker Canyon Lake.
We had a picnic lunch there. We took the easy way out, going back to
Sierra Vista through Ft. Huachuca. The next day (Saturday) we went back to
climb Coronado Peak. The trail up the peak is basically easy, with much of
it being rudimentary steps
Here's a shot of the road
coming up from the east.
On the top, there is a
ramada where one can
rest in the heat of the day (or even when it's cold, actually). The background
is in Mexico. Here's another "Mexico in the background" shot, me with
San Jose Peak in the
background. Here's another
rudimentary step shot
I took on the way down. Finally, here's
Amelia and one of
her favorite trees.
Sabino Canyon
Last Saturday we took a drive to
Sabino Canyon.
The road to the end had been closed for several years, but is now open.
Open to the trams, that is. One can walk, ride a bike (some times), or take
the tram. Since we had never been to the top we rode the tram up. Here's a
shot along the way.
Here's an interesting
rock formation. Here are more
big rocks. About a third
of the way in from the left one can see a
"hole in the rock".
Partway down (most of the way down) we got off the tram and took a hike
through the canyon. Along the way we had a picnic. We saw this
deformed saguaro along
the way (it has a name - maybe I'll think of it later). We saw quite a few
small butterflies we had not seen before. They were sort of small and hard to
get close to, but I finally got this picture of
one, which I haven't
figured out the name of yet. Pretty one. Down a bit lower there were a
few saguaro. Far and
near.
The skies
Earlier this week I was up early and Saturn and Mercury were in the eastern
sky. I tried to get a picture, but if you seen
Mercury below Saturn in
this picture you have a better imagination than I. Tonight the
moon and Venus were
close in sky and I got this one, which shows both of them and some hand shake.