Movies, Brews, Rocks, Art and a little exercise

We’re still camped at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.  We’ve done a lot over the last few weeks that deserve individual posts.  Instead -- and to catch up -- I’ll do some bullet points.

--We’ve seen seven movies: Birdman, Cake, The Theory of Everything, Boyhood, Whiplash, The Imitation Game, and Two Days One Night.  My favs were The Imitation Game and the Theory of Everything; interesting stories about real people. Jim votes for Whiplash, period.  He said it was entertaining, engaging and just plain held his interest the entire time. Birdman gave me a literal headache because of the cinematography. I googled “Birdmand and motion sickness” after the movie, and apparently I’m not the only one.

---Brew Pub Hopping: For Valentine's Day we went to a new restaurant/pub called Yard House at nearby Park Place Mall. Yard House is big, pretty, and has 140 beers on tap and a good menu. Their house beer is Unita, brewed in our adopted home town of Salt Lake City. Jim says from now on when I go to the mall, he will happily tag along.

We also visited Sentinel Peak Brewery, which has only been in Tucson about a year -- it's in a strip mall and had good food and a good selection; Dragoon Tap house, which has a modern industrial look and fun atmosphere; and 1702, with a knowledgeable staff and an attached "bottle shop" that was closed the day we stopped by -- but they opened it just for us. And, of course, we've made a couple return trips to our favorite, Barrio Brewing, where Jim recommends their house IPA (of course) and the fish tacos.

--We’re still working out at the Air Force base rec center. Jim goes every single day; he doesn't miss unless we’ve got some all day activity planned.  Probably a good idea for both of us, considering the beer.

--Bev attended the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase, generally called the “Gem Show.” It’s a big rocks-and-beads-of-all-kinds extravaganza held two weeks every winter in 40 Tucson locations. It draws people from all over the world.

Two years ago I wandered some aisles, purchased a packet of garnets, and almost got vertigo from all the people and stuff. This year I took a wire wrapping class.

---We went to DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, a ten-acre historic site that was once the home, studio and gallery of Arizona native Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia. The gallery has six permanent collections and rotates another 15,000 pieces through it's 13-room gallery.  Beautiful place and worth a visit.

A few sights from DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun.  A beautiful place featuring lovely things, inside and out.

Jim wanders through one of the 13 rooms of painting, sculptures, and more at DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun.  Ted DeGrazia was born in Arizona to Italian immigrant parents; the family moved back to Italy when the copper mine where Ted's father worked closed. They returned to the US when Ted was a teenager and he started school all over again because he could no longer speak English.  He graduated from high school at age 23. Ted also graduated from the University of Arizona with a masters in art education, studied with Diego Rivera, and became a Renaissance man skilled in painting, sculpture, composing, acting, directing, architecture, jewelry design. and lithography. He died in  1982 at age 73.

Jim at Tucson's Yard House at Park Place Mall on Valentines Day.  The nearly empty glasses in the front are Bev's. (They were one-ounce samples, really.)

The pendant Bev made at a Tucson Gem Show class.  My verdict:  The class gave me some skills to improve upon. Our instructor, Rhonda Chase, provided a good internet tutorial here.

Hugh Norris Trail, Saguaro National Park West, Tucson

We (Jim in particular) needed a break from the Super Bowl Blues, so Monday we hiked a trail we’ve been meaning to revisit: the Hugh Norris Trail at Saguaro National Park.

Two years ago we hiked the first mile then turned around, as we weren't planning on a long hike that day and hadn’t taken water or food. And you need some sustenance for this hike because that first mile is a staircase.

This time we still didn't trek the entire ten-mile round trip trail either, but we did hike a four miles out and back section. We passed a handful of people near the bottom of the trail but most of the time there was no one else in sight. Nice.

Elevation at the end of the hike (Wasson Peak) is 4687 feet. When we turned around at two miles in, we'd already reached 3,600 per my iPhone ap.

The path is named after a former police officer for the Tohono O'odham Indians. If you ever go, be advised that  parking is extremely limited -- only four spaces at the trail head (we nabbed one of those) and just a few more nearby spots.   

Steps and more steps:  We read a description of this hike that said it was "like hiking a never-ending staircase" -- but the step steps cover just the first mile of the five mile one-way hike.  Apparently the last bit of the hike is also steep, but we didn't get that far. A Visitors' Center employee told us that while the granite steps match the look of nearby granite (including the crushed granite that covered all of the section we hiked), the rock is not from the park and the steps were installed within the last 20 years. 

We had views of beautiful giant saguaros, the mountains, and the Sonoran desert that surrounds Tucson. 

Close up of some newer saguaro "arms."  We didn't start hiking until 12:30 -- not usually the best hiking time in the desert -- but it was 70 degrees and there was a breeze, so it was perfect hiking weather.  

I especially like "swirly-armed" saguaros.  

And, as a reminder of the Superbowl, a "touch down" cactus. As an aside, a man from the small town where I grew up -- Wellington, Ohio -- was one of the Super Bowl refs.

Superbowl XLIX Visit

Jim is a big Seattle Seahawks fan, so yesterday we took a road trip to Phoenix, home of Superbowl XLIX. The game is actually being played in nearby Glendale, but it’s all in the neighborhood.

Twelve blocks of downtown Phoenix have been turned into party central, with displays and activities indoors and out. We spent the day at "The NFL Experience” at the Phoenix Convention Center, described as “pro football’s interactive theme park offering participatory games, displays, entertainment attractions, youth football clinics and free autograph sessions.”  It was also home of the Superbowl Media Center.

About 75 percent of the attendees were wearing football jerseys or team hats; we saw more Seahawks clothing than that of any team. We also saw lots of Green Bay gear, plus people wearing Forty Niners and Cowboys shirts. Oddly, few folks were wearing New England Patriots clothing. Sadly, we did not see a single Cleveland Browns hat or shirt, but there is always next year for the Browns.

Staff and security were all over the place -- the staff was always saying hello and asking if people needed help.  We saw police, police dogs, hovering helicopters, and my bag was checked before I went in the Convention Center, but our wait times were mostly short even though many lines were long. Staff moved people quickly.

The weather was more Seattle than Phoenix -- it started to rain last night and has poured hard off an on all day today -- but it's supposed to clear by game day. We lucked out on the weather because it didn’t start raining hard until after we were back to our hotel last night. After we had dinner at a brew pub, of course.

As we walked to the convention center, a huge banner seemed to be predicting a Seattle win.  Blocked from view, however, are the letters "vs" plus the Boston Patriot's logo.

Scenes from the "NFL Experience" at the Phoenix Convention Center, clockwise from top left:  Jim selecting a Seahawks T shirt; posing with the real Lombardi trophy; Richard Sherman as seen on a huge display; and a couple of Hawks fans waiting to buy tickets to enter the Phoenix Convention Center ($35 each, but we got a half-price military discount).  Note that the guy on the left has a Seahawks logo shaved into his hair.

More "NFL Experience," clockwise from top left:  A Microsoft employee explained the tablets Microsoft makes for the NFL that allow coaches and players to immediately see any completed play; Jim and the Seattle quarterback's locker; one of the many banners hanging all over the Convention Center -- this one near the Lombardi Trophy; and Jim in his team's uniform.

Jim at the site of Super Bowl 49.  Go Hawks!

Sabino Canyon: Seven Falls Trail

We celebrated our wedding anniversary Saturday with a hike on the Seven Falls Trail in Bear Canyon, an offshoot of Sabino Canyon in Tucson.  It's the best hike we've been on in a long time.  Lots of saguaro and other cactus, lots of water, and -- since we started mid morning -- plenty of shade.

A tram took us two miles up the canyon to the trail head. I'd read different on-line estimates on the actual trail milage, but per my iPhone Walkmeter app, from the trailhead to the pool of water and falls you reach at the end, it was 2.8 miles ones way. 

The hike is rocky in places but overall it's pretty easy. We crossed the stream that carved out the canyon seven times by stepping from rock to rock and barely got our feet wet. After doing the trail, we decided to walk down the road instead of taking the tram, then took a "short cut" trail that again crossed a stream. Jim hopped from stone to stone and got "kind of" wet feet. I finally found a place that looked calm and sloshed across in knee deep water. After the hike we ignored our wet feet and went out to lunch.

If we could recommend just one Tucson area hike, this would be it. Get there early to miss the crowds and to take the first tram up the canyon, which leaves at 9 a.m. Or you can walk the two miles to the trail head.

Beautiful saguaros are everywhere in Sabino and Bear Canyon..  They grow as high as 70 feet, can lives for  200 years, and the armless ones are called "spears."  Saguaros grow naturally only in the Sonoran desert.

Bev and a few of her cacti friends.

Hikers ahead of us cross the stream that meanders across the trail.  The water is dark because the surrounding trees and other flora leech into the water. 

At the top of the trail: A pool of water and its many admirers. 

The falls that feed into the pool.  While there were a lot of people at the pool and the falls, the rest of the trail was busy but not crowded -- but I'm guessing the trail was more congested later in the day.

Chris and Austin

My first cousin's daughter, Chris, and her son, Austin, drove the 850 miles round trip from El Paso, Texas, to the Phoenix area last week so Austin could visit his college -- the University of Advancing Technology -- in Tempe.  On their way home, they stopped to visit us in Tucson.

Austin -- a self-professed computer nerd -- has been taking classes on line and plans to move to UAT's campus this spring.  But first he and his Mom wanted to make sure the high-tech college is what Austin really wants. It is. Austin is stoked.

Chris' husband Jimmy -- and by extension as it is with military spouses, Chris -- are in the Army. Over the 20 plus years they've been a military family, they have lived at Lewis McChord near Seattle;  Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Benning, Georgia; Stuttgart, Germany; and I'm not sure where else. Chris also spent time in Ohio with her mom (my cousin, Dicie) when Jimmy was deployed overseas. They now live in El Paso while Jimmy attends training at Fort Bliss.  

In addition to Austin, Chris and Jimmy have two younger boys: Jake, who wants a career in the Air Force and is in AF Junior ROTC, and Zack, who won two trophies playing Texas football this year. Chris says their family will move again in a few months to a still-unknown-to-them location.

It was great to see you! Have a wonderful experience at UAT, Austin.

Austin wanted to see a saguaro cactus up close, so we took him and his mom to one on the base. According to the local "cacti experts" we've talked to, no one really knows why a saguaro grows arms.

Sorry I almost cut your head off Chris, but this pic shows a saguaro (not to mention your faces) closer up.  Chris told me her dad said to tell me he reads our blog regularly.  Hi Rocky!

Chris and Austin are In and Out Burger fans and had stopped at one near I-10 on their way to Tempe. They were also up for a return trip with us.  If I had one word each to describe Chris and Austin, I'd use "vivacious" for Chris and "charming" for Austin.

Bev, Austin and Chris behind our car.  Austin asked a good question: Where do you kayak around here? Well, no where at the moment, although there is a kayak-worthy lake about 50 miles southwest of Tucson.  But there was lots of water at our last stop, Yuma, and we hope to use the boats  again when we head back toward Salt Lake this spring.  Right now the boats just make it easy to find our car in a parking lot.