Bobcat

For those of you who never got to see a bobcat when you visited Tucson (I believe mom and dad were the only visitors to see one), here's your chance...

The 'resident' bobcat outside our garage stalking some small animal.  J managed to capture it on photo.

but not for too long...

Fourth Canyon Trip

OK, this is my 4th Grand Canyon Trip in 4 years.  Most Arizonans born and raised here haven't even set foot there once.  Call me an GC addict, but the truth is the only thing here in AZ that's worth seeing is the Grand Canyon.  So where do you bring visitors when they come?  The Grand Canyon of course.  I finally got a chance to bring (read: abduct) the parents to the canyon.  Since it was a last minute trip, I couldn't get any hotel rooms near the park, so we had to make it a day trip.  

Since the passage of SB 1070, there have been calls to boycott travels to AZ.  However, from what we saw at the park yesterday, there certainly are no signs of a boycott.  The place was packed!  We saw license plates from the the usual 'suspects' (CA, UT, CO, NV, NM), as well as the far out states (NY, NJ, MD, NC, FL).  Then along the trail you hear all different languages spoken: English with a British accent, English with a Scottish accent, English with an Irish accent, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese.  What boycott?  What recession?

I usually tailor the hike according to the company and time of year.  J & I have hiked various distances between rim and river in a day depending on who was with us at the time.  Since I was with my parents, I decided not to go very far.  Our initial plan was to hike down to the 1.5 mile point where the first rest house is.  This usually takes about 45 minutes to get to.  However, we never made it there.  We ended up stopping after 20 minutes for a lunch break.

Easy going down the Bright Angel Trail...

Not so much coming back up.  Luckily we hadn't pushed further, because mom had to rest after 5 minutes of uphill climb.  It took us 30 minutes to get back up to the rim.  I must say for a couple of 65 year olds, they did better than some who were younger than they were.

The view up the canyon from our lunch spot.

The view across the canyon from the lunch spot.

The view from Powell's Point along the rim.  How can one not keep coming back to this place?  I'm trying to convince J to do a 'rim-to-rim-to-rim' (from south rim to north rim and back to south rim) hike on our next trip to the canyon.

Unfortunately for J, he had to work yesterday.  However, he did ask us to pick up a pie from the Rock Springs Cafe.  Leave it to J to constantly be on the look out for good food.

This place has been around since 1918 serving as a trading outpost between Prescott and Phoenix.  

The Tennessee lemon pie...very buttery and mildly tart.

Lazy Summer

Means lazy blogger.  Not much has been going on (aside from having finally booked our trip to Asia at the end of the year).  We keep looking up to the sky expectantly waiting for the first monsoon rain to grace the area.  There have been plenty of clouds, but nothing seems to materialize.  It's been hot, but it seems like the east coast is worse off than we are.  Both areas have exceeded the 100 degree mark, but at least there's no humidity here in AZ.  It just feels like an oven here, as opposed to a steam cooker.

Beautiful clouds, but does us no good if it doesn't produce any rain.

'Tis The Season

When the rattle snakes start making their appearances.  While heading to the bedroom, I saw Truffalo staring down something outside the sliding glass door in the living room.  I thought, "Now what?"  He's always going crazy over everything - rabbits, crickets, birds, lizards, javelinas, bobcats.  Then I noticed he was acting differently.  He wasn't barking and prancing around like his usual loony self; he was growling with trepidation.

Dog meets rattler for the first time, luckily with a door in between .

Sinister looking thing...

J was in the shower at the time, I'm out in the living room semi-freaking out, Truffalo's mesmerized, and Mocha couldn't care less.  As soon as J finished showering, he grabbed a shovel, and long story short, killed the rattlesnake.  As we were deciding where to dispose the snake, J briefly suggested that we put it on the grill. 

No snake here.  This was the chicken we had the day before.

Paired with BV 2006 Cab.  On the nose: 甜酒灢 (sweetened, fermented rice wine), I'll bet no other wine critic will ever come up with that one.

But I digress.  I later found out that we could have called 911, had the fire department come capture the snake, and release it into the wild.  Now I feel guilty that we killed a 'harmless' snake.  I'm starting to wonder if there's a den around our house because this is the second snake to die in our hands.  The first rattler perished in dad's hands a year and a half ago.

Who Said Our Education System Is Failing?

We saw this sign at one of the stops on our way to San Diego last week.

This was at a Carl's Jr in Yuma, AZ

How many errors can you spot?  There are misspellings, misplaced punctuation mark, an adjective in place of an adverb, sexual undertones, and a run on sentence.  What I want to know is, what is "wi'be"?  Oddly enough, I am somehow disappointed that they managed to spell the longest word correctly.


Who say Arizona dummest state?  Wi'be smart!

Sonoita Winery

Who said you can't have wineries in the middle of the desert.  Sonoita, located an hour south east of Tucson, proves that you can (though the wines leave much to be desired).

Yes, these are grape vines.

We got a chance to check out 2 wineries for some wine tasting (only 2 because we had to drive back to Tucson).  The first one was Dos Cabezas located right off route 83.  They charged $7 per person for wine tasting plus the wine glass, which you can take with you to the other wineries for tasting.  The fee came as a surprise as I didn't think wineries would charge you for tasting, and according to J they didn't in Napa Valley back in the late 90s when he went.  Most of the wines were red blends and tasted too spicy/acidic for me, and I was surprised that each bottle was going for $20-28 (and that there were takers).  I would have pegged the wines to be around $7.99.  Cafayate wines are 10 times better and only cost a fraction of the price.

Out of all the wine glasses we saw other people get from the other wineries, Dos Cabeza had the nicest ones.

Kief-Joshua was the next one we hit.

Fancier building, but the wines were just as mediocre (or it could just be that I don't like any other grapes aside from cabernet sauvignon).  This place only cost us $3 each since we already had the wine glasses from Dos Cabezas.  J asked what kind of grapes they were growing, and the owner listed a bunch of them (e.g., tempranillo, mourvedre, petit verdot) because apparently they're still trying to figure out which grapes are best for their particular terroir.

The interior

So what were the highlights of the trip?  The experience itself, lunch at Canela, and the baby lamb.

Canela is located next door to Dos Cabezas.

Cozy outdoor seating

Yummy eggs benedict

A reminder never to eat unwrapped anything.

Finally, a 6-day old lamb we saw at Kief-Joshua.

Baby lamb in action...

Shaka Shave Ice

We made good on our promise, and treated ourselves to some Hawaiian shaved ice.  The owner is from Hawaii and recently moved to Tucson.  She gets her syrup from the same place the famous Matsumoto gets theirs.

Mine: Root beer, lychee, and mango flavors

J's: Passion fruit, orange, and guava

El Tour De South Tucson

Having lived in Tucson for the last 4 years we never had the desire to visit places south of the U of A, mostly because South Tucson conjures up images of cholos and drive by shootings.  That is until the sister-in-law sent us an article featuring eateries on 12th Ave in South Tucson.  When it comes to food, nothing will stand between J and his empanadas, including these guys...

So, today I risked my life for the team and hit a couple of places...

First stop, Oasis Fruit Cones.  Notice the metal screens covering the entire storefront.  Very reassuring...

However, their raspados are better than the ones we get at the mall.

While sitting outside the store enjoying my snow cone and watching all the low riders drive by, I couldn't help but feel like a sitting duck (dressed in bright pink).

Next stop was BK.  This joint is similar to El Guero Canelo, serving up steak tacos and Sonoran hot dogs.  The original El Guero Canelo is actually located diagonally across the street from BK.

Yum!  Carne asada, pastor, and fish tacos...

With the condiments piled high...

However, if you want authentic mexican tacos, you can catch a shuttle to Hermosillo.

Finally for dessert, we quickly stopped in La Estrella.  Again, note the metal bars outside the entrance...

Various baked goods...

How shall I put it?  NYC subway churros taste ten times better.  You can probably skip this place.

We made it out of South Tucson in an hour, and more importantly in one piece no less.  Would I go back?  Probably not since El Guero Canelo has a branch closer to us if we ever want steak tacos.  As for raspados, why would anyone need that when you've got this...

 

We saw this outside of Lee Lee for the first time today.  Unfortunately, they were having power issues so we couldn't try it.  Rest assured we'll be there next week.

Country Hick

What has Arizona done to me?  I always believed you could take the girl out of the city, but not the city out of the girl.  Growing up I have always been the "LL Cool J" hip hop kind of girl, and always poo pooed on country music.  I thought country wasn't quite sophisticated; not like hip hop is any better, but at least you can dance to it.  How do you dance to country?
Four years in Arizona has changed all that.  Now I cringe when I hear rap, and my current favorite song is this...





Next thing you know, I'll be walking down the street in cowboy boots, hat, and a belt buckle the size of the state of Texas...Yeehaw!

Pima County Fair

Went to the Pima county fair for the first time in 4 years we've been living here. Personally I have better ways to spend my sunday afternoon (e.g., taking a 2-hour nap, watching k-drama, surfing the net), but I obliged to venture out.

You get your usual unhealthy fair food...

Hot dog on a stick...

Cotton candy...

and ones you don't normally find at other fairs...

I would have had tons of fun had I been 30 years younger...

Of course you find your share of scams...

We determined that this was nearly impossible to achieve because of the placement of the toe holds.

After about an hour I was done; but we ended up staying for 3 hours due to circumstances beyond my control.  The whole time I was there, I avoided eating and drinking any of the fair foods because I knew I was coming home to real food - steak and wine.

2007 Courtney Benham cabernet, my new favorite cab...