Hot Time in the Summer — Northern Version

Well in terms of northern, everything is relative right? But, when Bob and I aren’t headed south on Hwy 19 towards Nogales, we’re headed north to Tucson. Tucson is an easy 30 min plus drive from Green Valley. Tucson is the county seat of Pima County in which Green Valley is also located. The city has a population of approximately 530,000 with the metro area being a little over 1 million. However, it feels smaller as there are very few tall buildings and the linear street layout makes it pretty easy to negotiate.

To date, we have explored the U of A campus (we’re rooting for the Wildcats in the College World Series), walked the turquoise trail around town to see many buildings of historical importance, the impressive Pima Air and Space Museum, drove up lovely Mt. Lemmon to escape into cooler climbs, and returned to Westin Las Paloma’s Spa and Resort where we had stayed years ago after Bob completed a conference there for work.

Some fun AZ facts posted in the student shop on the U of A campus.

One of several wildcat statues on campus. While the wildcat is their mascot, their official motto is "bear down" supposedly a message from John Salmon, a fatally injured popular U of A athlete, to his coach before he died. — One of several wildcat statues on campus. While the wildcat is their mascot, their official motto is “bear down” supposedly a message from John Salmon, a fatally injured popular U of A athlete, to his coach before he died.

One of the many pieces of artwork around campus. Really interesting university with even a department dedicated to tree ring research.

If you are at all interested in space or flight, the Pima Air and Space Museum is pretty impressive. This is a photo of just a sliver of the over 4,000 planes that Bob saw in the Boneyard tour of the facility. Planes are retired here to await further service or to be used for their parts.

While Bob was at the Boneyards tour, I checked out the impressive section on Women in Flight and also watched a video of a paper airplane project that they created to get kids more interested in flight. It was actually a 45' cardboard plane that was pulled up by a helicopter to get flight and ended up flying as fast as 98 mph before crashing. — While Bob was at the Boneyards tour, I checked out the impressive section on Women in Flight and also watched a video of a paper airplane project that they created to get kids more interested in flight. It was actually a 45′ cardboard plane that was pulled up by a helicopter to get flight and ended up flying as fast as 98 mph before crashing.

We both had to check out the retired Air Force One planes.

Mount Lemmon is a mountain just north of Tucson. The drive up is part of the Sky Island Scenic byway. We drove to the top of the ski lift to enjoy great views and MUCH cooler temps.

At Windy Point on way up to Mount Lemmon.

One of the great rock formations on the way up.

Looking down on part of the drive up the mountain.

Bob and I had a hot 2 hour walk around downtown Tucson following the Turquoise Trail to see many of its historic buildings. The walk provided us with a much better feel for the city. We were most impressed with the courthouse, many lovely restaurants along Congress and Broadway, as well as a couple of markets and a fun Hotel Congress.