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We leave very early Monday morning after a Sunday late afternoon transition with our current home owner and her daughter. They have been having a great driving vacation through much of the scenic southwest.  While we have been holding down the fort, we have also done some hiking, biking, and catching up with old friends and favorite places over the past few days.

On Wednesday we did a popular in-town hike up Tumamoc Hill which is the site of some U of A research facilities and is next to Sentinel or “A” hill which we climbed last year (hill with big A on it that the students paint each year).  There were a number of people out while we were there.

Bob has also been able to catch up with some former co-workers while we’ve been here.

On Thursday we finally rented a couple of bikes (hybrids from Fair Wheel Cycle for $25/day) to hit some of the many biking trails in Tucson.  We made a day of it.  We started out biking through the University campus and then up the very bike-friendly Mountain Road before hitting the Rillito Trail. Before we were done, we had biked The Loop onto the Santa Clara Trail to where it ends on Valencia before biking back into downtown Tucson onto the Aviation Pathway for a bit.  Awesome!

 

It’s an unfortunate fact of life in the west that summer is also forest fire season.  There was a fire burning near Flagstaff while we were there and since July 3, the Burro fire has been burning on Mount Lemmon.  Mount Lemmon is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains and is located in the Coronado National Forest just north of Tucson.  It’s a popular spot for locals and visitors in the summer, as at 9,000+ feet elevation it stays much cooler than Tucson.  Last year Bob and I visited it a few times for the gorgeous views and some hiking.  I went up also when my sister visited to ride the ski lift.  Early this week the afternoon monsoons brought much needed rain to the area, so residents and workers were allowed to go back.  Friday, it was opened to the public, so we decided to drive up to visit one more time.

The following are some highlights of our last few days in Tucson — mostly filled with dog care and play time and free hikes in the greater Tucson area.  We will be here through Sunday.

We take Raina and Dot for their daily walk each morning before it gets too hot.  We get some play and scratch (they love to be scratched) time with them as well — at least until we say “no mas.”

 

This area, and the whole state really, are crazy with places to hike.  While we have been kept out of the Coronado National Forest this time (and our beloved Mt. Lemmon) due to a wildfire, we have still found some good local area hikes. One hike we did was in the Maeveen Behan Desert Sanctuary.  This area is part of the Arthur Pack Regional Park and is named for the former leader of Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.

 

We also had a lovely cooler hike , following some rain, at the Sweetwater Preserve, a 880+ acre preserve in the eastern foothills of the Tucson Mountains. The land for the preserve was acquired in 2004. We enjoyed the desert plants, the nice homes overlooking the preserve, and the views of the area.

There are a number of farmers markets held throughout the area.  We headed to the Rillito Market on Sunday morning but ended up stumbling onto another market also as we explored one of the many local bike paths.  



Tohono Chol (“desert corner”) is a desert botanical garden and nature preserve in Tucson.  It contains various gardens, nature/walking paths, an exhibit house, cafe, and museum shop.  We spent a lovely couple of hours there on Friday and enjoyed the natural surroundings (both flora and fauna) as well as the art work — both inside in the Exhibit house as well as outside along the paths.  This is the park for which we were able to obtain 2 free passes from the Tucson public library.

There were great paths to the various gardens as well as walking trails for desert views or to provide information on desert plants. 

 

 Along the paths we saw roadrunners, lizards, jackrabbits, rest areas, relevant quotes, and metal artwork.

 

 

The land for the park was donated by a private couple.  One of the original homes on the property is now used as an exhibit house to showcase the Native American pottery and basketry collection of the former owners as well as some temporary exhibitions by local artists. The former living area housed an abstract art exhibition.  Finally, the highligh of the day came from the museum shop (actually just outside), and we didn’t have to buy them.  Take a look at a couple of young owls who have taken up residency on the window sills of the shop.  The sales clerk pointed them out to us.



Bob and I have moved on down the road from Phoenix to Tucson.  Bob actually started this house sit solo while I was finishing the one in Phoenix.  We are back together again, however, and enjoying caring for two Australian Cattle dogs in a lovely home in the historic West University neighborhood of Tucson.  

Raina is 11 years old.  She is pretty laid back and very sweet. She also seems to collect the Arizona dust so reminds us a bit of Linus from the Snoopy cartoon.  Dot is an energetic 3 year old who loves her walks and playing with toys.  Both are very well behaved, and we generally only hear them bark if there is a stranger at the door.  They are good protectors!

Our current abode is about a quarter mile from the University of Arizona, a couple of blocks from the vibrant 4th Avenue District, and about a 15 minute walk to the downtown area.  We have walked around a bit already in each of these areas. At the downtown library, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the library cards that we got for Pima County while in Green Valley last year are still active.  This allowed us to get 2 free admission passes to a botanical park (see Tohono Chol post) as well as check out a couple of travel planning books.  We do love our libraries!

We spent a good bit of time on Thursday checking out a number of the (mostly) free museums on the U of A campus — everything from sports to poetry to photography to art.

 

The Poetry Center was founded in 1960 and has nearly 70,000 items related to poetry.  It holds a reading and lecture series, classes and workshops, a book club, and family days.  It is basically a library dedicated to poetry, but it had some fun posters to look at, a jigsaw puzzle you could sit and work on, and a special exhibit on single-issue books.

The University Museum of Art had some fun exhibitions.  we really enjoyed one on some Bisbee artists since we had visited and really enjoyed that town during our stay here last year.



It has been a relatively short housesit in Phoenix but not too short to not be charmed by the sweet Riker, a 2-year old Great Dane mix.  We do our walks early and late in the day to avoid the serious heat, but we had a couple of short ball throw sessions at about 10 am to let him get out a bit more.

We have continued to explore the greater downtown Phoenix area.  

The state of Arizona is relatively young having joined the nation as the 48th state in 1912.  It is the 6th largest state in land mass and the 14th in population.  Phoenix is the capital.  The State Capitol building and grounds lie outside of the main downtown area but are still walkable.

While all of these memorials were impressive and deservedly honored those serving our country in battle, it made me a bit depressed that we humans can’t seem to find a way to get along with each other.  So, I was glad to come across the statue below as at least a change from the other memorials.  The Release the Fear Sculpture below is made out of melted weapons and was created by Robert John Miley.  The sidewalk beneath the sculpture has various peace-based quotes from famous people.  My favorite is by Mother Teresa — “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”



Bob and I officially began our downtown Phoenix house sit on Thursday morning after a transition meeting and dinner with the homeowners on Wednesday night.  We are house sitting for newlyweds (married just last month!) who are in Wisconsin (grand old badger state!) for a family reunion.  The have a sweet 2-year old Great Dane mix rescue dog named Riker.  He likes his raw egg in the morning (served with his other food but he’s most excited about the egg), people, and walks/toys, etc.  He is a charmer.

Although the temperature has remained around 110, and likely will for awhile, we have done a bit of exploring of the downtown area and went to an afternoon Diamondbacks game on Thursday.  Bob was even able to meet up briefly with a college baseball buddy.



Bucket List Item — check (or at least partial check) 👍🏼

As I have said, we were to be in Oregon now, but we have moved to Plan B and have been welcomed back to Arizona for part of June and July with a quick house sit in Phoenix before moving onto Tucson.  I was not going to allow us to get this close to the Grand Canyon (GC) again without actually getting there, so after a couple of days in Scottsdale, we headed to Flagstaff from which we would head up to the GC.  

Why 2 days in Scottsdale when we would be staying in Phoenix for a house sit?  A financial decision on our part to limit the number of days we would need a rental car, as the prices were a bit steep for renting from the airport.  Anyhoo, on to funner things — like the drive to Flagstaff, Flagstaff itself, and the GC.

We drove from Scottsdale to Flagstaff via the scenic route out of Sedona on Monday afternoon.  It was a lovely drive and, we got to reminisce about our trip to Sedona a few years ago.  A few snaps from the car on the drive near Sedona —

We arrived into Flagstaff about mid-afternoon, and while we ended up really liking the town (especially my trail runs on Wednesday am), it got short shrift from us.  We spent part of Monday afternoon doing a much needed load of laundry.  We were at the GC all-day Tuesday and had to head out Wednesday am about 8:30 to return the rental car.  We had a nice walkabout in downtown Flagstaff and a lovely happy hour meal out on Monday and will hope to return.

What to say about the GC?  I have heard about it all of my life and yet have been pretty ignorant of what exactly it is, how it was formed, and its size.  I use the words “awesome” and “ginormous” on an everyday basis way too loosely. The GC is both and then some. It is 277 miles long, 10 miles across, and a mile deep. It can be seen from space!  AND it’s also very old. The canyon itself was “only” formed within the last 6 million years due to erosion of the rocks by the Colorado River.  However, the exposed rocks (looking like rock layer cake) are millions of years older than that!

Visitors can access the park at the North or South Rim.  We visited the South Rim and spent most of our day walking the 12 miles of the South Rim Trail. We did not hike into the canyon.  While the Visitors Center opens at 8, we got there about 7:20 to beat the crowds.  We visited the Visitors Center at the end of our day to catch the informative film.

In addition to the natural beauty, there is a historical village at the South Rim with buildings from the early 1900’s, either continuing to serve in their tourist/travel capacity or converted into doing so (functioning as gift shops or museums).

We saw 2 moose on the drive to the park, a fox while we were hiking, and an elk while we took the free shuttle from the end of the trail back to the Visitors Center.  While there, we learned about the on-going efforts at the canyon to save the California Condor.  However, the only animals we managed to get a photo of were the mules that are still used to carry passengers into the canyon.

Bob and I had quite the change of weather last Saturday when we flew from Bend, Oregon into Phoenix, Arizona.  If you have seen the news, you may have heard that Phoenix has been having a heat wave. Bob would like to take the credit for the hotness, but it preceded our arrival.

We had a great experience flying Delta from Redmond, Oregon to Seattle and then Seattle to Phoenix. When checking in at the kiosk, we were asked if we’d be willing to be bumped and for how much (value of voucher for future flight).  We responded in the affirmative and identified our price.  We never heard anything else prior to boarding the Redmond -Seattle leg.  In Seattle, we only had 45 minutes to make our connecting flight.  This turned out to be a breeze since we only had to move down 2 gates.  However, our flight to Phoenix was already boarding.  They had already called our names about being bumped but had gotten other takers who were already at the gate.  However, the gate agent went ahead and put us in first class.  The vouchers would have been more useful, but it was awesome being treated like real people for our 3 hour flight to Phoenix!  Bob even took full advantage with a couple of bloody Mary’s on the morning flight.

At the airport, we grabbed an Uber to our motel near Old Town Scottsdale and met a lovely local who is a retired manager with Haggars slacks.  Then I got my butt kicked by the heat trying to get a run in after we checked in.  I started a little before noon and managed to eke out 55 minutes before wanting nothing more than a dip in the local canals.  Anyhoo, we had a couple of days in Scottsdale, including a 115+ on Sunday before heading to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

A few Scottsdale photos —

Bend was awesome, and we met the loveliest couple on our last night.  We popped into the Jackrabbit Grill after walking through the Bite of Bend food and drink event downtown.  We were just in for a pre-dinner drink before heading back  to our room but ended up having a nice conversation with Molly and Rory, a couple of locals who have been in the  Bend area for 9+ years.  They were in for Rory’s birthday dinner which we trust was lovely.  They offered to show us around the next time we’re in the area, and we turned them onto the TrustedHousesitters website for upcoming travel planning.

Here is more of our wanderings around (the) Bend.  Our second day in town, we started with a hike up Pilot Butte, an in-town hike that offered lovely views of the city.

We walked from the butte to the Larkspur Trail which went through residential areas and parks before connecting with the Central Oregon Canal Trail and back to the Deschutes River.  Bend had a much higher than normal snowfall this winter, so the canal is pretty full.

Once we met back up with the Deschutes River Trail, we headed north back into town via the Old Mill District.  This section of the Deschutes River is popular for canoeing, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, rafting lessons, or just floating.  The Old Mill District is a historic area formerly occupied by two lumber mills.  It is now a popular retail and restaurant area.  There is also an amphitheater across the river from the Old Mill District where Paul Simon was scheduled to play on the night we left.

Bend has quite a few traffic circles and has a public art effort to incorporate statues in the center of these circles.  We tried to capture the ones that we passed on our walkabouts.

We have had an amazing three days in Bend, Oregon for what was to be a prelude to our Grants Pass, Oregon house sit.  As you may recall from a prior post, however, that house sit was cancelled due to a critical family medical issue with the home owners.  We had already purchased out tickets to Bend, however, so here we are.  We are thrilled to be here before heading into the oven that is Arizona for the remainder of June and the first half of July.

Bend is the county seat of Deschutes County in central Oregon.  Bend is a city of about 80,000 –the largest city in central Oregon.  It is gorgeous, active, and vibrant.  It has it all — lovely rivers and canals, beautiful trees and flowers, and nearby mountains.  It is the best shades of green and blue and very active.  We hope to return.

Our first full day here on Wednesday we spent hiking along the Deschutes River which is a major tributary to the Columbia River.  While it is a popular river for water sports, we were on the quieter end on Wednesday.


The Deschutes River Trail took us up a gorge and into neighborhoods on top of hills/buttes out of the city center.  We left that trail to follow a North Rim path to the Sylvan and Summit city parks (where we thought ther might be a good view but no — just the satisfaction of having summitted).  We then walked back into town where we reconnected with the Deschutes River at a different point.

We then spent some time exploring the downtown area, including their Wednesday afternoon farmers market.