I’ve been from Tucson to Tumacacori

Hooded oriole on an ocotillo

    You are probably more familiar with “I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari” from the song Willin by Little Feat. But I was on a different journey. There is another line in Willin, "drivin the back roads so we wouldn’t get weighed." I was all for that after the way I ate in Tucson.

Desert bee in cholla flower 

    There's nothing like spring in the desert partly because it comes as such a surprise. The desert, normally dressed in camo, brown, beige, and green comes ablaze. Palo verde trees burst into sunflower yellow, lemon trees overflow with  fruit, the cacti blossom. Even the birds, evolved to disappear in desert landscapes seem to show more color.  

Gila woodpecker

    I started my 12 days in Tucson at my cousin Suellen's house in the Catalina Foothills, a neighborhood now in the national news because of  Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.  She spent the last several months telling the television crews to move their trucks so that she could get into her driveway. Suellen conducted desert biology lessons for the mystified crews from New Jersey and New York. She taught them why if they decided to take a pee in the desert they might encounter a rattlesnake (after that they scurried to a nearby hotel for bathroom breaks), what a saguaro cactus is and how it retains water, and why there aren’t any fire hydrants in the neighborhood—because there is no water. 

Palo Verde tree 

    I had originally planned to stay with Suellen for a mini writing retreat, but then two family memorial services were scheduled in Arizona a week apart. The first was a memorial service for my sister-in-law Jane's brother Joe at The Arizona Inn, a site filled with heady memories. We got married there, we held my father’s memorial service there, and as a child Darr would sneak into the pool with his buddies on sweltering summer days. The Arizona Inn, painted in a Pepto-Bismol pink, has been considered Tucson's finest hotel since 1930. 

A guest at the Westward Look

    Next we moved to The Westward Look where we used to stay with the kids before we started renting houses. When I walked into the lobby, with its long copper topped registration counter, the smell of the air conditioning, the light coming in from the garden, I was overwhelmed with memories. We walked in the desert, had sunset happy hours, got a Caesar salad and fries delivered poolside. 

Westward Look

    Since most of my blogs about Tucson are a rehash of the Mexican hash I’ve eaten, you’ll be surprised to hear that I tried several new restaurants on this trip: Charro Steak which was okay, but I really don’t know why I bothered when Darr prepares the best steaks in the world at home; Locale; Scordato’s Pizzeria;  and Terraza Garden Patio and Lounge at Hacienda del Sol (disappointing). Of course I also made it to Rosa’s (twice) Micha's, and El Minuto where my dining heart belongs. We also ate at La Bocinita in Rio Rico, the only restaurant in Southern Arizona that was open later than 8 p.m. that could accommodate our big family party of 16. 

Catalina State Park

    Just when I thought I knew everything about Tucson, Darr introduced me to Catalina State Park, 5500 acres of foothills, canyons, and streams, and lush with 5000 saguaros. There are tons of hiking trails, picnic areas, a visitor’s center. We took the Romero Canyon Trail for a three mile round trip, although most people had gone all the way to the waterfall.

Crested saguaro at Catalina State Park

    On the weekend we headed south to Tumacacori, the site of the celebration of life for Darr’s sister Mary Ann and her husband Bill. We stayed at Tubac Golf Resort and Spa for the first time, ia luscious place with big guest rooms and beehive fireplaces, a great restaurant, a nice pool and spa, shops. And oh yeah, the golf course where the movie Tin Cup was filmed. The resort backs up to the historic Juan Baptista de Anza Trail another first time experience for us with a four mile stretch between Tumacacori and Tubac. 

Rancho Santa Cruz

    The memorial service was scheduled from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. But the University of Arizona basketball team was playing in the Final Four at 5:45 p.m., so the die-hards among us went to nearby Abe's Pub to watch the game. The owner screened us to make sure we weren’t Michigan fans but then welcomed us in. We settled at the bar and watched Arizona's tragic loss. But then hey, we took comfort in the fact that we were in a classic dark bar in the desert with a pool table and a juke box and good spirits. The rest of the family joined us later. 

Abe's Pub with Megan Jane, Maley, Margie

    Cousin Maley had lunch for the family the next day on the patio at her beautiful house in Nogales. This was the biggest gathering of Beisers since our family reunion in 2019. I got lucky with my in-laws, I love them all. 

Extended Beiser family