Arizona: Pima County Air and Space Museum

We took a break from nature to wander around a giant museum /airfield of airplanes and rockets. We didn’t see it all, but we saw plenty all the same. Row upon row of combat jets, cargo planes, and old jet liners were outside; more warplanes were inside. They had four B-52s and planes from every war from WW II onward, including the SR-71 Blackbird. That SR 71’s a long and sleek plane. I’d always wanted to see one up close and there it was. It was bigger than I’d imagined. Those B-52s were cool, but I liked the F14 and the B17 better. Seeing all the planes brought back fond memories of the recent trip to the War Memorial in Seoul. Pima had many more of them on display. They even had some of the MiGs Rochelle and I saw in Korea.

The museum has separate hangars for WWII planes as well as one for outer space exploration. The outer space one brought back many memories of going to the planetarium. I bet my dad liked the exhibits about the US space program because he used to follow it closely. Him and the generations of those older than Justin and I got to see that stuff as it happened. It probably felt more thrilling to see the moon landing on TV then than it feels to watch the video now. I shouldn’t belittle all that’s happened since my birth year of 1986, but the International Space Station and all the shuttles can’t compare to the Apollo program. The moon landing conjures more wonder because it showed man pushing the limits of science. Also, consider that the space program came amid the tumbling dice changes of the 1960s and it makes for one intriguing era Dad did indeed have a good time. We all did. 

Arizona: Mt. Lemmon

We took a ride up a twisting mountain road and stopped at various points along the way. The Who’s song “I Can See For Miles” never left my head the entire time we were there. The sky was bright and sunny. I gazed out and felt glad for the change of temperature and scenery. I saw the lines of houses on the desert floor and imagine the place without them there. At one point we saw a wrecked van on the mountain side too.

At the bottom of the mountain, we basked in 70 degree sunshine and at the top, we picnicked in a mild 50 degree breeze. Snow lay all around and the forested top brought Colorado or upper Michigan to mind. The Fry’s sandwiches went down well with the trail mix we brought up. 

Looking out over the miles of desert and cacti. Try imagining the landscape without houses.

Cue up those episodes of the Coyote and the Road Runner. It's a long way down.

At the top: snow and skiing.

Arizona: Saguaro National Park

It lies down the road from my aunt and uncle’s house and was our first destination after me and the immediate family arrived at their house the day before. The expansive park has two branches: Saguaro West –Tucson Mountain District and Saguaro East-Rincon Mountain District. We went to the East district because it was closest to the house.

The area’s a prime stretch of desert. My aunt and uncle have season passes to the park, so we got right in and took a look around. We drove on the Desert Ecology Trail and stopped every so often to look around. Cacti stood tall in every direction we looked in. They made quite a sight. I learned that cacti don’t sprout arms until they’re over 75 years old. I didn't know they could live to be over 150 years old. That’s a long time. To think that most of those cacti were around during the Depression or earlier is an interesting thought. They have surely seen plenty of change in the States.

While at the park, we chanced upon a KBS television crew! KBS is Korea Broadcasting service. We’d gotten out of the car when I’d seen a 3-person crew setting up a camera and talking amongst themselves. I listened and heard they were speaking Korean, so I went over and said hello. They were surprised I knew a bit of Korean and I asked about what they were up to. One of the three said they were filming a spot for the upcoming Korean baseball league’s spring training program in Arizona. Cool stuff. I hope they had a good time out there!

Vacation Days 19-20: Last days in Wisconsin/Greetings from Arizona

The last day in WI got spent tooling around the Southridge Mall area of Milwaukee. It was there that I met Mike at Kyoto, our Japanese restaurant and hit the record stores one last time. In addition to the savory food, I scored some more CDs and DVDs that I'd been looking for. Mike found some good stuff too.

It goes without saying that I'll miss my WI friends. They don't all know each other, but it's been wonderful seeing them again. We caught up with each other and did a bunch of stuff this felt like old times. Although not many new things happened in WI, it was a good time. In spite of all the interconnectivity we have now with Facebook, blogs, and the like, we still had plenty of stories to tell. We had no shortage of information to relay to each other. Life's like that: Only so much can be written online or sent in a message. Some things require face to face conversation. Some stories need a live audience. They just do. All of us can agree on that point. As to when we'll see each other again, I'm not sure. It's been difficult finding time to meet everyone because of our different schedules. I wasn't able to see some old friends during this trip and I'm sorry that that happened. We'll see each other soon enough.

That concludes the WI portion of the journey. I'm now outside of Tucson, AZ. We arrived earlier today, had lunch in Phoenix, and drove down I-10. It's me and my family's first time in AZ and we're already having quite the time. Everything's terra cotta-colored and warm out here. I may have to rename this blog Arizona Dispatches because that's where they'll be coming from for a while. The landscape's looks like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Pictures : a steer's head in front of my aunt and uncle's house, and the roadside along I-10 outside of Phoenix.