Tucson

This morning Sean showed me this article that composed the Travel section of our Sunday newspaper. All of the sudden I got a little sentimental. Lets talk about this.

I lived in Tucson for seven years. From the time I graduated high school until we moved up here. When I first moved there for college, I was not impressed. Honestly I don't consider Tucson the most beautiful city. I take that back. The scenery is unique and amazing, especially if you can get into desert landscape. It is surrounded by five tumbling mountain ranges decorated with towering saguaro cacti, along with other strange plants that tend to be prickly.

The city itself tends to be run down. I guess this is what you would expect from a town established in 1775. Its old, but it has character.

I had my complaints about Tucson. It was HOT (I almost miss it), there weren't sidewalks ANYWHERE. There was a serious drainage problem. I know its the desert but in monsoon season everytime it rained, it flooded. Not to mention the cars being swept away in washes that snaked through the city. And our cars were broken into FIVE times while we lived there.

But Tucson also had its good points. There were amazing places such as Mount Lemmon and Sabino Canyon. I liked the delicious mexican food. Its kind of a quirky liberal town in the conservative state of Arizona. Like I said, it has personality.

I guess the real reason I miss Tucson isn't because I loved the city itself. I loved the life we had there. Its where I met Sean. Its where we dated, and lived as newlyweds. We graduated college there and started our family. We were comfortable there and had our special little places that we called our own. We made wonderful friends and memories there. So I miss it. *sigh*

But here we are now. Spring is finally here and green is peeking through everywhere we look. We can play outside and enjoy the fantastic mountains. We have a good life here, too. So I will probably miss it when we move in a few years. Such is life.

Here are a few random facts about Arizona-

*Arizona has more parks and national monuments than any other state, more mountains than Switzerland, and more golf courses than Scotland

*Tucson is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States. Natives began farming here nearly 3000 years ago.

*Arizona stays on mountain standard time ALL YEAR ROUND. No daylight savings time. When I first moved there I thought it was weird. Then I got used to it and thought daylight savings was weird. Then we trudged through a cold dark winter in Utah and I was SO grateful when daylight savings came. After a long winter it totally makes sense.

(This is actually my own picture. It actually snowed in Tucson one time.)

*The age of a saguaro cactus, largest species of cactus in the world, is determined by its height.

*Official Neckwear: Bola Tie. It originated in Arizona and is usually made by silversmiths and leather makers in almost every size and shape, most often with silver and turquoise.