Roberts Family Visits Tucson & Environs, April 2009

The third family of the spawn of Trout to visit us were here in mid-April. They were our 3rd overnight guests in the new house and the 3rd Roberts descendents to actually stay here. Hilary and I both took pictures. You will see some of hers on this post and probably some of mine on her post about the trip.

Hilary arrived with Morgan and Brynne on Thursday, April 16th. They were looking forward to warm and sunny weather after all the snow. Of course, that day we only got up to 65 (a fluke) and it was pretty cold that night. I had scheduled for us to meet them at Tohono Chul Park for dinner and a night time concert featuring Way Out West.

Fortunately, Hilary had blankets and we brought some warm stuff and we managed to get through one set of the band before heading around the corner to Frost for some gelato for dessert. There's nothing like gelato on a cool Tucson evening!

As you can see, we got there early enough to get some good seats, but not early enough to be on the 1st row. Morgan had a great view from her seat and seemed entranced by the music. The group says they play "Border Grass" -- some Conjunto, cowboy & western (not to be confused with country) and bluegrass all combined.


After dessert, I got in the car with Hilary and the girls and we headed on home. Trout drove by himself, poor guy. We didn't take many pictures at the house, but we did get these of the girls on the roof deck. Morgan is being quiet and sophisticated.

Brynne was flying...and flying...and flying...

And finally the two of them got together.

On Friday morning, the 17th, the women and girls headed over to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. We got there in time to see a special animal show for kids (Hilary will have pictures from that) and to have lunch in the nice restaurant there. Trout was supposed to help Kelly do an installation and meet us for lunch. He never showed up but he did call.

For those of you who haven't been there yet, we are members. That means that grand kids up to the age of 17 get in free and we get a few passes for adults.

This is the view as you pass through the gates into the park. Those mountains are the ones close to where we live.

In spite of the fact that it was a Friday, the Museum was very busy. I guess it was spring break for a lot of people.

There are two aviaries there. One is for hummingbirds. Here's a shot of a mama on her nest.

This is a picture of a dove on her nest in the other aviary.

These javelina are actually "piggy" banks for people to put donations in. It's a popular spot for photos. I love this one with the girls hiding their eyes from that big white thing in the sky.

Here you can actually see the javelina -- and their "Grammy Lo says you can have 2 toys and 1 piece of candy" loot.

Here's Morgan mugging for the camera.

And Brynne being coy.

Hilary and the girls are taking a break on a bench. Due to a miscommunication between Trout and I, we thought he was arriving shortly after we finished lunch and we went to the front entrance to wait...and wait...and wait.

I kept trying to call him and his cell kept rolling over to voice mail immediately. Finally I sent them on to explore more and I waited. It became obvious that he wasn't going to show up and the kids pooped out on the way back to get me to do the long walk (javelina, coyotes, etc.) so we went on home.

It turned out after all the waiting that he never got my voice mails. After Kelly, he met up with Dennis, a friend from Gig Harbor down here to play golf. Trout picked him up, took him to the house and we met them there. Our plan was to take him back in the truck with all of us.

Lee was due to arrive just about the time we could get him at the airport after dropping Dennis off. We would get him and all of us go to dinner.

But more drama ensued involving snow in WY and Denver. So the 5 of us went to dinner at My Big Fat Greek (a favorite). We took Hilary and the girls home so they could get to bed at a decent hour and Trout and I went back to the airport to get Lee at about 11:30 p.m. We got takeout for him at MBFG, and he ended up having dinner at midnight standing up in our kitchen.

Saturday, the 18th we all loaded up in the truck (poor Hilary in the center in front) and took off for Tombstone. Enroute we had breakfast at Todd's at Ryan Field. This is one of our favorite places to go to breakfast. Morgan and Brynne now have drawings on the wall with the one Aidan did in December.

We took the back route through the oak hills and grasslands around Sonoita. FYI, that's where the movie, Oklahoma!, was filmed.

The big event of any trip to Tombstone is seeing the gunfight. Today's production is different from what it was a few years ago. Now you're not quite sure who was right and who was wrong. While waiting in line, a guy gives the history, tells about the discrepancies (lies) in describing what happened, etc. The most important thing I heard him say is that what actually happened is nothing like any of the movies.

Based on this visit, I hightly recommend that people put at least one person of your party in line early to get the best (shaded) seats. Although Trout sat separately from the rest of us, we all got got lucky and sat in the shade. All the seats are good ones as far as seeing goes.

The other thing is that the gunfire is loud. Every performance they say right up front to leave if you have kids that are going to cry over that or anything else. The performers do not have microphones and some of the dialog is also pretty quiet. Crying kids are very disruptive and the "lawmen" making these announcements are not subtle about this -- or about telling you to turn off your cell phone!

While waiting for the show and after it is over, you can visit the actual OK Corral which has lots of photo opportunities.

But no real bathrooms...

After we saw the show, Trout disappeared for some reason. Lee treated us all (except Trout) to ice cream and the girls got to spend a little time on some swings.

When the Steeles were here in December, Ramona took us on a stagecoach ride. I thought that was pretty hokey until I went on it. It was actually fun and informative at the same time.

There are several coaches running and all the horses are very gentle even if they are enormous.

Trout and I sat on a bench while the kids, both short and tall, took the ride.

Tombstone is very touristy, but still a lot of fun. The original buildings are there but put to use in different ways from its mining days. I think it's well worth a visit. It's like an open air historical park.

Something Ramona wanted to do when she was here was to visit the "biggest rosebush." It was another one of those things I wasn't willing to pay for before she treated me. I thought it was so great, I insisted we all go. Unfortunately, she (as the receptionist called the bush) bloomed early this year, so we didn't get to see it in full bloom.

It was planted in 1885 and you can still buy cuttings from it. There are many references to it online.

I got these pictures online and moved them to here, so you can't click on them to make them bigger. This is from the top.

This is the trunk.

And this is from underneath.

And Hilary took this one of us on the rickety vieiwing platform.

We thoroughly enjoyed having the kids of all heights come to visit. It was a whirlwind weekend and we wish they could have stayed longer.

There's lots more here for visitors including lots of outdoor swimming pools, minor league baseball, a zoo, Mexico, and the wildlife outside our living room windows.