Desert Museum

I still can't get to my pictures, but I can move on to the next day of my trip. Almost every morning Late and I went for a walk for a few miles. I don't use sun block for that walk. We went fairly early every day and were gone usually about an hour. I would get a little brown from it, and I like a little color now and then. Late used a lot of sun block on herself, which always makes me smile. I am a very pale white red head; Late is a woman of color. We walked around the subdivision their house is in. It has great planning, including five miles of walkways through it. There are little play areas for the children. This trip, I hung from the monkey bars every morning I could to stretch and strengthen my shoulders. I worked up to 30 seconds or so - it doesn't seem like much time, until you are depending on two gimpy shoulders to hold all your weight. Try it.

This would be Tuesday's trip - we headed for the Desert Museum after our walk. Late and I have been there before, but her son (DS)  and husband (DH) have not. This is a family that travels often and far. They go every place. They are rarely home. They often are gone 12 hours at a time, I discovered. I went with them.

The Desert Museum is in or near Tucson. It has many plants, animals, insects, birds, and other desert things to see, touch, and marvel about. Last time we thought we had seen most of it, but this time we saw many things we had missed. It was well in the low 100s for the temperature, and there was humidity. We were there all day, on our feet, moving and walking and trying to see it all. DH is an adventurer, and he must see what is behind every rock and down every road.

I figured seeing that rattler slithering across the wash would be unbeatable. However, sitting on a rock inside a bird enclosure was an unexpected and hairy tarantula. We don't have those where I live - I wanted to pet it, but figured that wasn't prudent. I took pictures, instead. Cute little bugger.

Again, we didn't see any coyotes in their part of the desert. The park has a section of the desert discreetly fenced off and there are areas for a few assorted types of wildlife. We weren't at the hottest time of the day when we looked for them, but probably too close to it. I can see coyotes in my own backyard, but I wanted to see them in the desert. We did spot a smelly javalina, snortling along under a little bridge. I have pictures of that, too. Some place.

My friends made me wear a sun hat at the museum. Eventually I put my hair in a ponytail and put the hat over that - it was a little cooler. My hair was soaked with sweat, anyway. Most of the museum is outdoors. I used sun screen that day. The museum thoughtfully has sunscreen dispensers in the bathrooms. I suppose it is less expensive to provide that than to provide medical care to well done tourists, but I used my own. 

Anne asked if I now understand Remo's term of ass gravy. Yes, I can say I do. While a lady might not want to admit such a thing, I was sort of looking forward to returning home eventually and not having to change my drawers 4 times a day in an attempt to be dry. The desert has no water, in my opinion, because everyone drinks it all and then sweats it back out. My hair was not dry the entire trip that I can recall. I don't think I had more than one or two days this trip with the high temp under 100 degrees.

One of my favorite parts at the museum, besides the furry animals such as the wolves, is the hummingbird enclosure. If you sit quietly on a bench, you will see them all over the place. They are so small and move so fast! They were highly active this time - it wasn't even necessary to sit down. They were buzzing faces and scaring the crap out of people by coming up from behind and then buzzing faces. Human hair is a good thing for building nests, plus the rain brings out the little insects we can't see very well, but the hummingbirds can and they snatch them right out of the air.

Eventually we left the museum and headed out for dinner. I had no choice but to keep my hair up in a little pony tail even in the restaurant - it was still wet. 

I wore enclosed shoes for the park, but was very happy to get them off once we got home. Birkenstock sandals are so comfy and have great support - I will have to take my Birk insoles for my tennies next time. Or wear my Birk enclosed shoes.

After the ride in the car back to the house, I was feeling a little stiff and went for a walk with Late and DH.

DS didn't much enjoy being outside in the heat and walking or hiking. He did enjoy it when I cooked breakfast. I still couldn't work up an appetite for eggs and/or meat in the morning, but once or twice I made french toast and ate a piece of that.

The stars were beautiful again. I cannot believe how incredible the sky is there at night. The Tucson area has an observatory up on Kitt Peak, and the area tries to keep down light pollution at night in order to keep the sky beautiful.

That night, I saw a shooting star. Usually, I would stand outside on the driveway in bare feet and stare upward until my neck hurt. Now, I have learned to at least wear sandals when standing outside alone at night, even on the driveway, and I carry my flashlight, too.

Once, I shone it upwards, and saw an incredible amount of little insects and dust. I know I was breathing that combination. Late had caught Valley Fever from that dust earlier this year. I was with her - how did I manage to avoid it? I don't know, but today I finally convinced my doctor to give me a chest X-ray after my bi-annual echocardiogram for my mitral valve prolapse. It's amazing that I didn't "need" an echo every other year for most of my life.

The tech asked me if I have had any episodes of rapid breathing lately. I said yes. She looked up - I have never said that before.

I said, "I assume it was from hiking in the mountains last week." She agreed.

Still, she spent a lot longer on the echo and doppler than anyone else ever did before. WAY longer. She approached my heart from all 4 directions and also did an artery in my throat - whichever one is on the right.

I just realized that some place I have cords for my camera and can probably hook the camera directly to the computer - I will go work on that idea. I think it's hard on the battery, but I can maybe just download the batch and work from there. I hope so - I want to see if I have any good pictures or not.

Wednesday - a busy day