(no subject)

[spryng]

So. Tucson. We arrived Thursday afternoon to this bright thing in the sky I hear they call the "Sun." It was blinding, and it was dry, and the city was fairly brown from the sky, so when we stepped out of the airport proper I expected it to be, well, fairly warm. And it was. Just in the 50-degrees sense.

A prof' picked us up from the airport along with a handful of other prospis and brought us across town to the hotel. The other prospis were just as nervous as Lady, which was awesome (since she'd been afraid she might be the only one in the group who hadn't been to one). Once at the hotel, we had a few hours to kill before Lady would be going off with the others for food and before the_verb swooped in to feed me. So we went for a walk, and discovered the neighborhoods in Tucson are very similar in style and feel to the ones in Sarasota - sans the swaths of green grass.

On Friday while Lady was off interviewing with every prof ever, I had been tasked with scouting and getting a feel for the city itself. So I hopped on the first bus that came by and went until I saw the tops of the university buildings, then hopped off and found that I was still quite a few blocks distant. Whoops. Well, made for a good walk through more neighborhood, where sidewalk would suddenly give out to a dirt path and where prickly pear cactus helped ward off unwanted intruders as much as fences.

Lots of citrus, too, which I would later find out was largely ornamental. Somehow citrus and deserts didn't jive in my head very well. The campus itself was full of palms and scrub and more prickly pear and brick. So much brick. Most buildings in Tucson seem to be either that pinkish stucco or brick or both. The campus was a mite more varied, but pretty much stuck to the same theme. A large campus, too, although that might have been because I was weaving in and out of the buildings, trying to walk with purpose and see everything at the same time.

From the campus I walked through some more neighborhood in search of another bus that would take me downtown. Eventually I found a stop, only to just miss the bus, and then catch the next fifteen minutes later and find out downtown was only two blocks distant. Well. Downtown itself was relatively small - nothing like Seattle, of course - almost the same size as Sarasota. Just with some very brightly colored buildings in primary colors.

the_verb came for me again, this time bringing me all the way out of downtown and the city proper to the mountains beyond. We dropped into a park and spent the afternoon stumbling upon quail, evil cardinals, barrel cacti, saguaro, prickly pear cacti, and tiny vampires. Then we hopped on board a trolley and rode into the canyon proper, finding more and more saguaro than one could hope for. There were many trails and people out hiking and I could easily see myself doing the same, at least in the winter. Because in winter, those mountains are gorgeous.

And that was my overall conclusion on Tucson; in winter it would be amazing. It's beautiful and warm and dry and the sky is this shade of blue that might drive me crazy after a while, but I am not so sure I could stand the summer. No; I know I could stand it, I just wouldn't like it. In many ways it reminded me of Sarasota (as you may have noted), what with the mass of snowbirds, the palm trees and the beige and brown and pink color scheme and the strip malls and the emphasis on sprawl rather than compactness, and the odd awesome local shop amidst the myriad of chains. Perhaps I've been spoiled with Seattle - no, make that a yes, yes I've been very spoiled by Seattle. I've come to appreciate that, but I could see us in Tucson, and happy to boot. Just not in August, perhaps.


The entirety of the set are here.

















Lady goes to Michigan this week and then it's not until the end of the month that we both go to Oregon. There will be another report at that time. And hopefully a better idea of where we might end up.

Comments

[ministerofgrace.livejournal.com]

Did the tiny vampires sparkle? ;p

It looks pretty, and warm! I heard the heat was dry, so maybe not so bad?

I'm glad it went well!

Good lucks in other places!

[spryng.livejournal.com]

Nope - no sparkles. They were just very sneaky and hungry for fingers, apparently. And possibly they were made of rocks. xp

Yeah, that's what I hear, too, although I also recently heard about there sometimes being humidity. Yuck - 110 with humidity? I'd just explode.

[teawitch.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous photos, as always! I'd really like to visit a desert someday. It'd be really cool to go out in the middle of the desert at night to look at the sky. Even if it would trigger my irrational fear of being abducted by aliens. XD

I hope everything works out well for you two. I hear Oregon is lovely, too.

[spryng.livejournal.com]

That whole going out in the middle of the night in the desert may or may not be a major draw for me as well. I was unfortunately tied to the city at night, but even there you could see a ton more stars than you normally might in a city at night. There are a ton of observatories in the mountains nearby, so apparently there are some strict light pollution laws. It'd be a great place to be an astronomer.

[(Anonymous)]

Awesome photos! So from what I gather, Tucson looks like a lot of Arizona. XD 'Cept for the Phoenix metro area. I hope you visit again sometime! Can't wait to hear about Oregon. :D

[windy-chan.livejournal.com]

That was me~

[spryng.livejournal.com]

Is the Phoenix metro area as green as all the Tucson people were telling me? They sounded bitter about all the lawns there. ^^() It was kind of funny. >>
I will be back next December, if not earlier, and for probably longer as well. Maybe some kind of crazy arrangements could be made... >>

[windy-chan.livejournal.com]

LOL! It's a little greener with all our fake grass and palm trees! XD But that's about it. It's so useless trying to maintain grass here (think Florida, minus the moisture; it's hotter here than Tucson too) that there's a lot of astroturf that makes it look greener and less like the color of... vomit, I don't know. XD

There are definitely some nice-looking areas up here, though, and farther up north it's REALLY green and beautiful. ^.^ But cold and snowy in winter.

Yay for December! :D Stay longer and come up!

[the-verb.livejournal.com]

We really enjoyed having you and Sarah around! Come back sometime, and not just for the wedding!

And like I said... 110 in summer is painful, but if you're used to heat with humidity, it's not NEARLY that bad. Given your fair skins, though, you both would DEFINITELY want to invest in heavy-duty sunscreen and sunglasses. :)