The speakeasy last night was nice. There was jazz music, dancing ladies, and gun twirling. Here’s a pic of a jazz group.

We had an an excellent day today. We started out with a visit to the Museum of Miniatures. I went along because Danita wanted to go. Danita figured we would spend an hour there. We ended up staying well over 2 hours and could have stayed longer. These miniatures are far beyond anything I had seen before. Being a guy, I especially enjoyed this miniature of the Merrimack. During the civil war, the Union burned and skuttled 4 ships so the Confederates couldn’t use them. The Confederates raised and rebuilt this one, adding iron cladding. The ship is the Merrimack — the ship that fought the Monitor for the first metal-clad ship battle.

My other fav was Savalat Fidai. He carves figures out of the lead in a # 2 pencil. Here’s one of a bird in a cage, and also one of a horse. Check out this video to watch him create Bird in a Cage.

We closed out the day in a tent circus. It was a lot of carny and a ton of fun. We were having so much fun participating, I didn’t try to grab any pics. If you want, you can find some pics here. Zoppe Circus

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

I lost my necktie at a restaurant at the end of the bus #8 route. It’s a 45 minute ride, but there’s more to see. We decided to go back take a look. There’s a small museum. The property is clean and modern, but the exhibits are of little note. One room has paintings done by local artists for sale. The paintings were nice enough, but with price tags between $1,000 and $12,000, we didn’t spend a lot of time looking at them.

There’s a restaurant called Millie’s Pancake Haus. Millie’s sells potato pancakes, which we both ordered. They were OK, but nothing special. It was a slight disappointment.

There is also mini-golf. We were surprised to find that they have two courses. We decided to play both. It was a lot of fun. Danita got two holes in one. For the first one she hit my ball. That knocked my ball into the cup. I’m not sure whether that counts as a hole in one for her or for me.

Unfortunately, the chocolate shop wasn’t open. So for our capper, we went as a very nice grocery store. We got fixings for most of our dinners for the remainder of our stay in Tucson. After a satisfying day, we took the 45 minute ride home and did laundry.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We had a wonderful tour of the Franklin Auto Museum. Franklin was one of hundreds of auto manufacturers that went through the depression but ended up failing shortly after. They manufactured cars from 1908 to 1930. One of their nicer exhibits was a room that showed the early progress of Franklin, and by extension the progress of the automotive industry. They went from a horseless carriage to something that looked like what we would call a car in just 15 years. The speed of change in those days was breathtaking.

Franklin cars had three hallmarks. They used air cooled, highly reliable engines. Our guide told us that some Franklin engines are still being used for industrial purposes. All of the museum’s cars still run. Franklin used aluminum where possible. This made the car much lighter than competitors. The third hallmark was an extremely high price, due to the cost of the aluminum. These cars are in almost perfect condition. They have driven cars to auto shows across the country, including Hershey Park. They have won top prize several times. Here is a picture of one of their later cars.

The museum is run from a house that is as interesting as the cars. This is an original adobe house in immaculate condition. The furniture was all purpose made for the house. Here are a couple of house shots.

This afternoon, we ate a famous local food: Sonoran Barbecue hotdogs. Then we visited the botanical gardens. Tonight we will visit the Dillinger Days Speakeasy.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Yesterday and today have the best weather for our time in Tucson. Afternoons are 70 and sunny. Tomorrow we return to cooler weather. Since the weather was so nice, we decided to do the zoo. It’s large enough to be interesting and small enough to easily see everything in one visit. This was the first Giant Ant Eater I had seen.

The carousel offered rides on lions, tigers, and other zoo animals.

After lunch, we had some serious lounging by the outdoor pool.

The best is yet to come. We have tickets to a concert highlighting Itzak Perlman.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Bonus:

We wanted to see some petroglyphs and also visit the Pima Air Museum. We learned that taking an Uber out of town is a lot easier than getting an Uber to get back. So we Ubered to a rental car company and drove ourselves. We planned to use an old car GPS but we were sort a critical part. So we fired up the smart phone map app. Danita held the phone and gave me advice while I heard the phone’s instructions though my hearing aids. It sounds rather confusing, but we quickly got navigation working pretty well. We saw plenty of petroglyphs. Here’s one that I think represents a goat, two sun bursts, and a wagon wheel.

My favorite is a very nice spiral. The Australian aboriginals used spirals in their ancient art, and still use them today. It is thought that ancient spirals represented water, which would be quite valuable in an arid climate such as exists in most of Australia and the Sonora Desert.

After lunch, we visited the Pima Air Museum. We saw more airplanes than we could count. Here’s an attractive plane that caught my eye.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We started our day at the University of Arizona Tree Ring Museum. This is a big deal museum, the biggest and best of its kind anywhere. They have over 750,000 tree ring samples going back to the 1920s and coming from around the world. They have several professors pulling down grants on various tree ring related issues. I would say more, but I can’t get past what I’ve already said.

After lunch, we went to the Arizona History Museum. We saw pretty much what I expected. Some of the boards seemed to have text that was word-for-word what I had read earlier. That doesn’t mean I didn’t see a few way cool things. For example, here’s a snap shot of a Thacher slide rule. The scale rotates in a helix around the cylinder to get additional precision in calculations. It is very rare to see one in this excellent condition.

Studebaker was known for building rugged, dependable, high quality horse drawn wagons. Here’s a 1903 Mountain wagon that would be perfect for traveling across Arizona. I don’t think I convinced Danita this would be a fun thing to do.

Unlike most other wagon manufacturers, Studebaker successfully converted themselves into a thriving car manufacturer, maintaining their reputation for rugged, reliable, dependable cars. Here’s a beautiful 1923 “Big 6” Sheriff’s special, generating 70 HP and capable of going 80 MPH. Studebaker sold this as a 7 passenger touring car. Many Arizona Sheriffs had one of these bad boys.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

UA does a lot of interesting things. We took a light rail (new transportation mode — you hoo!) to see two of them. Our first stop was the pharmacy museum. Danita appreciated this because her dad trained as a pharmacist. Dr. Ted Tong was kind enough to give us the tour. UA has what is probably the best pharmacy museum in the world. Here is a pic of them in front of an early machine to help make pharmaceuticals.

We spent the afternoon at the Carris Mirror Lab. This facility makes large mirrors (up to 8.8 meters) with an accuracy of 14 nanometers. This is the only facility in the world that can make one of these mirrors. They are limited to 8.8 meters because the highest overpass out of Tucson has only 10 meters of clearance. This picture shows one of many mirrors that will be used in the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently under construction in the Chilean desert. This mirror is being polished to its final shape. It doesn’t look shiny because the lab provides only the glass for the mirror. The mirror will be coated with aluminum in Chile.

The lab has not yet made a mirror for use in space. The guide told us that a land-based mirror sees as well as a mirror in space, thanks to new technology developed by Cal Tech that removes atmospheric turbulence from the image. He said that if this technology had been available, they would never have launched the Hubble telescope. If ever you visit Tucson, I strongly encourage you to spend a few hours taking this tour.

I hope this finds everyone doing well. And come to Tucson to visit the Carris lab.

We visited the Tucson Museum of Art yesterday. They have a few pieces by well known artists such s Rodin and Sisley. The majority of their collection provides a wide view local art — Native American, Spanish, etc. The museum is built on land that used to be Tucson’s China Town, then became a lively Hispanic neighborhood. One building from that era is restored and focuses on this part of local history. Here is a pic of about a third of an El Nacimiento. Comparing this El Nacimiento to a Nativity scene is like comparing a model T Ford to a rocket ship. The nativity is in the upper right.

Another section focuses on Native American art. The largest reservation in southern Arizona is for the Tohono O’odham. This is a group I hadn’t heard about before. This modern pot caught my eye.

For food, we start with the hotel breakfast, have a nice lunch out, then have salad and sandwich in the room for dinner. But yesterday we took a 40 minute bus ride to Pinnacle Peak. This is a low cost steak house popular with locals and tourists alike. The restaurant is surrounded by small shops (notably including a chocolatier) and a small train ride, all with an old-time western motif. Some 30 years ago, I joined Danita on a business trip to Tucson. The place hasn’t changed at bit. The restaurant’s hook is that if a man comes to dinner wearing a necktie, the waitress will cut it off. The ceremony includes a cow bell and a loud speech denouncing neckties. The ceiling is covered with tie remnants. I now have two ties immortalizing my visits to Tucson.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Our only activity today was the Desert museum. It’s a huge facility, and we spent over four hours there. They have a zoo-like display of animals, but also much more. Over 100 volunteers keep the place humming. If you visit enough zoos, you will find a show of birds flying out in the open. We’ve attended several such shoes. But the show at the Desert museum was the best ever. Everybody stood on the trail. There were hand-hold bars to help visitors turn and look while the birds flew just inches over our heads. I can’t find words to describe what it’s like to witness a raptor fly directly at me just a few inches over my head.

The down side of the day was that transportation got quite confused. I won’t try to offer a detailed account, mostly because it’s boring for you-all. I’ll just say that Uber transportation can be somewhat less than perfect.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.