May 10th - Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

Today’s adventure was to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum which is very near the Saguaro

Entrance to the Ironwood Terrace restaurant

National Park that Liz and I went to a couple of days ago. The museum was founded in 1952 but somehow everything looks brand new. It is more a garden than a traditional museum, plus an art gallery and a natural history museum. Their website says it is the most popular Tucson attraction and “one of the top 10 museums in the United States”.

It’s a great place to see desert plants, flowers, animals and birds. I especially enjoyed the walk-in aviary where we were able to get close ups of the birds – both native and exotic. There was also a separate hummingbird aviary where we were able to stand six feet from a hummer on her nest. But, the best bird watching was on the café terrace where a Pyhruuloxia landed on Liz’s binoculars that were lying on our café table.

Pyhruuloxia on a tile counter

The museum has a nice assortment of exhibits for a diverse range of species including spiders, toads, snakes, big horn sheep, beavers, and even sting rays. We didn’t make it to the cat exhibit area.

The thing that made this day exceptional though was that it was delightfully cool all day and on the drive back we enjoyed those big, poufy white clouds set against a vibrant blue sky – the sort of perfect clouds that are so rare in the Bay Area. 

Kestral on a docents glove

White Phlox

Whiptail Lizard

Detail from a larger art piece

Bromiliad on a branch inside the walk-in aviary

Western Tanager with a worm inside the aviary

Southwest Coral Bean

Yucca flower

Dramatic light near Liz's home

May 9th - A Walk Around The Block

Yesterday afternoon after we returned to Liz's from visiting the Saguaro National Park I went for a walk around the block. Here is just a few of the wonderful things I saw.

This is Liz's private backyard which has birds in it most of the day

Desert willow - a small tree

Hesperaloe parviflora

Saguaro

Barrel cactus in Liz's front yard

A neighbor's front yard

Mexican red bird-of-paradise

Close-up of the Mexican Red Bird-of-Paradise

Another neighbor's yard

Detail of above photo

Cactus flower that lasts only one day

Bud of the white cactus flower

Yellow Bird-of-Paradise

Yellow flowering prickly pear cactus

Tecoma stans or Yellow Bells

May 8th - Tucson and Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park typical landscape

I arrived at our friend Liz Gluck’s home in Tucson yesterday – Sunday late morning. We spent the

afternoon and evening relaxing and talking. My drive along Highway 8 from Dateland was a breeze with very little traffic all the way. It has been much cooler with less wind and dust since Sunday morning.

Today we visited Saguaro National Park which is in the Tucson Mountain District close to Liz’s home. This park, like Cesar Chavez, started as a national monument in 1933 on the east side of the City of Tucson. The western section, which we were in today, was added to the park in 1960.

Visitor center in the West District of the park

The park has a small visitor center and several nice trails and picnic areas that allow you to get up close with the Saguaro and other desert plants. The saguaro is the largest cactus in the US. Each tree is unique and seems to have an individual personality. My timing was good because it was a comfortably cool day and because the Saguaro is blooming. It’s pretty difficult to get a good photo of a Saguaro flower though because they are on top of the tree and typically at least 20 feet off the ground. One of the interpretive signs explained that a thumb-sized Saguaro could be several years old. They typically live 175-200 years and can grow as tall as a four story building.

One of the many irregular forms of the Saguaro cactus

We ate our lunch at the Signal Hill picnic area sitting under a Ramada that provided enough shade to be comfortable. While there I commented on the fact that each of the picnic sites was unique. Turns out they were built by the CCC between 1933-41. According to the NPS website, “The style and construction of the picnic tables are good examples of the NPS Rustic architectural style that was common at the time.”

Saguaro flowers

Striped shadow lines of the Visitor Center

Ironwood tree flower

Two Ocotillo plants frame the mountains in the background

Visitor Center architecture framing the mountains

CCC built picnic structure

May 6th - Lake Havasu City & The London Bridge

London Bridge looking north

This morning I start in Needles, California where it was 92 degrees by 8:00 AM. I drove east into

Arizona and headed south on 95 which was a perfect route for a very windy day in that there were no trucks to compound the effects of the wind.

My route paralleled to the Colorado River and took me to Lake Havasu City. I’d heard of the town but did not recall in what context until I saw a sign for the London Bridge. Moments after asking “are you giddying me?” there was the bridge crossing the Colorado River. Curiosity piqued I made a right turn into a parking lot, got out and walked over to take a photo.

Speedboats on the Colorado River

 The river was filled with flashy looking speedboats strolling up and down the river. There was a plaza at the river’s edge, and a collection of faux English buildings. Tacky yes, but intriguing. I walked down a ramp and along the shore where I could appreciate how the arches of the bridge framed views up and down river. 

I skipped the visitor center but learned from Google that the London Bridge was originally built in the 1830s and crossed the Thames River in London. The bridge has a rather gruesome history which you can read with this London Bridge link. In 1967, the decision was made to sell the bridge because it was structurally insufficient to support modern day vehicles.

London Bridge crossing over the Thames in London, ca. 1870

American billionaire Robert P. McCulloch, who made his money in oil, purchased the bridge for $2.4 million, had it taken apart and shipped to Arizona where the numbered stones were reconstructed onto a new concrete bridge. He rebuilt the London Bridge between 1968 and 1971 in order to attract buyers to his new residential development surrounding the new attraction. It worked - Lake Havasu City now has a population of 50,000 and according to Google the London Bridge is the second most visited attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon.

After this novel stop I continued south until I hit I-8 where I turned east. I selected an RV site in Dateland and as I’d hoped celebrated the day with a date milkshake. It probably would not have appealed to me except I remember my mom telling me about having a date milkshake years ago - she raved about it. So, in honor of my mother I savored every drop. Tomorrow I head for Tucson.

Plaza along the river bank

 Entry columns imported from London
oddly juxtaposed with desert vegetation

Ornate wrought iron date adds to the faux setting

View to the south framed by bridge arch

May 5th - Cesar Chavez National Monument

Entrance to the Cesar Chavez National Monument

Well, I’m off. I left Oakland at 10:30 on Thursday May 4^th – just one day after my final design review committee meeting and planning commission hearing for the City of Oakland. I enjoyed serving on the planning commission with a great group of fellow commissioners, but I was ready for my second term to end, so I could start this trip.

Day one of my genealogy journey was uneventful. I drove highway 5 to a RV “park” in Lost Hills which is northeast of Bakersfield. The drive was made enjoyable as I listened to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah – an autobiography of his growing up in South Africa during and after apartheid.

Looking through the entry pergola toward the parking lot
and mountains beyond

This morning I left Lost Hills at 7:30 heading east on 46. A few miles beyond Bakersfield I saw a sign to Cesar Chavez National Monument and decided to go see it. I learned about this new “park in progress” by attending a talk at a recent ASLA conference. It is one of the newest additions to our National Park Service having been dedicated by President Barack Obama on October 8, 2012.

Arbor and steps up to the Chavez graves

The LaPaz site is in Keene which is in Kern County in the Tehachapi Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. It was created to interpret Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement. I arrived before the visitor center opened so toured the site on my own. The site has two components – a newly designed memorial garden where Chavez is buried and an assortment of buildings that housed the activities of the farm workers.

My timing was perfect to see the memorial garden because it is filled with a variety of roses – climbing, shrub and ground cover roses, and all were in bloom. It is a glorious display – both visually and with a subtle fragrance. The new landscape is richly detailed and nicely integrated with native oaks and rock outcrops. It includes one traditional Spanish-style fountain and a sculpture/fountain at the Chavez graves.

Headstones for Cesar Estrada and Helen Fabela Chavez

As I wandered through the site I found residential buildings, a community kitchen/meeting room, and one very long two-story building that may have housed farm workers. The monument is so new that none of the buildings have interpretive signage to explain how they were used and since I left before the visitor center opened I cannot tell you what function each building had.

Sculpture/Fountain at the graves

Here is a link the National Park Service website if you want to learn more about La Paz, Cesar E. Chavez or the farm worker movement: https://www.nps.gov/cech/index.htm

Tonight I am in Needles – right on the Arizona border. I found several RV sites along the Colorado River. I can see the river from my motorhome but it is still 83 degrees with my AC going full blast at 8:30 PM. 

Spanish-style fountain and Visitor Center

Roses and a Valley Oak in background

This looks like a residential building

Small building not yet restored

Fan palms outside the community kitchen

Long two-story building

This one is for Di who loves yellow roses