Oops, after that mammoth post about Kartchner from yesterday, I kind of forgot about this day for a month. Well, here I am in late February, finally getting around to it. After our amazing visit to Kartchner Caverns State Park, we spent the night in Tucson at the Downtown Clifton Hotel, a nice little boutique kind of hotel. While I forgot to mention it, in the last photo of the previous day, where Caroline is peering into the view, we were eating at Charro Steak & Del Rey, which was quite a bit better than most everything we can get in Phoenix. That place is highly recommended. Now, onto this day, starting with breakfast.

I found Five Points Market & Restaurant on several “Best Breakfast in Tucson” lists, and it was near our hotel. The huevos rancheros I had were an interesting interpretation of the classic dish, while Caroline opted for a vegan roasted beet sandwich. This little diverse café of optimism was nothing less than great; from the wonderful staff to the eclectic range of customers, the place is a gem. I’d like to point out what differentiates this from most places that serve a decent breakfast in the Phoenix area: we live in a city that apparently cherishes conformity and that includes restaurant patrons. There are two camps out for breakfast within a 20-mile radius of where we live: one is a clientele of laborers and hourly wage earners, and the other is snobbish rich conformist clones dressed in a narrow range of fashionable crap.

Oh yeah, it’s Sunday, and we need to go to church.

We are at the Cathedral of Saint Augustine, where mass held in Spanish is just winding down. Because I don’t speak Spanish, this has the old-fashioned flair of services being held in Latin, which was how it was done when I was a little boy going to church in Buffalo, New York, in the late 60s.

But that wasn’t enough church for us, so we drove south so we could also visit the Mission San Xavier del Bac. Unfortunately, this was not a time for tourism, as I was informed matter-of-factly after I barged into the nave, camera in hand. Services were about to start. While I wasn’t ready for the word of god or entering heaven this morning, I was ready to take photos. This old church was founded back in 1692 by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino.

A side chapel was open to tourism, though I did try to be respectful of those who wanted to say prayers before I leapt in to photograph all the holiness my camera could capture.

That was enough god in churches; now it was time to see if we could spot the almighty in nature.

Obviously, we did not take Interstate 10 north; nope, that wasn’t for us when Highway 77 allows us to travel in these kinds of environments.

Anyone can live among the trees; it takes a special kind of person to find the beauty of cacti and then go out, seek them, and hug them.

I know it might be difficult to see the snow-capped peaks to the left in this image, while the ones to the right should be easier to spot. I consulted Bing’s ChatGPT, and while obviously it might be wrong, it appears that Mt. Baldy is to the left and that the entire range is part of the White Mountains. If this is true, we are seeing across an area about 100 miles wide.

I can’t say that we’ve ever seen water running through the Bloody Tanks Wash that is found here in Miami, Arizona, but here it is flowing today.

We are in Miami and walking around as we wait for a table at Guayo’s El Rey Mexican restaurant.

There are a few businesses holding on here along Sullivan Street that seem to have been the main street at one time before the “highway” bypassed it. How they remain open is a mystery. Maybe it’s related to the number of folks that, like us, end up waiting for a table while walking around town. As for lunch, Guayo’s never fails to satisfy unless, like today, they’ve run out of carne asada. This dissuaded me from trying something else as I had meat on my mind, and so off to Hodori in Mesa we drove.

Just east of Superior is Queen Creek Canyon we have failed to visit for a hike for over 20 years, and stopping to snag a photo is no easy feat, but today, we were driving slowly enough that we were able to catch a pullout and then crossed the road for this view which also allowed us to see the creek down below. Shadows on the creek side made for bad photos, and the boulders I really would like to get a nice photo of never work out either, so there’s this, our last stop before reentering the greater Phoenix area.