'Ireland' in southern Arizona...back from L.A.

A friend of ours recently went on a drive south of the city, and he called me, saying, "you have to get down to Sonoita--it's like going to Ireland."

So, yesterday morning, we went for the scenic drive--just 45 minutes to the SE of Tucson, and the monsoon rains have indeed turned the normally dun-to-golden grasslands into rolling green hills...there are even some pronghorn antelope in the area, although we didn't see any yesterday...it was disorienting--felt like we were in Montana, maybe--very dépaysant...

A nice way to get out of the desert even if just for a couple of hours. Some friends of ours from Phoenix were with us--they too were amazed by the un-desert-feel, less than an hour from Tucson...


The grasslands have also, for a few decades now, become home to some vineyards and wineries. The wines are not 'amazing,' but the high elevation and soil conditions are ideal for growing grapes...and it's interesting that viticulture in Arizona dates back to the 1600's when the first Spanish priests brought vines to plant in their mission gardens, huddled behind walls not always adequate against Apache attacks...

...yeah, so maybe the yucca plant is not exactly Irish, but to our now-desert-accustomed-eyes, this is a super-verdant scene...

...looking west toward the peaks of the Santa Rita mountains,

from Empire Ranch in Las Cienegas National Conservation Area...

 ...and there are late summer wildflowers in abundance...and this cool-looking bug, eh?

I found out what it is: a veined ctenucha moth.

(Ctenucha--pronounced: teh-noo-chah.)

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Last weekend, right after the first week of the new school-year, we went to Los Angeles for a conference...

I did take this past Monday off, so we could get back to Tucson without being totally exhausted...or so we thought: we'd planned on leaving Monday morning, but then the friends with whom we were staying wanted to show us around, so we ended up having a tourist-day...and didn't get back to Tucson until midnight--exhausting, but worth it.

The day began with pastries and lattes at Porto's Bakery in Burbank--think Paris-meets-Cuba--awesome!

Then we putzed around Hollywood and then up to Griffith Observatory above the city:

...the famous 'Chinese Theatre' on Hollywood Boulevard, on the 'Walk of Fame'...

Over the years I have been to Los Angeles, I had never actually stopped in this part of Hollywood to gawk at the cement-immortalized handprints, footprings, signatures, and stars...

S. and I don't really keep up with celebrity 'news,' but this was actually kind of fun...

...Neo-Babylonian à la Disney architecture (?) at the

Hollywood and Highland Center, where the Kodak

Theater is also located--the site of the Academy Awards...

ahh...the smog-enshrouded skyline of Los Angeles, looking SE from Griffith Observatory...
we could just barely make out the ocean to the SW...

I'd never really spent time in Burbank--just driven through--it always seemed like it would be an overly asphalted area, with all of the studios--ABC, Warner Brothers, Disney, Universal...but our friends live in a tree-lined neighborhood just around the corner from where Jay Leno is filmed every day--I went for a morning run among eucalyptus, palms, pines, magnolias, gardens full of callas, roses, bougainvillea-vines trained into giant trees...who knew that Burbank was so green?

So. Today. Time to breathe. Next weekend--three days off--Labor Day weekend...and Labor Day itself--the 8-mile run through Saguaro National Park.

late summer in Tucson--in and out of Outside: 

from trails for bikes to 'Tostitos preparados'...

...in and out of Outside magazine, that is--this month's issue names Tucson 'best town in America' for road-biking...Yes, this is indeed a desert metropololis full of velophiles and bike-lanes, surrounded by miles of Sonoran desert and mountain terrain, trails, etc. etc... (Runner-up town?--Boulder, Colorado.)  

This morning--my last 'Monday of Freedom,' since students return to classrooms a week from today--I went for a bike ride along the Rillito--the seasonal river that cuts across the Tucson basin from east to west. Most of the length of the river has been developed into parks and trails--part of what makes Tucson one of Outside magazine's 'best towns:'

(for more info on Rillito Park, click here)

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So...so much for what's in this month's Outside magazine.

Now, for something decidedly out of that publication: tostitos preparados.

Yes, 'tostitos' as in the brand-name corn-tortilla-chip. It's a Mexican street-food classic, but you won't find it at any Taco Bell near you...

Yesterday, S. and I were introduced to this snack experience by a couple of amigas mexicanas...We'd heard about this concoction (definitely only a 'sometime-food,' since it's pretty far to the 'junk'-side on the junk-food-scale) but had never seen or tasted it.

In the photo below--look to the lower left of the chalk-board-menu:

See it?--'TOSTITOS' and then, in the diminutive 'preparaditos'...

(The hole-in-the-wall joint was a classic example of how you can be in one city/country, and then go through  some doors and be instantly transported to a different world...S. and I immediately felt like we were back in Central America...could've been a raspadería in Nicaragua--the concrete-walled establishment didn't have the a/c running, all of the conversations were in Spanish...)

So--'what is it?' you ask...

Behold--in all of its still-in-the-bag-glory:

Sí, sí, mis amigos--you just take a bag of the chips--cut the side off, then top and fill with a mixture of melted nacho-cheese-sauce, diced cucumber, diced carrot, diced tomato, sliced jalapeños...and if you want, you can add peanuts, or 'chamoy', even shredded cabbage (!)...and it's served and eaten messily right out of the bag, preferably with one's fingers...As there were four of us sharing, we asked for plates and forks:

Junk-food-WITH-VEGGIES!!

Wanna try?

Come on down...

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With the recent monsoon-rains, the mountains around the city are becoming carpeted in green--normally, the color reserved for the forested peaks, but now even the lower slopes are almost verdant...

(yesterday evening--looking up at Finger Rock in the Santa Catalinas, from La Encantada mall...love having a camera on the cell-phone...and below, a view of downtown Tucson--I was running errands, and noticed that the view from the parking garage was kind of nice--actually made Tucson's small cluster of 'high'-rises look 'urban'...and I do love the multicolor-tiled dome of the Pima County Courthouse, built in the 1920's...)

...as the school-year looms...

In this morning's New York Times, this column:
Putting Our Brains on Hold

--thought-provoking, as I get ready for the new school-year.

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Two evenings ago, a 15-minute drive up the Catalina Highway--doing a little bit of 'storm-chasing,' as the monsoon sky was dramatic:

...evening showers over Tucson...there are things to love in the desert, despite the heat...On my drive home 'after the show,' I saw a coyote and a roadrunner dart across the road.

Sedona, Antelope Canyon, & Horseshoe Bend

...August!? July really flew by with just one posting?

Last week, S. & I took a few days to get out of Tucson--up north to slightly cooler temperatures in Red Rock Country: Sedona, about 4 1/2 hours north...

      ...truly, one of the most beautifully-set towns anywhere...full of art galleries, restaurants, trails for hiking, running, biking, a creek for canoeing and swimming, and eateries ranging from greasy-spoon diners to 5-star resort restaurants...

And you can't mention Sedona without talking about the 'energy.' Hmm...'vortices?' Seriously--fans of crystal-swinging neo-feng-shui aura-reading new-agey things flock to the area. People looking for something...The landscape is inspiring, but...'Is this the way to the female vortex?' --I was asked that on a trail. I bit my tongue, although I felt like replying "well, if the vortex is so strong, shouldn't you just be able to feel your way there?" Let me hike in peace. That's the energy I'm seeking...

...AND they even had a good vegetarian Korean restaurant with a view, right on the main street...

Oak Creek runs through the town, flowing south from the plateau around Flagstaff through a dramatic forested canyon...

...had fun with the color-accent feature on my camera:

The red is not exaggerated...

Sedona is striking.

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About three hours north of Sedona, just south of the Utah border in high Navajo country,

 is Antelope Canyon, one of the slot canyons in the four corners area:

You can see why it's called a 'slot canyon.'

About a quarter-mile long, it's a surreal landscape of light and erosion...

You can only get there by means of a guided-tour, mostly run by the Navajo;

you ride out of town in the back of a pick-up or a jeep, and then down a three-mile long sandy wash;

feels like the Outback of Australia...and then you end up in this ethereal curving chasm, constantly craning your neck to look up:

It isn't always a place for solitude--but the tour-groups pass through relatively quickly, and then you're left to yourself...The Navajo guide we had was a bit gruff--but mainly from his frustration at not being able to communicate effectively with his group; he asked 'who here speaks English?' Only Sara and I raised our hands. ALL the rest were European tourists, mostly French! (Will admit--had fun eavesdropping on summer family-vacation-conversations...) Seriously--there were way more foreign tourists than there were Americans...strong Euro-Dollar exchange rate, perhaps...

The narrow winding passage, even when crowded, stays quiet; people are so busy gawking and taking pictures that there aren't many conversations--some quiet under-breath 'wow's and 'cool's and 'amazing's...

...all from the elegant simplicity of water flowing through sandstone...

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A few miles away, just south of the town of Page, AZ,

in the gorge where the Colorado River flows south from Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam, is Horseshoe Bend.

Here's my wife's point-of-view:

It's one of the most-photographed spots on the Colorado River, and I'd always assumed it was very remote--probably accessible only after a long hike...a scene to be captured by overnight-backpackers.

Surprisingly, the hiking trail is only three-quarters of a mile long--you park right off the highway and then trudge over tumbleweed-and-sand for a few minutes...From the road you have no idea what awaits you, as the gorge lies behind a slight rise...and then you walk to the edge, and there it is:

The scene is so vast that, unless you have special lenses, you can't take the whole scene in one photo. It took me five shots to fit it all in--I then stitched it together above, and then 'fixed' the distortions below:

No guard-rail, no interpretive center--just you and the view. (A few weeks prior, a man got too close to a crumbly part of the cliffside and fell hundreds of feet to his death...)

As was in the case in Antelope Canyon, there weren't many 'fellow Americans' around--most of the onlookers were French--including a couple vanfuls of French teenagers with their chaperones on a summer-vacation high-school-group trip. Predictably, one of the guys had to stand close to the edge, raise his hands up, and yell--like in "Titanic:" "Je suis le maître du monde!" ("I'm king of the world!")

Très original, mon ami...

Here--proof that we were there...

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...and, I bit the bullet--after doing a few 5-k's, I have committed myself to something longer: the annual Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run. I am by no means trying to be a 'competitive' runner--but the goal of a specific-date-and-distance helps keep me focused...My goal is to feel good and be a solid middle-of-the-pack runner this time...maybe a half-marathon will be a goal for next year? (and then...a marathon before 40?) The route is super-scenic--it's an 8-mile loop, up and down, up and down, on the eastern edge of the Tucson basin, at the foot of the Rincon Mountains. Click on the site below for more info...

( photo below from the official website: http://www.azroadrunners.org/races/detail/saguaro )

(this was the 2008 race t-shirt logo,

showing the topography of the 8-mile loop: 2860 to 3220 ft.)

This morning while on the loop, (I've been doing it once a week), I had to ford some modest seasonal streams; the monsoon has done its job and the foothills of the Rincon mountains are wet with the remnants of the past week's rain. In one of the streams, flowing strong, I saw tons of tadpoles!

Hurry up little guys! Will you make it to frog-hood? Will you sprout legs of maturity and hop away before the streams revert to mud and then to terra cotta?

Ah--the last days of 'summer vacation' in Tucson...

School looms.