The Big Blue House!

After a GREAT SENDOFF LAST NIGHT - dinner out with Chris and Amy to celebrate the Jones Men's birthdays - We have arrived - in Tucson - never been here before. 84 degrees this afternoon and I could wear flipflops out to El Charro for dinner - have been dreaming all week of good Mexican food and my wishes were fulfilled.
We are staying in The Big Blue House in a historic district of Tucson. The House was built in the 1890s and yes, Ross is used to my choice of quaint, "off the beaten track", unique places. After we checked in with Lea who provided us with organic milk, fresh grapefruit from a bin on the front porch and ground Caribou coffee in a well stocked kitchenette we proceeded to walk to the 4th Avenue Historic District - this is what we found. Lots of "unique" people, tattoo parlors, hookah parlors - a veritable throwback to the late 1960s and I've seen that. This was a mural on a store on our walk.

No we didn't do it! But I was tempted and I also wanted to take a photo of a guy sitting on a bench with blonde dreadlocks and green framed eyeglasses with peach colored glass.

This is the side of The Big Blue House - Lea told me the story of how in 1972 she shoveled out her driveway in Indiana, put the shovel in a snowbank and transferred from Purdue to the University of AZ. Bought this house in 2004 which is on Natl Register of Historic Places and still a work in progress. Of course I found it and read the story in an internet search of Tucson. She tells me it has 13 colors of paint and her son wants to kill her as he is helping in the restoration as is her husband. I asked her if she was a little "artsy" - her reply "maybe" - with a big smile just as her son walked by. Her husband is quite serious!

This is the front porch and the blue bin holds a whole bunch of fresh grapefruit from the tree in the side yard.

Can't remember exactly our plans for tomorrow but I will by morning. It is supposed to be a warm and sunny day. As for tonight - I have been saving my good friend Beth Solheim's new book "Outwitted" and get to start it tonight - Beth in just around the bend in Phoenix tonight.