Tubac, San Xavier, Gethsemane, Geronimo

Check this sky again!! Drove to the artsy town of Tubac south of Tucson - not Ross' "cup of art" but he tolerated it. Defnitely geared to tourists. But.....I did get my double scoop ice cream cone for lunch to eat on the way back; as we got stopped at a border patrol station (no we did not cross the border - no passports remember?) the official said "How's the ice cream?" and waved us on.
Visited the Mission San Xavier del Bac (oldest and best preserved in the Southwest) established in 1692 and is still an active church on the Tohono O'odham reservation. The chapel is compared to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. The statues had beautiful real clothing on and the guide said it had to be changed periodically for special events like Easter, Christmas etc. I did notice quite a few large birds landing all over inside the church! This is one of my favorite purple cacti on the church grounds.
This is a view of the mission from a nearby hill which held a replica of the Grotto at Lourdes, France (Our Lady of Lourdes) and had lots of little notes, flowers, pictures attached. Whenever I see these little things I say little prayers. The mission is called "The White Dove of the Desert".

This is a view of the sunset last night out of our front window - gorgeous!

No we are not in Jerusalem! A soldier named Felix Lucero lay critically injured on a forgotten battlefield in WWI and vowed to God if he survived he would dedicate the remainder of his life to sculpturing of religious statues - started these in 1943. The plaque said "Heartbreak and pain walked with the artist during his sacred efforts"

Yes that is Ross joining in and yes he did get a sun hat in Tubac!

Murals all over in Tucson. Geronimo is on a lot of them and I read a few places that he maybe was not as bad a guy as he is portrayed.

Last stop was the Jewish History Museum - small but interesting. Items from Auschwitz - the more we travel the more we see how the whole world is tied together. The volunteers were eager to tell us the history of the Jews in Tucson. We watched a DVD from June of 2010 in which Gabi Giffords (she is Jewish) is shown removing the cornerstone box that was placed in the temple in 1910 - 100 years old. Arizona became a state in 1910 - Minnesota in 1857! It is eerie how she pops up nearly every day in the least expected places.
I got an email today that the tour company that took us to Egypt in 2009 has cancelled all trips through March to there and will reevaluate in November.