Photo Friday: Out and about in Tucson

Last week I shared some photos from the hikes I did in Tucson back in January. Today I have some around-town and museum photos, just for fun.

We did some eating out and wandering around, some from our lodgings not far from the campus, and visited some local sights.

La Chaiteria, a tasty lunch spot.

Mercado San Agustin

The main purpose of the trip was for a pair of northerners to absorb as much mid-winter sunlight as possible. A stroll around the U of A campus was as good a place as any to do so.

Old Main, the first building built on the U of A campus.

We stumbled on the Women's Plaza, celebrating the contributions of AZ women to the university, the state, and the world. 

This cool arch was outside one of the science buildings. I'm not sure, but wouldn't be surprised if the figure represent real people, though they may just represent Science.

The arch held male and female scientists, with symbols of their research.

Another morning we visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens, where they were in the process of dismantling the holiday decorations--they do special lights and have evening hours to show them off, but we just missed that.

The tree is wholly decorated with bird houses, some of the most elaborate I've seen (and thus probably less interesting to actual birds, but I don't think that was the point).

 
The plants in the garden are from desert lands all over, though the majority I think grow in the Sonoran desert. Even that has different zones, and the flora south of the border isn't the same as it is around Tucson.

Nights were cold while we were there, and a number of the cacti had protection from freezing, presumably for sensitive buds or new growth. 

 

 

Golden glove cactus. They were so nearly perfectly round! The remains of last season's flowers are seen on the top of this one.

 

There was a very nice little butterfly house, with examples from all over the world. Since it was the wrong time of year for the outdoor butterfly garden to be doing anything, it was nice to go inside and see so many species.

Pretty sure the ones with the eyes on the wings are some kind of "owl butterfly".

 

Other fun features were a model railroad and a lot of fun sculptures.

 

 

The Sonoran Desert museum, a dozen or so miles outside of town in the national park, was likewise fairly dormant in a dry January, and to our regret it was too windy for the raptor show. But we took in a nice presentation on venomous lizards and snakes and saw most of the critters.

In an obvious effort to appeal more to children, the museum has added life-sized animatronic dinosaurs throughout the exhibit. Triggered by motion sensors they move and roar when people walk by.

Among my favorites were the three little javalinas, snoozing under a bush just where the signs suggested they would be.

I worried a little more about the ocelot, but this small specimen of the Big Cats seemed pretty willing to pose for us.

Nice kitty! Just as well it was behind glass, though reflections made photos challenging. The odds of seeing one in the wild seem vanishingly small.

The gila monster is one of the very few venomous lizards. Unlikely to be fatal, its bite can nonetheless cause significant damage, and it doesn't like to let go.

A final fun museum visit was to the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. I did this with a local friend who particularly enjoyed the temporary exhibit on stage sets, featuring the Hamilton stage. The connection? All those sets are first mocked up in detailed miniatures. They also a lot of replicas that other people had made. 

I might have been more interested in the ships and other more traditional miniatures, whose detail never ceases to blow me away. This is not your plastic Barbie house.

By no means the largest or most elaborate.

 

Though none of the miniatures could be touched, there was a fun room with fantasy elements aimed at the children, and as we looked through it, a fairy arrived to do a story time for children, which seemed a nice addition.

The exhibit on model ships appealed to me a great deal, having read all the Horatio Hornblower novels in my youth.

The USS United States, a modern model of the vessel in 1797.

Shops and workshops were a popular theme, with lots of scope for cool details.

 I saw this beautiful caravan and immediately thought of Rat, Mole, and Toad.

Imagine my surprise to look a little further on and find that the famous friends of The Wind in the Willows were present!

Toad's caravan was actually canary yellow, with green, though the red wheels are correct.

 

That seems as good a place as any to end our visit--with the love of a good road trip (even though I flew for that one)! Come back next week for a bit of new flash fiction--I'm working on it now :)

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025   
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.


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