mission san xavier del bac

a little south of tucson
there stands one of the oldest
european structures in arizona:
mission san xavier del bac.




the mission was founded in 1692
by father eusebio kino,
a jesuit priest,
who traveled around pimería alta,
an area that encompasses
the sonoran desert
both in mexico and in arizona,
founding spanish missions and towns
and interacting with the native peoples.


the structure that stands today
was built in the 1780s and 1790s
and is still used,
mainly by the tohono o'odham tribe.



and it is stunning.

on a complete side note:

i mentioned that this mission was built in 1692

because i still can't get over the fact

that in the western part of the united states

everything happened so much later

than on the east coast.

 for example,

william and mary was founded in 1693;

one year after this mission was founded.

that's crazy.

mainly because when the europeans

take over an area the first thing they do

is set up religious institutions;

schools are established way later.

so it's a little wild that a school was started in va

only a year after a mission was founded in az.

 

moreover,

2012 is arizona's cenntenial.

how is arizona only 100 years old?

virginia was discovered and settled

over 400 years ago.

i realize, of course,

that there have been people 

living here since the BCs.

in fact, systematic agriculture 

began in this region in the 8000BCs,

but it all still feels so young.

 

a piece of history hidden in downtown tucson

when jrw said she was coming to visit 

i told her to check out the guidebooks

and let me know what she wanted to see

and i would do my best to show her 
as many of those things as i could. 

she came back with a long list. 

and on that list she had the el presidio--

the old Spanish mission from the 1600s. 

ok, cool. 

let's go. 

not so fast.

it is near impossible to find out 
information on that sucker. 

like where it is, 

for example. 

it wasn't until the morning
we were going to drive around 

to see if we could find it 

that we even found it online. 

 

so after driving around,

and walking a couple of blocks,

we found it. 

turns out we had been driving past it 4-6 times a day. 

who knew?

and while it is just a recreation of the mission/fort 

that existed in tucson in the 1600s,

and therefore mildly lame,

it was cool that it was in the middle of downtown tucson

relatively hidden and unknown. 

one thing I did learn was how crazy awesome adobe can be --

it was over 100 degrees out, 

but as soon as you step inside of the adobe walls that made up the fort

it was super cool. 

and that's super cool. 

also,

they have fruit trees

and they'll let you pick them when the fruit is in season. 

rockstar. 

mt lemmon. again.

since we enjoyed mt. lemmon so much

we decided to share it's beauty with jrw and tlw.

we kept the hiking to a minimum

but we did drive up the mountain

and it was just as beautiful this time

as it was last time.

everyone decided to try bouldering.

rockstars.

we found these at the gift shop

at the top of the mountain.

i wanted to get all four, 

but at $10 (!!!) each

that seemed a little insane. 

i did get

kangaroo jerky, 

ostrich jerky

and jiffy pop.

spectacular.

ps. i don't think the extreme temperature difference

from the top of the mountain to the bottom

will ever get old.

it's a 30 degree difference --

60s vs. 90s --

that's crazy.

crazy amazing.

sabino canyon

every guide book says that sabino canyon
is THE place to take out of town guests.
it's supposed to be beautiful
and if you're lucky, there will be water to play in.


this past weekend,
jrw and tlw came to visit
and we took them to sabino canyon,
obviously.

and it did not disappoint.


it was beautiful.
and there was water in the streams for us to play in.



normally you pay $5 for parking
(unless you're lucky like us --
we got there and it was free parking.
awesome.)
plus $8 each for a shuttle that will 

take you to the end of the canyon
and back;
a round trip of about 8 miles.


 

so we rode the shuttle
and we hiked
and we played in a pool.


it was a great way to spend a saturday morning. 

tell me this little bugger

isn't the cutest thing ever.

too bad it traumatizes me

and runs in front of my car

on a consistent basis.

disaster.

2012 -- week 39 -- the gonzalez' in texas and the walkerz in arizona