Catalina State Park

We hiked in Catalina State Park yesterday, first to the early 1000’s Hohokam ruins on the site of the Romero Ranch house, dating to the mid 1800’s.  We then hiked up Sutherland Wash, running from snow melt.  Lauren and Taylor had fun playing in the wash and all of us enjoyed the hike.  The views of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Catalina State Park are especially beautiful.

Happy 40th Birthday, Audrey!

Today is Audrey’s 40th birthday.  Papa and I are happy she and her family are staying with us in Tucson.  It’s been a low key day, with the girls doing their school work.  Audrey and I went on a nice walk.  We had a family Zoom call at 5, dinner at 5:30, and we played Azul after dinner.  We were grateful to spend the day with family, and to celebrate Audrey’s life.  Happy Birthday, little Audrey!

Morning with Friends

This morning, we visited our friends, Jennie and Jovita.  Jennie went to school with Papa.  They have known each other since kindergarten and graduated from high school together.  Jennie pulled out four years of high school yearbooks and asked Lauren and Taylor to find Papa in each one.  We all had fun with the search!  We also noticed that Colby favors Papa!  Jennie had more fun thing planned in their back yard, looking for rocks and making bubbles.  It was a fun morning!

We stopped after leaving Jennie and Jovita’s, to hike on Tumamoc Hill, an 860 acre ecological reserve and US National Historic Landmark, established by the Carnegie Institute in 1903, as a research facility of the Sonoran Desert.  Tumamoc Hill is the site of the earliest known trincheras village, with 160 foundations of round stone structures and perimeter walls.  Over 460 petroglyphs and a prehistoric garden are evidence of the ancient Hohokam people, who lived on the site over 1300 years ago.  The views of the surrounding area, from Tumamoc Hill, are extraordinary.  

More Family Time

Claire drove down from Phoenix on Sunday afternoon, with Emerson and Colby, to visit with us and open holiday gifts.  They arrived late afternoon, and four cousins were very happy to see each other!  Lauren, Taylor, Emerson, and Colby played for hours, running around our yard, all smiling from ear to ear!  We ate dinner on the back patio.  With Audrey’s 40th birthday just days away, Dan decorated her dinner chair and we sang to her, wearing party hats that belonged to Great Papa.

Claire and kids stayed at Westward Look overnight, and came back for breakfast and more play time.  They left just after lunch.  We enjoyed every moment of family time during their short, sweet visit.  

Hiking the Finger Rock Trail

After repeated calls to various stables, I found a riding club for horseback riding lessons for Lauren and Taylor.  Their lesson was yesterday morning.  They joined three other kids on horseback in the arena.  The lesson seemed a success!

After lunch, we went on a hike, on the Finger Rock Trail.  The big surprise was that water was running in the creek!  It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the hike, with Lauren and Taylor leading the way, and Papa taking a short nap on a rock.

Saguaro National Park

Yesterday we went to Saguaro National Park West.  “The park gets it’s name from the saguaro, a large cactus, native to the Sonoran Desert that doesn’t grow naturally elsewhere.  The earliest known residents of the land were the Hohokam, who lived there in villages between 200 and 1450 AD.  Petroglyphs and broken pottery are among the Hohokam artifacts found in the park. 

Spanish explorers first entered Arizona in 1539-1540.  Non-native settlement of the region didn’t occur until 1692 with the founding of San Xavier Mission along the Santa Cruz River, which flowed through Tucson.  In 1775, the Spaniards built Presidio San Agustin del Tucson, a military fort in what was then part of New Spain.  The lands that became Saguaro National Park remained relatively free of development until the mid-19th century, after Arizona became part of the United States.  President Hoover created Saguaro National Monument in 1933 and President Kennedy added land in 1961.  Today, Saguaro National Park covers 92,000 acres, and has two sections, one on either side of the City of Tucson.”

We hiked to Signal Peak, with over 200 petroglyphs, created 550 to 1550 years ago.  The saguaros and surrounding mountains are extraordinarily beautiful.  Taylor earned another Junior Ranger Badge!

Our French House

On Thursday of last week, we closed on our French house in Lectoure.  From early October to January 6, it was quite a journey.  I’ve bought and sold lots of houses in the US over the past 40 years, but this transaction was quite different, on multiple fronts.  

The most challenging item was to secure a French bank account.  Next up, we’ll have to figure out how to use it!  Utility bills must be paid from a French account.  We were fortunate to find an English speaking French banker in Paris.  He was helpful in getting the account set up, but the process took about six weeks.  The French are not in such a hurry as Americans.  

We are planning to go back to France in early April.  Our new friends, Jean and Don, are getting renovation bids for us, and we hope work will be begin soon after we arrive or maybe before.  We have been asked by numerous people in France and back in the States, why we bought a house in France.  We have had many adventures over the past 41 years.  We married in Tucson and moved to Dallas 1.5 years later for a career opportunity for Papa.  Ten years on, we moved to Sarasota in 1992, enjoying the city and living on the water.  In 2003, we moved to Winchester Ranch, and spent an amazing 13+ years in our beautiful setting on a working cattle ranch.  In 2023, we’re ready for a new adventure!  

At 64 and 75, this may be our last “big adventure,” and we’ll give it all we’ve got!  We’re taking French, applying for a long stay visa, getting copies of our medical and dental records for our French doctor and dentist, reading through bids for renovation work, making lists of furniture and other items to outfit the house, redesigning the garden, and so much more.  We’re learning every day!  For us, learning is key and we never want to stop!

Cocoraque Butte

We took a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon at Cocoraque Butte in Ironwood Forest National Monument.  We had it to ourselves, as we were the only visitors.  Lauren and Taylor took wooden mallets to play the “singing rocks.”  We searched for petroglyphs and broken pottery.  It’s a fascinating place.  “The petroglyphs on Cocoraque Butte include a variety of images - geometric shapes, abstract forms, insects, animals, plants, and human figues.  The petroglyphs span a long period of time, as much as two thousand years or more.  The earliest petroglyphs, date to the Archaic Period, two to three thousand years ago.  They are followed by a profusion of petroglyphs from the Hohokam period, AD 450 to 1450.  Hohokam petroglyphs are often found near water holes and along trails, and the O’odham consider them to be sacred representations of spiritual presence embedded in the terrain.”

Tumacacori

We visited Mission San Jose de Tumacacori, “built in the 1750’s to replace the older Mission San Cayetano de Tumacacori - the first mission in southern Arizona.  The original mission was established by Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino and his party in 1691.  The Jesuits established the Mission on the Santa Cruz River, in the territory of the O’odham people.  

In 1751, a Spanish military presidio was established nearby.  In 1767, for political reasons, King Charles III of Spain banished the Jesuits from all Spanish territories, so the Franciscans took over missionary efforts.  In 1800, Fray Narciso Guitierrez began constructing a larger church to replace the modest Jesuit structure at Tumacacori.  In 1828, a Mexican decree forced all Spanish-born residents to leave the country, including Tumacacori’s last resident priest.  The new church was unfinished.  It was abandoned and in disrepair by 1848.  With the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, the mission and surrounding Arizona Territory became part of the United States.  In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt declared the site Tumacacori National Monument, and restoration efforts began.”

We followed the self guided tour of the Tumacacori Historic Site, hiking through an orchard, down to the Santa Cruz River.  Taylor earned her fourth National Park Junior Ranger Badge.  

Big Hike

Papa drove us to the top of Campbell Road and we hiked down Campbell Trail into the canyon, then up the mountain.  The record rains of 2021 has left waist high grasses on the mountain, so we had to watch every step.  The grasses cover cacti and rocks.  We hiked about 3.5 miles on a beautiful day.  We all had a good time!