Tucson Home Renovation

We have had people in and out of our house since the last week of October.  We had five windows replaced and a sixth new window cut into our breakfast room wall.  The window installations called for stucco repairs.  Next we had the tile in two showers demolished and replaced with new tile, and the floor of a third shower replaced with stones.  Along the way, the demolition broke most of our wine glasses in the wet bar in our living room - the sledge hammering caused the walls to vibrate and the wine glasses fell onto the floor.  

In early February, interior painting began, with all the dark wood trim inside our house, getting sanded then painted.  We had to move furniture and rugs, then everything was covered in plastic.  All this was a giant mess!  Papa and I cleaned the house last week for Mary’s weekend visit and put all the furniture back in place.  On Monday of this week, February 24, painters arrived to paint the exterior trim and stucco patches around the windows of the house and casita.  They worked two and a half days, and voila, they finished.  On Monday, our tile guy also came to put a new coat of finish on the floors in our house.  Our renovations are done and we are happy with the results!

Tucson Rodeo

We spent much of today at the 100th Tucson Rodeo, with Papa’s sister, Mary and our friend Jennie.  We watched bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, and barrel racing.  There were fireworks to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Tucson Rodeo, music, and running of the bareback horses.  We ate popcorn while enjoying all of it!  Afterwards, we went to Seis Kitchen at Mercado San Augustin for an early dinner.  We had a fun day!

Sabino Canyon

Papa’s sister, Mary, arrived late morning today.  We had lunch on our front patio, then went to Sabino Canyon to hike, about 8 miles east of our house.  It was a beautiful day!  There were lots of happy birds chirping along our hike.  We saw a  roadrunner, and a coatimundi - quite rare!  After the hike, we stopped at the Medicine Man Gallery, full of Native American and Western art, rugs, and jewelry.  We had fun!

NOLA

We went to the airport for a late morning flight, and had our last beignets at Cafe du Monde inside the airport.  Papa and I had a great time with Taylor in NOLA!

Taylor’s impressions of New Orleans:

“Fun!

I loved all the music.  There were different songs being played from every bar on Bourbon Street and I liked the Jazz Band at Preservation Hall.

I liked the Jazz Museum.

Every building was different, with a French feel, colorful and pretty.

The food was unique.  I liked the muffulettas, gumbo, crab cakes and bread pudding at Antoine’s, king cake ice cream, white chocolate covered marshmallow, and beignets.  I tried coffee!

I really liked how the Escape Room was set up.  It was really fun and hard to solve.

And Lulu and I went swimming in the heated pool at the Ritz-Carlton.”

Escape Room, Lunch with Friends, and Preservation Hall

Our last full day in New Orleans was quite full!  We started the day with a stop at Kilwins, for a white chocolate covered marshmallow for Taylor.  We walked to the Escape Room, and solved The Heist!  It was Papa and my first time at an Escape Room.  Taylor showed us the way!  It was hard!  

We met my lifelong friend, Pam and her husband Kenith for lunch at Napoleon House for muffulettas, then went to Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait.  We rode the St. Charles Streetcar through the Garden District, lined with mansions, to the turnaround at Audubon Park and back to the French Quarter.  In the evening, we walked to Preservation Hall for the 6 pm show.  There were about 100 people packed in the Hall, along with musicians.  It was an incredible show!  We stopped for dinner on the way back to our hotel.  We had a good day!