Summer Vacation: Tucson

We headed to Arizona to visit my sister and Tucson. It was really great to be with my sister and her family. She has a beautiful home and lives right by a mountain preserve so it was fun to go running in the hills by her home. The kids loved being with their cousins. Nothing is better then when the cousins get to play play play together. Plus seeing my sisters is pretty much the best thing ever. Especially when they take you to fancy smanshy spa for a facial and feeds you some of the best food ever. sigh. It was good. Really good.

But I liked it more the I thought after being prepared to not just fall head over heels over it. I liked the overall vibe more then anything. The people there seemed really nice, easy going, but also smart and cultured. They come across as educated and cool in a ranchers setting. i like that. smart but not stuffy. I like to think I would fit in that vibe well.

So one of the days we were there Stewart and I and Genevieve headed to Tucson to check it out. The morning before we left I went for a little run and I decided to listen to some Ensign articles on my phone. I listened to this one. Which is all about an Elder on his mission who was sent to this crusty prison town and was feeling so sorry for himself when he got a letter from home saying, "blossom where you are planted". Then it turned into his very favorite place and he loved the people so very much and so on and so forth. When the article was over I felt the spirit say not very whispery, "Remember this while you go to Tucson today." Then I knew it, I was not going to love Tucson. :O)

What I didn't like was the housing. I have a hard time imagining us living there in one of their houses. Maybe I dramatizing this but seriously like the houses are so spread out with the ranchy vibe with unkempt desert everywhere....its a pretty desert much prettier then Vegas and Reno desert but desert all the same. There were no fences to be found and no grass and no lets go out back and play ball in the grassness. More like lets jump in the pool and when we get out we can hunt scorpions and rattlesnakes. ;) Okay that might be a bit much but maybe not.

We stayed in this really nice hotel that night and ate at a really yummy burger place and bought some goodies at one of the fifty million Trader Joes there.

These are not my pictures but I thought they capture Tucson how I see it and envisioned it.