Tag Archives: Tucson

RA sushi, Scordattos pizza, Zinnburger, bike trail – Tucson

imageNow in vegas, awaiting my connecting flight home after a short flight from Tucson marred only by a raucous crowd of fellow fliers who were in very high spirits and laughing and shouting so loudly that I finally remembered I had my iPod and could effectively block out the noise.

Yesterday in Tucson, dad and I ate poke Arizona style, which was listed at RA sushi, in a ritzy outdoor shopping mall, as a “sashimi bowl salad with poke sauce.”  iT was a delicious mix of raw tuna and salmon, cooked shrimp, greens, sliced avocado and a tangy soy sauce-based poke sauce. gOod strawberry lemonade too and it felt healthy enough to almost justify eating for dinner a “convertible” burger (served on half a bun, as if…) with carmelized onions at Zinnburger. a  few days earlier, we also had good pizza at skordatos in the shopping center at Campbell and river (I think) that is moving soon, nearby we are told.

Dad and I also took a really pleasant bike ride on a trail along the wash (the dirt gully in the desert that catches water during heavy rain) from near Frys in Oro Valley north and east (I think) to another outdoor shopping area across from Catalina State Park.

i feel really lucky to have had such great weather during what may be my last trip to Tucson for sometime (my father’s house is for sale) and lucky too to have been able to visit this refuge from Midwestern winters for some 20 years. Thanks mom and dad! Xox

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Catalina state park, Arizona Inn, 4th Avenue- Tucson

 Almost 30 years ago, I visited Tucson for the first time to attend the wedding of my friend Mary at the lovely old world Arizona Inn. Today, Mary and I met again at the Arizona Inn, this time for lunch on the patio, overlooking a wide green lawn bordered by pink Adobe casitas and an impeccably landscaped desert garden. It may be the last time we meet there or anywhere else in Tucson, since my dad has put his house up for sale but we enjoyed our meal and the peaceful ladies-who-lunch setting (although neither of us fit that description…we are working gals out for lunch.)

I wandered around 4th Avenue south of Speedway, which had more strung out homeless people hanging around than I remembered but the head shops, vintage stores and Goodwill shop were Balanced by some more upmarket but still affordable youthful indie boutiques including Creations, where I bought some Airy made-in-India attire.Leaving that store I was approached by an attractive Israeli woman in her own airy India attire who convinced me to visit her “very nice” jewelry store, Evon Perez, which was very nice and I eventually succumbed to her relentless but not obnoxious sales pitch and bought some silver earrings from Mexico.

My visit began yesterday, as it always does, with a hike on the canyon loop trail at Catalina State Park, an easy and scenic loop with classic desert landscape – rugged mountains with a blue sky backdrop, gumby-esque saguaro cacti, all kinds of other cacti (barrel, paddle, purple paddle, agave) and spindly ocotillo and purple wildflowers. It always reminds me of my mother and how much she loved Tucson where she and my dad bought a house here 20 years ago. I didn’t make it to Catalina this morning for the 7:30 am Wednesday bird walk but dad and I spotted a dazzling red vermillion flycatcher off in the desert preserve beyond his patio (with help from binoculars.)

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Catalina state Park- Vivace-wildflower-Magee trail- beyond bread- rosa’s: Tucson

LuLuWe got crazy lucky with the weather here. Rather than scorching hot temps, as expected, the highs were in the low 80’s, sunny with a breeze. pretty darn perfect. so we could easily do early morning hikes (our standard loop at Catalina and a trail Just off Magee.

We stayed in a condo we rented from VRBO/Homeaway about 7 minutes drive from my dad’s in Oro Valley, off La Canada, just north of Naranja. Good deal $135 per night for two bedroom two bath, plenty of room to spread out. Not my choice of decor (bachelor pad bad) but good bed, reasonably clean, good backyard with hot tub. My sister found an even nicer place for $100 a night near the el conquistador hotel.image
Also did some fine dining to mark my father’s 80th birthday– the reason my siblings and I came here – including Italian food at the new location of Vivace, up the road on Campbell from the previous location, with a stupendous view of the city from in high; excellent birthday brunch in Sunday at Wildflower. Today, we went to Beyond Bread after our hike and were grateful it was open (on Memorial Day). And excellent tuna melt. Tonight we went to Rosa’s Mexican restaurant on fort Lowell. The food wasn’t as good as we remembered but nice ambiance and good service. all good. Happy 80th to my dear dad!!! Xox

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Hiking and dining inTucson.

perfect weather for a hike at Catalina state park in oro valley where we did the challenging Romero pools trail, 2.2 miles each way and lots of rocks, mountains, glorious views.

We ate a much deserved early dinner (we missed lunch, while out on the trail for 4 hours). I had very good carne seca at rosa’s and good pizza the night before at skordatos.

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Beyond bread, gabby giffords, Arizona shuttle — Tucson

After finding a long wait for lunch at Tohono Chul, a lovely garden spot in Tucson, we ended up at another favorite, albeit less scenic, lunch spot nearby, Beyond Bread ( where’re I must remember in the future to get the tuna melt). It is hard to go to Beyond Bread without thinking about the horrific shooting that left several people dead and gravely injured then-congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords a few years ago. The restaurant is right across from the Safeway market where the shooting occurred. As it turns out, several tv trucks were parked outside the Safeway as we were leaving the restaurant and we found out from this morning’s paper that Giffords yesterday returned for the first time to the site, where there is now a memorial outside the market. She and her husband Mark Kelly are working to drum up support for gun control measures. Here is hoping they succeed!

It is 8:25 am and we are waiting for the Arizona shuttle to take us to the Phoenix airport, the first leg of a daylong trek to get home to Iowa. Ridiculous to think we won’t be home until 7:30 pm Arizona time. And irritating that the shuttle folks insisted we be here by 8:15 so the shuttle can leave on the dot at 8:30. (which means of course that my dad got us here at 8:00). When we arrived, we were told the shuttle won’t even arrive until 8:30 – 8:40. So we have 40 minutes to enjoy the view and smell (not) …some sort of industrial site across the road. Grrrr…

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warm and sunny tucson – biking along “the wash” lunch at Choice Greens

We arrived late Saturday in Phoenix by plane and then drove 1.5 hours south to Tucson where we awoke the next morning to bright blue sky, mountains, warm sun –  a nice change from cold snowy Iowa. Eager to be outdoors, we rode along “the Wash” in north Tucson for about 14 miles, stopping at St. Philip’s Plaza on Campbell ave. to browse at the weekend farmers market (most interesting item: worm compost, a strange grey-colored bag of dirt) then lunch at what was first called “Chopped” but is now known as “Choice Greens” – a design-your-own salad place that remains good, whatever its name. On today to hike at Catalina State Park up the road in Oro Valley.

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vivace pizza, biking along the rillito trail near St. Phillips square Plaza, chopped (now choice greens) and zin burger

It was cold last Wednesday so we braved a bike ride along the wash near St. Phillips Plaza at Campbell and River, riding west. Nice level ride but it was cold riding into the wind. For lunch we ate at the former Chopped, now Choice Greens, or some such. As good as ever. That night we ate at Zin Burger – big juicy rare burger but pricey. Tuesday night, we had a good meal – pizza and salad at Vivace Pizza (in st. Phillips Plaza) Best part of Tucson: Being with my dad!

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Hiking solo in Catalina State Park, Beyond Bread (in the shadow of a horrible shooting),

It was such a gorgeous morning – flawless blue sky, light breeze (that later became fierce wind), and bright sunshine (temps rising past 80) – that I just had to go hiking, which meant hiking solo since my dad wasn’t up for it. I’ve never hiked on my own but I’ve hiked many many times at Catalina State Park, about a mile north of my father’s house in Oro Valley. It turned out to be just fine – more than fine, actually fun. I walked on the very easy Canyon Loop Trail for about 2.5 miles on a mostly level dirt trail through a valley surrounded by jagged mountains and fields of cactus, saguaro, barrel, agave, scrub bushes and purple and yellow wildflowers. There were plenty of other hikers around, several of them solo, so I felt not at all out there all alone. I ended up backtracking to do short section of the Romero Canyon Trail  – the first flat mile to the lovely Montrose Pools and back. Sitting on a bench overlooking the pools – a small puddle of water at the bottom of a shallow ravine bordered by saguaros – I met a fellow hiker who I ended up walking back to the trailhead with. Nice woman, retired, used to live in Decatur, Illinois now lives in Mesa with her husband, who – it turns out, is a retired ag journalist. (My husband is a not-retired ag journalist – how small a world is that?) Anyway, my rule of thumb when hiking alone – beyond the obvious of bringing water and trail mix – is to not do anything too challenging (I like to have someone near by when I fall….) and to have my cellphone handy in case of emergency. I also made sure to text my dad to A few other hiking suggestions from my brother who was here recently:  At Catalina, the Sutherland trail is pretty nice and not very difficult. Romero is nice too – more difficult. the 50 year trail has some nice views but a little one note. Beyond Catalina, he also did the Magee trail – and if you go a bit further than he usually goes – about 45minutes out then back – it gets really beautiful.

We ate lunch at the new (or new since I was last here three years ago) Beyond Bread on Ina and Oracle which is as fantastic as the original one on Campbell (and much closer to my dad’s house.) Sadly, it’s in the shadow of the Safeway where Gabrielle Giffords and many others were shot a year ago.

 

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Tucson – for future reference

For the second year in a row, we haven’t taken our annual trip to Tucson to see my dad – just got pulled in different directions. But my brother and his wife are there and report that they’ve found a good new cheap Mexican restaurant – BK’s – downtown – which specializes on Sonora Hot Dogs and Carne Asada (neither of which sound great right now as I’m still recovering from dining in Panama). They also were looking for a hike we did together four years ago and report that the trail head is – as we thought – just north of AJ’s fancy food market on Campbell and East Skyline Drive.

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