Day 7 Desert Museum

I spent the night at Tom's and we went to Tucson church and had a wonderful day.  Grace Shelter worships with the congregation in the mornings.  This is a homeless shelter that has about 25 members that attend our church.  The sunday school kids served lunch since it was Mother's Day.  The congregation in the afternoon is extremely thin after the shelter folks leave.  One of the main points I remember from the sermons was a story of a wealthy man who lived 2 hours from his mother and thought he would send her a nice bouquet of flowers instead of driving to visit her.  When he got there he noticed a young girl on the steps crying.  He found out the little girl wanted to buy her mother a rose for $2 but only had 75 cents.  The man said he would buy the rose and then ordered his bouquet.  He gave the little girl the rose and watched as she walked away but then also offered her a ride.  The little girl accepted and said the man could take her to her mother's place.  When they arrived, the man realized they were at a cemetery.  The little girl went over and placed the rose on a freshly dug grave.  This was used to illustrate that we should not take our mother's for granted but also the love which God has offered us.

After church, Tom and I met with another single brother, Andy Knobloch, and drove to the desert museum.  This is mainly and outdoor museum/zoo showing off AZ local plants and wildlife.  There were many neat things to see but mostly the hummingbird room where you could walk amongst many hummingbirds flitting about and get really close to them.  I was also able to see a lobo, ocelot, and javelinas for the first time.

Tom and Andy at the start of the Desert Museum

Hummingbird nest with 3 chicks

Hummingbird with bright purple throat.

Hummingbird (outside the room) drinking from a flower.

very shy ocelot

Javelinas.  Note these are not the same family as pigs/boar
 as they have smaller broods, are herbivores, and have
 dewclaws

Extremely bored cougar.

Balloon fish which can choke a shark to death.

After the desert museum we went and ate at Rigo's fine Mexican Food.  I ordered the buffet because I wanted to try many different things.  The buffet was not labeled well so I ended up eating I'm not sure what but it tasted good.  There were strips of meat that looked like chocked and others that looked like pork.  For all I know I was eating gatos y perros.  Other things were labeled in spanish but this didn't help me much as most everything I learned in spanish has since been purged from my memory and replaced with medical information.  I also tried Horchata after Tom suggested it.  This is a beverage that tastes like a sweet milk with cinnamon in it.  The horchata was good but I didn't feel it fit well with a meal of tacos and other unidentified Mexican cuisine.  Tom didn't order the buffet and was still hungry after finishing so we went to Something Sweet which is a dessert lounge.  I ordered a volcano cake and the other two ordered cheesecake and a reese's cake.  The food was all very good but I am hardly able to walk and look/feel like I'm 36 weeks along.  Tom gave my some suggestions for the rest of my travels.  It has been a wonderful weekend and I recommend TTPI (Tom's Travel Planning Inc) for anyone planning a trip to this area.