Final days in Tucson

We have been enjoying the weather in Tucson so much we decided to look into real estate and get some education.  We did a couple of afternoons with realtors... and spent parts of a few more days just driving around on our own, getting a feel for the different communities.  Tucson is a huge, very spread out city.

We have not made any decisions yet, except that we came home to rain with an outlook of another week of rain.  When I Skyped Lorne in Tucson this morning and he said they have only sunshine with more of the same next week.  So where do you think we would rather be?

Our realtors Paul and Marlene DenHerder gave us a couple of complimentary passes to the Tucson Museum of Art where we spent an very enjoyable couple of hours.  


The piece above may not seem all that impressive to you, but this was done in Pointillism ... thousands of tiny small points of different colours.  


"I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom." -Author Unknown

We probably were not supposed to be taking any photos in the art museum, but my iPhone is small and I caught few pictures when no one else was around.  I loved the colour, contrast, highlights and shadows in this piece by Hal Empie.  


Shirley has posted a bit more on our day at the art museum... about Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican artist... famous lover... most prolific self portrait painter.  To check out Shirley's blog click here.

Shirley joined us on our last round of golf at Quarry Pines.  We didn't see all this wildlife during our round... we tried to stay out of the rough, as the snakes are said to be out.  I think they just tell us that since they don't want us taking time to look for errant golf balls.  It didn't stop Lorne from coming home with pockets bulging with golf balls. 

Peter  Gleed, another snowbird who lives in the same community as Lorne and Gail joined us for our final round... which was my best of the six rounds I played in Tucson.  In fact we all did pretty good... all under 90.  I had 84 with two OB's.  Our group had 5 birdies.  We all had a great time.

I didn't take any photos of our hotel or the room in the Hilton... which was really nice... but I did take this one interior shot of the front window with the reflection. I took this from the fifth floor upper lobby area.  There is seven stories of glass about 40-50 feet wide... supported by this steel tube geometric pattern.  Pretty cool.

We had our breakfasts in our room... and made several trips to the nearby Sunflower Market for cereal, fresh fruit and rice milk.

The market was close enough that we usually walked... and this sunset was taken from the corner on Broadway and Pantino where we crossed the street.

It was on this corner that I was introduced to talking crossing buttons.  When you push the arrow to  get a change of light there is a voice that says, "WAIT."  The first time I heard it I wondered where that came from?  Pretty cool, eh?

This was a cute 4' x 8' mosaic piece of airport art in San Francisco.  I took this before I realized I had left my MacBook Air in the seat pouch on the plane.  


As soon as I realized my computer was missing I went to the check in counter and they phoned to confirm it had been found.  However it was a horrible 90 minutes of anxious waiting before I finally got it back. First they told me I could get it at Baggage Claim.  After hanging around there for 15-20 minutes they told me I might get it faster if I went up to Check In.  Over an anxious hour there still with nothing.  they took my address and told me to go back to check in.


When I was back with with Shirley I told her that I have never got such a run around in my life... and I was convinced that these guys were never going to give it back.  Then the man named Art showed up with my laptop!  I could hardly believe it.


"Customer Service that doesn't happen in a timely manner is not customer service... it is Customer Aggravation!" Gary Santini, CEO of Parklane Homes. 

Last Wednesday almost all the planes were delayed due to bad weather, high winds.  Our plane was about 3 hours late.  In fact, when we were supposed to be boarding, they announced that our plane had not left Palm Springs due to high winds... and then there was the problem of getting a landing time in San francisco... as so many planes were trying to land at the same time.


This made us late arriving in Victoria... but we just made it to the ferry with absolutely no time waiting... all the cars had already loaded... and when I drove on they dropped the gate.


We are glad to be home and find things much like we left them.  Only a mess of  branches down in the storms... and we cleaned them all up already... about 8 tractor loads!