What Neil, Alex and Eleni did this weekend:

Hanging out with falcons...
Mountain Lions
A helpful zoo!



Eleni taking her firetruck driving seriously
Alex's first surgery!
On road from Tucson to Gila Bend

What Neil, Alex and Eleni did this weekend:

“Can we go in the pool?” (Eleni)

While Kirsti was off on a frantic but fascinating, and hopefully rewarding investigation, we had more modest goals for the weekend. The kids had put in 300 miles a day in the car for two weeks, so we focused on small, and local. Hanging out in the motel room, watching cartoons, playing games, and most of all swimming, were big hits.

“I liked the glowing scorpion” (Alex)

Saturday morning early, we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 10 miles west of Tucson. I’m not a big zoo fan, finding them rather grotesque, but this was amazing: they’ve created vistas of different terrains from the region and then set the animals in their natural environment. We saw mountain lions, “bambis”, snakes, and the aforesaid translucent scorpions. We also went caving, had hummingbirds fluttering over our heads and best of all, soaked in the dry heat like lizards, and the incredible views of the valley peppered with thousands of the mysterious Saguaro cacti.

“I want French fries” (Eleni)

The most depressing part of the weekend. I still feel sick from yesterday’s lunch, at Jack Jr’s? I thought it was going to be passable Mexican food.... There’s not much choice on the road with picky kids, but fried fast food truly is an abomination, and not eating meat limits options for the grownups still further. We’ve been eating from the cool box, but need to go out sometimes…

“We saw Wall-E. He’s so cute- can we have one?” (Alex)

Saturday night we could have gone back to the Desert museum for incredible stargazing, or gone to the Tucson Sidewinders AAA ballgame, or even to the drive in theater for a novel experience, but the kids were beat, so instead we went to the multiplex and watched “Wall-E”, which was actually really good. A movie about pampered humanity leaving an exhausted planet, watched in a totally unsustainable city (the water level is plummeting as the retirees swarm in). It’s a pity, because as we drove back in the twilight, with incredible sunsets and cicadas singing/scratching I thought how fun it would be to live here. People are laid back, and seem happy, without all the trappings of wealth deemed vital in NJ. I picked up a book “Last Child in the Woods”, by Richard Louv, about “nature deprivation disorder”, and how kids don’t play outside anymore. Maybe this trip will get our kids interested, because on the way back we’re going to be camping in the desert, and maybe suburban Madison isn’t going to cut it much longer- but I always say that!

“Where’s my Mommy?” (Alex and Eleni)

Sunday we hung out at the pool again in the morning, then went in search of something different, and decent, to eat before exploring the Children’s museum. We finally found alternative Tucson, on 4th Avenue close to the University of Arizona (where Alex wants to study, so we’ve already done our one and only college visit). Lots of veggie food, Greek, variety at last! We hung out in the wonderful Antigone bookshop. Eleni played with Groovy Girls, Alex read Skippy John Jones, and I fantasized over books on straw-build houses. Then we very happily met up with Mommy in the evening before putting in 120 miles of desert on I-10 and I-8 as far as Gila Bend, on the way to another new world- California.


(Editor's note (Kirsti), we'll put the photos in tomorrow. The connection at our motel here is rather slllooooowwwwww... and we need to sleep!)