Tucson, Arizona

Sun - Jan. 24th

The visitors center is in the center courtyard of these colorful shops in the original old downtown area of Tucson. We started from there and walked the old Presidio Trail.

This is the walking bridge over Broadway Street just outside the little downtown shopping area. John is checking out the busy traffic below. There was a quilting show and a gem and mineral show going on at the convention center nearby.

This is the old courthouse built on the location of the original fort. It has a beautiful courtyard in the back with statues, memorials, fountains, etc.

St. Augustine Cathedral.

This was taken from right behind the colorful little shopping area above. Notice the big "A" for University of Arizona on the top of Sentinel Peak (2,900 ft.). A Spanish chapel was built at the base of the hill in the late 1700s making it the birthplace of Tucson.

Here is a view at the top with some kids playing on the "A". Students celebrated a football victory in 1915 by constructing the "A" out of rock and whitewashing it. It has become a cultural icon and the whitewashing custom is repeated every fall.

This is a view of the old downtown area where we just walked with the colorful little shops just in front of the skyscrapers. The University of Arizona is the big complex of buildings just behind the skyscrapers on the left side and extending all the way to the right side to the football stadium.

Here is a picture of Old Main on campus. There are 37,000 students here and they have their own shopping district right on campus for several blocks with lots of restaurants, pubs, book stores, clothing shops, etc.

This is just the entrance to the football stadium.

I just thought this was an interesting arrangement of palm trees showing four or five different varieties together. There are several hundred different kinds of palm trees.

Tarra