Final Photo Shoot

Hi All,

We worked our last shift at Tumacacori yesterday. Today we wandered around the mission for our final photo shoot.

Welcome

Father Kino established this mission in 1691, the first in what would become Arizona.

At first there was no resident priest. The community built a structure like this "Ki" where the visiting priest would stay.

In 1757 a church was built on this spot. The short wall outlines the original foundation.

By 1800 the original church was declared unsuitable and construction of this new church began. It was not until 1822 that the new church went into service.

In 1848, the mission was abandoned due to Apache attacks and cold weather. Local ranchers removed the roof to reuse the wood which caused serious deterioration of the plaster and adobe bricks.

In the storehouse, pots like these were used to store surplus grain.

Mission records revealed the names of over 590 people buried here in the cemetery. The circular building is the mortuary chapel.

Tumacacori is a very special place and we will miss it when we move to Patagonia Lake State Park next week.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Luminarias

Hi All,

Every year since 1948, Tumacacori has celebrated Christmas Eve with a candle display at the Mission. This year we put out 2,500 luminarias. There were so many staff and volunteers working on it that it took only two hours to set the up and 40 minutes to light.

There was still some light when we opened at 6 PM.

The church interior was well lit as we greeted the nearly 2,000 visitors.

Later in the evening, a tall young man walked into the church, stood quietly in the corner and sang this magnificent Ave Maria. Apparently his family encouraged him to do this to honor his recently departed grandmother.

After visitors tour the grounds, we treat them to hot chocolate and cookies. This is a small sample of the 120 dozen, mostly home made cookies.

It was a very special evening and we are glad we got to be a part of it.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

To Tubac for Lunch

Hi All,
Today we went to Tubac for lunch-on foot! We hiked about 4.5 miles north along the Anza National Historic Trail which follows the Santa Cruz River. After a great lunch at a new restaurant, we hiked back to Tumacacori. Including a half mile detour when we took a wrong turn, we covered a total of about 10 miles. We were leg weary but is felt good.

 The Anza Trail commemorates the 1775-1776 expedition from here to San Francisco led by Juan Bautista de Anza. Captain Anza led 240 settlers and hundreds of animals over 1,400 miles in 80 days. With only one death and three births along the way, Captain Anza arrived with two people more than he started with. Quite an accomplishment.

Merry Christmas to our Christian friend.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in 6our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Email Address Change

Hi All,

We have had two months worth of trouble with our "livingourdream" email domain. Even though we are still living our dream, we have decided to shift all of our email to Gmail (we bought Google at $422 after all ;-)

Please use greenbaum2@gmail.com

For all future emails

Thanks,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Life in Arizona

Hi All,

We are settled in at Tumacacori NHP, volunteering three days a week and birding, hiking and shopping on our days off.

The old mission church is still a magical place and the staff is really appreciative of our support.

This weekend we went up to Tucson for an overnight. First stop was the holiday light display at Tohono Chul Botanical Gardens. They claim 1,000,000 lights and who are we to dispute that. They also had these spectacular propane heaters that both warmed and fascinated everyone.

We are still not used to seeing palm trees with holiday lights

Within the park were several live performance venues. The leader of this group (second from left) is the son of Ted DeGrazia, the local artist we raved about last year.

Here are some cactus with Tucson in the background

More lights contributing to the million count.

Sunday we went to the 4th Avenue Craft Fair. Six blocks, 30 vendors per block on each side plus another 50 or so on the side streets, at least 400 vendors!

Outside the parking garage we spotted this sign that is sure to be effective. The small print at the bottom says,"located above World of Beer"

Many fairs have balloon sculptures but Bob Marley would love this creation!

The crowds seemed endless as we shopped along 4th Ave.

Life is good, Happy Holidays to all.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Settling in at Tumacacori

Hi All,

We have settled in at Tumacacori National Historic Park south of Tucson. We went right to work setting up a booth at the Grassland Festival at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.

One of the exhibitors had this beautiful Harris Hawk.

Sitting by our coach at the park we saw this lovely sunset.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Organ Pipe-Day 2

Hi All,

Today was our last day of "vacation". Tomorrow we drive about 200 miles to Tumacacori and begin another volunteer gig at the historic park there.

We drove and hiked around more of Organ Pipe today. One beautiful vista after another.

The yellow green bushes you see in the foreground are creosote. The bushes are never clumped together, always 5-10 feet apart. It's biological warfare to protect their access to water. The creosote bush roots create a substance that prevents germination of seeds from other plants. Pretty clever for a plant.

The new growth on the Organ Pipes is very pretty.

This rock formation reminded us of the sphinx!

While eating our picnic lunch, we had a visitor looking for handouts. 

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Hi All,

Our last desert park visit is snuggled along the Mexican border south of Phoenix.

The cactus the park is named after usually grows in Mexico but exists here on south facing slopes where it is warmer.

Lots of saguaro cactus as well

From the mountainside we could see far into Mexico

While the sun backlit this hedgehog cactus.

When the sun set it was gorgeous. The bright spot on the upper left is Venus.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Joshua Tree National Park

Hi All,

The drive from Death Valley to Joshua Tree was 250 miles of stark Mojave Desert. Joshua Tree at 4,000 ft elevation gets only 4 inches of rail annually but that's double the rainfall on Death Valley.

The Joshua tree is a large branching yucca plant. The other feature of this park is the rock formations.

Is this one a Hershey Kiss or one of the seven dwarfs?

Keys View provides a look across the valley towards Palm Springs. The dark brown line on the valley floor is the San Andreas fault!

Here's a panorama from Keys View

The geology here is fascinating.

The park calls this "Skull Rock"

We found lots of other shapes including breaching whales, aliens, Easter Island statues and the Olympic torch. Great fun.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Death Valley-Day 3

Hi All,

This morning we drove from Furnace Creek 190 feet below sea level to Dante's View at 5,500 ft. The last quarter mile climbed at 15% and, yes, there were bicyclist up there!

The view across Death Valley was awesome

Next we hiked Natural Bridge Canyon.

A curious geologic feature and a nice hike

Last stop was the Harmony Borax works. We remembered 20 mule team Borax but didn't realize those poor 20 mules had to pull these loaded wagons 165 miles through the desert to the nearest railroad.

We had a great time in Death Valley and left a few sites and hikes for a future visit.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Death Valley-Day 2

Hi All,

We started the day at sunrise at Zabriski Point. Unfortunately, since we changed the clocks Sat night, we were up at 5:30 for sunrise. So much for getting an extra hour ;-).

Definitely worth getting up early

After breakfast back at the coach, we drove 60 miles north to Scotty's Castle. This place was built in the early 20's as the winter home of a very wealthy Chicago Banker. The complex is at 3,000 feet elevation, adjacent to a 300 gallon per minute fresh water spring.

Spanish colonial style inside and out.

Quite the gun collection

This huge cottonwood grows near the spring

Next stop was Ubehebe Crater formed 2,000 years ago by a volcanic steam explosion.

Mesquite Dunes came next. Miles of sand dunes loaded with critter tracks.

A great day.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 

Living & Traveling in our Motorhome

Volunteering across America

greenbaum2@gmail.com

www.livingourdream2011.blogspot.com

617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone