Sunday, December 29, 2013

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
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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Wednesday, December 25, 2013

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

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Monday, December 23, 2013

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
617-435-8502
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

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
617-435-8502
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Sunday, December 15, 2013

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
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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