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Published: March 28th 2015
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Christine, one of Debra's long time friends from grade school, came to visit from Toronto along with her sister Michelle who lives in Vancouver. Both are school teachers so they had some time off during March break. This gave us an opportunity to explore some things that we had yet to experience. Of course there were a few days enjoyed just hanging around the pool, and we did tour around downtown Tucson which included a trip to El Charro's in "old Town" for some local Margueritas. We even got a tour of a private house that was 130 years old! Michelle, being very outgoing struck up a conversation with Joe the owner who exemplified Tucson's friendliness by inviting us in. They were just beginning to have dinner ame watch the local Wildcats basketball on TV. The house had a lot of character and with the smell of dinner cooking, it was hard not to just barge in the kitchen and join them!(we weren't invited to that extent but it was tempting to just ask!)
Debra took the girls to Tubac and Mount Lemon for a couple of days while I tried to sharpen up my golf game. We all enjoyed
the Desert Museum and Debra and I found our second trip there provided some additional interesting discoveries. The wildlife featured on this trip was the Helo Monster lizard and the Diamondback Rattlesnake. There were a lot of myths dispelled about rattlesnakes and of particular interest was the cost of the anti-venom should you, in the unlikely event, ever get bitten. It's about $160,000 which includes 20 viles of anti-venom @ $5,000/vile. Pat O'keefe, who was visiting with us last week, will be interested to know that rattling golf clubs together while looking for golf balls in the desert will not deter rattlesnakes as they are primarily deaf!
After a tour of Kartchner Caverns, we headed out to Bisbee which is an historic mining town about 50 minutes from the Caverns and 1 1/2 hours from Tucson. As per our last blog, Debra and I toured The Caverns last week, however, this week was a different tour of what is called the "Great Room" and it was just as amazing. Our main purpose in going to Bisbee was to have lunch at the " Breakfast Club" which is highly recommended for it's food and their homemade pies. The food was
good but their reputation for pies is overstated!
The weather at Bisbee was cool and rainy so we didn't fully explore the area. It seems the town itself is a unique mixture of artists, biker tourists and homeless people. Just outside of town was the Lavender Pit which is an abandoned open pit copper mine. This was the largest mining pit we've ever seen, about 400 ft deep with terraced roads. It would be a good representation of why environmentalists and other groups interested in protecting the enviornment would be against this type of unbridled destruction.
We had a hard time finding the Breakfast Club and discovered it on Erie street which is next to the Lavender Pit. This street was like a walking through time warp! Most of the businesses look like they were closed about 40 years ago probably around the same time the mine closed.
After a couple more days of R&R by the pool, we dropped Christine and Michelle off at the airport for their journey home.
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