A wonderful week ends in a flash

The KB2FME Trio

And just like that a great week is over. Last Wednesday we welcomed Joan’s two sisters and a brother-in-law and what seems like a snap of the fingers it was time to take them to Tucson International Airport and put them on flights back to the frozen north.

I’m already missing my brother-in-law Denny and will miss him even more when I head off to the fitness center to work out alone tomorrow. As much as Joan and I love our togetherness, it is always fun when we have visitors so we can play host.

On Monday, we headed to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum for a fun day of looking at the flora, fauna, birds and critters of the desert. It was pretty warm (but it’s a dry heat) but we spent about four hours touring the museum and Joan and I got our first glimpse at the new aquarium at the museum.

Harris Hawks - stars of the show

One of our favorite shows is the “Raptor Free Flight” show at the museum which includes flight demonstrations by live raptors without any tethers or other restrictions attached to them.

Obviously, the birds have been well trained, but the birds fly back and forth to trainers and right over your head during the show. At one point one of the four Harris Hawks flying around flew between Denny and my head so close you could feel the rush of air as it passed by.

When Joan and I went to the museum a couple weeks ago we were unable to see most of the live animal exhibits, it being even hotter that day than this one. This visit we spotted four Javelinas, a grey fox, a bobcat, a white tailed deer, a beer, but like last time we still didn’t see the coyote that apparently has a very good hiding place.

The bear we missed last time

Virtually every type of vegetation you might see in the desert is on exhibit at the museum and I know that our family enjoyed the museum just as much as we did.

A few of the family (not me) remembered to bring along their KB2FME t-shirts and Monday was the day they wore them. In case you’ve forgotten the shirts are a tribute to my father-in-law Red who was a dedicated Ham Radio operator and the KB2FME was his call sign.

Denny had to explain the significance of the shirts to at least one stranger, which is actually a low number based on previous experience.

The Javelina we missed last time

After the museum tour we headed home for a few minutes so we could check our mail and thankfully a couple prescriptions Joan and I have been waiting for a long time finally showed up in our box.

About 5 p.m. we headed to the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Tucson for our final family meal on this trip and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  Back home we watched a couple television shows and turned in about 10 p.m. as Patty’s flight out in the morning was an early one.

At 5:15 a.m. Patty and I snuck out of the trailer and headed to Tucson International Airport for her flight.

The birds flew right over our heads

Back at the trailer Denny and I decided to spend his last few hours in Tucson visiting the nearby Pima Air and Space Museum, which included a tour of the “boneyard” the resting place of about 4,000 retired or obsolete military aircraft.

We toured some of the indoor and outdoor exhibits at the museum and then headed back to the trailer about noon. The girls had picked up the trailer, packed the suitcases and we had lunch and then headed to the airport for a sad goodbye to our wonderful week together.

In the way of a recap, we visited Tombstone, saw a re-enactment of the “Shootout at the OK Corral,” visited the legendary “Boothill Cemetery,” the copper mining town of Bisbee, Arizona, a quick overnight trip to the Grand Canyon which included dinner in Williams, Arizona, the last stop on the old Route 66, went to our church on Sunday, toured the eastern portion of Saguaro National Park and then all the activities outlined here for the past two days.

Denny checking out the "boneyard"

Tonight Joan and I had one of my favorite meals  –  a “CORE” dinner, which stands for Clean Out the Refrigerator – so now Joan has a little more room in the fridge, while I have a little less room in my belly.

Not sure how much posting will happen in the next few days, but check back and see. If you want to see more photos from our recent adventures, just scroll down.