SharivilleLife stories from Shari

Today has been quite a day and I just finished a nap with my feet up.  I think we must have walked for miles.  I need to go home and arrange with Dr.  Morris to do my R knee, then I will really be able to enjoy all the walking this life style demands. Today we walked the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

When I say museum don’t think of a musty smelling, dimly lit, building with lots of antiques, this was the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  Most all of the activities were out doors.  Since the weather here is about 74 degrees with a mild breeze it was the perfect setting for a wonderful day. After we stopped at Phoebe’s Coffee Bar for a “pick me up, and a muffin or stone as Jerry calls them, we started out with a bird and rapt0r demonstration and how to preserve these wonderful birds.  There were hawks, owls and ravens that were the highlights of the show.  Very educational.  From there we took the far outback desert loop trail.  Along this trail we were fortunate to find several Javelinas, these some people think of a part of the pig family, but in reality they are not  they are peccaries. Look that one up. They are really quite the cute animal and in the desert probably would not be a danger to humans unless forced to protect themselves.  They are very social and live in groups.  We caught a picture of a  Javelina washing another’s foot.  Sweet.  Further along the trail we spotted a coyote, they have a really nice large area and they use invisible fencing to keep them from mingling with the tourists, which could be inconvenient.  We visited Cat Canyon and Jerry saw a Bobcat. We toured the cactus garden and we checked out life on the rock and visited a Prairie Dog town, which included a very nice and friendly Roadrunner.  These guys certainly have a personality, not to say those fat little Prairie Dogs don’t, they are really cute.

By then we had walked for miles it seemed and had worked up an appetite.  So we went to lunch at a really lovely place called The Ironwood Terrace.  It was cloth table cloths and napkins and had a very nice ambiance. First they brought us a basket of warm bread with cilantro pesto, and cactus pear…. ice tea.  Jerry had guess what?  You got it, a Kobe  hamburger with steak fries and I had a Cob salad with all the usual ingredients, except they used jalapeno bacon, nice and spicy and imported Klamatta olives.  It was a delicious lunch and we agreed we would definitely eat here again.  That’s how we judge the food, would we do it again?

From there  it was off to the walk thru aviary to see, up close, the desert birds of the Soronian Desert.  They sure have some lovelies and some sang and chattered as we walked the path thru. There were over 40 different varieties present. We stopped to rest in the shade along the way, close to the stream, and just enjoyed the wonder of nature.  This place has lots of benches of all kinds, drinking fountains and rest rooms.  They have made it a truly wonderful place to come to.

We saw beautiful Mt sheep with great big horns. We went thru the Riparian Corridor and were lucky enough to catch a playful ottor strutting and showing off.  They are the cutest creatures and always you come away smiling after seeing them. We didn’t get to see a Coatie or a Beaver tho, I was a bit disappointed but they were hiding out. A water hole in the desert is a very special place, and they say they do exist.

We walked by the Pollination Gardens which included the Humming Birds, moths and bees and butterflys.  We checked out the snakes,  some really bad fellows, bet you didn’t know that the Majove Rattlesnake was the most poisionous of all the rattlers.Thats because their venem attacks both the tissues and is neuro toxic.  Leave it to a Neuro nurse to be interested in that.   We saw scorspins and terrantula’s, and lizards, they even had black widows on display. There were some pretty impressive lizards there too.  Of course all along the way was a true desert, only an organized one.  There are over 100 varieties of cactus and other desert plants.  All of the area is tenderly tended to insure a pleasant experience for people to enjoy and get the maximum benefit of. All in all we had a really incredible day. Anyone who knows me knows I have an afinity for museum’s and this was” The” most special. On the way out we had to forego the ice cream store darn, we were still to stuffed from lunch.……….This saguaro, with the fan top is abnormal and occurs once in 200,000 plants they don’t know why…… Angie this turtle made me smile.