Saturday – hot and sunny.
Stop off at the local cafe for coffee and scones, at least for some who seem to have hollow legs. They do green eggs and ham, sounds revolting but when we find what’s in it (scrambled eggs with Pesto and cheese) I’m sure it would be great – on the menu for next week.After lazy breakfast drive up to Oracle State Park. Key word there is up to. It’s very hot on our patio but Oracle SP is higher up and there’s a nice cooling breeze. Get a free tour around the ranch house, compete with samples of native foods collected in the desert such as acorns and Lemonade berries – like sherbets. Then do a short nature trail.
After lunch I take the car down to the local garage used by Jerry (car owner), to have a slow puncture looked at. Done while I wait. 10 minutes of a job. How much? Oh there’s no 
charge for repairs like that, “have a nice day”. Should I have tipped them? Amazing!
Meanwhile the rest of the crew have gone off to buy Kindles and buttons – don’t ask – so it’s a restful afternoon on the patio and 17:00 is approaching so it’s a choice between a good German beer and a jacuzzi or a Pinot Noire. Or better still start off with the beer and then move onto the wine.
Perfect end to another perfect day.
Sunday – hot and sunny.
Up at the crack of sparrows to go on the 08:00 bird walk at Catalina State Park. Spotted 35 new birds. Only a 3 mile walk but it took 3.5 hours. Several experts leading the walk all very knowledgable.
Back home for lunch and a relaxing afternoon. Anne and Kevin playing with their new toys. Anne with an iPad and Kevin with a Kindle. Now Annne’s on Facebook thanks to Wendy. Wendy’s knitting and I’m doing my photos and blog.
Monday – hot and sunny for a change.
Wendy and I went down to Tohono Chul Park. A lovely park in the middle of Tucson. A bit like a botanical garden, sad to say we quite enjoyed it. Must have seen about 8 different birds even though we arrived quite late. Took about 90 minutes to explore it. Some lovely relaxing areas and Wendy got quite excited about some of the water features, she has visions of one in my Zen garden – dream on. Went to try and get a table for lunch but there was a 40 minute wait and yet there were plenty of empty tables. Typically Americans were patiently waiting. I find this a bizarre feature of the American way of life in that they’ll gladly wait 40 minutes plus for a table rather than voting with their feet and going elsewhere.
Drove down to the University. Had lunch at Starbucks. Really into this now with auto top up on my iPass app and a list of favourite 
coffees being built up. Carry on at this rate I’ll be able to speak Satrbuck’ese and order a coffee with gusto.
Visited the Pottery exhibition at the University. May well have the largest collection of Southwest Indian pottery in the World but sadly only a small percentage on display.
Visited the Indian life exhibition. Interesting how they made a good living from the land and then along came the settlers, who rapidly turned the areas into deserts with their greed and water wastage.
Tuesday – hot and sunny yet again.
Catch up on some work and phone calls first thing. Then by the time we’ve all rolled out of bed and got into gear we drive down to Sabino Canyon. Catch the tram up to the top and then make the 3.7 mile walk back down. Takes just under 2 hours. Thank a deity we didn’t attempt to walk up and back down. By lunch time I think we all feel like Taliban’s without a turban and ready for a break.
Then on the way back we all get the excitement of a trip to the supermarket.
Lazy afternoon. I manage to get a bit more work done and overcome an SSRS screw up. By way of a treat I have a jacuzzi and Spaten. This is the life. Jacuzzi has a bed area with jets all over the back and feet. Ideal after a hard day.