soon...

I only need to wait a few more days before Denise & I head out on a long weekend wander on the other side of the country. I thought maybe we would go back to Death Valley but Denise thought we should try someplace new. Where? We're going to Arizona. I've been to Arizona before but this time we're going to a new-to-Denise-and-me city and a new-to-us national park.

Our destination is Tucson, and Saguaro National Park. I think it's interesting that the park was named after a cactus! I found this quote on the Saguaro National Park web site:

"Tucson, Arizona is home to the nation's largest cacti. The giant saguaro is the universal symbol of the American west. These majestic plants, found only in a small portion of the United States, are protected by Saguaro National Park, to the east and west of the modern city of Tucson. Here you have a chance to see these enormous cacti, silhouetted by the beauty of a magnificent desert sunset."

The park is in two pieces, with Tucson living in the middle. We're going to be staying at a B&B on the border of the eastern part of the park. I bet we'll get to both pieces of the park, and there is at least one botanical garden in Tucson that I think Denise might want to see.

It turns out that JetBlue has one non-stop a day in each direction between Boston and Phoenix so those are the flights we're on. Denise prefers non-stop flights so we'll be driving between Phoenix and Tucson. There is an interstate between the two cities and they aren't that far apart so driving makes perfect sense to me. Our westbound travel time will be after Denise finishes work one day this week, and then we'll be flying back overnight. Yikes! Denise isn't good at sleeping on planes but I think she'll get at least a couple of hours of sleep on that overnight flight so she'll be awake enough to drive home from the airport.

Oh! I'm so excited!

--- Rover