What a day

What a busy day I had today. Started with breakfast at Waffle House (mmm). Didn't have a waffle though but did have a good ham, cheese and jalapeño omelette. 

From there I finished off my shopping, looking for replacement batteries for one of our cordless phones but couldn't find any. I was too cheap to spend $20 at home on the replacement batteries when I could get the same ones for $10 in the states. Well, best buy here doesn't stock the batteries that they have on their website so... Guess I'll buy them at home. 

From there I went to the Pima Air and Space museum. I went before, probably 4 years ago but still enjoyed it. They had some new exhibits and planes so it was pretty neat. 

Here's a picture of a B-29 bomber that they had inside:

The weather was great to walk around the compound to see the other planes. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was about 90*F. Good thing I wore my new hat, kept my neck and ears out of the sun. 

After the museum I went to Safeway and grabbed a few things to create a lunch - a sandwich, bottle of water and Gatorade, Apple and cliff bar. I made my way to Mt Lemmon to drive up to the top. 

The drive was really neat - you start in the desert with cactus and make your way up to grassland-like surroundings and end up in coniferous forest. The temperature sure dropped too - started in the mid 90's (at 2,500 feet) and ended at 58*F at 9,000 feet. 

Here's a picture from one of the lookouts at 6,000 feet:

(View looking southwest at Tucson)

When I got to the "top" (at the ski hill) there was an Oktoberfest celebration going on but I got there when it was just shutting down. They had the chair lift running and you could ride up to the top of the mountain (I don't think it was actually the top) but I elected to save $10. Instead I drive further up the mountain to the university of Arizona's "Sky Center" where they have telescopes. The drive up was closed a small distance from the observatory so I parked the car and took a short hike (1/2 mile?) to some radio towers to take some pictures. Sorry, no example - you will have to wait for me to transfer pictures at home ;)

I then drive back down to the same viewpoint at 6,000 feet to watch the sunset. Again, you'll have to wait for pictures fr here but below is one from about 4,000 overlooking Tucson city lights:

I then made my way back to the hotel (45 mins drive) to have supper at 8:00. 

Boy, busy day. No wonder I'm tired. Hope you all had a good weekend and are ready for the week - I am.  Looking forward to coming home Saturday morning.