Pomegranate

This is a pomegranate growing on the grounds of the Westward Look.

More cool flora

Artichoke cactus

I could spend a week on the grounds of this hotel, just looking at the cacti. This one always makes me hungry.

Westward ho

The grounds of the hotel are gorgeous and it is surrounded by mountains.

Brilliantly colored flowers

There are about a thousand of these brightly colored flowers in the hummingbird garden at the Westward Look.

Typical AZ

This is on the way back to the hotel from The Good Egg. We had a huge breakfast and are feeling fat and sassy. :) We're going to spend the afternoon at the pool.

Ah, Arizona... Where the saguaros are as high as an elephant's eye.

Blake at the Good Egg

We're at the Good Egg having breakfast with Blake. If you ever go to Tucson be sure to have breakfast at the Good Egg. It's the best breakfast place here! Try the Castoville omlette, which is filled with artichoke hearts, spinach and tomatoes.

Nighttime Cactus

At the Westward Look they light up the cacti at night. Em and I tooka swim under the stars and then a dip in the hottub. We LOVE this hotel!

The scene of the crime

Just landed in Tucson. Taken from the air is this pic of the mountain where Mark & I got married in 2005.

Walking on the beach in SD

Em and I were up to our calves in the water when I saw what seemed to be a stingray or manta... a BIG one. I screamed and ran! It was actually a shark!!! A sandshark Mark tells us.

Who needs a stairmaster?

This is the walkway to the beach.

Wang Lung the farmer and his peon

Mark is the one who looks like Wang Lung the farmer from The Good Earth.

Look ma, I'm wearing a hat!

That's me... In case you can't tell. Good for me - I've been very diligent about wearing my hat this trip.

Off to the beach

After breakfast we decided to go to the beach before checkout. There are a ton of steps to get there. Down is easy...but up? Oye.

Squeaky

Em and I fell in love with this tiny duckling. It followed us around, squeaking non-stop at the top of its lungs. It actually got out of the water and would go wherever Emily went. We must have spent a half hour with this duck. We named him Squeaky. The video of Emily running from the big ducks was when she went to the food machine to get some duck food for this guy.

Another neat thing we saw were Lorakeets -- which are sort of like a cross of parrots and small fluffy parakeets. They are brightly colored with loud screeching voices. We got to go into an enclosure with them and they flew around us. The signs said that they might land on you and you should allow them to, but don't "pet" them because they may bite. Em and I were actually terrorized in the Lorakeet enclosure. They would whiz by our heads and seemed unpredictable. I had all these visions of Alfred Hitchcock movies. Mark, however, loved the Lorakeets and stayed in there with them for quite a while.

That's it for today!

Ducks

This is sort of embarrassing We go to the San Diego Wild Animal park, and when I check my pictures later, two thirds of them are of ducks!

The Elephant Egg

There's a great story behind this not so great picture. We were looking at an enclosure where they kept mother elephants and their babies. (By the way, the baby elephants are adorable. They can be 3 feet tall and 250 pounds at birth.) In the enclosure was this tree pictured above, with a round thing in it, and Emily asked "is that an elephant egg?"

My, what big ears you have!

Emily's got her pig ears on.

Firt attempt at a video

I can't see this on my mac, but maybe it will work for you PC people. It's a video of Emily running away from some aggressive geese.

Sensitive animals?

Em's been called many things in her life....