We are in the middle of our Arizona vacation.

I had forgoten how much I love this desert. I find it odd that my two favorite ecosystems are swamps and deserts. I guess I am a moisture extremist at heart. As we left the airport, the first bird I saw was a roadrunner (beep-beep).

No tarantulas so far. Although, while visiting a friend Spouse found a Desert Recluse for him (close relative to the Brown Recluse). Funny, our friend (Professional Photographer w/ Ph.D. in Ecology) was quite disturbed by the discovery of the Desert Recluse. He has a pet Gila Monster that he picks up & was undisturbed by the Western Diamond back hanging outside the door. He lives in a house in the middle of a Sonoran Desert Nature preserve.

Our resort is in the nicest place of all the ones we have stayed. We are in the midst of the desrt & from our porch we have seen cute families of Gambel's Quail, Jack bunnies, Roadrunners & even a mama & baby Javelina (wild pigs). There is a wash right below us where there are ocatillos, barrel caci, mesquite, etc., etc. & so forth. No Saquaro's there...to wet for them-HA. The rivers here look like dirt roads.

We went to Biosphere 2 on our first day. Bizarre, interesting and over engineered.

We went to a Titan Missle museum (there were/are 18 around Tucson). Tomorrow we are going to Kartchner Caverns. I told Spouse the two things that really interested me were the missle silo (we had both fantasized about buying one & using all that underground space for living and storage) & the cave. He said "Well DUH! YOu only have 5 planets in earth. Of course you would like to go down in holes in the ground". Ha. Never thought of it that way.

More later.