Its a lovely day and we feel like walking but not a hike. We feel we've not fully covered downtown Tucson.
During our local driving we spotted some retro neon signs nearby on W Grant Road and this morning went to check them out. See below. Unfortunately the Arizonian and Tropicana motels no longer exist. It's now a county college but they kept the signs.
Magic carpet golf is also gone.
But Frontier motel still exists and lives up to its signboard.
We then turned 180 degrees and walked towards University of Arizona, Tucson. On the way we spotted this college dorm. Memories of "Animal House" anyone?
On a nice Saturday morning there are a few people around but not many. We walk through the main pedestrian "mall" west to east.
The science buildings have this cute gateway. All the figures are in white coats studying anatomy, biology, chemistry etc.
College spot is a big deal for University of Arizona. They host the Arizona Wildcats - basketball, football, tennis, ice hockey, baseball. Today it looked like a basketball game was scheduled. Their logo outside the McKale stadium.
They also have the Bear Down Gynasium so athletics and gymnastics also seem a big deal here too.
We headed south past some student housing areas.
Spot the irony (1 of 2)
Heading back west towards downtown we ended up back on 4th street around 10.30am. Aahhh coffee time. Cafe Passe was our bier and blues joint last night. Good to note that the coffee is also excellent.
We like 4th street, it has character and does make us laugh.
Spot the irony (2 of 2)
We end up back near the train line and the transport museum. Di claims she's not a "train buff" but in the last 4 months we seem to have taken a few photos like this one...
Ll
Daylight robbery.
We follow the train line towards the warehouse district and liked this mural. What have the burritos ever done to us?
We went back under the railway line to Tucson's warehouse district. This area is becoming gentrified. At the moment there are lots of homeless people there but you can see some nice home decor places and galleries have moved in. Come back in 5 years time and our guess is it will be completely different.
Americans are patriotic and we see evidence of "God bless America" frequently, including this Patriotic wall outside a disposal store.
Back to the downtown side of the railway line and we stumble onto an art show in an old warehouse - and it's free. They are restoring the building but thankfully left the fabulous old floor untouched. A mariachi band was playing in the background. Very pleasant.
Happy (window) shopper. Nothing purchased but lots admired. Note the fabulous floor.
Food truck haven outside the arts and craft market. We just had to try a half portion of Chicken Tikka Missala from The Twisted Tandoor, the yellow food truck in the background. Fan bloody tastic!
Some more walking and then we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Hotel Congress Cup Cafe. At 1pm on a Saturday they had a 15 minute waiting list but we didn't mind waiting as the lobby and bar area is wonderful and interesting.
All that's missing from this bar is a beer sliding towards us.
Cup cafe continues the great decor of Hotel Congress.
Not pennies from heaven but definitely thousands of them stuck to the floor in cup cafe. Looks fantastic but they told us they are refreshing the pennies soon. Some are worn out and some missing. Sounds like a tedious job...
These wine bottle "chandeliers" probably look great at night.
We walked home after a great lunch at Cup Cafe. Boy are we glad we had a mile to walk off some of the food. Delicious. Whilst the weather is glorious and warm the pool is not ready for us ....Di suggests OMG freezing!
After walking about 15km we decide to rest our feet for an hour or so in our room but vow to head to a bar to sit in the sun (if we can) have a few drinks and listen to live music. We ticked all 3 at The Hut. We got there almost by accident. As we walked down 4th Avenue, a guy in a car pulls up and asks us for directions to The Hut. Well we knew because we've walked past it 3 times so told him. In exchange he waves a tied dye t-shirt and tells us a Grateful Dead band are playing there in about 10 minutes. We walked on and saw nothing better on the way so The Hut it was. Worked out well. The band played outside. The crowd were hippies and everything was very mellow.
Although these guys look more like ZZ Top.
We sat in the sun, drank and watched the crowd. To our right ... The republicans.
To our left the Democrats, including a Mike Moore lookalike.
Just another Tequila Sunrise...
The man who asked for directions spotted us in th crowd and came on over to chat. For quite a while... Nice guy with an interesting mix of background including some military peacekeeping in the early 90's in Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia and Germany... Or so he said.
After a few hours and a few drinks we decided to head home for a cheap microwave meal.
On the way we spot this car. This guy had fun! Not sure where as Arizona is mostly desert.
Lovely twilight and background mountains.
After a few drinks Di goes to the dogs...she couldn't help herself and talked to and patted these dogs nearly every time we walked past (this was about 4th time, they are just next to our motel). They would bark and wag their tails at the same time. Then you got licked! A lot!
Another good day in Tucson, but tonight is our last night here. We really like this city, very good karma.
Ll
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